It's morning, pitch black outside. You're on the road and you're starving. Fortunately,
Buc-ee's breakfast has you covered.
From the beginning, Buc-ee's has positioned itself as a homey pit-stop,
guaranteeing cheap gas and a bite to eat for every traveler. Not long after opening in 1982,
breakfast entered the picture. The first breakfast menu featured many of the core items that are
still served to this day: donuts, sandwiches, and of course, the ever-popular breakfast tacos.
It's true that fast food joints like McDonald's rolled out breakfast menus earlier than Buc-ee's,
however, the rest stop chain remains a trailblazer in the sense that it was a
gas station that customers could depend on for more than just snacks. And unlike McDonald's,
the food was prepared the traditional way in a professional kitchen. Nothing frozen — just
simple cooking made from scratch. That is a far cry from even most restaurant chains,
so in that sense, Buc-ee's was ahead of the curve on what gas station fare could be.
To nobody's surprise, breakfast is served bright and early at Buc-ee's. So how early
are we talking? The gas station serves breakfast starting at 4 a.m. and whips up all the classics
until lunchtime at 11 a.m. That means for a solid seven hours, Buc-ee's fires up the
griddle for a morning lineup bursting with pure, greasy decadence. There are the buttery biscuit
sandwiches, the breakfast tacos and burritos, and of course, the pastries fresh out of the oven.
On the flavor spectrum, breakfast commonly falls between two categories: sweet and savory. Many
diners seem to pick a side, but not everyone's tastes can be divided into such strict binaries.
Buc-ee's breakfast menu features a little bit of each so that foodies of all preferences never
go hungry. This culinary diversity is a great way to attract as many customers as possible.
There's a reason why foodies flock to Buc-ee's meat-and-potato offerings in the morning. The
breakfast sandwiches and burritos are perfect protein boosters due to the ample amounts of eggs,
beans, cheese, cured meats, and spice-heavy salsa. And the bakery is filled with classic
cafe staples for your sweet tooth: think muffins and cinnamon rolls coated in creamy icing.
There's one breakfast item at Buc-ee's, however, that straddles both flavor profiles particularly
well, and that's the kolache. These sweet rolls originated from the modern-day Czech Republic and
Slovakia but have enjoyed cultural importance in Texas dating back to the 19th century.
Kolaches are traditionally filled with fruit, but Buc-ee's bakes an assortment of flavors. Varieties
include apple, strawberry cream cheese, sausage, sausage cheese jalapeño, ham & cheese, and more.
Strolling through Buc-ee's, the first thing you're likely to see, let alone smell,
is the barbecue. Tender, fall-off-the-bone meats are chopped throughout the day at the
prep station to bulk out tortillas or fluffy hamburger buns. Some, like the brisket,
are cranked out 24 hours each day according to Buc-ee's director of barbecue, Randy Pauly.
Luckily for customers, that means it's served for breakfast, if you feel like indulging.
Pauly, Buc-ee's barbecue whiz and former participant on Food Network's Chopped,
let "The Rich and Starr Show" in on a little secret regarding one of the breakfast highlights.
Apparently, the brisket breakfast taco beats the bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast taco in terms of
overall sales. This anecdote demonstrates that barbecue wins, no matter what the clock says.
One of the biggest breakfast items at Buc-ee's is also a regional specialty. Breakfast tacos are a
staple of Tex-Mex cuisine and are available in large supply across Buc-ee's locations,
including notable varieties like The Hippo and The Rhino. But the history of the breakfast taco
goes so much further than the gas station circuit. Fiery debates have proceeded over
its true origins, marking battle lines between differing factions who credit
its invention to San Antonio, as opposed to the hipster haven of Austin, per OC Weekly.
By all accounts, the breakfast taco emerged in the mid-19th century in the Rio Grande Valley,
or South Texas, as a predominantly working-class food across Mexican immigrant communities. The
dish typically features a combination of beans, eggs, potatoes, cheese, and meat rolled in a
flour tortilla, though the exact composition can differ depending on the city. One consistency?
Breakfast tacos weren't referred to as such in the beginning. Due to the meal's prominence in Mexican
cuisine, locals simply referred to them as tacos, since the need for distinction was basically moot.
Buc-ee's breakfast tacos may not match the ones dished up at cozy Corpus Christi taquerias,
but their presence reflects the chain's Lone Star roots,
which has always remained part of the brand's identity. Naturally,
their portable style also makes them the perfect pick-me-up for a long drive.
It's true nobody has high expectations when grabbing food from a gas station,
but Buc-ee's has raised the bar in just about every way. There's the fact that
most of the breakfast menu contains fresh ingredients, and customers will often spot
employees hard at work preparing them in the store. Furthermore, items can be directly
made-to-order so that customers never receive stale or soggy grub at the start of their day.
Considering that convenience stores seem to run on heat lamps and pre-packaged fare,
the idea that you could purchase a hand-rolled burrito is something to behold. And for the
lucky breakfast-goers at Buc-ee's, this is a daily occurrence. Buc-ee's is equipped with self-serve
kiosks where visitors can place orders for whatever breakfast item tickles their fancy. The
prep station will then assemble and deliver it to the customer, piping-hot at the very first bite.
Jim Mills, Buc-ee's culinary director, has been vocal about the vast amount of food items the
gas station chain cooks on the premises, and in 2019, he set the record straight
with Texas Monthly. In reference to the breakfast tacos, he emphasized their freshness by noting,
"We're cooking the tortillas right there and building them."
Meanwhile, the "robust baking program" Buc-ee's operates allows pillowy pastries
to flourish in its display cases. Take Atlanta Magazine's advice and
ask to have your breakfast warmed up in the microwave. You won't be sorry.
Buc-ee's co-founder Arch "Beaver" Aplin III outlined some of the logistics of the
menu creation in an interview with Bon Appétit:
"We have to put thought into making the food manageable,
something that you can eat in your lap while driving."
This approach defines the breakfast menu, especially the grab-and-go fare that's
become such a key part of Buc-ee's brand. That's right, Buc-ee's has a
supply of pre-assembled items customers can pick up and purchase without any wait time.
The grab-and-go area is located around the store's main prep station, and the section
is immaculately organized. Breakfast items are stored by type on stainless steel heating trays,
which makes it easy to grab what you need during a rush. And while these foods are indeed kept warm,
employees appear to keep the supply fully stocked with fresh batches always in rotation.
While having the option of a freshly cooked breakfast burrito is certainly nice,
it's not always feasible if you're short on time. A convenience store is meant to be, well,
convenient, and offering easy-to-eat meals at a moment's notice is a crucial component.
Not to mention, Buc-ee's doesn't offer any seating, so the food has to be portable anyway.
In 2019, GasBuddy proclaimed Buc-ee's to be the top spot for gas station coffee in
Texas. By all accounts, Buc-ee's java isn't particularly fancy,
but with a 4.7 out of 5-star rating on GasBuddy, the consensus is that
shoppers are nuts about the coffee. As a spokesperson for the company told Dallas News,
"No other gas station coffee brand in the country has ratings that high."
So what makes the java brewed at Buc-ee's so rave-worthy? One explanation,
as Clearly Coffee writes, is that the beverage is brewed on a regular basis at stores. The
blogger traveled to a nearby Buc-ee's and found that employees have to keep the supply flowing
to meet the non-stop demand of customers. The store also uses premium appliances like Bunn
coffee machines to make its mega-sized batches fresh on the spot. And because the turnover on
a freshly brewed pot is so fast, the coffee doesn't even have time to become lukewarm.
Would you ever expect a gas station to skimp on servings? Probably not,
as evidenced by the jumbo soda jugs or king-sized candy bars located at checkout lanes. Even then,
Buc-ee's takes the convenience store breakfast to an entirely new level of indulgence. Whatever the
item, the portions are guaranteed to be gigantic compared to how much it rings up at the till.
Take one of Buc-ee's all-time classics, the breakfast taco. It basically resembles the
Tex-Mex staple in every way that counts … except for its size. It's practically double the width of
a standard taco. A YouTube review of the Hippo Taco described it as "massive" and "closer to
a burrito" than what its name suggests. There's also the Breakfast Beast Burrito,
boasting double the amount of ingredients such as cheese, potatoes, sausage, and bacon.
Everything about Buc-ee's is enormous,
and the breakfast menu is definitely no exception to the bigger-is-better philosophy.
Bu-cee's has excelled at providing a gas station breakfast that people go out of their way to try.
Still, the chain isn't one to rest on its laurels. It turns out Buc-ee's constantly
strives to be better, and that effort is highlighted by the regular improvements
to the food — notably the breakfast options. According to a 2019 article in Texas Monthly,
co-founder Arch Aplin III was motivated by the franchise's
slow-but-steady expansion throughout the South to address potential menu tweaks.
Considering Buc-ee's breakfast is a huge hit with customers, one might feel that shaking it up is
unnecessary. However, the changes simply entail building upon what Buc-ee's is already doing
well. Slight adjustments like experimenting with new salsa recipes, changing the bacon supplier,
and reintroducing discontinued fare keep customers satisfied. On top of that,
the business brought in Jim Mills as the brand's culinary director to oversee the new direction.
Aplin once explained in an article for Bon Appétit,
"We just try to have really well-respected, loved, high quality food in a rest stop."
One could say adapting the breakfast menu to meet its ever-evolving needs
keeps the brand's long-term messaging on point.