On the outside, the Shell station at the corner of Victoria Boulevard and Seneca Avenue on Staten Island looks like any other of the hundreds of fuel depots in NYC’s most car-centric borough — but only one of them can claim Italo and Gerardo Perito.
Venture through the sliding doors into what elsewhere might be a run-of-the-mill mini-mart — and you’ll find an epicurean speakeasy, presided over by the Italian-American father-son team.
Scratch-made lasagnas, buffalo mozzarella, fat meatballs and more make up the menu at Fresh To Go — a delicious retort to the usual aisles of junk food and heat lamp-dehydrated pizzas that have been stagnating on the counter all day.
“Most gas stations in the U.S., they don’t have this kind of food,” Gerardo proudly told The Post on a recent morning, while preparing the day’s unexpectedly elevated fare. “We make mozzarella every day.”
Italo came to New York from Salerno, Italy, in 2001 — bringing with him an old-country work ethic that sees him rising at 5:30 in the mornings to head to the store for the day’s meal prep, starting with the bagels, baked fresh throughout the day and paired with cream cheese that’s also whipped up in-house.
Fresh To Go, which opened earlier this year, draws inspiration from Italy’s famed Autogrills — those lavish but affordable gas stations across the Boot where commuters can “eat inside” like a sit-down restaurant.
“They have a variety of fresh food — they make pizzas, they make fresh sandwiches,” Gerardo explained.
The younger Perito said that their business came about when the landlord’s son-in-law traveled to Italy and came home excited about the concept.
Italo, drawing on over 50 years in the restaurant industry on both sides of the Atlantic, eagerly brought the gas-tropub concept to life stateside.
This paradoxical-seeming commitment to quality is why, despite only being open for four months, this upwardly mobile station already has a rabid fan base in the paesan stronghold of Staten Island, where a soggy lobster tail or limp galamad (fried calamari, to the uninformed) can get you excommunicated.
“In four months, we do already start getting regulars, and the regulars come in and they already know what they want,” said Gerardo, who also presides over the family’s A&S Pork Store in Staten Island’s West Brighton.
Across the Big Apple, gas station cuisine is having a surprising moment — Fresh to Go is one of a flurry of “gourmet” fill-up spots where people are looking to fill their bellies as well as their vehicles.
Other spots with the best meals-per-gallon lately grabbing their share of the buzz include Kosher service stop Zoom in Borough Park, where Hasidic and gentile customers alike fuel up on fresh-made bagels and lox ($8.99), Kugel (a traditional Ashkenazi casserole dish for $5) and gefilte fish ($4.99).
There’s also Alfredo’s Old-Style Pizzeria in the Bronx, slinging fresh-made Margheritas and chicken parm sandwiches, and Brooklyn hit Blue Hour — a popular but now unfortunately and suddenly defunct casual halal nook in a BP gas station, specializing in fried chicken sandwiches.
And in Manhattan, the West Village has a smash-burger hit in Smacking Burger, a throwback to the meat-and-diesel depots of yore that was recently named one of the 10 best gas station restaurants in the U.S.
Station owner Tommy Hondros previously told The Post that fuel stops like Smacking Burger’s mobile station headquarters — which is Manhattan’s last gas station below 14th street — used to house unique burger joints and wanted to recreate “that old-school feeling.”
The trend is so much bigger than New York, too — beginning just across the Hudson, convenience chains like Wawa battle for breakfast (and lunch, and dinner) supremacy with tempting, touch-screen-fueled fare.
And in the Midwest, chef and “Bizarre Foods” host Andrew Zimmern recently partnered with Iowa-based Casey’s gas stations to promote their new barbecue brisket pizza. Zimmern chalked up the gas station craze to “our own sense of adventure.”
“We don’t have to cross the ocean on a 19th-century tramp steamer to have an adventure,” the Minnesota native previously told Fox News Digital. “We can walk into some place and try a regional food or a regional treat that happens to be for sale in that particular shop and have just as much of a warm, fuzzy feeling.”
Regional treats and a sudden sense of well-being are exactly what you’ll get at Perito’s store on Staten Island — from fan-favorite lasagna ($10-$12) to arancini (fried rice balls) to mozzarella in carozza — essentially a bloodcurdlingly crunchy Italian grilled cheese with their fresh dairy product ($5). Heroes are stuffed with bocce-sized meatballs featuring veal, beef and pork ($13.95).
The high-caliber fare isn’t limited to the deli counter — along with the usual Jack Links beef jerky and Listerine, Fresh To Go’s aisles feature Italian potato chips, imported small-batch olive oil, dried pasta and Italo’s eponymous tomato sauce — like if Eataly and Exxon suddenly decided to join forces.
Gerardo and Italo say that their ultimate goal with Fresh To Go was to help people get more mileage out of their gas station meal.
“The people’s first impression outside of the store, they feel like it’s a franchise,” he said. “They feel like it’s a Wawa. Once they come in and they see … how beautifully the store is done, it really changes their perspective.”
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