For Dinner on the Fly, Try Pilot
But a box of junk food for $3.50 isn’t very appealing when an entire junk food meal can be purchased for about the same.
Enter the Pilot Travel Center. Not as sprawling as the neighboring Petro Truck Stop, this super-sized gas station caters more to travelers with two-axels. The Wendy’s restaurant within the Pilot is probably where most travelers – or moviegoers on a quick dinner date – eat. However, for fans of the microwaveable pocket, delicacies off the hot dog roller, burritos and Lunchables there are aisles, coolers and warmers chock-full of ready-to-eat items. And, they can also be eaten inside the tables at Wendy’s.
I decided on my old Wendy’s standby – a double cheeseburger. Since I am trying to avoid French fries, I didn’t make it a value meal and instead got a 99-cent order of chicken nuggets and a diet Coke. I read once the Wendy’s burgers are square because they don’t cut corners. They don’t. The staff at the Pilot Wendy’s is friendly and the burger was fresh, hot and the accompanying lettuce and tomato were perfect. I’d like to see some veggies come out the box of Junior Mints I would have otherwise had for dinner.
My date opted to have a corn dog off the roller. The breading wasn’t as crisp as a freshly dipped and deep-fried one at a fair, but for being frozen, thawed and re-heated it wasn’t bad. He dipped it in my honey mustard from my nuggets. He also had the Wendy’s chili, which was great for a rainy Friday. The cashiers at the Pilot are also friendly and helpful, as I noticed them giving directions to people and answering questions about NEPA.
And call us sneaky, but we totally capitalized on being in a travel center. We also purchased dessert to go, a bag a Reses’s Pieces, a pack of Swedish fish and two bottles of soda. Even though we had orders rung up three times, our total cost was about $10. We were able to make it the movie in plenty of time. The beauty of a fast-food joint is that they have the same goal – get us served quickly.
What makes this dining experience unique is that if you’d like to buy a pair of cowboy boots, a hula dancer dashboard ornament, a set of mud flaps or the greatest hits of Conway Twitty – on cassette – by golly, you can.
If you want dinner on the fly, try Pilot.
Grade- B
