Wawa Among Nation's Best Convenience Stores: Food And Wine Mag

WAWA, PA — A cup of coffee, a few gallons of gas, a pretzel, and (of course) a hoagie. Where can you get all those? Wawa.

The Philadelphia-area chain of convenience stores is beloved by locals, but apparently also by the folks at Food and Wine Magazine.

Food and Wine recently published a new list: "America’s Best Convenience Stores, Ranked."

In total, the magazine ranked 22 convenience stores.

"Every now and then, however, a regional chain comes along, inspiring—typically through an array of prepared food offerings, because isn’t food always the way to people’s hearts—what appears to be almost unshakeable loyalty," Food and Wine's editor wrote. "Barbecue. Fried chicken. Italian hoagies stuffed with cured meats, deep-fried burritos, breakfast pizzas. You name it, we’re eating it at the gas station, and sometimes, what we are eating is seriously delicious."

Wawa, triumphantly beating out the western PA rival Sheetz, was ranked No. 2 overall.

Sheetz came in at No. 4.

Another chain that features stores in Wawa's stomping ground, Maryland-based Royal Farms, was ranked at No. 11, as well. And fellow PA chain Turkey Hill was ranked No. 15.

Here's what Food and Wine says about Wawa:

You’ll either make a ton of new friends or earn yourself a punch in the schnoz, but the fastest way to meet a lot of Philadelphians is to walk into a crowded room, and start asking: So, what’s the big deal with Wawa? Part of the glue holding the region together for generations, Wawa isn’t just a place for the best made-to-order sandwiches (say: HOA-GIE) and coffee in the industry, or great iced teas, house beers, ice creams, soft pretzels, and somewhat crave-able breakfast sandwiches—Wawa is where life happens. It’s where you run into everyone. It’s the community center, even an extension of your own living room. After generations of keeping things close to home, there are now more than 800 stores, all the way from Northern New Jersey to South Florida. If we’re very lucky, they won’t stop there. Read more about the culture of Wawa here.

The top five is listed in full below:

1. Buc-ee’s (Texas)
2. Wawa (Pennsylvania)
3. Stewart's Shops (New York)
4. Sheetz (Pennsylvania)
5. Parkers (Georgia)

You can peruse the full list here.

Wawa recently announced a major data breach that affected all of its 850 locations. See more details on the breach here.

Let's hear your thoughts on Wawa and what you order when you need a bite or sip in the comments below and on Facebook.