This is a follow-up to our article last week, The country is just discovering gas station food. Vermont has known for years. — where we asked you to name your favorite. You delivered.
We asked a simple question — where do you actually eat when you’re on the road in Vermont? — and readers answered like people who’d been waiting their whole lives to be asked. Hundreds of replies came in. Some folks bent the rules immediately: “not sure they even sell gas, but I have to tell you about this place.” That’s fine. That’s the spirit of the thing.
Read enough of them and a picture starts to form. Vermont’s best quick food is increasingly served out of gas stations and general stores — and a lot of it is coming from immigrant families who set up a kitchen behind the coolers and quietly started making the best thing for miles. Nepali. Indian. Mexican. Plus the deli-counter sandwich tradition that has anchored these buildings for generations. Here’s the map readers drew.
The Nepali counter that stole the show
If there was a single winner, it was the Himalayan Nepali counter inside the Riverbend Market at the Shell in downtown Morrisville — a stone’s throw from the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. It came up again and again and drew the most enthusiasm of any single spot. The operation has deep local roots: Raymond and Laxmi Dewan grew it from a single pot of curry at the Morrisville farmers market into the town’s favorite lunch counter — a story Seven Days first told back in 2015. Readers say the counter changed hands this year, kept in the family, and that the curries and momos are as good as ever.
The three that came straight to our inbox
Start with the ones you sent us directly.
Cambridge Village Market earned maybe the most unqualified praise of the bunch: a stop every single time through, “second to none,” and a staff that always has a smile. It’s the classic Smuggs-run pit stop, and readers are loyal.
Then there’s the reader who was, in her words, “adamantly against eating in a gas station” — until Montpelier flooded, Mad Taco was closed, and she badly wanted tacos. She spotted Arandas and set one condition: “if it smells like Mexico, okay, I’ll eat there.” It smelled like Mexico. She’s been back every trip since, and orders the tamales — “because I’m high maintenance, and it’s really hard to find tamales anywhere.” (They are. They’re labor-intensive. She’s not wrong.)
And a reader who, fifteen years ago, was buying takeout samosas from a gas station on Business Route 4 in West Rutland — back when Indian food was nearly impossible to find in Vermont — because an Indian family had set up a little kitchen for takeout. She went looking recently: they’d closed the pumps and opened a full restaurant. Which turns out to be the whole story of Vermont gas station food in miniature.
Curry with your fill-up
The Indian-food-at-the-pumps map is real:
Nan’s Mobil, Route 104 in Fairfax — samosas daily, a full Indian spread Wednesdays after 4 p.m.
Bakers Store, Post Mills — an Indian family took over a failing store and, in one reader’s words, made “the menu insane (but great).” The pizza gets its own fan club.
Weston Marketplace — “the best Indian food I’ve ever had. Unreal, and you’d never guess driving by.”
A Barre-area station on Route 14/62 that’s now added smoked meat to the sign, because why not.
And the West Rutland original, now reopened downtown.
Arandas, everywhere
The Arandas name kept surfacing — Montpelier, Stowe (Route 100), Barre, Waterbury. Tortas that readers called “out of control,” burritos and tacos, homemade salsas, and horchata and agua de jamaica (sorrel) in the cooler. One reader had been hunting for horchata for months and nearly wept in the comments.
The general-store sandwich hall of fame
This is the old faith, and it’s alive:
Marty’s 1st Stop, Danville — one of the most-named spots in the whole thread. The verdict on the chicken tenders: “S-tier tendies, likely top five in the state.” They’re building an addition and now stocking local produce.
Mike’s, Hartland — the Thanksgiving sandwich has a devoted following, and it’s a ritual stop for southbound I-91 drivers.
The Cupboard, Jeffersonville — one reader’s been ordering the same Nick’s Chicken wrap for twenty years. (A caveat surfaced too: some regulars think new ownership has nudged prices up and quality down. Worth noting.)
Crossroads, Waterbury — the maple sausage breakfast sandwich has fans who admit to parking-lot devouring.
Allen Brothers, Westminster — cider donuts, creemees, a serious craft-beer wall, and gas prices readers described as “almost criminally expensive.” Go for the donuts, not the tank.
Pratt’s, Bridport, on 22A — a reader once walked five miles in 90-degree heat for one of their sandwiches. Case closed.
Dudley’s, East Montpelier — still-good sandwiches, but longtime regulars mourn the general-store soul that got cleared out in a recent sale.
The institution
P&H Truck Stop, Wells River. Named “bar none” by more than one reader, remembered for burgers named after big rigs and its raspberry pie. It also drew the thread’s most bittersweet notes — a place thick with childhood memories that several readers feel is “a shell of what it used to be.” Both things are true, and that tension is its own kind of Vermont story.
No gas, but we had to tell you
Readers kept breaking their own rule, and we’re glad they did: Singletons, Hero’s Welcome in North Hero, the Elmore Store (a sandwich on the back deck with a lake-and-mountain view), and the Newfane Store all got love despite pumping no fuel.
The ones that made us laugh
At Singletons, a reader watched an older couple buy over $200 of bacon in one visit. “If I had a $200 bacon budget, I’d totally do the same.”
Pump’n’Pantry, Williamstown — “apparently nobody told them not to go overboard.” The creemees come out roughly twice the size of anyone else’s, and the sandwiches are a meal plus tomorrow’s lunch.
A reader who spent two “unfortunate” years in Texas and came home a serious brisket smoker says Addison Four Corners Store is the only place in Vermont that even comes close to great brisket.
China Moon in White River Junction got repeat mentions from folks who ate there during trips to the VA. Comfort food with a purpose.
And the thread’s lone dissenter: a construction worker who eats at a gas station every day, Newport to Brattleboro, and knows every counter in the state — who used his turn to argue Vermont should just build a Sheetz already. He’s outvoted. But the man has data.
The rest of the map, by region
We couldn’t feature everything, but you named spots in nearly every corner — so here’s the fast tour.
Northeast Kingdom
Norton Store & Deli and the Lake View Store in Averill — about as far north and remote as Vermont gets, right on the snowmobile trail
Debanville’s, Bloomfield — Hill Farmstead on tap and good pizza
Horizon’s, St. Johnsbury
Hoagie’s, Newport
The Islands
Keeler Bay Variety, South Hero — named more than once
Emmons, Grand Isle — a good sandwich and cookies by the register
Champlain Valley & Chittenden
O’Brien’s, Williston — great deli, fairly priced, genuinely beloved
Steeple Market, Fairfax (and Georgia Market)
Stewart’s, Montgomery — the ritual stop on the Jay Peak run
Desso’s, Jericho — old-timers still call it that
Pratt’s, Bridport on 22A (yes, the five-mile-walk one)
Central Vermont
The VG (Village Grocery) and Irasville Country Store, Waitsfield
The Warren Store — the pizza has a following
Ramunto’s at the Montpelier roundabout
McCullough’s Quik Stop, Bethel — go for the grinder
Southern Vermont
Vermont Country Deli, Brattleboro — “100%,” per one reader
Bromley Market — pulled pork sandwiches and, memorably, “dinosaur ribs”
Sun’s Market, Clarendon — some of the best egg rolls in the state
Readsboro General Store
Still didn’t see yours? That’s the point — there are more of these than there are traffic lights in some counties. Tell us the one we missed, and we just might run a round two.
Great follow up! So true, there are many great places to stop by! I might have to make some special trips! :)