Casey’s (Syracuse)
737 S. Hungtington StreetIt’s note very often that we get a work in assignment in Northern Indiana but that happened the middle of last week.
My colleague and I took off from Kalamazoo around 9:00, competed our assignment near Syracuse, IN around 12:00 then started to head back towards Kalamazoo to finish up the paperwork.
I was kind of looking for places to stop for lunch on our way down. All I was really seeing that would be quick was a number of Krispy Krunchy Chicken locations at various gas stations. I knew I was going to need gas and probably a bathroom on the ride home so I figured I’d just stop at a gas station that had chicken.
The GPS took us a slightly different way home. Instead of two lane country roads, it took us back in to Syracuse. As we were driving through town, I found something a little better. It’s still gas station food but it wasn’t chicken.
Like I said, I needed gas so when I saw the Casey’s General Store sign, I pulled in.
Casey’s in Syracuse, Indiana is on South Huntington Street/IN-13 at Syracuse Drive. You know this gas station has been here for a while because it still uses the Casey’s General Store branding on the sign. The newer Casey’s just use the name. The building is kind of an outlier for an older Casey’s though because it doesn’t have the red barn slats on the face the building where the logo is. And according to Google maps, it never has. It’s just a solid concrete color panel with the word “Casey’s” in white. There’s no color anywhere on the building.
The inside of the store has a little bit of the older Casey’s design to it still. Most of the snacks and drinks are off to the right when you walk in.
The hot food area is off to the left. It looks like any other Casey’s with a couple of warming cabinets for prepared foods. There’s one with the rotating shelves for pizza and one for everything else.
I grabbed two slices of pepperoni pizza and a box of popcorn chicken. I also grabbed a Pepsi from the drink cooler. The total cost for my lunch was right around $16.00.
I’ve done multiple blog posts on Casey’s (Watervliet, Wyoming, Wyoming, Chebanse) and I always say I need to try something different so my blogs are a little bit different.
To do that this time, I grabbed the popcorn chicken. It’s a pretty standard dump from the bag to the deep fryer popcorn chicken but there was quite a bit in the box so I have little complain about. It probably would have been better with some BBQ sauce but I was driving and I didn’t need to get that on my shirt. This is an easy grab and go snack and it’s pretty filling.
I just can’t go to Casey’s and no get pizza though. Casey’s pizza has been my favorite for decades….literally. The first time I ever had Casey’s pizza was when I was a kid in the 90’s. A Casey’s General Store was built in Cullom, IL where my grandma lived. Over the years, we would walk from her house to Casey’s when we were in town visiting her. When I got older, I moved to Peoria, IL and traveled around that region like I do here. We would always get directions in small towns (this was before smartphones and GPS) to “turn at the Casey’s.” There was also a Casey’s right down the street from my office in Creve Couer, IL and we would order pizza from there often.
I got two slices of Pepperoni pizza on this stop because that was all they had a the time. I usually get a pepperoni and sausage. The pizza is just good, greasy, gas station pizza. It’s not as good as you’re going to get from a fancy pizzeria but it’s some of the best gas station pizza you’re going to get. I’m not gonna lie, part of it for me is the nostalgia. Would I like it as much if I was visiting for the first time? Probably not but I would still like it and I would still go back for more. It’s a cheap, tasty meal and that’s what you really want in gas station food.
I have never been to Syracuse, IN before and I don’t know if I’ll ever go back. There was a place down the road I wish we would have had time to stop at but we didn’t have time. This killed three birds with one stone (gas, bathroom, food) so we couldn’t really have done much better.
SW Michigan Dining 