New Fuel City to offer tacos and Pizza!Pizza!

Fuel City convenience stores are known for their tacos, cheap gas and exotic animals.

About six weeks ago, a camel named Hercules was added to the Haltom City store’s menagerie. The camel roams around with two buffaloes, two longhorns, a zebra, a donkey and a zonkey (a half-zebra, half-donkey).

So, when Fuel City broke ground on its fourth store in Saginaw about two weeks ago, people wondered what sort of surprise John Benda, its owner and chief huckster, had in store for them.

Here’s a hint: Pizza!Pizza!

Little Caesars has decided to open up a store-within-a-store franchise in the Saginaw Fuel City on Blue Mound Road, Benda said. They made up their mind after officials from the pizza chain’s Detroit headquarters flew down and toured his stores in Dallas, Mesquite and Haltom City.

The piping hot pizza will be served up along with fresh fried pies, the convenience store’s signature street tacos and, in another Fuel City first, a hamburger he’s already named “The King Burger,” Benda said. He said the Saginaw store, at 14,000 square feet, will be his biggest yet.

“We’re real excited about Little Caesars being there along with the fried pies,” Benda said. “I think it is going to be our most exciting store.”

Benda has made a name for himself with his gas stations/convenience stores/taquerias. They all represent his vision of a place where people don’t just pull up and quickly pump gas, but they hang around for a while, like they would at a neighborhood store.

His other locations have animals, but Benda said the Saginaw location is too small for it. But he hopes its 1880s Western theme, a la “Wild Bill” Hickok, will still make it a fun place to visit.

This will be his last store in the Fort Worth area, he said, but he’s already looking to open his fifth store in the Metroplex, possibly Arlington, if he can “find the site.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 10:59 AM with the headline "New Fuel City to offer tacos and Pizza!Pizza!."