Over the past few years, Pennsylvania’s three convenience store giants—York-based Rutter’s, Altoona-based Sheetz, and Delaware County-based Wawa—added pizza to their ever-expanding menus of food offerings, marking a whole new level of convenience statewide.
Gone were the days of having to make separate stops to gas up your car and pick up a freshly made pizza. Now, you could complete both tasks at once, while also grabbing lottery tickets, beer and wine (*depending on your location), cigarettes, and a gallon of milk. Heck, you could even hit the restroom while waiting for your pie if you needed to.
There’s something to be said for such convenience. But what are the chances that a pizza made at the same establishment where you can put air in your tires and purchase both loose bananas and condoms is any good? Could it possibly serve any purpose beyond satisfying those late-night munchies when you have to have a pizza, everything else is closed, and there’s no emergency DiGiorno in your freezer?
That’s what I wanted to find out. The results of my Pennsylvania convenience store pizza fact-finding mission are as follows:
Rutter’s
I’ll say this about Rutter’s “New York Style” pizza: you’ve got options. There’s breakfast pizzas; “specialty” pizzas like chicken BBQ bacon ranch, metaball parm, and BBQ pulled pork; and “classic” pizzas like cheese, sausage, and veggie. And the (pre-made) crust looks vaguely Neapolitan. But the fact that the pizza comes not in a branded box, but, rather, one of those boxes with generic Italian imagery (a Vespa parked on a narrow cobblestone street with an archway) you get from a neighborhood pizza joint may be the most “pizza” thing about Rutter’s pizza. And the most “New York Style” thing about it was the fact that I could also pick up a copy of the New York Post at the location I visited. The small cheese pie I ordered was aggressively bland. All cardboard crust and no flavor, like a really disappointing frozen pizza. And I had to settle for a plain pie because I couldn’t find a way to add toppings via the self-serve kiosk, despite the assistance of a very helpful Rutter’s employee. Rating: Hard pass even at the low, low price of $7.99.
Sheetz
Sheetz prides itself on its M-T-O (Made to Order) menu items, which they Sheetz-ify by calling salads Saladz, burgers and hot dogs Bugerz and Hot Dogz… you get the idea. Sheetz’s pizza is served flatbread style, hence the name Pizza Flatz. They’re personal size, and available in a variety of options (Philly Steak, Breakfast, Buffalo Chicken) in the $4.99-$5.99 range. I have to say, my pepperoni Pizza Flatz wasn’t horrible. Granted, it looked like the kind of pizza they served in my elementary school cafeteria in the early-to-mid 80s, and it was hard to find the floppy flatbread beneath a mound of gooey cheese, but it had some flavor at least, thanks to a tangy sauce that had a distinctive hint of oregano. If you’ve got a hangry kid in the car or you’ve had a few and feel the need to put something in your stomach before you call it a night, you could do worse—especially at this price point. Rating: Only in case of emergency.
Wawa
Spoiler alert: Wawa wins this battle. And while it was a very low bar to clear, Wawa’s pizza doesn’t look or taste like a pizza that’s been made at an establishment where you can also put air in your tires and purchase both loose bananas and condoms. So there’s that. They keep things simple. Wawa’s pies are available in 14” and 16” varieties, along with a personal size, and they offer just a few options for toppings: pepperoni, sausage, and peppers and onions. (They also offer teriyaki as a dipping sauce option—the less said about that, the better). To look at the pie, you’d think it came from an actual pizzeria. It’s got a little char on the top and bottom, and the crust is firm while foldable. To taste it, you’d also think it came from an actual pizzeria—just maybe not one of the better ones in your town. I got a large with pepperoni and peppers and onions ($16.99) and found it to be entirely satisfactory. It really wasn’t all that bad, with a creamy cheese blend, sweet-ish sauce, and a flavorful crust. Though Wawa doesn’t start serving its pizza until 4 p.m., most locations serve it up until 3 a.m. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a pie of this quality at that hour. Rating: Better than you’d think, but hardly great.
