Boyertown is one of my favorite places in Berks County. I love the many attractions in town, like the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles, the Colebrookdale Railroad, and the new General Spaatz Museum. There are also some really cool stores like the Brickworks and their fill-a-bag with LEGOs area.
I could go on about all of the fun things to do in and around Boyertown. And I could also go on and on about all the great places to eat in town.
Located along Philadelphia Avenue, just a short walk from the Colebrookdale’s train station, Carmelo’s is your typical neighborhood pizza shop.
We visited in late May and found out that it was recently under new ownership. Walking in, the unassuming little shop made a strong first impression. The front order counter has a faux stone facade with the word “benvenuto” in script letters across the front.
There’s a small dining area, which wraps around to the side of the building. The space is illuminated by the light shining in through the large, uncurtained windows. Tables for two and four line the narrow space.
We grabbed a high chair and pulled it to our seat near the order counter beneath a television so Jakob could have something to watch. They were kind enough to find a kids’ movie to put on and so we watched the first 30 minutes or so of Babe during our meal.
To make life easier, we had decided on a pepperoni pizza to share. It was about a 20 minute wait before our pizza arrived on the table.
The first thing I noticed was the crust which was thicker than many others that we’ve tried. It was doughy, in a good way. It was cooked perfectly, not chewy, and had a nice crisp on the bottom without being burnt.
The cheese was bubbly and yellow, and there were plenty of pepperoni on top. It wasn’t anything special, but it was very enjoyable.
With our drinks, our total was around $25, a very reasonable price to feed our family.
We also found the staff to be incredibly accommodating throughout our visit – another reason why we love eating local.
And it’s why Carmelo’s will be a part of future visits to Boyertown, too.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Good Price: $
Carmelo’s Pizza & Italian Ice 116 E. Philadelphia Avenue Boyertown, PA 19512
In September, Julie and I made our first visit to the Black Sheep Tavern. As is the case with nearly all of our blogs, we went unannounced so we could get a true feel for the experience and the food. No special treatment. No free meals.
When the owners saw the review, they invited me in for a second visit to meet with them and to learn more about the history of the building. (And they did offer us a free meal this time).
So on a Sunday in early October, we drove out Fritztown Road once again, this time to meet with Darrell and Carol. From the first introduction, it was clear how much the tavern and its history means to them.
A Deep Connection
Darrell’s personal connection with the building goes back to his childhood. His father was a friend of the owner so he spent a lot of time during his childhood hanging out at what was then Die Scheier (“The Barn” in Pennsylvania Dutch).
Standing in the main dining room, he points to the patches of lighter color on the wood-paneled walls. A small strip by the bathroom door was where the pool cues hung. Photos of Italy hung in a row along the opposite wall. After the walls were cleaned, it left these small hints to old decor, the places where the wall protected from the cigarette smoke that filled the room decades ago.
Cleaning the space was no easy task, nor bringing the building back to life after 25 years of sitting vacant. Darrell said that it was 22 months from the time he bought the building until the Black Sheep opened in the spring of 2025.
And that doesn’t include the months it took just to get in touch with the right people about purchasing it. Spring Township had all but given up on finding someone to fix up the property and at first wouldn’t answer Darrell’s calls.
But thankfully they did because the owners have taken great care of the century-old property that served as a speakeasy 100 years ago.
The Original Speakeasy
While upstairs is a gorgeously remodeled bar and restaurant, the downstairs is where men gathered in secret to enjoy drinks and other illicit activities during prohibition. (The owners joke that in the 1920s, “it offered drinking, gambling, and prostitution but today it only offers two out of three, you decide which two”).
Back then, the property was owned by Ralph and Anna Riffert. They operated a legitimate business, as well, installing a gas pump to make it one of the only service stations along the stretch of Fritztown Road while Anna’s ham sandwiches drew in repeat customers. The Black Sheep upholds that tradition with Anna’s ham and cheese sandwich as a staple of the menu.
Darrell and Carol took us on a tour of the downstairs where the original bar still sits. According to Darrell, the last time the basement was used was during the 1970s, and that was only for band practice. It hadn’t served a drink for decades at that point.
The original wooden bar looked like it could use some TLC but otherwise had survived rather well. Behind it was the metal sink and a wooden back bar that was looking a little worse for wear.
A staircase on the right dead-ends now, hitting the floor of the dining room. A hidden door would have opened here 100 years ago, letting thirsty patrons downstairs to their true destination.
Attention to Detail, Rooted in Community
While the family is working to clean up and restore the downstairs, it won’t quite be original. That’s because much of the usable material from the basement was incorporated into the upstairs remodel. The original floorboards – the usable ones at least – are now the floor of the game room. The sink from the downstairs bathroom was also moved upstairs (the antiquated style required a variance). And wood panelling from the walls became the front of the upstairs bar.
Hearing Darrell talk about every detail, it’s clear how much he cares about the building. Restoring it has been a labor of love for Darrell, Carol, and Darrell’s 91-year-old father who has done much of the woodwork, including customizing the server stand by the kitchen door. The stand, which he cut from eight foot to six foot, came from the former American House which operated just up the road in Fritztown. (Darrell told me that the American House had its own hidden history as a stop on the Underground Railroad).
And the dining room tables? Look closely because they are made from the alleys of the former Berks Lanes, now Bowlero. The lanes were repurposed into tables for the bowling alley’s onsite restaurant then known as Gilligan’s Pub. The pub’s former cutting boards are also now serving as tables inside the Black Sheep.
The Black Sheep obviously takes pride in local history. That extends to Wilson High School where Darrell is an alumnus. (His father graduated from the former Sinking Spring High School). When they found out Julie was also a Wilson grad, they insisted that she sign the alumni book, an old black-and-white covered notebook where line after line of Wilson and Sinking Spring graduates have signed their name and year.
Another Fine Meal
The challenge for the restaurant and bar is to live up to the building’s rich history, and so far, they are succeeding. In addition to our tour, we also had another great meal.
It started with an order of sweet potato fries as an appetizer. Julie had tried them when she came with some work colleagues a few weeks prior, and they were very good. The waffle-cut fries were served with a sweet maple dipping sauce. It was almost like eating sweet potato pancakes.
Our meals came out a short while later. On our last visit, I had enjoyed the rumrunner burger but I wanted to switch it up this time. So I decided to try the Virginia Hill burger. Named for the former girlfriend of mobster Bugsy Siegel (who also has a sandwich named after him), the Virginia Hill is a blended burger with onions and jalapenos cooked into the patty, topped with pepperjack cheese.
It was flavorful, but I wouldn’t say it was spicy. The peppers didn’t overpower the burger, just adding little hints, enough that I quickly went through my glass of iced tea, but not enough that I ever felt a burning. It was a very, very good burger.
Even though we had the sweet potato fries, I still got regular fries as my side. They were crispier than last time, maybe slightly overdone, but still good.
Julie passed on chips and fries with her sandwich, the Bugsy Siegel. (Look at us making the perfect pair). Julie chose grilled chicken for the protein, saying she wasn’t feeling a burger that day. And the sandwich that came topped with pastrami and kraut.
The chicken and pastrami played better together than she expected, and everything on it was cooked well. The sandwich also came with mobster sauce, which she described as like a Thousand Island but with a little kick to it. But it was a good kick that helped pull the whole sandwich together.
Even though we were offered dessert, we had to pass, and instead spent another 20 minutes or so talking about little details about the tavern – like the original supporting posts and beams, the nearly hidden stained glass window by the front the door (custom fitted by Darrell’s father), and the digital fish tank that is framed out by the historic fireplace in the corner.
As much as we enjoyed our first visit to the Black Sheep Tavern, we appreciate it so much more now.
We will definitely be making more visits. There are more stories to hear, and a lot more food to try, too.
Original Review: September 16, 2025
Speakeasies hold a fascination in the American mind a century after prohibition came and went.
Last year, we visited A Light in the Attic, which bills itself as a “modern speakeasy.” It’s a fun concept. They did up the theme with a bookcase at the top of the stairs and a curtain keeping the restaurant “hidden.” But that’s all it is, a concept.
The restaurant and bar opened at the former Camelot Inn on Fritztown Road in the spring of 2025. The building’s story is told at the bottom of the menu. Apparently it was owned by Ralph and Anna Riffert during the 1920s, and they operated a speakeasy throughout Prohibition, “despite paying fines for selling alcohol, gambling, and other illicit activities.”
It’s certainly ironic that 100 years later, guests not only can pony up to the bar for a drink but sit down at a skills machine.
The skills machines are set in a back room off the main dining area which is filled with low- and high-top tables with a banquette along the wall. The U-shaped bar takes up most of the second half of the space.
It was quiet when we arrived for lunch on Friday, just one other table filled, though a few people arrived later during our visit. Our server was fantastic throughout, and I suspect she would have been great even if she would have had a full dining room. But she came to our table quickly to get our drink order and answered all of our questions about the menu.
And we did have a few questions because all of the sauces have names that are connected to the restaurant’s theme, like sheep sauce, rumrunner sauce, and mobster sauce.
My burger came topped with rumrunner sauce, which is their homemade version of A1. It also featured Cooper Sharp cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion.
The burgers are listed as hand-patted, and you can tell by the thickness. It was a hearty meal, and a delicious one. The sauce was really good – I love steak sauce on a burger – and it worked well with the creamy Cooper cheese.
I opted for fries on the side which were also very good, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.
Julie had fries with her burger, the Bulger, which came topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and sheep sauce. Sheep sauce is their ketchup-mayo mashup and Julie enjoyed every bite of her burger.
And while Julie also found the fries to be OK, she had the opportunity to go back a few days later with some of her coworkers. Her recommendation: get the sweet potato fries with the dipping sauce. They are totally worth it.
Our visit ended up being a perfect lunch. The food was out quick, too, so we were in and out of the restaurant before anyone could miss us at work. And at $40 for burgers, fries and drinks, it felt like a fair price, too.
Maybe the experience is a little different during busier times – we drove past on a Sunday afternoon and there wasn’t a space to be had in the parking lot – but we really enjoyed our experience. (Obviously, Julie already went back for more).
The history of the building is fun, but thank goodness we’re not living with prohibition because it means I can blog about it without risking a raid.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Very Good Price: $$
Black Sheep Tavern 665 Fritztown Road Sinking Spring, PA 19608
In the last 12 months, Berks County lost not one but two vegan restaurants. Greenhouse Kitchen closed in November 2024. That was followed by the closing of Firefly Cafe in Boyertown in the summer.
While there are plenty of places that have meat-free dishes, there are only a handful of in the county that call themselves vegan. One of those is Clean Plates Cafe & Juice Bar.
Clean Plates is located inside Reading’s Downtown Food Court. The space opened in the spring of 2024 and had as many as seven different eateries, including a pizza shop, donut bakery, and ice cream stand. When I visited in October, only two stands were still open – Clean Plates and The Pulse Cafe – while a third, Sizzling Island, sat dark with “we are closed” written on a hand-drawn sign. The remaining spaces were vacant, the sandwich board on the corner of Sixth and Washington advertising stands that no longer exist.
But Clean Plates was busy while I was there. A steady stream of customers were stopping by, some for just smoothies, others ordering full meals like myself.
I ordered my food and drink and sat down at a table for two at the windows looking out at Washington Street. The row of seats sits two steps above the main dining area, which is filled with tables for two that can easily be pushed together. There is a second dining area in what was the teller area of the Berks County Trust Company, the company that originally built the historic structure. The old bank vault still sits behind the teller stand – a spot that also had multiple food vendors at one time.
(One of those was Sunset Mexican Ice Cream, which recently moved to a larger space on Lancaster Avenue).
A couple smoothies went out ahead of me, but it only took about 10 minutes before my matcha latte and falafel pita were ready.
The falafel pita is available as a lunch combo with fries or sweet potato fries – which I will always choose when given a choice. It was a huge portion stuffed inside a clamshell package. The pita was overflowing with veggies – lettuce, red onion, and cucumber, along with three large falafel balls, all drizzled with tahini.
I love falafel, and Clean Plates did not disappoint. Though it fell apart while eating it, it was very flavorful with the chickpeas soaking up tahini sauce. Red onion is always good for a little added bite and a little crunch, a necessary complement to the pillowy pita.
The sweet potato fries were also very good, hot and crispy just as they should be, and just how I remembered them from my first visit.
That first visit came in May 2024, when there were a lot more options at the food court. Clean Plates was still doing well when I stopped for lunch and ordered one of their specials, the jackfruit tacos.
I have loved jackfruit as a meat alternative since the first time I tried it at Firefly Cafe. (I’ve even made it at home many times since). The tacos were served on hard shells with coleslaw on top. Jackfruit has a very mild flavor on its own with just a little hint of sweetness, but it absorbs other flavors very well. This allowed the BBQ sauce and coleslaw to really shine. And those homemade hard shells were perfect.
Clean Plates also does a great job with their drinks. My matcha latte was excellent, sweet but not too sweet, and not too heavy on the milk alternative.
With my drink and falafel pita, my total was $19, well worth it in my book.
In addition to lunch and dinner, Clean Plates is also open for breakfast. There is also a cooler full of juices for those who love fresh-pressed juice.
I’m glad Clean Plates is still going, and I hope they continue to thrive as an anchor, both of the Downtown Food Court and as one of the only vegan spots in Berks County.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Good Price: $$
Clean Plates Cafe & Juice Bar 35 N. 5th Street Reading, PA 19601
Looking to save a little money on your next family night out? Our local restaurants are here to help! Check out these Berks County restaurants where kids eat free, and enjoy a family dinner without breaking the bank.
*Berks County Eats strives to provide the most up-to-date information but deals offered by restaurants are constantly changing. Always check with the restaurant to confirm the deals are still available.
Alebrije Exeter, Muhlenberg & Wyomissing
Kids eat free every Sunday night at all three of Alebrije’s locations – Fifth Street Highway, Perkiomen Avenue and State Hill Road. Mexican-inspired options on the kids menu include tacos, grilled chicken with rice, quesadillas and enchiladas, but Alebrije also offers chicken nuggets and cheese pizza for the pickiest of eaters.
Annamarie’s on Main Birdsboro
Wednesday is kids day at Annamarie’s on Main in Birdsboro. Kids 8 and under can get a free meal with the purchase of an adult entree on Wednesdays. Menu options for the little ones include cheeseburgers, fish sticks, mac and cheese, chicken fingers, and buttered noodles.
Austin’s Restaurant & Bar West Lawn
Every Sunday night, Austin’s Restaurant & Bar in West Lawn offers a free child’s meal with the purchase of an entrée. Kids meals at Austin’s include grilled cheese, chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches, pizza, and cheeseburgers.
Bertie’s Inn Exeter Township
Kids eat free on Monday nights at the New Bertie’s Inn in Exeter Township. The children’s menu is filled with kid-approved dishes like mac and cheese, chicken fingers, and mini corn dogs.
Brook’s Cafe Douglassville
Every Saturday, kids 10 and under eat free at Brook’s Cafe in Douglassville. The dine-in offer is for all kids 10 and under. Brook’s kids menu includes Mickey Mouse pancakes, grilled cheese, and mac and cheese.
Coastal Grille Wyomissing
The sister restaurant to Austin’s, Coastal Grille, also hosts a kids-eat-free night every Sunday. In addition to mac and cheese and chicken tenders, Coastal Grille offers signature seafood items on the kids’ menu, including grilled shrimp, popcorn shrimp, and fish and chips.
Copperz Brewing Company Hamburg
On Sunday nights, kids eat free with any adult entree purchase at Copperz Brewing Company. The Hamburg brewery offers smashburgers, grilled cheese, chicken nugz and flatbread pizzas on its kids menu. (The physical kids menu is also an activity page with word search, tic-tac-toe and coloring).
Deluxe Diner Shillington
Kids eat free Wednesday nights at Deluxe Diner in Shillington. (And get to pick a prize from the Treasure Chest every day). The menu includes a variety of kids meals including hot dogs, grilled cheese, soup and salad bar, pancakes and more.
Grille at Bear Creek Macungie
Three nights a week, Tuesday through Thursday, kids eat free at the Grille at Bear Creek Mountain Resort. The deal is valid for kids 12 and under.
Heidelberg Family Restaurant Robesonia
Robesonia’s Heidelberg Family Restaurant offers a kids eat free deal every Tuesday, one free kids meal with the purchase of an adult entree.
Isaac’s Craft Kitchen & Brewery Wyomissing
Mondays nights after 5 p.m., kids eat free at Isaac’s in Wyomissing. Free kids meals – including rainbow bread sandwiches – are available with the purchase of a salad or sandwich.
Salute Ristorante Italiano Sinking Spring
At Salute Ristorante Italiano in Sinking Spring, kids orders of chicken Parmesan, spaghetti, fettucine alfredo and pizza typically run $10 but are free with adult entrée purchases on Sunday nights.
Wyomissing Restaurant & Bakery Wyomissing
Here’s a deal for parents with real little ones – Wyomissing Restaurant & Bakery offers free meals to any child age 3 or under with the purchase of an adult buffet.
Know of another restaurant offering free kids meals? Let us know by emailing zach@berkscountyeats.com.
It’s never been easier to be vegan in Berks County. WIth vegan cafes and meatless options at some of the area’s best restaurants, Berks County is vegan-friendly. Check out our list of vegan restaurants in Berks County:
Vegan Restaurants
Clean Plates Cafe & Juice Bar Reading
Located inside the Downtown Reading Food Court at Sixth and Washington Streets, Clean Plates is the newest vegan option in Berks County. The cafe serves breakfast and lunch, including bagels, cauliflower wings, pitas and quesadillas along with acai bowls, juices and rotating specials.
Chen Vegetarian House has been serving vegan versions of Asian food staples since 2013. In addition to fried rice and Thai curries, Chen offers meatless takes on General Tso’s chicken, orange beef, and teriyaki duck. Pair your meal with a delicious juice or smoothie.
Smoothies and bowls are the stars at Cup of Joy in Kutztown. The cafe focuses on foods that are organic, gluten free, and vegan and vegetarian friendly – with no sugars added. A limited menu of toasts and sandwiches is also available.
HIVE Local Food is a vegan outpost in Kutztown serving lunch every Friday and Saturday. Get a HIVE Burger and a Bigfoot Milkshake (made with oat milk ice cream) or try a noodle bowl, salad or vegan cheesesteak.
The Pottstown-based Charlotte Street Coffee Company expanded to Boyertown in 2023, bringing their vegan pastries with them. Stop in for a cup of coffee or tea, and treat yourself to a muffin, bagel, or donut.
Food4All Cafe Alsace Township
The Kula Kamala Foundation is home to the Food4All Cafe, a pay-what-you-can eatery that is open for Sunday brunch weekly and on the first Saturday of every month. According the Foundation’s website, the meals served by the Cafe “are predominantly vegan, whole food based, organic when possible, always gluten free.”
Bapanada Reading
Empanadas are on the menu at Bapanada, a locally owned and operated ghost kitchen and caterer in Reading. Enjoy empanadas, both sweet and savory, with vegan cheese, fresh vegetables, and plant-based meat substitutes. Delivery available through DoorDash.
Firefly Forest Bakehouse
Though the Firefly Cafe is now closed, the business continues through the Firefly Forest Bakehouse. Find them at the West Reading Farmers Market, along with other regional markets and pop-ups for vegan baked goods, take-and-bake meals, and hot items.
Vegetarian and Vegan-Friendly Options
You’ll find many restaurants in Berks County that may have one or two plant-based options, but the following retaurants, though not fully vegan, have some of the largest selections of vegan and vegetarian menu items.
Aladdin Restaurant West Reading
Specializing in Mediterranean cuisine, Aladdin Restaurant in West Reading has a vegetarian section on the menu which includes dishes like moujadara, rice and lentils cooked with onions and spices served with a fattoush salad, hummus, or baba ghannouj.
One of our favorite restaurants in Berks County, Andy Pepper’s is also one of the most vegan-friendly. The regular menu includes options like oatmeal pancakes and the Grateful Egg (vegan sausage, egg and cheese bagel). You can also customize most sandwiches to meatless versions with vegan alternatives to chicken, bacon, burgers, sausage, cheese and mayo.
Farmhouse Kitchen West Reading
The Farmhouse Kitchen, West Reading’s farm-to-table cafe, is also a great option for vegan dining. Menu options include baked oatmeal, parfaits with dairy-free yogurt, wraps, salads, hummus and bowls.
Jimmie Kramer’s Peanut Bar Reading
While not widely advertised, Jimmie Kramer’s Peanut Bar has a special vegan features menu including made-to-order vegetable lasagna (and other pasta options), portobello steak, and vegan burgers.
Rangoli Indian Street Food Shillington
While Rangoli does have meat dishes on the menu, the Shillington restaurant has an extensive selection of vegan dishes like chana masala or spinach dal. Pair it with a vegan chai.
Thaiwat offers tofu and mixed vegetables as an option for all of its curries and entrees. This is in addition to salads and vegetarian appetizers, like edamame, deep fried tofu, and chive dumplings.
Do you have a favorite vegan spot in Berks County? Let me know who to add to the list by emailing zach@berkscountyeats.com.
Quality is a word you’ll see in the marketing materials of many restaurants, but in Kutztown, one restaurant puts it in their name.
The Quality Shoppe is located off Main Street in the Dollar Tree strip mall on Constitution Boulevard. It takes up the corner space in the strip, the words Quality Shoppe over the door are the only hint that there’s a restaurant inside.
Quality Shoppe’s dining area is bigger than it looks like from the outside, partially because the grill is located at the counter service area at the front of the shop. The back half of the space opens into a dining room with booths lining the walls on both sides and tables spread out in between.
My first visit was for breakfast. We were seated at a booth not far from the counter seating at the front of the restaurant. The service was quick – it has to be because the food is coming in and out of the kitchen in a hurry.
The breakfast menu is fairly extensive but rooted in traditional diner favorites like pancakes, eggs, and French toast. But within each there is plenty of variety plus daily specials.
One of the daily specials on my visit was lemon cheesecake pancakes – a dish that sounded so sweet that I couldn’t resist.
Two heaping pancakes arrived topped with creamy cheesecake frosting, lemon sauce and a large helping of whipped cream on top. I immediately regretted ordering a side of potatoes, but I did not regret getting this sweet treat.
The lemon sauce had the sour notes you expect, but mixed with the incredibly sweet cheesecake and whipped cream, it wasn’t overpowering. In fact, they balanced out very well. Quality Shoppe does these special cheesecake pancakes and French toast often and I would definitely try another flavor in the future.
I mentioned the side of homefries. While I should not have had them, I was almost glad to have something non-sweet just to break up the sweetness bite after bite. They were good, too. They had a nice crispy edge to them. Nothing fancy, just a diner staple done really well. The same could be said about the crispy bacon strips. These came with the pancakes – though they were also completely unnecessary with how large the stack was.
I finished most of my meal, which totalled around $18 with a drink.
The next time I stopped in at the Quality Shoppe, in early May, it was lunchtime. Like breakfast, the lunch menu is mostly no-frills diner food with a few daily and weekly specials. There are sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and entrees.
I decided on a burger for my meal – the Texas BBQ burger to be specific. It came topped with fried onions, cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce.
It’s not the fanciest burger you’ll find in Berks County, but it was good. The BBQ sauce was simple but did the job to give that little bit of smokey sweetness.
All of the burgers come in either four-ounce patties on a regular roll (like mine) or an eight-ounce on a Kaiser roll. The four-ounce burgers also come with a side of fries, which I really liked. They’re fresh-cut and sliced thin. And there was no skimping on the portions.
The burger meal was actually a really good deal: it was less than $10 (my drink put it over that mark) and like all good diners, it came out quickly, which is exactly what I’m looking for at lunch time.
I would say that breakfast was my favorite of the two, but for a reasonably priced meal, good service, and quality food, the Quality Shoppe is a great option.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Good Price: $
Quality Shoppe 45 Constitution Blvd Kutztown, PA 19530
Tucked away in the northwest corner of Berks County, the village of Bethel is a quaint little country crossroads. It feels a world away for many in the other corners of Berks County, though it’s an easy side trip for thousands of motorists traveling I-78 every day.
If you exit the Interstate, you’ll find a couple blocks of old buildings, including at least one log cabin that’s been added on to. It’s mostly residential with only a few businesses, one of those being Bouchette Vineyards & Winery.
Bouchette opened the winery in 2017. In May 2025, they added something new: an on-site food truck called the Mountaintop Bistro.
We hadn’t visited the Bouchette before, but the menu at the food truck features two of our favorite things, smash burgers and BBQ, so we had to make the 30-minute drive from Wyomissing to check them out.
We pulled in around 5 p.m. on a Saturday night, Julie and I taking advantage of a babysitter to have a night to ourselves. There was a couple waiting for food and another person waiting to order when we got into line. We had to wait a couple minutes to place our order as the food truck was a one-man show, with one person both taking and making the orders.
But that gave us time to figure out what we wanted. Then knowing that we had a few minutes before the food would be ready, we headed inside to check out the winery options.
Bottles of various varietals and vintages line the shelves inside the door. There is also an assortment of hard cider in cans in one corner.
The bar is small with four chairs and room for another person or two to stand. In addition to wines and ciders, they also offer wine slushies. (The featured flavor while we were there: black cherry merlot).
Julie sampled some of the wines and ciders and decided to pick up two cans of cider to take home while enjoying a glass (or plastic cup, in this case) of Daybreak, their strawberry wine. Julie is a fan of sweet wines, and this one was on the sweeter side but not overly so. It had a freshness to it with a subtle strawberry flavor that she really enjoyed.
She sipped it while she ate her Classic Smash smashburger. It featured two three-ounce patties on a Brioche roll with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup and burger sauce (and mustard, which Julie opted out of).
The burgers were made fresh, and the patties had good flavor on their own. And there was plenty of fresh flavor coming from the toppings, too. The Brioche roll was the perfect choice because it held everything together nicely.
Not being a drinker, myself, I settled for a can of Sunkist to go with my pulled pork sandwich. That was my choice for dinner, and it was a good one. The pork is marinated in their apple hard cider and topped with coleslaw on the same Bricoche bun.
The pork was perfect. I could taste hints of the cider in every bite, kind of like how you can taste the subtle notes of the alcohol in a whiskey BBQ sauce. The coleslaw was also very good, the cabbage adding a little crunch to the dish.
Both of our meals came served with French fries (and their French fry dipping sauce). They were absolutely delicious: fresh cut and reminiscent of the Oley Fair fries. The dipping sauce was like a Chick-fil-A Sauce. I passed on it, but Julie liked it.
There are three distinct seating areas at the winery: a pergola with cushioned chairs and fire pits; a pavilion with bistro tables and chairs; and a collection of uncovered picnic tables. Even though others came and went while we were there, we had the pavilion to ourselves so Julie and I sat and talked long after our meal was done.
We were there long enough that we decided to go back inside to pick up a couple bottles of wine to take home (including the Daybreak that she had just enjoyed).
In all, we spent $25 at the food truck and about $50 for wine and cider. And though Julie and I enjoyed our date night, the setup makes it a place where we could bring the kids if we wanted.
And maybe we will next time (I’m sure there will be a next time) because both the winery and the Mountaintop Bistro exceeded our expectations.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Price: $
Mountaintop Bistro at Bouchette Vineyards & Winery 9684 Old US Route 22 Bethel, PA 19507
A restaurant doesn’t need to be flashy to be good. I ask three basic questions when I visit a restaurant for the first time: is the food good, is the service solid, and is it a location where I would eat again.
One spot that checks all the boxes is Cloud 9 Cafe in Wyomissing.
Located in the Village Square shopping center, along with Isaac’s, Duck Donuts, and Sublime Cupcakes, Cloud 9 is one of those places that may not elicit a “wow” in any particular area, but it doesn’t disappoint either.
The cafe has a pretty simple setup, it’s a counter-order spot with a handful of grab-and-go items to complement the main menu. Like many cafes, it’s only open for breakfast and lunch (open Monday through Saturday).
There are some booths, but it’s mostly table seats, a combination of low-tops and high-tops throughout the dining room. The red-brown tile floor gives it a bit of a 90s vibe.
I’ve stopped in for both breakfast and lunch with my most recent lunch visit coming for a solo working lunch where I ordered the figgy chicken sandwich. The menu touted it as a “new” item, and the combination of toppings: bacon, goat cheese, American cheese and fig spread.
I’m not a fan of American cheese, but I can tolerate it when it’s combined with other flavors. In this case, the fig spread and goat cheese really shone through as the stars of the dish. I loved the sweet figs and how well they went with the savory chicken and bacon. I really enjoyed it and would order it again.
On the side, I opted for fries. They were a slight upgrade, and honestly, I think next time I would just stick with chips because the fries are good, but nothing remarkable.
While lunch at Cloud 9 is good, breakfast is better. It’s a simple menu of the usuals – breakfast sandwiches and burritos, pancakes, omelettes, and French toast.
The French toast was my choice on my last breakfast visit. The short stack comes with two slices, halved, dusted with powdered sugar. On the side are two syrup packets and a couple pads of butter. There were also the two orange wedges which give me flashbacks to my childhood brunches at Heidelberg Family Restaurant three decades ago.
There really is nothing fancy about it, but the French toast is good nonetheless. The homefries are one of my favorites, though. The potatoes are cubed and fried to a golden crisp. Despite feeling full with half a plate left, I still finished them off. They are that good.
One thing that I will never pass on at breakfast is a chai latte. Cloud 9 does not have an “authentic” chai, it’s more on the sweet side but still enjoyable.
The prices are pretty typical for a cafe with breakfast items available for less than $10 and lunches ranging from $10-15 (with upgrades available, of course).
I’ll just add that I have always found their service to be very friendly and quick, which is definitely one of the things that keeps me coming back even when the food doesn’t quite match some of the other coffee shops in the area.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Good Price: $$
Cloud 9 Cafe 84 Commerce Drive Wyomissing, PA 19610
More than a decade ago, the first BBQ spot we visited on Berks County Eats was a small roadside trailer called Muddy’s. It was the standard that we measured all over BBQ by – both in terms of its unique location and the delicious food.
Unfortunately, Muddy’s is now long-gone. But from Hillbilly BBQ’s trailer near Douglassville to Backwoods Brothers and their Texas-style ‘cue in Hamburg to the ever-growing Stampede BBQ on the way to Morgantown, there is still great BBQ to be found in all corners of Berks County.
Though it has a permanent location in Womelsdorf, The Messy Pig primarily operates as a food truck, bringing its smoked meats to locations and events through Berks and Schuylkill Counties. Check their Facebook page to find out “wtf – where’s the food?”.
The Messy Pig brand debuted in 2020, run by the namesake of the former Darryl’z in nearby Stouchsburg. Since then, we’ve had the opportunity to try many of their delicious offerings.
Our most recent visit came in early March during the annual Presto event at Fleetwood High School. The annual fundraiser for the school district’s music program brings in five or more food trucks and stands every year, and the Messy Pig has been one of the anchors, offering the largest menu of any of the participants.
The line was long but 15 minutes later I was at the front and soon I had my sandwich in hand as I filled a couple containers with sauce, of which there are a dozen flavors to choose from.
I ordered the Texas style brisket sandwich which came topped with coleslaw and onion tanglers. The brisket was very good, and the hefty roll was piled high with slabs of tender, moist brisket. The ends have a nice peppery after taste that I really enjoyed.
Normally, I prefer slaw on pulled pork rather than brisket, but I really like the Messy Pig’s vinegary coleslaw and the notes it adds to the meat.
The Messy Pig also does a great job with its pulled pork. Like the brisket, pulled pork sandwiches come piled high with meat – they definitely don’t cheat you on the portions. I got the Plain Porker for mine, which as the name suggests, comes without any toppings, but their namesake Messy Pig sandwich is worth trying. It’s pork topped with cheese, slaw, pickles and jalapenos.
The hardest part on my visits is choosing which of their sauces to get, which is why I always end up with at least two little cups of sweet sauce.
One other underrated aspect of the Messy Pig is that they serve Guers iced tea, a must-have for me every time I am at their stand.
As much as we enjoy the food, we love their prices. Sandwiches top out at $12 each (for brisket) and platters, which come with mac and cheese and either slaw or beans, are under $20.
Brisket, pork, chicken, sausage: the Messy Pig has you covered. Just ask “wtf” to find them.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Good Price: $$
It’s not hard to find good barbecue in Berks County. From roadside trailers to sit-down restaurants, you’ll find delicious pulled pork, beef brisket, ribs, chickens and more at these Berks County BBQ spots.
Stampede Barbecue Morgantown
If we’re talking about straight-up barbecue joints, Stampede Barbecue is my favorite in Berks County. The large wooden building near Plowville feels like a barbecue place. And they do all the meats – ribs, pork, brisket, chicken, turkey, sausage – and they do all of them well. I am a big fan of the Aimee – smoked chicken with spicy sauce and honey. Also, don’t skip the hush puppies on the side.
Hillbilly BBQ is the classic roadside BBQ trailer. I used to love driving up to the Muddy’s trailer along Pricetown Road. Parking in the gravel parking lot of Hillbilly BBQ gives me the same feeling. You just know the BBQ is going to be good before you even taste it. And then it’s everything you hoped for and more.
Texas-style barbecue at its best, Backwoods Brothers serves excellent ‘cue from their space in downtown Hamburg. The go-to here has to be the brisket, but don’t sleep on their smoked sausage.
When Heart & Hearth arrived in Kutztown, it was with a stand at the Renninger’s market. That’s where I first discovered them back in 2023. Today, they have a spot right on Main Street where they are serving unique barbecue dishes like the heatloaf sandwich, a meatloaf blend of beef, pork and jalapenos, as well as more traditional pork, brisket and sausage with sweet and spicy sauces.
A mobile business first, the Messy Pig can be found at pop-ups and events across Berks and Schuylkill Counties. They have excellent pulled pork and brisket, along with a wide range of topping options and a table full of sauces. They also open their store in Womelsdorf on select dates – just be sure to pre-order before they run out.
While I enjoy Plum Creek’s pulled pork, it’s the pit beef that puts Plum Creek on this list. While it’s not too dissimilar to brisket, the pit beef is pulled and more tender. And Plum Creek’s sweet sauce just works with it. Get it with or without cheese, or try it on the Bernville special (a bed of fries topped with pit beef and cheese sauce).
No, Austin’s is not a BBQ joint. But, I absolutely love Austin’s ribs. They are fall-off-the-bone tender and smothered in a deliciously sweet barbecue sauce. Austin’s also does a good pulled pork – both as an entree and a sandwich – with hearty portions.
The unassuming white building along Tuckerton Road has some of the best pulled pork around. Located in a converted house, Station House Grille is a small shop with big flavor. Their pulled pork taco sliders – with their delicious coleslaw – are a staple at food events across the county, but you’ll also find shredded beef and shredded chicken on the menu.
When I was in college, the K’Town Pub wasn’t much to speak of. But now, they’re known for their barbecue. I enjoy the pork and brisket – you can also get the brisket on a cheesesteak – with the apple butter barbecue sauce. The Pub also offers a spicy sauce, Carolina vinegar sauce, Alabama white sauce and a tangy KC sauce.
