Unless life’s journey has taken you on the highways of southeastern Texas, there’s a good chance you may not be familiar with the Buc-ee’s phenomenon.
Founded in 1982 in Lake Jackson by Arch “Beaver” Aplin, the sprawling convenience store/gas station is like something out of a Hank Hill fever dream on King of the Hill: Upward of 80 pumps, a hotel’s worth of clean bathrooms (“The Top Two Reasons to Stop at Buc-ee’s: Number 1 and Number 2,” said Texas Monthly magazine, quoting one of Buc-ee’s tongue-in-beaver-cheek billboards), a row of Texas-size smokers/grills for sale, a central station for pulled pork/brisket/sausage/smoked turkey sandwiches, a towering wall of snack foods, a giant rack of jerky, and a big enough assortment of Texana to make Sam Houston proud.
It attracts true believers and fans from all over, people who will not take their freeway bathroom break until they see their version of Batman’s Bat Signal: the familiar logo of the beaver in the hunting cap looming against the wide Texas sky. For some, it’s like the Vatican — if the Vatican sold pecan logs, pecan-pie kolaches and Dippin’ Dots.
Slowly, the chain has been making its way to DFW. Locations opened in Temple and Terrell last year, meaning if you were on your way to Austin or East Texas, you had something to look forward to besides “miles and miles of Texas,” to snag a lyric from Lone Star music heroes Asleep at the Wheel.
Finally, the first store in the immediate DFW area and the 32nd in the chain threw open its doors at 6 a.m. Monday at 15901 North Freeway, also known as the southwestern interchange of Texas 114 and Interstate 35W near Texas Motor Speedway. (Of course, there was a line of rabid Buc-ee’s believers waiting.)
In honor of such a momentous occasion, we took a road trip to the Terrell Buc-ee’s to compile the Buc-ee’s bucket list, the top things you need to do to have the prime Buc-ee’s experience.
1 The bathrooms: Yes, they really are that clean. How do they do it? “There is literally someone in there all the time,” founder Aplin told Texas Monthly in 2013 about the chain’s cleaning method.
Art lines the hallway into the bathroom itself, which is a cathedral of commodes behind locking stall doors and, for the men, a choice of sparkling white urinals. Don’t think all of this has only been noticed by weary travelers. Cintas, the company that stocks and services bathrooms across the country, honored the New Braunfels Buc-ee’s for having the cleanest bathroom, or as it’s been called, “the Taj Mastall.”
2 Beaver Nuggets: Sure, they’re just sweetened corn puffs, but the DEA might want to look into putting this Buc-ee’s-branded taste treat on the list of controlled substances — they’re that addictive.
Set that 13-ounce bag next to you during your next road trip and see how much is left by the time you get to your destination. One handful leads to another, and another, and another, and before you know it, you’re grabbing at air and really wishing you had bought one or two (or five) more bags.
The Nuggets are so popular they’ve spawned related snack products like Buc-ee’s Nug-ees, cheese-flavored Nuggets. Yes, please.
3 Cheaper gas: With fuel prices on the rise, it’s time to start shopping around again. While gas was going for $2.07 a gallon at the Terrell Buc-ee’s on May 20, a check with GasBuddy.com on Monday showed a gallon running at $1.98, the same as a nearby QuikTrip but slightly cheaper than other stations in the same ZIP code, like Murphy USA ($1.99), Valero ($1.99) and Corner Store ($2.03).
Of course, considering the size of the lot and the number of customers, maneuvering your way between the pumps and to the front door is a good way to get your cardio for the day. And then there are the pumps: The new North Freeway location has, by our informal count, 96.
4 Trail mix: If Beaver Nuggets don’t quite meet your healthy-eating threshold, Buc-ee’s has a veritable shrine to trail mix. The one dubbed Chocolate Trail — with raisins, peanut butter chips, almonds, peanuts, chocolate stars and chocolate drops — probably shouldn’t be consumed in the middle of a hike because you’ll end up blowing it off to just sit down and eat the whole 12-ounce bag.
5 Buc-ee’s beef jerky: Chances are you’re going to be able to sample some of this, as both the Terrell and Fort Worth locations had sampling stations baiting you near the center of the store. A Buc-ee’s employee — they’re a pretty unanimously friendly bunch — enticed us to try the Bohemian garlic beef jerky, which had a pleasant salty pungency, and the cherry maple, which is a lot more subtly sweet than it sounds.
You can get it fresh or in 4-ounce bags, in flavors such as sweet and spicy, jalapeño, teriyaki, and a whole lot more, including, if you’re brave enough, ghost pepper.
NPR even did a report this year about the popularity of jerky, based on a stop at the New Braunfels Buc-ee’s, which says it’s the largest convenience store in the world. “If it’ll hold still long enough, we’ll make jerky out of it,” store manager Dan Parkinson told NPR.
6 Mayhaw jelly: Looking for something to spread on your toast that’s just a bit different from the usual grape and strawberry jelly? Go for something with a more Texan taste with a jelly made from the mayhaw fruit, found in much of the South including near the Texas/Louisiana border. Maybe you’ll want to pair it with a couple of watermelon-rind pickles, which Buc-ee’s also sells.
7 Merchandise: Sure, you might be able to find a relatively upscale brand of soap at Buc-ee’s, but there’s so much kitsch here, why go for something elegant? The Buc-ee’s beaver mascot is represented on T-shirts (we spotted one saying “Party like it’s 1776,” which seems like a pretty good idea this year), beer koozies, slippers, puppets and bumper stickers (“Restrooms that make moms smile”), and in a variety of stuffed-animal sizes.
And then there are the Texas-centric items: a Lone Star map made from shotgun shells, socks with Big Tex on them (spreading his arms across both ankles), a Texas-shaped coffee mug — you get the idea.
That’s all not to mention the camping gear and other merchandise that doesn’t have a beaver or Texas stamped on it.
8 Housewares: There really isn’t much this entrepreneurial beaver doesn’t brand and sell. You can outfit everything you own from your pup to your dining room. Don’t expect gas-station china and beaver faces plastered on gravy boats, but judging by the high demand, they should really consider a wedding registry.
They regularly stock and sell out of the Mud Pie line of products. A popular backordered cookie jar had would-be buyers coming back for weeks. People come from all over to shop for wares they can’t live without.
We should know — we found ourselves entranced by the irresistible flatware and color-popping artwork. Yes, artwork. Yes, at a gas station.
9 Made-to-order food: Buc-ee’s offers a variety of wraps, burritos, sandwiches and barbecue made in large, open kitchens (although the barbecue is in the center of the store, just to tempt you that much more).
For much of the food, you step up to a computer screen (hand sanitizer is by every one), punch up your order from a menu selection, then get a receipt. Then you wait, admiring all the other food that’s visible till someone yells out your number. You pay for everything at registers up front.
A club sandwich made with ciabatta bread proved to be a good choice, with a lingering spiciness; a pastrami Reuben, although not for purists (it includes bacon and comes on a pretzel bun that didn’t stand up to the challenge of holding in the ingredients), was generous with the sauerkraut and delivered low-level heat via its “hand-crafted” mustard and pepper jack cheese. The “Mammoth” beef fajita burrito packed a lot of flavor into a large flour tortilla, with grilled steak, rice, beans, shredded cheese and salsa fresca creating a filling meal. (The hot apple pie, all gooey and sickeningly sweet, wasn’t too shabby either.)
Note: There are no dining tables; after some trial and error, we found the best thing to do was just to take the food to your car and eat it there.
10 Exercise (walking around the building): You’ll probably want to work off some of that food. A walk around the outside of the 60,000-square-foot Fort Worth Buc-ee’s took a 6-foot-6 adult male six minutes, with brief stops for photos. A walk around the parking lot perimeter would take a little longer, but you’ll be dodging more cars.
The Terrell Buc-ee’s — also 60,000 square feet of junk food, stuffed beaver toys and endless piles of beef jerky — took about four minutes to stroll around, marked off in 478 steps.
11 Beaver selfie: You’ll want a photographic memento before you go. The long line for the bronze beaver statues indicates that selfies are still what the kids are doing. There are two, located at the far end of both entrances, and still the line of beaver fans was long. With each photo, the poses get more creative.
Don’t forget to snap your selfie; selfie sticks are even sold inside if you forgot yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment