Area Man Holding Out Until Next Exit For Better Fast Food Options https://local.theonion.com/area-man-holding-out-until-next-e...
I might not be so annoyed if I actually liked the common roadside places, but as it is, “McDonald’s next exit” is more of a threat than a promise.
Really?
How about you drive in Italy, you still find "service" and food every 10-20 miles, but food completely changes every 40-50 miles.
There are chains, but most are mom-and-pap shops, you can call them "trattoria" or "osteria".
I grew up in Italy. As much as I like the US, on the food side there's really no comparison.
Give it a try.
Sadly, quality varies considerably. People go to the big chains because they're a known quantity. A fair number of those mom-and-pop restaurants don't make from scratch. They heat up what comes off the Sysco truck or the warehouse club. The Internet makes it a bit easier to find a restaurant with real local character, though reading the reviews is kind of an art form: they'll get a lot of praise for generic, boring food and few reviewers will recognize a gem when they find it.
The US can't match the food culture in Italy, but with a bit of knowledge you can eat well here.
Having driven across the US a number of times, I think the last product this isn’t true for is good quality coffee. There are still parts of America where you can travel several hundred miles without seeing a single standalone Starbucks.
Mix ground coffee with lukewarm water in a 1:4 ratio and let it sit for 12 to 24 hours. This creates "coffee concentrate". Mix the concentrate 1:4 with water to make your final coffee. (Tweak final ratio to taste: these ratios are set to my personal taste)
Even if you use cheap no-name coffee from grocery stores, the coffee tastes great. Grinding your own beans will result in fresher coffee.
The purpose of "concentrate" is that "concentrate" cold brew is easier to process (less to filter), and easier to store. You can pick up bottled water virtually anywhere in the USA. So carrying around the concentrate is easier.
You can also do cool things with concentrate: like make espresso (add milk instead of water), or "impromptu hot-brew" (boil some water, add the concentrate. Since you have 4:1 hot water to concentrate, your temperature will be 80% of the hot temperature).
With 4:1 final mixing ratio, a quart of concentrate becomes 1.25 gallons of coffee, more than enough for most trips.
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"Ball" mason jars are pretty universal in the USA. I'm pretty sure they're sold everywhere (more common than quality coffee at least, lol). So you shouldn't have any issues getting mason-jar equipment for storing liquids.
Just don't use their leaky white-plastic caps. Use their gray "leak proof" caps or their steel-caps if you actually want a liquid-tight seal.
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Alternatively, drink McDonalds coffee. Its actually not bad. I know plenty of foodies who avoid McDonalds EXCEPT for their coffee.
I'd agree with that, but with the additional comment that it depends on your region of the country. In some area's it's not just "actually not bad", I'd assert "very good". McDonald's often customizes it's menu to the local region. In New England, McDonald's serves Newman's Own coffee, which I quite enjoyed. At least, they did when I lived there a decade ago - who knows now.
For anyone not willing to put in that effort (or just take a risk), forget about it— that person will just stay on the highway and wait out the next Starbucks.
Parent is right, there are still huge stretches with neither starbucks nor indie shops of any quality, and not just in the empty bits out west.
I've always wondered about the economics of espresso shacks. Obviously the fixed costs are very low, a literal shack and bit of nigh worthless rural land. Each one appears to be a unique and creative local business with no underlying corporate chain tying them all together but the sheer pervasiveness of them makes me wonder if there is a well-oiled corporate business model underneath it all.
I'm guessing their popularity has grown a bit. I noticed a chain of them when I was in Kansas City a few years ago.
The coffee is legitimately very good in my experience. It is common in that part of the US to drink coffee with neither milk nor sugar.
Here is nice blog about them with a ton of pictures:
Looks like there's a lot of crossover with the "bikini barista" concept, which I could picture being off-putting to some. I guess that's another plus for a national chain— your morning coffee isn't going to turn out to be something embarrassing to have to explain to the kids in the back seat.
I’ve heard from others that these places have good coffee, but, perhaps unfairly, I am repulsed by them.
And browsing Yelp while driving is, well, not ideal.
I love local dives, but laughing at someone for having different priorities on a long trip is rude.
I find this tiny bit of Americana comforting. I don't know if there is another country so large that is so consistently developed. There are so few places in America where you might end up out of range of these basic comforts, despite our fairly massive landmass.