When Parent Petroleum nearly doubled the number of its PRIDE Stores locations more than a decade ago, owner and CEO Mario Spina wanted to develop something unique to keep customers coming back. “We decided to focus on foodservice as a point of differentiation,” he said. Today, the Warrenville, Illinois-based chain has three separate foodservice concepts, plus its own grab-and-go fresh food items under the PRIDE umbrella.

Prideful Beginnings

Peter Spina, Mario’s father, founded Parent Petroleum in 1983. Today, the chain has 16 locations with more planned for the future. “In 2009, we purchased a group of stations from BP that had larger footprints than our current locations,” Mario Spina said. “We quickly realized that we needed to put in a food concept to draw customers. Since we didn’t want to simply add a franchise fast-food outlet, we came up with our own.”

The Urban Counter concept is “one most customers don’t expect to find at a gas station because of the emphasis on freshness and local sources for our food,” he said. At the eight Urban Counter restaurants, customers can order salads, hand-pressed burgers, fries, breakfast sandwiches and hand-churned milkshakes, as well as espresso drinks.

Since some PRIDE stores are closer geographically, the team also developed the Taco Urbano concept, which makes nearly all of its Mexican-style food on-site. So far, only one store has a Taco Urbano, but more will open soon.

At three stores where having a full foodservice concept is difficult because of space, the company installed its PRIDE Café model, which offers nitro coffee, espresso drinks, crepes, paninis, side salads, to-go salads and pizza slices, as well as a robust grab-and-go section. At the café, the food is prepared at the PRIDE commissary, then heated or cooked on-site. Every PRIDE store offers the same coffee service, and many locations also have TCBY frozen yogurt.

The company opened its newest concept in November in a freestanding building next to a Pride Store in St. Charles, Illinois. The building houses an Urban Counter restaurant, The PRIDE Beer and Wine Plus Spirits store and 93 Octane brewery, which has a dozen beers on tap. 93 Octane first collaborated with a few local breweries while operations ramped up but now is canning its own brews. Current 93 Octane beers include Deuce Coupe Dark Ale, The PRIDE Piper NEIPA and Ow-5 Stout.

“Since we had a lot of space in this building we thought, why not put in our own brewery?” Spina said. “It’s a small operation with a 10-barrel brew house, but we are excited to offer our own craft beer label.”

The Pride Challenge

The PRIDE Stores stress fresh, made-to-order, high-end food that competes not only with other convenience stores but also free-standing restaurants. “All of our menus are not what you would expect when you come into a gas station that serves food, which is the goal,” Spina said. “Having a variety of concepts has allowed us to meet customer needs in different situations. It’s been challenging, but we’re figuring out how to juggle the demands of foodservice in a convenience store setting.”

To help tie all the concepts together, PRIDE launched a loyalty program last year that allows customers to earn points through fuel, convenience store and select foodservice purchases. During the first quarter of 2020, the company will introduce its PRIDE app, which has pickup and delivery options for its restaurants and convenience store items.

“The loyalty program and our app will help customers realize that Urban Counter, PRIDE Café, 93 Octane and Taco Urbano are all under the PRIDE brand,” he said. “Because we wanted to create separate identities for our foodservice concepts, we use things like the app and rewards program to bring those concepts together in our customers’ minds.”

Since we had a lot of space in this building we thought, why not put in our own brewery?

The company also uses its foodservice to connect with the community in a number of ways, such as sponsoring the Kane County Cougars minor league baseball team’s parking lot, which provides fans with an Urban Counter coupon on the back of their parking pass. The stores support local charities, such as CASA Kane County and Folds of Honor.

“We hope that everyone who walks through our doors has a positive, enjoyable experience every time,” Spina said. “This can be difficult at a gas station since no one is ever excited to fill their tank. But hopefully with our foodservice offerings, the clean appearance of our stores and a friendly plus helpful staff, they will leave looking forward to coming back again soon.”