Jacksonville-based Gate Petroleum Co. began selling 4 Rivers Smokehouse pulled pork barbecue sandwiches in June in 14 Duval and St. Johns counties locations with Gate Fresh Kitchens.
It will offer them at the gas station and convenience store it plans to open by July 2022 in eTown in South Jacksonville.
“Most people don’t think of a BBQ sandwich when they think of food they get at their local convenience store. Partnering with 4 Rivers allowed us to bring an unexpected item to our shelves, from a name people know and love in BBQ,” said Gate Marketing and Communications Manager Eden Sutherland.
“We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from customers about the sandwich.”
4 Rivers is based in Winter Park and has two Northeast Florida locations. Founder John Rivers is a Jacksonville native.
“We were interested in adding a BBQ sandwich to our menu, but we wanted to be sure we were offering our customers the highest quality BBQ with no fillers. Partnering with 4 Rivers allowed us to do just that,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland said Gate anticipates adding the sandwiches to new and remodeled Fresh Kitchen stores.
There are about 200 Gate service stations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Gate operates about half of them and the others are leased or under supply agreements.
Gate announced that it bought 2.16 acres for the eTown store. A deed shows it paid $902,000.
The eTown store will include the Gate Fresh Kitchen fast-casual café serving fresh breakfast sandwiches, baked pizza and breakfast pizza. In addition to the barbecue sandwiches, Gate’s garlic knots also are new.
The garlic knots are available in 22 Gate stores in Jacksonville, the Beaches, St. Augustine and Gainesville.
The eTown location also will offer a yogurt bar, Best Bean coffee, roller grill products and fountain beverages.
The 6,500-square-foot store will feature 20 fueling stations and four ethanol-free stations.
The eTown master-planned community is designed for up to 2,000 homes off Florida 9B at E-Town Parkway in South Jacksonville.
• The city is reviewing building and site plan renovations for the Gate convenience store at 4120 Belfort Road. Prosser Inc. is the civil engineer. The proposed 6,310-square-foot Gate with 16 fueling positions would replace a smaller station. The car wash would not be rebuilt.
• The St. Johns River Water Management District and St. Johns County are reviewing plans for Gate to build a 6,536-square-foot gas station, a 5,089-square-foot Gate Express Carwash and a surface water management system at 330 Florida A1A N. in the Shoppes of Ponte Vedra. Prosser is the civil engineer. It is designed to be part of a larger development.
• St. Johns County is reviewing a permit application for Gate Express Carwash at World Commerce Center at 5402 Florida 16 in St. Augustine. The 5,100-square-foot project is planned on 1.41 acres at northeast Florida 16 and International Golf Parkway.
