Co-owners Vamsi Yaramaka (left) and Raj Alturu stand inside Eat Spice in October 2019, in the truck stop on Route 534 off I-80 in White Haven, Pa. Indian and Mediterranean dishes like theirs can be hard to find on the road.
Whenever I want to share something I read about before Covid, I do a search to see if it is still relevant or if a featured company is still in business. That is how I learned that the truck stop National Public Radio reported on before lockdown — a restaurant that was catering to Sikh and Somali truck drivers — had been discovered by lots of other motorists.
Here’s what Laura Beshoff had to say about the restaurant in January 2020. “Truck driver Aman Singh, 30, must traverse the 660 miles from northeastern Pennsylvania to Louisville, Ky., on an overnight drive. Before he saddles up for the long haul, he settles into a booth at Eat Spice, a truck stop/Indian restaurant off I-80 in Luzerne County, Pa., with a plate of chicken curry and a stack of roti. …
“Eat Spice caters to a unique intersection: where rural America meets an increasingly diverse cadre of truckers looking for a taste of home as they jockey between warehouses and retail outlets.
“Located in White Haven, Pa., population 1,100, the truck stop has a clientele that’s more likely to hail from immigrant enclaves in Ohio and Michigan than the surrounding town, which is 96% white. Here, the cooler of live bait coexists with the carafe of homemade chai. In the fridge, there’s both Red Bull and mango lassi. Your choice.
“Sam Singh, 27, drives between Flint, Mich., and northern New Jersey every other day. He stops at Eat Spice for meals during nearly every 10- to 12-hour trip.
” ‘We like Eat Spice. Everything [is] Indian food,’ says Singh, listing his favorites. ‘Chicken biryani, goat biryani, chicken saag, butter chicken, egg bhurji, paneer something. Everything.’ …
“While the average trucker is a 46-year-old white male, a growing proportion of drivers younger than 35 are women, Latinx or from another country. Immigrants from northern and western India, such as Singh, have flocked to the trucking industry.
“Many of the early adopters follow Sikhism and came in the late 1980s after fleeing ethnic violence in India, according to Gurinder Singh Khalsa, a Sikh community activist in Indiana.
” ‘They came out of the country to save their lives,’ he said, often fleeing before being able to go to college or acquire job skills.
“Devout Sikhs may wear their hair long and wrapped in a turban, a look that was not always welcome on U.S. job sites, according to Khalsa. … So many turned to trucking. …
“Pay is another draw. Somali driver Farhan Warsame says he makes significantly more driving his own rig now than he did in his old job, working warehouses in Kentucky.
” ‘I make a week, the money I used to make before… [in] a whole month,’ he says. ‘I make $1,200.’ …
“Steve Emery, who’s white, is another regular at Eat Spice. The 62-year-old trucker wears a Van Halen T-shirt and stands by the counter. He’s hungry after hauling a load of retail clothing from Akron, Ohio, to New Jersey.
” ‘I kind of had a taste for tuna today, but they didn’t have it, so I went back to the old faithful,’ he says, selecting a meatball sub from the ‘American’ portion of the menu. Emery has tried the biryani and says he liked it, but chose his comfort foods this visit.
“Eat Spice owner Raj Alturu, who lives in Allentown, Pa., says he wants his business to be inclusive of everyone’s appetites. When he and his business partner, Vamsi Yaramaka, bought the restaurant/gas station/snack shop about seven years ago, it served sandwiches. …
” ‘We’re trying to update [the] menu when we get requests from customers,’ says Alturu. ‘Once people hit the road, it can be a day or two before they get home. … At least like once a day or once every two days, you want to have the food you are accustomed to.’
“Take the spaghetti chicken curry. It’s based on a Somali dish that a regular customer asked for. A few minutes later, that regular walks in. Yousuf Dahar, 31, lives in Hopkins, Minn., and was born in Ethiopia to Somali parents. …
“Sean Yazici, who lives in Indiana, is an immigrant who has embraced the classic trucker look. He sports a cowboy hat, boots and a belt buckle the size of a saucer. A first-timer at Eat Spice, he is excited about the shish kebab. ‘I’m from another country, Turkey,’ says Yazici. For him, finding Mediterranean food at a truck stop feels like hitting the lottery.”
More at NPR, here. Some 2021 reviews of the restaurant are here.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I imagine the Sikh and Somali drivers love visiting here. There’s nothing like the taste of home.
I know. I love that they found it in such an unlikely part of America. Astute of the restaurateurs to choose a highway!
Not just for truckers is right!
Food on interstate highways is usually so bad. Nice to know there is some variety.
Yes!