Roads that smell like food

[Brandon]

Interstates and food?

Well, on I-55, you can smell what smells like French Fries near the Bolingbrook weigh stations (about mp 265).

[JakeFromNewEngland]

Interstates and food?

Well, on I-55, you can smell what smells like French Fries near the Bolingbrook weigh stations (about mp 265).

I've heard rumors about smelling Hershey's chocolate from the factory itself on I-81. Must be if the winds are right. 

[US71]

Interstates and food?

Well, on I-55, you can smell what smells like French Fries near the Bolingbrook weigh stations (about mp 265).

On I-540 near Van Buren, AR you can smell what smells like seasoned potato wedges (aka "Tater babies").  Ashdown, AR smells like cheap sauerkraut.

[hbelkins]

It's definitely not an interstate, but you can smell Pop-Tarts along KY 194 in Pike County because Kellogg's has a bakery there.

[algorerhythms]

Along WI 113 in Madison, you can smell Oscar Meyer hot dogs as you pass by the factory that makes them.

[myosh_tino]

The smell of garlic is quite prevalent along CA-152 heading east out of Gilroy.

[Tom958]

Years ago on Usenet, there was a discussion over whether it was better to use express buses or BART when commuting into SF from the East Bay. One poster preferred the express buses because they passed a coffee roasting facility.

[formulanone]

I-380 in Cedar Rapids has a General Mills (?) cereal plant right along side of it. Sometimes it smelled slightly sweet, sometimes nondescript, one time it smelled like burnt oats.

Late February-Early March in Florida's citrus regions have a lovely orange blossom smell if you put the windows down. US 27 would be a good place to start, but some of the former secondaries are much closer to orange groves.

I recall much of Hershey, PA having a whiff of chocolate. I haven't been there since I was eight, so I couldn't tell you which roads they were.

I have no idea if the roads themselves taste better than others, but...

[1995hoo]

The New Jersey Turnpike from Exit 12 to Exit 14 smells like the kitchen in the school cafeterias when I was a kid. 

[Mr_Northside]

If you're on I-279 with the windows down passing PNC Park when there is a Pirates game, you can often smell the food they sell....
Same goes for I-279 and PA-65/Ohio River Blvd. passing all the parking lots with tailgaters for Steeler games / big concerts.

[DaBigE]

Along WI 113 in Madison, you can smell Oscar Meyer hot dogs as you pass by the factory that makes them.

Interesting...I must take that route at the wrong times. I have a very sensitive sense of smell and have never smelt hot dogs when driving by.

US 151, however, around the intersection of Wright St/Fair Oaks Ave in Madison, you can always smell bread from the Gardner's Bakery. If the wind is blowing I can sometimes smell it from as far away as US 51 or Wis 30.

[algorerhythms]

I've only been there once and the taxi driver pointed it out as we drove by, so it may have just been the power of suggestion...

[Pete from Boston]

The New Jersey Turnpike from Exit 12 to Exit 14 smells like the kitchen in the school cafeterias when I was a kid. 

Last Sunday it smelled like BABY POO.  It is fascinating how the heat and wind mold and grow new aromas from the raw ingredients. 

Until the late 1990s, the western end of NY 59 in the Suffern/Hillburn area smelled like dog food most of the time thanks to the Hi-Tor cannery there.

I'm not sure what happened to all the Hostess parts, but years ago I remember the aroma of Wonder Bread when passing the Continental Baking Company around Greenwich, CT, on the Connecticut Turnpike.  I don't notice it these days.

It's not food, but as the Yankee Candle operation has exploded off I-91 in Deerfield, MA, over the last twenty-odd years, it's become ever more impossible to avoid the insidious perfume of a hundred mixed candle scents even with the windows closed while passing at 65mph.

[Scott5114]

OK-9 between Chautauqua and Jenkins in Norman smells of poo sometimes due to a sewage treatment plant (hey, it was all food at one point).

[US71]

OK-9 between Chautauqua and Jenkins in Norman smells of poo sometimes due to a sewage treatment plant (hey, it was all food at one point).

Harrisonville, MO has an intersection with Hwy No 2 and Clearwater Dr (which goes to the sewer plant)

[Zeffy]

Harrisonville, MO has an intersection with Hwy No 2 and Clearwater Dr (which goes to the sewer plant)

Oh, the irony.

[JakeFromNewEngland]

Harrisonville, MO has an intersection with Hwy No 2 and Clearwater Dr (which goes to the sewer plant)

Oh, the irony.

NY Route 9N passes by a waste treatment plant in Crown Point, NY. I feel your pain.

[algorerhythms]

OK-9 between Chautauqua and Jenkins in Norman smells of poo sometimes due to a sewage treatment plant (hey, it was all food at one point).

When the wind is out of the south (like it often is in the summer), that smell can drift past Imhoff.

[hbelkins]

On humid days, the smell of the Buffalo Trace Distillery can overtake downtown Frankfort, Ky. The whole valley (US 421 and US 127 pass by the facility) smells like sour mash.

[1995hoo]

The New Jersey Turnpike from Exit 12 to Exit 14 smells like the kitchen in the school cafeterias when I was a kid. 

Last Sunday it smelled like BABY POO.  It is fascinating how the heat and wind mold and grow new aromas from the raw ingredients. 

....

Car and Driver once memorably, and quite aptly, described it as "miles and miles of universal fart."

Thirteen years ago today (6 July 2001), my brother gave me a lift to Brooklyn so I could bring home some furniture my relatives were giving me (I'd just moved into the house where I still live the previous weekend). As much as I appreciated the ride and the help, I still grouse about his idiotic insistence on keeping the windows down even over the Goethals Bridge instead of using the AC. We got stuck in stopped traffic on the bridge. Aside from a time in my 20s when being drunk did me in, I've never come so close to puking out the car window. The stench of North Jersey that day was overwhelming. It made a chemical outhouse smell like a gourmet restaurant!

[Roadrunner75]

US 222 at the northern end of the Reading (PA) bypass near Blandon runs right by Giorgio mushroom growing buildings.  You can smell that place from a good distance.

[Beeper1]

I-395 in Killingly CT often smells like potato chips near Exit 94 as it passes by a Frito-Lay production facility.

[theline]

In the summer, US-31/20 on the southwest side of South Bend smells like your favorite mint-flavored food of any description. The mint farm is refreshingly fragrant.

[mcdonaat]

I-10's bridge in Baton Rouge smells like freshly roasted coffee on the Port Allen side (west side of the river). The Community Coffee plant is next to the bridge, and the mornings are supposedly when they do the dark roast. Good way to wake up!

[US81]

There are (or at least, used to be) a bakery and a brewery essentially side-by-side on I-35W south of Ft. Worth. It was sometimes an interesting mix of smells.