While convenience stores are necessary for picking up, well, necessities, they’ve never exactly qualified as dining destinations. Until now, that is: Uptown Denver’s new Choice Market aims to offer a healthy, high-quality alternative to typical convenience shopping.

Choice owner and Philly native, Mike Fogarty, took inspiration from the customizable fresh food options at popular northeastern chain, Wawa’s. There, one can order a quick, made-fresh-to-order meal—via kiosk—24/7. Fogarty loved Wawa’s grab-and-go style of service, but wanted to go a step further in order to incorporate modern consumer tastes: healthy, organic, local. Enter Choice Market.

The result is like a mashup of a small-town convenience store, an organic cafe, and a produce shop. When you enter, look up—you’ll notice the extensive menu of made-to-order sandwiches, flatbread, bowls, salads, and sides, as well as a gorgeous Colorado flag mural painted by Denver artist, Pat McKinney. All meals can be taken on the go or enjoyed in the small dining area.

One of the standouts from that menu is the local meatball sandwich. The meatballs are made with a trifecta of meats (Tender Belly Pork, Alpine Ridge beef, and Polidori sausage) and are piled into a hoagie roll with marinara sauce, sunflower seed-basil pesto, and Fruition Farms ricotta cheese. For a lighter option, order the quinoa black bean salad, made with red onion, roasted corn, red bell pepper, cilantro, and a chile-lime vinaigrette. Both are a far cry from the hyper-processed, prepackaged food you’d typically associate with a gas station.

Photo by Choice Market

The convenience store is also stocked with gourmet grocery items, fresh produce, and basic necessities, many of which are local and/or organic (think hummus from Blue Moose of Boulder and Rosenberg’s Bagels).

Of course, any locally minded Denver establishment would not be complete without craft beer. Choice has you covered, with eight beer taps serving a rotating cast of the city’s best suds. Bonus: You can even purchase a growler to take home with you. Now that’s the sort of convenience that Mile High City residents can get behind.

1770 N. Broadway, 720-459-7233