Following a deputy’s advice leads to the best fried chicken in Lillington at JR’s Food Mart

A sheriff deputy’s parked car turned out to be a serendipitous moment because the law knows where to find the best food. He rolled down his window and answered the question, “Where’s the best Mom and Pop restauauant in town?” The deputy said to turn around and go to the gas station.

JR’s Food Mart is in the Exxon gas station at 920 S. Main Street and had a ring of vehicles parked around it at about 10:40 on Friday, July 11.

Biscuits and fried chicken glowed under a heating lamp as customers lined up to place orders.

“Best biscuits. Perty good. Come here every morning before work,” Temple Grading and Construction employee Jayson Plummer said.

“Best bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits, always slightly different, sometimes fluffier. I can tell it’s homemade. Home-y kind of place locals go to,” Lillington school groundskeeper Zeke Manhel said.

JR’s employees, Freda and Shannon, rushed orders to hungry customers, and they rushed out with smiles and paper sacks filled with fried chicken and biscuit boxes.

Seated in a booth, a man finished his breakfast plate with eggs, grits, and breakfast meat.

“I come up here for dialysis treatment,” Leroy Judd said about his travels from Broadway. “The food is superb. It’s the only reason I’m here.”

While customers mentioned biscuits as their favorite, cooks slid boxes of fried chicken into sacks.

A former commitment prevented eating the piping hot fried chicken right away, but even thirty minutes later, the drumstick proved the law was right. JR’s fried chicken was worth a drive to Lillington.

Even more amazing, three hours later, at home with the box, the chicken breast remained moist and not greasy. This means JR’s chicken box is the lunch for your kayaking trip down the Cape Fear River or your next date at the park.

July 11, 2025

Stephanie M. Sellers