North Fort Myers, FL – Lawhon’s Grocery & Meat Market is my kind of place. It’s big on food, big on service, big on creativity, but it’s small, rural and family owned.
My old buddy, Keith Perrin suggested I check this place out for a story. He was spot on.
Richard Lawhon owned a grocery store in the Fort Myers, FL area since 1958. He wanted another location and decided on this one. He finally bought in 1976. Lawhon, his wife Libby and his 18 year-old daughter, Laurine, walked in and opened it as Lawhon’s Grocery & Meats. Today, Laurine Lawhon Belanger, her husband Larry and daughter Teresa carry on the family business in a rural store that’s as fast paced as its urban cousins.
Team Lawhon – Left to right- Ginger (back row) customer Keith Perrin, owner, Laurine Belanger, J.D. Roberts (back row) Janine Pledger, Tammy Jackson & Jennifer Marin.
TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN FARE
I admit, I’m crazy about biscuits & gravy. My cardiologist will attest to that. Gravy comes up in all my blood work. It’s worth the drive to try the B & G at Lawhons. Go on a Thursday. Eat breakfast, then rest.
Return at lunch for the baked spaghetti. Yep, spaghetti that is baked. Go early, this Thursday tradition flies out of the store.
Baked Spaghetti
Tea for Two Hundred
You’ll find a lot of sweet tea in the South. This is tea is different. How do you know? They sell one 100 gallons a day. It’s in the details. It’s brewed with giant tea bags. It’s sweetened with real sugar. A lot of places use conr syrup or other methods to sweeten the tea. Sugar makes a difference.
MAP
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There’s so much more to this story. Catch the rest of it in the current issue of NACS Magazine.
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The Gas Station Gourmet column features individual operators who have out of the box ideas.
If you’ve had great food in America’s gas stations, let me know by emailing me at
al@gasstationgourmet.com
Here’s the NACS link.
http://www.nacsonline.com/magazine/Pages/default.aspx
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