March 2, 2006
What We're Missing: Wawa
When the spirit moves us, DCist spouts off about what's missing in the D.C. area. With the recent news that 7-Eleven will be eschewing Slim Jims and six-packs in favor of fresh produce and sandwiches (don't worry -- Slurpees are safely entrenched), we couldn't help but think of the very best convenience store of them all -- one that already blends snack foods with its own fresh, special fare: Wawa. And then we lamented the fact that there are no Wawas in the District of Columbia proper. Or even in Arlington, Alexandria, or Silver Spring. Indeed, the closest Wawas are in College Park, Md. and Woodbridge, Va. And that's simply too far for our tastes.
Why is the Pennsylvania-based Wawa better than an ordinary convenience store? Because their mascot is a goose. Because their ATMs don't charge fees. Because their deli counters have touch-screen computers to place your order. Because their soda machine lets you add flavor bursts. And mainly because Wawa features regular old junk food (including Tastykakes) and fresh, superb, Wawa-specific convenience store fare. Chief among this fare is the famed Wawa hoagie -- perhaps the closest mass-produced approximation of the glorious Philadelphia hoagie one can find outside of the greater Shackamaxon vicinity. (They even use Amoroso rolls, for gosh sake.) Along the same lines are their authentic Philly soft pretzels at two for 99 cents. They've also got their very own kick-ass line of drinks (cookies and cream milk or raspberry iced tea, anyone?) and great coffee. What's more, they give you the option of picking up healthy snacks such as chopped veggies and fresh fruits and fruit salads amidst the junk food. And that's not even to mention the standard convenience store items they've got for sale.
D.C. is oft-proclaimed chain-heavy, but we are certainly not opposed to chains that do good work. CVS's paltry refrigerated food section doesn't cut it. 7-Eleven isn't close to where it should be. And the local markets around town haven't stepped it up. Accordingly, it's time to call in Wawa -- the convenience store to which we have long professed our fealty. And we're not alone in proclaiming our love for Wawa. How much longer must we eat Subway sandwiches when we know that a Wawa could be on every corner? Save us from convenience store mediocrity.
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Damn, do I miss the days when Wawa actually had cheesesteaks (note: it's not a) "cheese steak" nor b) "steak and cheese," "steak-n'-cheese" etc). But, they shouldn't open it here. No one around here can appreciate a soft pretzel, an italian hoagie, Wawa-brand fruit punch or green tea, or the Philly Daily News.
"Fly Eagles Fly, on the road to victory..."
Go back to Philly, ya Phillyist.
Wawa. Word. Even Wawa bruschetta is good. And you so aren't Philly if your records aren't in a Wawa milk carton. I also love the Wawa "Its been 90 days since an accident in this Wawa" above the deli. And then when it goes down to 1....everyone wants the gossip of who accidentially italian hoagied their hand.
As a College Park alum who certainly enjoyed his share of Wawa Italian subs (no onions, extra hots, thanks), I have to say: absolutely outstanding post. Good work Michael.
What we are REALLY missing is a Sheetz store - because there's a PA chain worth talking about! Closest I've found is in Frederick, MD. Talk about customizing and cool add-ons. Want to make a milkshake? They've got it. And in the newer stores you can get fresh pizza, carved roast meatz, wireless internet, and fryz.
http://www.sheetz.com/sheetzweb/flashy.jsp
bring on some central PA love :)
Hot roast beef and cheese at 4 a.m...... mmmmmm.....
Wawa is the only reason I actually appreciate the occassial drive through southern VA....
and I second that emotion, DCist Jim. E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!
Seriously. The only time I get Wawa is breezing through Fredericksburg.
As a Philly native, I spent a fair amount of my childhood in a WaWa. Great store with fantastic sandwiches and Turkey Hill Iced Tea. Best things about it though, that unmistakable WaWa smell!
Amen on the greatness that is Wawa! Gainesville, VA is getting one!!!
I went to college in Fredericksburg... I know, I know-LUCKY ME!
How do you feel about Sheetz?
All I have to say...WHERE THE HELL IS WHITE CASTLE!
I love Wawa. Nothing was better during college than a 1 am run to get a chocolate chip muffin and a six-inch at Wawa. Excellent times.
I could be wrong, but I think there's a Sheetz on Glebe Rd. near I-66. I never thought it was all that great.
If someone really wanted to start a successful franchise here, it would definitely be Dunkins. I grew up with Dunkins, and honestly I never really saw the appeal beyond the Munchins, but most other New Englanders are nuts about the place. There doesn't seem to be any in the District. There used to be one on Wilson, but they inexplicitley closed and were replaced by a cheap fast-food mexican place, which soon thereafter also closed.
I saw an ad in the paper a year ago offering Dunkins franchises rights for DC. Seeing as I didn't have the half a million dollars to do so, I decided to pass. But I still think that with so many northern transplants, anyone with the cash to start one would be rolling in it.
Sheetz website lists Chantilly as being the closest.
And I do agree with the Dunkins - I've thought that before that if anyone were to have the capital to start it up, that it would be a gold mine!
NJ food run: Wawa stop + Umbertos Pizza. So good.
The last time I ate at a Sheetz was around six months ago just outside of Cumberland, Md. And actually, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their subs and by the breadth of meat and toppings options they offered; their subs are far better than anything you could get at Subway. But I much prefer Wawa because: 1) they use better bread (this is most important); 2) their hoagies are accordingly much closer in style to the fantastic Philadelphia hoagie than are Sheetz's subs (which are automatically somewhat suspect by virtue of their being called "subs"); and 3) I have very good memories of Wawa from my seven years in Philadelphia. When faced with a choice between Sheetz and Wawa, I'd pick Wawa every time. But when faced with a choice between Sheetz and Subway or -- heaven forbid -- Royal Farms, there is no question I'd go with Sheetz.
Sheetz is definetly the best thing since sliced bread in central Pennsylvania. Shmuffins, anyone?
Per Reid's comment about Dunkin Donuts, as far as I know there are three in the District.
1. New York Ave NE on the way into the city from the B-W Parkway.
2. Rhode Island Ave NE east of the Rhode Island Ave Red line station.
3. At the corner of New Jersey Ave NW and Rhode Island, NW, near the Shaw Metro. This one is connected to a gas station.
Sheetz is definetly the best thing since sliced bread in central Pennsylvania. Shmuffins, anyone?
Per Reid's comment about Dunkin Donuts, as far as I know there are three in the District.
1. New York Ave NE on the way into the city from the B-W Parkway.
2. Rhode Island Ave NE east of the Rhode Island Ave Red line station.
3. At the corner of New Jersey Ave NW and Rhode Island, NW, near the Shaw Metro. This one is connected to a gas station.
As a Philly transplant I can appreciate the Wawa. They're sorely needed. CVS stores in DC are examples of the worst possible service. 7-Eleven reeks of junk food and grime. Wawa is unique but delivers on all of your needs. The ultimate Wawa is the Super Wawa, a convenience store plus gas station combination. Cheap gas, good hoagies, good pretzels, good iced tea. Brilliant idea. If there can be one in College Park and one in Williamsburg, there can be one in the District!
Yeah baby! Dunkin Donuts!
There's one going in at Eastern Market across from the Starbucks.
The permit was in the District section this morning. See the link if you want more info.
no Sheetz in arlington, but there is one in Manassas.
also, sheetz used to have a deal that their coffee was free if there wasn't any brewed fresh when you wanted some.
And MTOs rock my world.
There's a Dunkin Donuts in GW's Ivory Tower residence hall - at the corner of G & 23rd Streets NW, just a few blocks away from the Foggy Bottom Metro. Where the hell was that during my tuition paying years?
Another Dunkin Donuts can be found in the Ivory Tower building at The George Washington University - a great little shop in the most unfortunately-named college dorm I've ever seen.
It would be great to have a few Dunkin locations in higher-profile locations, and a Wawa or two would be great, too. Anything to bring the variety up and the prices down a little.
But the one thing DC really needs is a real New Haven or New York pizza joint: none of this pseudo-hoity-toity pie that costs an arm and a leg, but a high-quality pie with a thin crust, perfect cheese and a price that's not in the stratosphere (e.g. I don't want to pay $11 for what is essentially a small mozzerella pie, as is the case at places like Paradiso, Two Amys, Sette, et al). Radius comes close, but not quite - DC could do better.
Sheetz, all the way. Fat-free french vanilla cappuccinos and creamsicle icees got me through high school in Pittsburgh. Plus, you could hang out in the parking lot. Good times.
Rudi... what's wrong with Big Slice?
Granted, I've never had one when I wasn't 10 beers deep, but they seem yummy
Rudi, you should check out the pizza at A.V. It's old school. A third generation Italian family runs the joint. Thin crust, affordable prices, opera music, pictures of the Pope on the wall, and decor that hasn't been changed since the 70s. The menu isn't much if you go beyond the pizza, but they make a really really good thin crust. The white pizza is great with fontina. Try black olives on the red pizza.
AV Pizza. 607 New York Ave NW
Except AV is closing so go relatively soon.
DCist Melissa, please provide more info on the rumor about AV closing. I've heard this rumor but can't verify it. Last month, I asked the owner's son and he said they're not closing. If you have different information please share...
There used to be Geppetos on M st. My family used to come here in the early 80s and wait in line to eat there. After it became Mendicino's, you could still order Geppetto's pizza from a telephone down the alleyway next to the Guards. I don't think they do that anymore.
It was awesome pizza.
Mmm 24 hour Wawa in College Park... Seriously would not have survived college without their sandwiches at 3am. There used to be one in Columbia, MD, but then a neighbor burned it down.
Yes, I grew up in Columbia and remember the Wawa in Hickory Ridge quite fondly. They made great sandwiches and even had a pickle barrel. It was a travesty when the store was no more.
For good pizza, try Alberto's on P St. between the circle and 22nd. It's not quite NY style, but it's close.
For good pizza, try Alberto's on P St. between the circle and 22nd. It's not quite NY style, but it's close.
Wawa....
the place so nice they named it twice.
I live in cherry hill, don't know what i'd do without the ol' wawa.
d.c. should be so lucky.
"Fat-free french vanilla cappuccinos and creamsicle icees got me through high school in Pittsburgh. Plus, you could hang out in the parking lot. Good times."
"and decor that hasn't been changed since the 70s"
"Sheetz is definetly the best thing since sliced bread in central Pennsylvania."
"NJ food run"
"But, they shouldn't open it here. No one around here can appreciate a soft pretzel, an italian hoagie, Wawa-brand fruit punch or green tea, or the Philly Daily News.
Fly Eagles Fly, on the road to victory..."
What is it about everyone from Penn and NJ that thinks listening to Bon Jovi, leaning up against your Trans-Am in the parking lot of a Wawa, while wearing your tight pleather pants makes you the pinnacle of cool?
Also for all you philly fans, don't brag to anyone 24 yrs old and under because they have not been alive for any of your city's championships in pro sports. And Eagles fans, what happened to all your Super Bowl Rings? Oh that's right, sorry never mind.
Also if south street is so cool, then why are you here???
Wawa can burn in hell, for all I care. A (now defunct) mom and pop convenience store opened in the early 90's called the "HaHa at Haafsville" (yes, Haafsville is a real place). The name was derived from the owners' last names, Tamilee and George Haaf. Then, in 1996, Wawa decided that this name was trademark infringement and forced them to change it. Funny thing was, there wasn't a Wawa anywhere around, so why did the suits care? Lo and behold, less than a year after the forced name change, a Wawa opened up a few miles down the road. Sure, they have cheap gas, but they're a bunch of bastards as far as I'm concerned.
Sheetz is the best thing in pennsylvania aside from the town "intercourse" and ben rolthlisberger.
Dunkin' Donuts does, indeed, have the best coffee going, but the coffee at WaWa is perfectly good, and they always have something like ten different varieties (regular, French Vanilla, Caramel, etc.) available.
At least the DC Area has 7-11! I grew up in the DC Area and moved down to Nashville last summer. Let me tell you what. Nashville has nothing, zip, nada, that even compares to 7-11, let alone the likes of Wawa and Sheetz. How I long for the likes of those places. I always make it a point to stop in them when I travel up there.
For all who have been mentioning Sheetz... I do believe too that the closest one is in Chantilly (definitely not one on Glebe & 66). I too am a big fan of Sheetz (when driving to Pittsburgh, I like stopping at the one in Breezewood for gas and a sub, since it limits my time in that tourist trap but also gets me cheap gas and better food than on the turnpike)
But... here's the question: do people actually think a Sheetz in or near DC would work? The whole concept seems to be very rural, as it involves large stations with large convenience stores, and cheap gas. There isn't really room for that inside the beltway, and if there was, the rent would be so high that the gas could no longer be cheap. Besides, if you could get an "MTO" sandwich any day, would it still be as good?
I don't know why there isnt a Wawa in DC or nearby...instead of a 7-11 on every corner, it should be Wawa!!!! At least a Ritas finally opened up in the district!
Lets Go Phillies!!
The Sheetz business model is to spend as little money as possible on land and build big. It is also privately owned.
Closer to home, bring back High's!
There were only a few Wawas with a grill anyways. Makes me wonder which one DCist Jim went to.
The one in Columbia was two doors down from the Arirang Hill, which made so-so cheesesteaks and got robbed so often I wondered why they stayed in business. And they say Columbia has no flavor.
The best Wawa... Colonial Wawa. Because of the unreal Williamsburg building code (no dual pane windows, all fixtures must meet time-correct code for Colonial Williamsburg), Wawa learned a whole new meaning of "keeping it real." But in the end, rose a mini Wawa, no gas station but walking distance from The Leafe, good times were had by all. Jalepeno Cream Cheese Pretzel and a Sweet Tea, please.
I was so confused by Wawa's when I moved here a few years ago. They don't exist in the Midwest, and the only thing I knew about Wawa was that I had driven through a town in Ontario Canada named Wawa and at the town border there was a giant statue of a goose. I had just assumed that Wawa the store was from Canada, but I just found out now that the word Wawa is derived from the Lenape word for the Canada Goose in flight.
Never heard of Wawa, PA. There's the lesson for today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawa%2C_Ontario
As a Philly native and rabid fan of Wawa I felt I should note:
Raspberry Iced Tea is also lovingly referred to as Crack Juice. Reason being - you can never, ever, have enough of it. I drank the CrackJuice by the half-gallon in my high school and college days. Sometimes upwards of a gallon and a half.
As a Philly native and rabid fan of Wawa I felt I should note:
Raspberry Iced Tea is also lovingly referred to as Crack Juice. Reason being - you can never, ever, have enough of it. I drank the CrackJuice by the half-gallon in my high school and college days. Sometimes upwards of a gallon and a half.
sears, it was the Wawa in the Ardmore West Shopping Center in Lower Merion, PA.
As a Philly (technically, Bucks County, but who's counting?) native who went to college in DC, I have yearned deeply for Wawa for many years. It got so bad that I wrote to the Wawa customer service e-mail address about 3 years ago. I was bored at my internship so I penned a 4-page e-mail extolling the virtues of Wawa (lemonade iced tea, yet to be mentioned here) and bemoaning the lack of alternatives. I received a personal reply from their VP for planning or something. Why no Wawas in the District? Wawa is moving away from the stand-alone store and towards the gas-station model. Hence Woodbridge. So if you crave a Shorti, move to the burbs. Or just hop in your car.
GhettoBurbs,
There's this silly thing in trademark case law that says if you don't actively defend your mark, you lose the rights. This stupidity has caused corporations to run down anything anywhere close to an infringment, no matter how small. This is likely why WaWa's lawyers went after HaHa's, despite there being no direct competition. In most cases, the little guy doesn't have the funds to defend so they simply agree to change the name.
Rob: Bucks County? I'm counting.
Well, this post certainly generated a few comments. I'm a Washingtonian, but my company's HQ was in Philly, now Marlton, NJ. I go about twice a month. There is a Wawa within 5 minutes of the office. Best c-store ever. I live near Frederick and there is a Sheetz on Rt 80 near where 270 & 70 meet. Second best c-store ever, although I 've only been a few times, and that was years ago when I had to drive to a client in Charlottesville. Rt 29 had a great one.
This is just like going to Penn State again with half the room jonesing for a Schmuffin and the other half talking about Wawa.
I *heart* Sheetz because everything either has a "z" at the end or an "sh" at the beginning (except the MTO, natch), and the fact that you can get MTO jr.s. They're perfect for a little snack after you've been drinking.
Yes, this was the only variety in the shithole, too-far-north-of-Pittsburgh-to-really-be-Pittsburgh town I grew up in.
All this talk about what DC doesn't have! We have CVS and and 7-eleven and countless corner stores and street vendors. If you're so hungry get a coke and a candy bar! As mentioned above, DC is too land-strapped and too expensive for the suburban gas+food model to work. So patronize your closest CVS and 7-eleven, and if you want stuff they don't stock ASK management to look into adding your favorites.
A little late to the party but the closest WAWA to DC is on 301 outside of Upper Marlboro. Big A@@ gas station too!
I'm from Millville NJ where wawa originated and living in Fl. now, you want to talk about withdrawal?????
The Wawa in College Park is no more. So sad.