Truck Drivers and other good eats

As hamburger po-boys go, the Truck Driver at Owens’ Grocery is a juicy, well-stacked nod to nostalgia and flavor. Between the bread slices, the hand-formed, seasoned beef patty, gooey American cheese, grilled onions and peppers, sliced tomato, pickles, ketchup, mayo and a requisite leaf of iceberg lettuce all have melted agreeably into one another. The result is burger harmony, and lots of it. The matron of this massive sandwich is the delicate Cynthia Owens Green, a sweet-faced, 61-year-old proprietress who serves family recipes from a ramshackle outpost under the radar of most locals. The word, however, is getting out about both Green’s cooking and the legacy of this intrepid grocery-restaurant. Green’s parents, David and Emma Owens, opened the store in Valley Park in 1938, after he retired from the mailroom at then-Standard Oil. Originally, Owens’ was a filling station and hardware store, where residents from Valley Park bought nails and dry goods, gassed up vehicles and picked up meals prepared by “Miss Emma.” Green and her husband took over from her parents in 1979 and have perpetuated the grocery’s reputation for satisfying blue-plate specials and neighborhood loyalty. Seventy-three years later, it still stands. Click here to find out more about Owens and her longstanding lunch counter.—Maggie Heyn Richardson