Route 29 Roadtrip Highlight: F'Real Shakes
Inside a Sheetz gas station on U.S. Route 29 in Virginia, next to the predictable Slurpee machine, sat an almighty F'Real shake-maker this weekend. Something like a DIY malt shop from the future, it lets you pick from a mini-freezer of ice cream cups (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or a limited-edition egg nog) and thickness settings (extra, regular or less thick). After dropping my vanilla into the sleek blue machine and choosing extra-thick, the cup levitated to a shake-making heaven. Some bzzt noises later, and it dropped back down to our mortal world.
Creamy and chalky-white, it wasn't much more sophisticated than McDonald's vanilla soft-serve, but very satisfying with all that buttercream and host of scary chemicals. Cellulose gum, maltodextrin, carrageenan and dextrose. For $2.29, the most satisfying part, of course, was the futuristic, hands-on element. There's absoltuely no countertop, no glass case or no middleman of any kind between you and the shake! You're basically on par with Jimmy, the jolly-looking, old-timey mascot wearing his ice cream parlour lab coat, smiling at you. He must be thinking back to the dinosaur days of churning by hand. Ha!
Jimmy is named after F'Real Foods president Jim Farrell, who graduated from Harvard B-School. Crazy Shake-Making Technologies 101? Apparently he took it. Just an hour before this, I was savoring fig port gelato from Charlottesville’s downtown Splendora's, which was rightfully more delicious, but more life-changing? No, way. Overall, my first Sheetz experience was leagues beyond any name-brand gas station stop. Like Wawa, they had made-to-order deli sandwiches with touch screens, and all sorts of fun, unfamiliar junk food. Like Hershey’s chocolate chewing gum sitting near the register. F’real. Best Route 29 roadtrip stop ever.
About the author: Erin Zimmer, Serious Eats's Washington, D.C., correspondent, is a just-graduated Georgetown gal following her nose about town as Washingtonian magazine's Dining intern and Best Bites blogger. She got her start as the Hoya campus paper's food columnist, and since entering "real person-hood" has ached for her dining hall's omelet station.
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13 Comments:
Wait... is this the Sheetz that is just north of Charlottesville or is it further north? If it is, I might have to take a trip to that end of town to try it.
feep at 3:16PM on 01/08/08
Damn, I would never think of trying this, but since you've tried it, I suddenly...HAVE A CRAVING...despite that the object of my craving is made of scary chemicals and bzzts out of a blue machine.
(shakes fist)
Buh. Also, the first thing I think of when I hear "Sheetz" is SHMORNIN'!
roboppy at 3:34PM on 01/08/08
What's a SHMISCUIT?
raphael at 3:45PM on 01/08/08
It was probably forty-five minutes north of Charlottesvile... is that considered just or further north?
Erin Zimmer at 4:30PM on 01/08/08
in college after a night of drinking we'd often hit up sheetz for some shmagels & fryz.
ceforrester at 4:33PM on 01/08/08
shyum
Erin Zimmer at 4:44PM on 01/08/08
@Erin, I didn't get what you wrote until Robyn explained it to me.
raphael at 5:44PM on 01/08/08
Living in a mostly Sheetz-free Ohio, everytime my brother and I head to Penn St. for a football game, our first stop over the border is always Sheetz. Seriously... you gotta give the Bavarian Pretzel Melt sandwiches a try. Ham, lettuce, tomato, honey mustard, and horseradish, ordered via the kiosks.
Around State College, PA, Sheetz really puts a dent into the local fast food joints.
cooksultant at 6:57PM on 01/08/08
they have these in wawas, so if you don't have sheetz near you, try it out at a wawa.
and yeah, i loved sheets for their 2 dogs for a buck.
attgig at 12:54AM on 01/09/08
and I just had one tonight - the coffee flavored one - cappucino coolor, or some cheesy name like that. they also have strawberry one that's more fruity than ice-cream/shakey.
attgig at 12:55AM on 01/09/08
I don't know what scares me more, the Wolfgang Puck coffee vending machine or this.
Jikuu at 8:37AM on 01/09/08
They have this at Wawa. I discovered it 2 summers ago.
JerzeeTomato at 9:08AM on 01/09/08
Saw the piece today about f'REAL! and was so excited to see the great comments about our milkshakes. I work for f'REAL! and feel the same way! I just wanted to clarify a couple of facts. Where it's mentioned that our shakes include maltodextrin and dextrose, as of 2006 we no longer use those ingredients. Just wanted to throw that out there to clarify any misconceptions.
dgasparini at 8:23PM on 01/09/08