Sheetz Opens Second Location in the Baltimore Area

Baltimore families who often travel through Pennsylvania and Virginia will be familiar with the bright red beacon of Sheetz — a roadside pit stop that’s known for its made-to-order drinks, snacks and meals, and 24-hour access.

Though there are nearly 40 of them in Maryland, nearby locations of the popular gas station/convenience store are few and far between.

But hungry kids and parents will now get to see what the fuss is about.

Its first Anne Arundel County location opened Thursday, June 12. The family-owned business dates back to 1952 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and is similar to other made-to-order chains like Wawa and Rutter’s.

But Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties have for the most part not had many of these except for Royal Farms, a local favorite offering made-to-order fried chicken. Baltimore has only one other Sheetz location in Middle River, with the next closest options in Carroll, Harford and Frederick counties.

Now, the Linthicum Heights location on West Nursery Road serves as a convenient stop for parents and kids on the go, just 15 to 20 minutes from Baltimore.

We dropped by Sheetz on opening day to give families a run-down of what to expect. Here’s how our first visit went:

What To Find at Your Local Sheetz

On a sweltering day in the 90s, we started with something to cool off and ordered a frozen lemonade with black raspberry. Sheetz has several touch-screen menus displaying a range of options, from milkshakes, cold brews and energy-infused refreshers to build-your-own lattes and hot chocolates.

Families can save a buck with the $5 or Less Budget Bangerz, including pepperoni flatbread pizza, Curly Fryz, a soft pretzel and made-to-order burgers. Combo meals including fries and a drink are also available, as well as “late nite bites” that come two for $6.

Anticipating the late-night cravings, we snagged a premium fried appetizer sampler for later with cheesy bacon broccoli bites, boneless chicken bites and fried pork stickers for $8.49 — and some fries doused with Old Bay for a right-now treat.

These could also work as a shareable snack for kiddos not hungry enough for a full meal.

Altogether, our food and drink came to about $18. Once we made our selections, a machine printed out a receipt which we scanned at the register to get the order started while we explored the rest of the store.

Grab and Go

A fun tradition in stopping at local gas stations can be finding inventive snacks. Often, they will carry unusual flavors or extra varieties of popular snack brands.

For example, Sheetz had a number of Cheetos variations, including “Chester’s Fries,” Flamin’ Hot mini cheese balls and cheese pizza -flavored Cheetos Puffs.

For grab-and-go items, the store was almost fully sold out by the time we arrived after 6 p.m., but typically in Sheetz stores, there are a range of healthy snacks, sandwiches, parfaits and more.

The mobile menu for this location showed that when in stock, kids’ items include a PB&J Sammich Bundle, Paw Patrol Crunch Pak and Bluey Snackers Crunch Pak and individual snacks like GoGurt, string cheese, cups of fresh fruit and chocolate milk.

Like most convenience stores, Sheetz has aisles full of candy; chips, dips and pretzels; and sodas, coffee drinks and energy drinks. But those looking for healthier alternatives will find plenty of options like nuts and dried fruit.

Family Fun

Families who have the West Nursery location on their regular route home can find things like “movie theater butter” popcorn for movie night and dog treats to bring to Fido. And if you’re looking to treat the kids, small sections of the store have items like mini collectibles, plushies and trading cards.

We chose a mystery Micromallow (mini Squishmallow) and two Beanie Bouncers for fun.

If your kid is more hands-on and would rather make their own treat than order it, they can stop by the F’Real machine, which lets them choose an ice cream flavor to blend up.

Order Up!

Once we were done perusing, we headed over to the order pickup area.

For its grand opening, Sheetz was decked out in balloons, with some photos recognizing it as the 869^th store in the franchise. The room was packed with people of all ages waiting for orders or dining in.

In this section, there are five tables and long counter with seating against the wall. Conveniently, there are outlets for device charging throughout the area. There are also a couple of outside tables available.

You can see how long it will be until your order is ready by looking up at a screen that shows which order numbers employees are preparing. Drinks come out before food.

Once our order was called, it was time to chow down! At about $5 or $6 each for the toys, together with our food, our total for the day came to about $40.