Wyoming's Best Indian Food Comes From a Punjabi Truck Stop
On a gray, windswept January afternoon, the air inside Akal Travel Center smells like sizzling garlic and warm curry. Ediquis Brown has just pulled his rig off Interstate 80 at this 24-hour truck stop on Wyoming's high plains, about 20 miles from downtown Laramie. He strides past shelves of candy bars and roadside trinkets to the checkout counter, where he orders his usual without glancing at the faded whiteboard menu: tandoori chicken, garlic naan, one mango lassi, two cups of creamy chai.
Brown, who's based in Fort Lauderdale, makes the cross-country haul in his 18-wheeler every week, often logging 11-hour shifts and eating meals behind the wheel to keep his schedule tight. He's one of dozens of drivers who stop at Akal daily for house-made naan with a perfect char, rich butter chicken, and biryani studded with carrots and peas.
"We draw people in with the cheapest diesel—and keep them with the food," says Gurjot Singh, who's managed the truck stop since 2014, two years after owners Mintu Pandher and his wife, Amandeep, purchased the property. All 10 employees relocated from Punjab in northwest India and now live in a housing complex behind the station.
In Wyoming, where Asian residents make up less than 2% of the population, Akal stands out as an uncommon outpost of Indian cuisine and culture along the I-80 corridor—a Punjabi kitchen operating alongside diesel pumps and truck parking. The facility even includes a Sikh gurdwara, open to staff and travelers alike for prayer and worship.
In the wood-paneled dining room with its four tables, Brown chats with Anthony Masonar, another long-haul driver waiting at the pickup window. Both stop at Akal two to four times monthly, drawn by more than just fuel. They describe the hot Indian meals as a welcome departure from the fast-food chains that line most rural highways. It's become something of a ritual—a place where food simmers slowly, a rarity this close to the interstate. "I don't like Wendy's," Brown says plainly. "This is my spot. A place to get good fresh food."
