Secret menus are my favorite thing about fast food joints. There's something vaguely satisfying about pulling up to a drive-thru, rolling down your window, and informing the Burger King attendant that you'll be having a Mustard Whopper with a side of Frings, BABY, and NOBODY can stop you. So it is with great pleasure that I report that Wawa is rolling out its own secret menu for a limited time only, in honor of the fan favorite's 54th birthday. Hoagies for everyone!!!!
Good Morning America broke the Wawa news Thursday morning, reporting that hoagie enthusiasts will be able to access the new tasty items from now until May 6. The secret menu was launched on Thursday, April 12, to commemorate Wawa Day—the gas station/market chain, which one superfan described to me as essentially the In & Out of South Jersey, opened its first location in April 1964, though it's since sprouted over 750 outlets up and down the East Coast — along with daylong free coffee on April 12, which is never not a gift.
Normally, Wawa's offerings include fairly standard hoagies (hero sandwiches, for those unfamiliar with Philly jargon), with standouts including a classic cheesesteak, a meatball sub, a chicken cheesesteak, and a chicken strip hoagie (there are also vegetarian options and an Italian sub, but like, this is Philly, eat a cheesesteak.) You can also get salads, wraps, and sides.
But, per Good Morning America, the secret menu is totally different from Wawa's usual fare. Unlike the secret menus at In & Out and the aforementioned Burger King, Wawa's is a tad truncated, and in fact features only two special items. But the two they've got are treats indeed: you can choose between a birthday cake smoothie and/or a birthday cake milkshake, which apt selections, considering the menu celebrates Wawa's birth.
To access the secret menu, you can enter any one of Wawa's locations, and go up to the touch screen ordering kiosk. On the screen, you should see a tiny Wawa goose jumping up and down in the lower lefthand corner. Click the goose, and the menu will open up. There, you can select your treat and preferred size, pay, and sip your birthday cake smoothie until your brain cells turn to ice. Here's video:
Note that I have not tried the birthday cake smoothie or milkshake, but if they're anything like the rest of Wawa's wares, I'm sure the Mid-Atlantic region will be obsessed with them by the end of next week.
In other Wawa-related news, Philadelphia magazine reports that Philly will soon get THE BIGGEST WAWA IN THE WORLD (Editor's note: !!!), with an 11,300 square-foot establishment set to open inside the Public Ledger Building in the Independence Mall area sometime before Thanksgiving. This new Wawa will outsize Washington, D.C.'s famed 9,200 square-foot Wawa, which makes sense, since D.C. doesn't deserve to hold claim to something so Pennsylvania born-and-bred. And it appears this Wawa will be a little fancier than the gas station mini-markets we've all come to know and love — a spokesperson told Philadelphia magazine it'll be "familiar to Wawa-goers but reimagined to bring a higher level of sophistication and craft to this unique, spacious location [...] Aesthetics weave together industrial and art deco elements with the warmth of copper and beautiful vaulted ceilings."
Again, the limited secret menu is only available until May 6, but maybe the Wawa gods will hear our pleas and make the options available year round — I know I could sure use a birthday cake milkshake on my next road trip down 95. Happy birthday, Wawa, from all of superfans nationwide.
