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Neighborhood report

Fill 'er up with gas and quick Latin lunch

Word of mouth is how most customers learn this gas station is the place to stop for a Cuban sandwich or a homemade meal.

By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
Published January 20, 2006

CROSS CREEK - Jay Lago misses his hometown of Botelhos, a small farming community in Brazil lined with coffee trees and surrounded by mountains.

Here in New Tampa, where he spends his days landscaping green lawns, he finds comfort at a place you'd never think to look.

It's in the middle of suburbia, where teenagers congregate after school and mothers pushing jogging strollers whizz by.

It's a place where people go to refuel, where there's always a gallon of milk and the person behind the counter confidently gives directions.

It's a gas station.

And this Marathon Station on Cross Creek Boulevard is no ordinary one. It sells more than 300 Cuban sandwiches a day, drawing a large number of New Tampa's devoted Hispanic workforce who yearn for reminders of home.

"There aren't many Latin restaurants around here," said Lago, owner of Jay's Lawn Service who has bought lunch at the gas station every day for four years. "Can you believe we can get food like this at a gas station? It's great."

Lunchtime crowds begin to form just before noon each day. About 60 percent of the customers are Hispanic workers who spend their days mowing lawns, putting in pools, laying down pavers.

They drive up in pickup trucks that advertise the names of their businesses. They wear company T-shirts and ball caps and work boots. They stomp past the gas pumps and the doughnuts and head straight for the deli counter. It's maybe 6 feet long and filled with rice and beans, stuffed potato cakes called papas rellenas, and deviled crabs.

The station's owners have never advertised the deli. Word has just spread among the workers, who make it a part of their daily ritual.

They greet the familiar face of the woman who helps prepare their meals.

"Hola, La Morena," they say to Maritza Portes, who they've nicknamed "dark skinned."

Portes, 38, moves quickly to butter their Cuban sandwiches and press them. She smiles and chats with them in Spanish.

Behind the counter is a simple machine that presses the sandwiches, a microwave and a small radio that belts out tunes from WYUU-FM 92.5, the Spanish music station.

Most customers already know what they want. Sometimes it's the tortilla espanola, a potato, egg and onion omelet. Other times, empanadas. There are meat empanadas; meat and cheese; and "for the Mexican crew," beef, cheese and jalapeno empanadas, said Cristina Aliaga, who runs the deli and whose father used to own the gas station.

Aliaga, who lives in nearby Creekwood, cooks up homemade chicken and rice and whips up tropical fruit milkshakes popular in Central America - guayaba, mamey, tamarindo and guanabana.

She knows most of her customers. They used to come in 15, 20 at a time. But as construction has been completed around the area, they've moved on. However, the demand is still there because they still send members of their crews to pick up a dozen Cuban sandwiches at a time.

Ricardo Figueiredo, who edges sidewalks and trims bushes in neighborhoods from Tampa Palms to Pebble Creek, is among the regulars.

He buys a 2-liter bottle of Dr Pepper and orders a chicken sandwich from "La Morena."

There's nowhere to sit inside - this is a gas station, after all - but sometimes they eat in their cars. Other times, they'll find a shady spot underneath a young oak tree nearby.

"The food is real good, great prices, the people are nice," he said. "I like it a lot."

Aliaga hopes to soon open a hot table with steaming dishes.

"We've become a little restaurant inside a gas station," she said. "Who knew it would work so well?"

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 08:43:07]