Rick Garcia, Dustin Hayre and Jason Campbell crushing it like craft-swilling Quints in the Upsala Grocery parking lot. The small convenience store is home to a surprisingly creative breakfast and lunch operation and stocks more than 400 indie craft brews. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

It’s the sort of place you go to grab vape juice, a lottery ticket and some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Maybe that coffee creamer you forgot to grab at Publix. You can get all these things at Sanford’s Upsala Grocery, which is about as unassuming a neighborhood convenience store as could be.

Until you stumble into craft beer Narnia.

Hidden in the back two rows, past the jerky and snack cakes and instant michelada in a pre-rimmed cup (we bought one), customers pass through the looking glass to a place where unicorns and wizards and the lyrics to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” are distilled into the new-era art of craft beer labels, which line the shelves with OCD-level precision. Cylindrical soldiers stand at attention, their uniforms a riot of color.

Stroll past a couple of aisles of grocery-store mainstays and BOOM! The explosion of colorful craft beer labels feels like walking into wonderland. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

I watch as Jason Campbell’s pupils dilate.

“Well,” he says, “I guess I’m leaving here with $40 worth of beer.”

Campbell is the award-winning executive chef of Luke’s Kitchen + Bar in Maitland, but also a Bithlo native with a penchant for old cars and junk food — much of the latter found on extended road trips in random shops just like this one.

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“These places are great for weird treasures,” he says. “And look at that cool little kitchen!”

It’s precisely the reason I assembled this Ocean’s 11-style crew: Campbell, his classic car ride-or-die, Dustin Hayre and high school buddy, “Big Rick” Garcia, a spicy food fan who tipped me off to Upsala’s surprisingly creative eats.

This includes a Philly cheesesteak ($7.99/$10.99) that put them on the map, popular specials like cream cheese-jalapeño grilled cheese and a French toast so popular they had to make it Saturday mornings only to allow for adequate real estate on the tiny flat-top ($7.99).

It's a convenience store, not a restaurant. Which means there are no tables. Of course, few things are more car-convenient than a breakfast burrito. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

Unfortunately, the counter was closed when we showed up. So, we did the most Florida thing possible at 10 a.m. on a bank-holiday Monday. We assembled a collection of beer on the hood of Hayre’s 1990 Dodge Ramcharger and crushed a few in the parking lot.

Owner Jay Patel was unaware of our redneck shenanigans. This is my formal apology.

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Patel has owned the grocery for eight years, but it was four years ago when his love of craft beer began transforming this small outpost into a destination for fellow enthusiasts. These days, people as far away as Tampa and Jacksonville pop in for sours, stouts and Patel’s favored IPAs.

Upsala has more than 400 craft beers in stock at any given time and 30 new ones each week on average.

“Always something we’ve never had before,” says Patel, who on all my visits (I’d run recon earlier) asked if I needed help or was looking for anything in particular. The latter is what helped this modest market grow.

With subjects this pretty, you have to take a snap. That Hourglass smoothie seltzer was perfect in the Florida heat. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

“We started with three different craft beers and little by little, customers would request things. One by one, we’d bring these in and eventually we created social media accounts and started posting to local beer groups. More people came, and the word just started spreading.”

One of my parking lot pals tried the chicken tikka masala sandwich and immediately ran in to order another. It happens often, says Upsala owner Jay Patel. Extra fresh jalapeños will make the heat to go 11. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

I, too, heard about Upsala from a beer guy. Garcia, who reps DeBary’s Central 28 Beer Company (I spied their stellar Sunshine Greetings in the fridge), knew I was hunting for spicy sandos and informed me of a handheld called the Will Smith. “Because it slaps you in the face,” he said. I was amused.

But when Garcia learned the item was off the menu, he texted an intriguing alternative: the spicy chicken tikka masala sandwich ($10.99). With a new grail to seek, I made the pilgrimage.

Incredibly crisp, the juicy fried breast is packed into a soft roll with lettuce, tomato, onion and crunchy-potent fresh jalapeño slices, then doused with flavorful sauce. The crunch enjoyed on my car bite remained after a 20-minute ride home.

The Big B burrito features rice, beans, beggies and fried chicken that stays miraculously crispy — even when doused in four house-made sauces. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

I sampled a tasty sausage breakfast burrito, too ($7.99). And while I don’t encourage eating while driving, I will offer that this is an incredibly lap-safe option if you’re going to do it, anyway.

Do not attempt this with the Big B ($14.99), however, which even veteran eaters like Garcia and Campbell puzzled over on our subsequent visit.

“I’m not sure how to attack this,” Garcia said.

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It’s packed with that same crisp chicken — chopped, along with rice, beans, onions and peppers, its insides smothered in four housemade sauces that still can’t kill its mystical crunch.

We grabbed another tikka masala, too. Validation was swift.

“Holy crap, this is good!” said Hayre, who literally jogged inside to order another.

“It’s really thoughtful,” Campbell said, noting that everything in our haul was cooked fresh to order. “They’re risking a lot doing fresh food, because then people have to wait — but then, guess what? You can go cruise an awesome beer aisle and fridge while you do it.”

The Upsala Grocery crew (left to right): employee Justin Kumar, partners Nilesh Patel and Jay Patel and "Kitchen Queen" Tati Garcia. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

“Down the road, there are companies and factories,” says Patel. “Customers would ask us to get more into lunch, so we added a few sandwiches and people liked them, so we kept adding more.”

Tati Garcia’s been working at Upsala about two years, assembling the sandos and wraps that Patel dreams up when he’s hungry and experimenting — like that tikka masala number.

None more Orlando: Bithlo native chef Jason Campbell shows off the Freehand Goods in the Upsala Grocery parking lot. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

“I made it and Tati had some and had me make her a whole sandwich,” he laughs, remembering the busy Friday it came together. “There were two regular customers and I said, ‘Hey, guys, wanna try something?’ and they were like, ‘Can we get four?’

Patel’s crispy-chicken secret involves a multi-ingredient dredge and a batter that includes carbonation. The back two aisles, of course, are full of it, and in addition to sandwiches like the gooey, grilled Drooling ($6.99) with Swiss, cheddar, bacon and chipotle mayo I never guessed I’d like on a grilled cheese (“Just call it aioli!” Campbell joked in the parking lot.), Patel really loves slinging the suds.

So much, in fact, that Upsala recently enjoyed a collaboration with Prison Pals, a Doral-based brewery that was having trouble breaking into the Central Florida market.

“We were the only place that supported them,” he says. “Our customers were posting about the beer. Finally, other shops caught on.”

Patel helped choose the hops for the “Marco Said Not Too Hazy” IPA, for which Upsala gets can billing. They’ve got another coming out soon, as well.

Cuban sandwich cross-section. Good stuff. "You can see the food here is really made with care," says Jason Campbell, executive chef of Luke's Kitchen + Bar. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

Scarfing a Cuban outside, Campbell offers another nod, though we were sad to miss the fried gizzards. Patel was out.

“You don’t think you can get fresh food at these kinds of places,” he says, “but so many of them are really proud of what they have. This is a 10 out of 10 Florida experience… We’re not going to the theme parks. We’re going on a true adventure.”

Upsala Grocery: 300 Upsala Road in Sanford, 407-330-2000; facebook.com/upsalagrocery; instagram.com/upsalagrocery

Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group or follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.