5 metro Detroit gas stations that serve up tasty grub (2024)

Mark Kurlyandchik|Detroit Free Press

After unleaded gasoline, few things keep Detroitrunninglike cheap, delicious eats.

This is a car town, to be sure, but it'sa burger and shawarma and taco town, too.

And as thousands of metro Detroiters hit the road for the long Independence Day weekend,they'll need to fuel up on both.

Why not fill your tank and your belly at the same time?

As the food truck craze has shown, sometimes the tastiest dishes can come out of shoebox-sizedkitchens parked inunexpected places. But withlow oilprices and high overheads, the economic landscape is now ripe for gas stations to experiment withnew revenue drivers.

Enter: the gas-station restaurant. While it's not uncommon to see a Subway, McDonald's or other fast-food chain attached to a highway truck stop, the mom-and-pop offerings coming out of kitchens inside metro Detroit gas stations have expandedin the last few years.

Here arefive gas-station restaurants with diverse farethat transcendtheir middle-of-the-road locales and convenience store standards, giving new meaning to the term "filling stations."

Mr. Kabob Mediterranean Grille

3372 Coolidge, Berkley

Nearest exit: I-696, Exit 14

Celebrating 13 years of dishing up juicychicken shawarmas and fresh fattoush saladsout ofthe Sunoco station at Coolidge and 12 Mile, Mr. Kabob has garnered a loyal following as well asnational recognition when it was named one of America's 13 best gas-station restaurants by Thrillist last year.

"KFC started in a gas station," says Mr. Kabob owner Ouse Gulli, 40, whose family tore down the old service station that once stood on the corner, rebuilding it with an additional 1,000 square feet for an open kitchen.

"We made sure it was totally exposed so people could feel comfortable about having it," Gulli says. "And then it just blew up."

The operation now includesthe popular CK Mediterranean Grille with locations in downtown Detroit and Southfield, two restaurants in Arizona and aMr. Kabob Xpress in Troy that opened last fall.

Gulli estimates that about 15% of the customers that come to the original gas-station location are daily repeat clients.

"We have a connection with our customers like no other," he says. "The phone never stops ringing."

What to order: Chicken shawarma, fattoush salad, falafel, rawjuice.

Hours:OpenMonday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

How-to: Order at the counter and take your ticket to the gas-station cashier.Mostly carryout, but there are a few tables available for dining in.

Taystee's Burgers

10419 Ford, Dearborn

Nearest exit: Eastbound I-94, Exit 210; westbound I-94, Exit 210B

The BP gas station across the street from the Ford-Wyoming drive-in theater in Dearborn almost housed aNathan's Famous hot dog restaurant. At least that's the conceptTaystee's Burgers cofounder Ali Jawad, 22, wanted to bring to one of his family's gas stations.

Jawad's distant cousin Mohamad (Mo)Nassereddine had other plans.

"I told him, 'What do you need a Nathan's for?' " Nassereddine, 28, recalls. "We can do it ourselves."

The pair had a cookout for family with pineapple-topped Hawaiian burgers, and things got rolling quickly after that. After considering a few other gas stations, the pair settled on the Ford Road BP, which already had an open kitchen.

"We came up with the name, menu and concept within two weeks," says Nassereddine,who was attending Schoolcraft College for culinary arts at the time.

On Nov.17, 2014, the pair launched Taystee's with the help of Jawad's mother, Lila.

Taystee's has earned a devout following on social mediafor its BuzzFeed-worthy hamburger creations like Ali's Notch-Yo-Burger, which features a house-made halal beef patty topped with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, four kinds of cheese (including nacho), beef bacon and nacho cheese Doritos on an onion bun. (A Cool Ranch version is also available.)

Upping the ante even more is the monster Breakfast Burger: a beef patty topped with beef bacon, fried egg, Swiss cheese, grilled onions, green peppers, tomato and Taystee sauce. It's served between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

You can also build your own burger with gluttonous toppings like fries, mozzarella sticks, mac 'n' cheese bites and jalapeno poppers. "West Coast fries," an homage to In-N-Out Burger's "animal style" fries, are a new addition to the menu.

What to order: Ali's Notch-Yo-Burger or build-your-own burger, West Coast fries, deep-fried Oreos.

Hours:OpenMonday-Thursday,11 a.m.-midnight;Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-1 a.m.;Sunday noon-midnight.

How-to: Order and pay at the counter. Mostly carryout, but there are a few tables available for dining in.

Las Cazuelas Grill

4000 Livernois, Detroit

Nearest exit: Eastbound I-94, Exit 212A; westbound I-94, Exit 212

Just down the road from Taystee's Burgers, Las Cazuelas is aMexican lunch counter inside the Shamrock gas station that enjoys a steady stream of lunchtime clientele from around the area.

Those who know come for the tortas al pastor— a Mexican-style sandwich of slow-cooked pork on a soft white roll with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado, jalapenos, sour cream and cheese.

Shrimp or fish tacos are also crowd favoritesand, because of the early hours, Las Cazuelas is alsoa spot to hit for chorizo and egg breakfast burritos.

Maria Cristina Aldana originally opened the authentic Mexican eatery in Dearborn in 2006, but moved it to Detroit three years laterat the height ofthe recession. Locatedin aspace once occupied byagas-station sandwich shop, the fast-casual counteris staffed by a handful of workers who make tacos, burritos and quesadillas to order from fresh ingredients in the open kitchen.

In 2013, the success of the gas-station restaurant allowed Aldana to open a second free-standing Las Cazuelas location in Melvindale.

What to order: Torta al pastor, shrimp tacos, breakfast burrito.

Hours:Open 6 a.m.-8 p.m. seven days a week.

How-to: Order at the counter and take your ticket to the gas-station cashier.Mostly carryout, but there are a few tables available for dining in.

Dhaba Indian Kitchen

Inside BP station

21122 Haggerty, Northville

Nearest exit: Northbound I-275, Exit 167; southbound I-275 closed, use Haggerty Road

Parbhat Ahluwalia knows how to cook Punjabi food. The recipes for the Indian fare served at Dhaba Indian Kitchen inside the BP gas station on Haggerty near 8 Milehave been passed down for generations. He says he learned to cook from his father, who learned to cook from his father — and so on.

Ahluwalia, 58, has been cooking for most of his life, too. When he arrived in Iowa in 1991, he opened a popular Indian restaurant in Des Moines followed byanother in Ames. He tells the story of the timethe King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, dined at the restaurant, but Ahluwalia had no idea whohe was.

"The Beach Boys came in, and he didn't know who they were either!" says his son, Akaash, 24, who works at the restaurant part time.

Now, Ahluwalia is a bit hipper to pop cultureand hopes his gas-station restaurant, opened about a year and a half ago, can be the next big thing here,as it is in his home country.

In India,a "dhaba" is a roadside restaurant serving spicy Punjabi food to truck drivers. It's come to refer to any restaurant serving Punjabi food, but Ahluwalia's outposthas the added authenticity of being inside a gas station.

"There's never been an Indian restaurantin metro Detroitthat I know of inside a gas station," Akaash says.

The tangy butter chicken makes up more than two-thirds of all carryout orders, according to Ahluwalia. The samosas, too, are notable — crispy andstuffed with potatoes and peas and served with mint and tamarind chutneys. Warm garlic naan bread acts as a tasty sponge to sop up hearty sag paneer.Spice levels can be specified mild, medium or hot, and a cool dessert called rasmali — paneer in sweet cream — helps soothe any leftover burning sensations for more adventurous types.

Whattoorder: Samosas, butter chicken, sag paneer, rasmali.

Hours:Lunch Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner Monday-Friday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon-10 p.m.

How-to: Order at the counter and take your ticket to the gas-station cashier. Carryout only, but Ahluwalia is planning on adding a few small tables for dine-in customers.

Detroit 75 Kitchen

4800 W. Fort, Detroit

Nearest exit: I-75, Exit 47A

Unlike the other restaurants on this list, Detroit 75 Kitchen isn't actually inside a gas station. And if you didn't know the popular food trailer livedin the parking lot of a Sunocoon Fort Street a few miles west of downtown, you'd never guess this place had anything to do with diesel.

But the location of Mike Nassar's grilled sandwich and BBQ chicken egg roll outpost is inexorably linked tothe diesel pumped at the Sunoco next door. The fueling station, a popular fill-up spot for truckers crossing between Detroit and Canada, has been in Nassar's family since 1985. Nassar now owns it and two years ago decided to take a chance on growing the business.

"Essentially, I wanted to supplement the fuel business," Nassar, 40, says. "The trade was slowing down, and I love to cook. ...I wanted to do something for the area that I'm inand not just another sandwich spot, because we deserve it. And we deserve the garden in the middle of an industrial zone."

The garden Nassar refers to is the restaurant's seating area, which features picnic benches with umbrellas surrounded by black planter boxes of flowers and herbs.

But more than anything, the people — everyone from truck drivers and construction workers to Karmanos doctors and Quicken employees — come for the food: spicy-sweet BBQ chicken egg rolls, garlic-cilantro-topped triple-cooked French fries with house-made jalapeno ketchup and daily specials such as applewood-smoked chicken on Wednesdays and "Fisher Fwy Fish Sandwiches" served on Fridays only.

"We're like pushingarock uphill because everybody is saying 'It's in the middle of nowhere; it's not going to work,' " Nassar says. "And we had to prove everybody wrong and we did. Because the food is good."

What to order:BBQ chicken egg rolls,garlic-cilantro fries, 3rd Street Detroit Philly.

Hours:Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-5p.m.; Friday,10 a.m.-6 p.m.

How-to: Orderand pay at the window. Parking can be limited during rush lunch hours. Carryout or dine at picnic tables outside.

Contact Mark Kurlyandchik:313-222-5026 ormkurlyandchik@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@mkurlyandchik.

5 metro Detroit gas stations that serve up tasty grub (2024)

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