Travel Centers of America is failing and will declare bankruptcy within five years.

If you see an Iron Skillet open and think "maybe I'll get one more meal before they close down for good", DON'T!!!

I just stopped at the Petro in Carnesville GA and the iron skillet is open and still have a full menu it seems. No buffet but me and the wife tried out dinner just because we probably won't ever be able to eat there again.

She got the fish, I got the country fried steak. The food was all pre prepared and microwaved. The baked potato wasn't even hot enough to melt the butter and looked like it was probably baked a couple days ago and thrown in the fridge. The steak wasn't even the normal steak Iron Skillet sells, looked like something from a frozen package that they warmed up and dumped some old gravy on, then they left it sitting there long enough for the gravy to get a crust on top of it. Not hot at all. The toast wasn't even toasted, it was like a piece of toast after you leave it sitting on the counter for 1/2 a day and then microwave it. The soup was supposed to be the chicken and dumpling soup but was lukewarm (microwaved) and seemed like horrible canned soup with 0 chicken in it, unsalted garbage.

We ate almost none of it and left. The sweet tea was decent. I have no idea why that place is even open.

 

And that is almost identical to my last iron skillet experience- 10 years ago.

The reason their restaurants failed is because they served cheap food, poorly prepared and counted on a captive customer base with low standards.

 

As another thought- the Sturtevant WI Petro is a locally owned franchise. They just dumped a bunch of money into the place. The food's still mediocre, but they have a bar so . . .

But here's the rub - parking is $15 or 75 gallons/$50 purchase. They did switch all the parking to sight side angles, which is nice but my mirrors are just inside the yellow lines on both sides and from the back line to the end of the line is 48'. It's not impossible to get in, but it's a multiple goal situation. Once they start charging for parking, business is going to drop off.

 

I always ate at Culver’s whenever I parked there.

 

Two more new Love's truck stop just opened in Ohio. One is between Arkon and Youngstown on I-76 and the other is east of Columbus Ohio on I-70

 

Seems like even the once great Whites Petro in Raphine, Va. might have closed the Iron Skillet. The owner Bobby Berkstresser is a great guy to meet and talk to but I hope he doesn't close the Iron Skillet and if he does at least contract to some restaurant chain like he did with the Lexington, Va. TA. IHOP is better than nothing. Don't count on Quaker Steak and Lube to fill the bill. It's way out beyond the parking area.

 

If you say so but I'll probably not eat there 99% of the times that I would have if it was a real restaurant like the one the TA used to have. I stopped there every single time I went past on 81 because it used to have an excellent buffet that was worth paying for!

Something that these idiots making decisions need to think about the next time they sit there scratching their balls wondering why nobody is eating there anymore, like at almost every iron skillet in the country. The food just sucks and isn't worth anything close to 20 bucks + a 5 dollar tip.

 

This is something I have trouble understanding. I know that most T/S customers are there because of circumstances not choice. But when the choice is between being punched in the balls, being punched in the stomach, or having my foot stamped on, I'm going to chose the foot stomp and just eat in the truck. Why am I going to pay a premium for substandard food?

If your food can't compete with local restaurants, then your food sucks. In the past you could rely on transient traffic, but in the modern google world it's easy for cars to bypass what's at the exit for a 'real' restaurant. Especially once you add in a liqueur license. 7 peach slices in a gallon of high fructose corn syrup might have been 'highfalutin' in 1980, but in 2020 it's just pitiful. Circa 2000 we'd closed down the bars and I got convinced to pile into a car and head to Dennys (good lord, the things you'll do when you're 19). The food sucked and I didn't even get laid as a result. The next night I took everyone back to the house and channeled my inner "short order cook", cooking omelettes and burgers for an hour before getting laid in twice, by non sequential girls.

I will happily concede that the 2004 HOS changes cut into T/S profitability, particularity in regards to the restaurants, and the 2018 ELD requirements made things worse. But if your food can't attract locals, then you were SOL in the first place.