- Good morning.

Sweet tea?

Everything good, guys?

- Yes ma'am.

- Yes ma'am.

- [Michael] Josephine has been working at the cafe on and off since back in the '70s.

She's here at 5:00 AM getting the biscuits ready and the gravy ready.

(soft upbeat music) - So we open the store every day no matter what.

(soft upbeat music) We are here 17 years now.

It's never closed one a day or one hour late.

Never.

(soft upbeat music) - To be open early really shows the community that we're here for them.

It's a place they can come.

It's a place they know.

I hope that they remember that we were always here for them.

(traffic whooshing) - So we're in the mountains of western North Carolina in a community called Waynesville, where we are headed to a gas station called Sorrells.

In the south, we're a very car-centric culture.

We are largely a rural region, so in a lot of areas, the only commercial enterprise for many miles might be the gas station.

Beautiful.

(camera clicking) Surrounded by snacks.

- [Michael] It's not a 40 hour a week job.

You live with it, you eat with it, you sleep with it.

You gotta love it, really.

- [Kate] In my work as a photojournalist, I'm often traveling to communities across the south that are not my own.

And when it's time for lunch, when we need a snack, our options are the local fast food or the gas station grill.

And in my experience, the gas station grill wins a million times over.

- [Michael] I think the cafe provides to people a little sense of home.

People are familiar, they feel welcome.

- I can come to this restaurant where I come six days a week and I know everybody who works here.

- Talking about sports and what we're gonna do today and medical conditions.

Yeah, it's a big part of my life.

- I might do a couple other pictures of y'all just visiting, if that's okay, okay.

(soft upbeat music) To find a place like Sorrells in Waynesville, North Carolina, still in existence and also thriving, after, you know, 60 years, it's quite remarkable.

I think it deserves to be documented and celebrated.

(indistinct chatter) (soft upbeat music) All right, so you come together.

Looking sweet, act like you love each other.

Love that.

Beautiful.

- A little higher.

- As we are increasingly polarized in our society, we sort of self-segregate by way of our religion and politics and interests.

A gas station is one of the very few spaces that we all continue to pass through.

And so where better to get a lens on the diversity of this place, the ways that our politics are changing, the ways our priorities are changing, than to document the gas station?

Today across the country, the majority of gas stations are owned by immigrants.

You're seeing food from all over the world popping up in these humble spaces that exist in every community throughout the south.

We're in central North Carolina, headed down to Calvander Food Mart, where we're gonna meet Manesh and Manisha Patel.

- When we bought the store, we keep the menu same.

Whatever the old owner has it.

Hot dogs and hamburgers and chicken.

- Two hot dogs, mustard, chili, and sauce.

All right, you have a good day.

- My first day in Calvander, I had no clue about bacon, sausage.

I'm a vegetarian person and I'm working on here and I was like a student.

I was taking my book and my pen.

The old owner, she was teaching me so many things.

I know now how to handle any kind of meat and vegetables and any food.

(soft upbeat music) - I'm just gonna do a portrait of the two of you, like in your traditional workspace.

Okay, great.

- [Manisha] Some customers comes and ask me, "Do you have any vegetarian?"

I say, "Oh, my friend, I'm sorry.

I do not have it."

My mother-in-law say, "Why you not serving samosa?"

I say, "Yes, mama, you tell me right.

Let me do that."

This is my mother-in-law's recipes.

It's the best recipe.

- [Kate] These are fresh out of the fryer.

- Fryer.

Yes, yes, yes.

- Whew.

Mm.

So good.

- This place is important for all kind of people.

They come here, they talk, they feel so comfortable with us and we are here for the long time.

So now it's not like a customer, but like as a family, we feel like as a family.

- Okay.

- I do three mustards.

- Different communities, different peoples.

But the one common thing is, when they come here, they see each other.

We know each other for how long?

- For about 15, 16 years.

And this right here has been an icon for me ever since we've been coming 'cause this is our favorite eating spot.

- Is that all Steven?

- That's it, Miss Tammy.

- 13.16's your change.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- When we first opened up, it was common for service stations to have full auto repair offered.

Meaning tires, oil changes, and mechanic work.

But now you do not see that very much anywhere.

- These plugs right here?

- Yeah.

- One of 'em is compromised.

- Okay.

- It's really getting harder to do business as a small family business, a single horse show like me, we're not here anymore.

It's tough.

It's tough.

- [Kate] It's hard to operate an independently owned business when you have these much more well endowed chains coming through and popping up along the interstates.

- My dad opened the store in 1968 and I was 12 years old.

I got off the school bus, went home, changed my clothes, come down and let my dad go home.

My mom would fix dinner, he would eat.

He'd come back and let me go home and I'd eat and have my schoolwork and go to bed and start all over the next day.

I went off to college.

My father passed away suddenly and I decided that I needed to be back here.

- [Kate] It's incredible to me that you can go into these small towns and regardless of how much money you have or who you voted for for president or where you go to church or who's your family, you're all there congregated in the same space.

Maybe sharing the lunch counter, passing the ketchup, holding the door for one another.

- In India, like when we go to the America, it's a very big thing for us.

Like, "Oh, I'm going America."

And in 2008 we came here and we started our life here.

My brother, my husband, and me, we all are here.

So we have our different responsibilities.

My thing is life is up and downs come, but when you're together, everything's so easy.

(gentle acoustic music) - I am most proud that I was able to continue my dad's dream.

My parents were very good to me.

They gave me a lot.

Thank you.

Whatcha doing, buddy?

Come on.

Come over here.

Yeah, what are you doing?

Huh?

You wanna stay here?

Aw.

And because of this business, I was able to provide my family with more than what I was provided for.

(gentle acoustic music) (bottles clink) - This store has teach us so many things.

My kids also learn so many things from here also.

This store is, this store is everything for us, like, yeah.

(gentle acoustic music) - Okay.

- Hey.

- All right.

- There we go.

- [Michael] All right, see you tomorrow.

- See you tomorrow.

- Okay.