Wawa for your dining pleasure?

The thought of getting food -- real food, not the kind in crinkly plastic -- at the same place you pump your gas still makes many food snobs wrinkle their noses in disgust.

Too bad, because they have no idea what they're missing.

Wawa, the convenience chain based in Pennsylvania, not only provides the usual low-cost selections for people in a hurry -- need a doughnut? Yogurt? A bag of cheese curls? A banana? -- but its deli area is the definition of handiness.

Orders are placed on touch screens, the perfect application for those of us who really don't want to pick the onion off our sub or the tomato out of our salad or deal with a waitress who can't remember what we just ordered.

The Wawa choices are so specific, you can stipulate "a little" oil and decide if you want deli mustard or yellow mustard or both.

But here is what the unconverted don't understand: Wawa's food isn't merely slap-a-sub-together stuff.

Sure, you can get a made-to-order hoagie -- from a 4-inch "Junior" to a 2-footer -- and have it heated or not.

But there are also delectable Ciabatta melts in a couple of variations -- roast beef and Swiss; Italian meats and provolone; turkey, bacon and provolone -- or, again for those of us who really don't like being told what to eat on our sandwiches, the ability to design your own.

Hot bowls (usually turkey or roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy) offer a hearty meal.

And, at $5.99, the built-toorder salads, with romaine lettuce or field greens as the base, are bigger and tastier than most casual dining restaurants charging $10-plus for the same product.

Wawa's chicken noodle soup -- one of four or five daily varieties -- isn't exactly homemade quality, but it's thicker and meatier than canned.

But if you want to experience Wawa at its finest, go in the next few weeks before its seasonal Gobbler sandwich and bowl disappear ($2.99 for a 6-inch Shorti or a bowl).

Sliced bits of real turkey in gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce -- an entire Thanksgiving meal compacted into one unit.

Now that's convenience--very, very tasty convenience.
Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or .