Top left: Amber Turpin and David Stimpson in front of Filling Station.
Photo by Terry Manier.
Top right: Life-long friends Ana Melissa Garcia and Erika Olivarez.
Photo by Terry Manier.
Bottom left: Fran Grayson getting ready for the rush at Truck Stop.
Photo by: Ted Holladay.
Bottom right: The Bakery Station.
Photo by Kalia Feldman-Klein.
Did you hear about that new bakery-café, Filling Station? What was that? The Bakery Station? The Truck Stop? Are they the same place? The answer is, no: They’re three totally different yet equally vibrant ventures.
But you’d be forgiven if you got them mixed up: All three are located at repurposed, early 20th century gas stations, and all three are run by ace cooks and community-minded visionaries. They also each offer up food that you don’t normally associate with gas stations: fresh, seasonally driven fare cooked with local, organic ingredients.
At Santa Cruz’s Filling Station, owners Amber Turpin and David Stimpson grow the ingredients for many of the treats they serve, like homemade mint, grapefruit and apple sodas and warm-from- the-oven fruit and vegetable hand pies.
Outside, Turpin and Stimpson’s friend and business partner Fran Grayson offers a Latin American menu with an Asian flair from her food truck, The Truck Stop. Favorites are breakfast tacos and arepas—fried cornmeal cakes filled with meat and vegetables. In Salinas, The Bakery Station, run by Ana Melissa Garcia and Erika Olivarez, delivers an array of artisan breads and pastries as well as spectacular sandwiches, like the Road Hog—a pulled pork number with a tangy whiskey sauce on a house-baked brioche roll.
The Bakery Station:
202 Monterey St., Salinas
bakerystation.com
Filling Station:
1500 Mission St., Santa Cruz
fillingstation1500.com
The Truck Stop:
in front of Filling Station
thetruckstopsc.com.
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About the author
At Edible Monterey Bay, our mission is to celebrate the local food culture of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. We believe in sustainability, and we believe everyone has a right to healthful, clean and affordable food. We think knowing where our food comes from is powerful, and we hope our magazine, website and newsletters inspire readers to get to know and support our local growers, fishers, chefs, vintners and food artisans.
