Being a basketball parent means spending an extraordinary amount of time in the car.
You drive to practices.
You drive to games.
You drive to tournaments.
And sometimes you drive six hours home after your child’s final game ends late on a Sunday evening.
Eventually, one thing becomes unavoidable:
Everybody gets hungry.
After enough basketball road trips, every family develops its favorite stops.
These aren’t necessarily the healthiest restaurants.
They aren’t always the finest examples of American cuisine.
And I’m certainly not suggesting that parents build their children’s nutritional plans around this list.
These are road-trip guilty pleasures.
There is a difference.
Over the years, our family accumulated a few favorites that somehow became part of the basketball-travel experience.
So, after extensive research involving thousands of highway miles, countless tournaments, and absolutely no consultation with a registered dietitian, here are my top five.
1. Popeyes
A number of years ago, I started hearing people claim that Popeyes had created one of the best chicken sandwiches in America.
At the time, there wasn’t a Popeyes conveniently located near our home, so I had never tried one.
Then my daughter Grace had a basketball scrimmage in Madison.
On the drive home, we spotted a Popeyes and decided it was finally time to conduct some serious research.
I ordered the spicy chicken sandwich.
No pickles.
One bite later, I understood the hype.
It was fantastic.
From that point forward, Popeyes became one of those restaurants our family would actively look for during longer basketball trips.
And that is an important distinction.
Some restaurants are places you stop because they’re conveniently located beside the highway.
Popeyes became a place we occasionally adjusted the route to find.
That earns the No. 1 position.
2. Penn Station East Coast Subs
Penn Station became another restaurant we learned to seek out while traveling.
The sandwiches are excellent.
But I have to be truthful:
The fries may be the real reason I stop.
Fresh-cut fries have a special ability to destroy whatever good nutritional intentions you may have had five minutes before entering the restaurant.
My go-to sandwich has always been the Classic Italian.
A good sub.
Fresh fries.
Cold drink.
Back on the road.
Simple.
Effective.
If you come across a Penn Station during a basketball trip and have never tried one, give it a chance.
Chet-approved?
Apparently we’re going there now.
3. Taco Bell
Taco Bell earns its spot primarily because of one important quality:
Efficiency.
Imagine the situation.
Your daughter’s team just finished the last game of the tournament.
It’s late.
You still have several hours of driving ahead of you.
The vehicle contains multiple hungry teenagers.
Everyone wants something different.
This is where Taco Bell becomes valuable.
You can order a pile of tacos, distribute them throughout the vehicle, and be back on the highway before anyone has enough time to complain about where you’re eating.
There is also something oddly satisfying about handing a back seat full of basketball players a giant bag of tacos after they’ve spent an entire weekend running up and down the court.
Is this ideal sports nutrition?
Probably not.
Does it occasionally feel like the greatest meal anyone has ever eaten?
Absolutely.
Context matters.
4. Culver’s
As a Wisconsin basketball family, leaving Culver’s off this list would probably result in my citizenship being reviewed.
We have stopped there countless times during sports trips.
Part of the tradition came from Grandma Judy.
She always seemed to have a coupon tucked somewhere inside her purse.
I don’t know where she found them.
I don’t know how long they had been there.
But somehow, when Culver’s appeared on the horizon, Grandma Judy was prepared.
The ButterBurgers and fries are certainly good.
But let’s not fool ourselves.
The real attraction is the frozen custard.
Hot-fudge sundae.
Flavor of the Day.
Concrete Mixer.
After spending eight hours inside a basketball gym, frozen custard has an amazing ability to make the world seem like a better place.
Culver’s is almost always a crowd-pleaser.
5. McDonald’s
I can already hear the objections.
McDonald’s?
On a list of favorite restaurants?
Hear me out.
This is not a ranking of fine dining.
This is a basketball road-trip survival list.
And sometimes McDonald’s is exactly what the situation requires.
They’re everywhere.
The food comes quickly.
Everyone can usually find something they’ll eat.
And when it’s extremely late and you still have hours of driving ahead of you, those qualities become incredibly valuable.
I remember driving home through the night after a tournament in Des Moines.
Sometime around 2:00 in the morning, we found a McDonald’s.
We ordered two 20-piece boxes of Chicken McNuggets.
Was this the healthiest meal I have ever served my family?
No.
Did those Chicken McNuggets taste absolutely magnificent at 2:00 in the morning after a basketball tournament?
Yes.
Very much yes.
That is the magic of the road trip.
Food that might seem ordinary at noon can become spectacular when you are exhausted, hungry, and still several hours from home.
The Food Becomes Part of the Memory
Looking back, I don’t necessarily remember every score from every basketball tournament.
I don’t remember every hotel.
I don’t remember every gym.
But strangely, I remember many of the stops along the way.
The Popeyes after Madison.
The late-night tacos.
Grandma Judy magically producing another Culver’s coupon.
Chicken McNuggets at 2:00 in the morning somewhere between Iowa and home.
Those moments became part of the basketball journey.
As parents, we spend a lot of time focused on what happens during the games.
But some of the memories our children—and we—carry with us happen between the games.
They happen in hotel rooms.
At gas stations.
Inside restaurants.
And during long drives when everybody is tired, laughing, arguing about music, and asking:
“How much longer until we get home?”
So that’s my list:
- Popeyes
- Penn Station East Coast Subs
- Taco Bell
- Culver’s
- McDonald’s
Where did I get it wrong?
I’m sure somebody has a strong opinion about this.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from basketball parents, it’s that we are rarely short on opinions.
Thanks for reading Youth Basketball Parent. And the next time you’re six hours from home after a Sunday tournament, remember:
Sometimes the meal isn’t really about the food.
It’s part of the story.