Above: Seasoned wings are fire-blasted in the brick pizza oven, a central feature of the Paragon Solutions-designed market in Prairieville, Louisiana.
After 25 years in the convenience store business, Gregg Patterson has found his niche. Pit Stop Exxon in St. Amant, Louisiana, was the first of five stores he would build over the years before realizing that what he liked best was having a community-centered store in an area with regular customers.
Food is the main focus at Oak Grove Market, where the kitchen features a brick pizza oven.
Patterson and business partner Ben Bercegeay decided to try something different in Prairieville, Louisiana. That meant giving their customers another reason to stop in besides fuel and convenience items—great food and a sense of community. “We wanted them to come for our food,” Patterson said of the convenience store that opened its doors in April 2022.
“The high percentage of people who get fuel, pay at the pump and don’t come in the store is astounding. We are trying to reverse this. Instead, the hope is that the customer comes inside the store to shop and thinks, ‘Hey, I can get fuel as well,’ Patterson said. “We’re not focused on being only an Exxon station. We’re focused on being a market. We are Oak Grove Market.”
Designed by Paragon Solutions, Oak Grove feels like an upscale market. What one doesn’t see at the front of the store are fuel pumps. From the road, people see an attractive market, beautifully landscaped and inviting, with an outdoor seating area.
There’s also a huge covered and well-lit drive-thru, where customers can purchase food and most anything for sale in the c-store. The goal was to do a hybrid with convenience store items, chips, candy, bags of ice, but also do brick-oven pizza, wings and hot-pressed sandwiches using homemade bread,” Patterson explained.
“Fuel is not the focus; it’s an option,” Patterson said. “We sell Exxon fuel, but we offer a lot more than that—a market, great food and a feeling of community with all of the convenience.”
BRICK OVEN
The partners have tried various turnkey foodservice programs in their c-stores, and with countless pizza options in the area, they decided to create their own menu for Oak Grove Market. They asked themselves, “Why can’t we make the sandwich wedge? Why can’t we make chicken salad?”
So, Patterson and Bercegeay bought an Italian-made brick pizza oven. And it proved to be a smart decision.
“One of our most unique pizzas is built with thin sliced, smoked green onion sausage, a white sauce and sprinkled with green onions. It’s called the Grunyon, and customers love it,” Patterson said.
With an eye to boosting pizza sales over the summer, Oak Grove Market launched Five Dollar Friday Pizza with a choice of pepperoni or cheese. “It took off,” Patterson said. “Kids eat the pepperoni or cheese pizza, and mom and dad buy the specialty pizza.”
L to R: Gregg Patterson, owner of Oak Grove Market, and business partner Ben Bercegeay check an order of wings sizzling in an iron skillet.
Patterson then turned his attention to chicken salad.
“Very few people offer homemade chicken salad,” he said, and when they do, there’s often “too much stuff in it,” Patterson says, like nuts or fruit. Oak Grove Market keeps it simple with the basic ingredients and “a little kick, a little spice,” he said. “We’re the jambalaya capital of the world. People like it this way.”
Chicken salad has become the most popular menu item.
“When we started, we were doing 20 pounds of chicken at a time. One batch every three or four days. Now, we’re doing two batches with 40 pounds daily,” he said, adding, “99% of the people who try it like it, and people drive here for it. They say the store is beautiful, and they leave with chicken salad.”
WINGING IT
Wings are popular, too, and it’s no surprise that Oak Grove Market is trying something a bit different.
The team had a thought: “We have this big ‘ole brick oven and all we’re doing is pizza? We said no, let’s try doing wings in it,” Patterson said.
The foodservice team seasons the wings and lets them sit overnight. Next, “We bag them, add sauce, shake them and dump them into a black iron skillet and fire blast them at 640 degrees,” he explained.
Fire blasting the wings in the sauce makes a difference. “All of that flavor is fired into that wing,” he said.
The brick oven is also used to roast fresh ingredients for homemade salsa.
“We’re learning every day. We’re experimenting and trying to get it right. We make mistakes, but we strive to always serve good food,” Patterson said.
WELCOME INSIDE
Oak Grove offers free Community bean-to-cup coffee to customers on Monday as a way to build loyalty. “Our thought was by offering a free coffee on Mondays maybe they’ll come Tuesday, Wednesday and the rest of the week and buy a cup,” he said.
Getting customers inside the c-store is a priority, and part of the goal as the partners planned the store was a design that would make women feel welcome.
“Women won’t sit down in a convenience store. What would we have to do to get them to sit down and eat?” Patterson and Bercegeay wondered.
“We built a beautiful sitting area and top-notch bathrooms. We have a huge section with complimentary Wi-Fi,” Patterson said. And, of course, there’s the fresh food.
“We want people to drive to eat our pizza, wings and other homemade food items. We want you to come with your family and sit down and eat in a clean, comfortable atmosphere. We want people to make our store a destination,” Patterson said.