photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A new Kwik Shop, with a pair of fast food restaurants attached, is under construction at 25th and Iowa streets in Lawrence.

No, south Iowa Street won’t soon have a mall, but it soon will have mall pizza. Sbarro — the New York-style pizza chain that is found in many a mall food court — is coming to 25th and Iowa streets next month. For good measure, a Burger King also is going in next door to Sbarro.

Both will be inside the biggest, newest convenience store in Lawrence. As we reported all the way back in August of 2020, the parent company of Kwik Shop filed plans to tear down the entire shopping center at the northwest corner of 25th and Iowa streets to make way for a new convenience store.

But those plans back in August 2020 didn’t specify that the convenience store also would include space for new fast food restaurants. But in recent days, signs have gone up on the building, and a representative for the convenience store chain EG America told me the gas station/convenience store part of the business is expected to open by mid-May.

If you want some New York-style pizza, though, you are going to have to wait a bit longer. The Sbarro likely won’t open until late June, as the development is still awaiting arrival of the pizza ovens. The Burger King, which will be the first Burger King on Iowa Street, is expected to be open by late May.

Kwik Shop is the largest convenience store chain in Lawrence, but this store will be the first new Kwik Shop in Lawrence since EG America bought the chain from Kroger, the grocery chain that owns Dillons. Apparently, EG America believes in going big with its stores. Plans call for the store to be 8,300 square feet. For comparison purposes, the large new Casey’s convenience store just west of 31st and Iowa streets is about 5,700 square feet. Now that we know the new Kwik Shop will have a couple of restaurants inside it, the size makes more sense.

Expect the two restaurants to have a handful of tables for in-person dining but a heavy emphasis on to-go orders. The Burger King will have a drive-thru, but the Sbarro won’t, according to a manager who was staffing the hiring office that EG America has set up near the site.

The location will be the first in Lawrence for Sbarro. If you aren’t familiar with Sbarro, that means you must spend all your mall time at the Orange Julius station or the Sunglass Hut. Sbarro is a staple of fine mall cuisine. It keeps its menu pretty simple with a huge slice of thin, New York-style pepperoni pizza being its signature dish. It sells all of its pizzas by the slice.

The company’s roots really do go back to New York — it opened a single Brooklyn shop in 1956 — and it uses a certain amount of New York attitude to promote a certain way that you are supposed to eat a traditional New York slice. You fold it.

The restaurant’s newest thing seems to be that folding the slice creates a perfect pocket for a less traditional offering: hot honey sauce. The company recently has begun offering a sauce of honey, chili pepper flakes and vinegar as a condiment for its pizza and breadsticks.

The addition of Mike’s Hot Honey — that’s the brand name of the Brooklyn-based honey sauce company — counts as a big innovation for Sbarro. (In fairness, it was not easy to make my wife even less excited about me bringing pizza into her car, but honey sauce did the trick.) The restaurant keeps everything else pretty simple. In addition to the pepperoni pizza, it also offers a sausage pizza, a supreme pizza and a white cheese and a traditional cheese pizza. That’s it for the New York-style offerings, although the restaurant does offer some pastas and stromboli.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The Kwik Shop under construction at 25th and Iowa streets will be one of the largest convenience stores in Lawrence once it opens this month.

In terms of the convenience store itself, look for 10 fueling stations. I don’t have a lot of other details from the company about the Lawrence store, but EG America recently opened what appears to be a very similar store in Park City. Information about that store said the convenience store offers curbside pick-up for many of its orders. So, keep an eye out for that offering here.

It also will be interesting to watch whether EG America seeks to expand or rebuild some of its other Kwik Shop locations in Lawrence, some of which are pretty old. If so, there may be some other new food brands coming to town. According to several industry publications, EG America really likes the concept of adding fast food restaurants to its stores. News of the Park City store caught my eye because it included another mall favorite: a Cinnabon bake shop.

Maybe Lawrence will get a mall food court after all.