Editor’s Note: Toss of the Town closed in May 2026 after two years in business in downtown Boyertown.
I’m sure I’ve said this before on Berks County Eats, but I will say it again – Boyertown has a great restaurant scene.
It’s home to some of my favorite restaurants – Brakeman’s Café comes to mind (also, we miss Firefly Cafe and CD’s Place) – and we can count Toss of the Town among those now.
Toss of the Town is the newest addition to Boyertown’s restaurant scene, opening in February in spot along Philadelphia Avenue.
Its location lot bigger than it looks from the outside. The building stretches back, past the long counter where the salads are made to a small seating area with one large table for eight and several smaller tables around. There’s also additional seating near the front window.
The “Toss” in Toss of the Town is for the salads that are the heart of the menu. There are ten signature salads plus a build-your-option with more than 45 topping choices, and more than a dozen dressings. In addition, the restaurant offers paninis and soups to round out the menu.
But I had to go with a salad and chose one of their signatures, the chicken Caesar.
It was your classic chicken Caesar salad with grilled chicken, romaine, croutons, shaved Parmesan and creamy Caesar dressing. It was very good – I thought the chicken had good flavor as did the dressing. And there was plenty of shaved Parmesan.
I’m not normally one to order a salad for my entrée, but this was extremely hearty and filling. There was no shortage of chicken, which certainly helped to fill me up. I ended up taking half of the salad home with me for lunch for the next day.
While my salad was good, I thought Julie’s crispy Asian salad was excellent. It featured spring mix with crispy chicken, mandarin oranges, matchstick carrots, red cabbage, chow mein noodles and an Asian sesame dressing.
What set the dish apart was a combination of the texture from the noodles and the tangy sweet of the sauce. Julie really enjoyed it, and I think we would both get it again the next time.
For kids, the menu is a little different. Toss of the Town takes the salad ingredients and offers them up individually as kid can choose a protein, grain, fruit and veggie (or second fruit).
Jakob ordered meatballs (which are also available on the meatball Parm panini) with a dinner roll, green apples and grapes. It came in a plastic container with four compartments so the individual items never touched.
And he ate the whole thing. That’s the sign of a good kids meal.
In total, we spent around $40 with drinks, not bad for three lunches (four if you count my leftovers).
More than the money, or even the food, the service we received would have us coming back. They were patient as we tried to navigate the menu and just seemed genuinely happy to be serving us on this day.
I can say with confidence that Toss of the Town will be serving us again soon.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Service: Excellent Price: $$
Toss of the Town 110 East Philadelphia Avenue Boyertown, PA 19512
Editor’s Note: The Greenhouse Cafe closed in February 2023 after three years in business at their Wyomissing location. In early 2024, they opeend The Greenhouse Kitchen on Evans Avenue. That location closed in November 2024.
It’s been nearly three years since I first visited the Greenhouse Café, the vegan coffee shop and eatery in Wyomissing. That visit came in early 2020, shortly after the café opened. Since then, the Greenhouse has become one of my favorite restaurants.
I love sitting in the namesake “greenhouse” dining area. Surrounded by windows, the room is always bright and sunny and a great place to sit down with my laptop and doing some work-from-home away from home.
The room has changed since the cafe opened – gone are the sofa, the round metal table, and the narrow high-top table. In their place are more functional seating – four tables for two along the brick wall and two larger tables that can seat six by the windows. What hasn’t changed is the quality of the food.
But I didn’t become a regular until the fall of 2021 when I signed up for their “soup CSA.” I pre-paid for 10 quarts of soup – a different variety each week. There were some really great ones along the way like mung bean, kale and coconut (pictured); adzuki bean chili; carrot ginger; and chickpea and rice. There were so many delicious offerings that I signed up for a second round in the beginning of 2022.
Then earlier this year, Julie and I attended the Greenhouse Cafe’s “Intro to Chai” event where owners Uday and Nikki offered tastings of three variations of chai along with a variety of traditional foods (and some unique offerings, as well).
But the regular meals at Greenhouse are just as good. In early 2022, the cafe cut back its hours. Instead of offering breakfast and lunch, the cafe serves brunch daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (closed Mondays).
Through my many visits, I’ve been able to try many menu items, and I definitely have some favorites.
On the breakfast side, I really enjoy their French toast. Each order comes with four thick slices dusted with powdered sugar and swimming in syrup. The French toast has a nutty flavor to it that I enjoy and sets it apart from the usual.
On the lunch side, I’ve found three dishes that I prefer above the rest. My favorite among them is probably the kati rolls.
Filled with chana masala – chickpea stewed with tomatoes, onions and spices– and topped with pickled red onion, it features a flaky, crunchy roll. It’s like a crunchier version of a pita or naan. The dish comes together really well. It’s a little savory and the pickled onions really pop. And the two rolls are filling on their own (it doesn’t mean I won’t splurge for a cup of soup on the side, though).
Another favorite is the falafel wrap. Falafel is a lot easier to find around Berks County than chana masala, but Greenhouse does a very good version of the dish with hummus, vegetables and tahini. While the falafel and wrap are on the dry side, the hummus and tahini give it a sauciness and help to bind everything together.
During the Intro to Chai event, I had the chance to try another menu item for the first time – strata. It’s a baked dish that uses chickpea flour that has a grainy, but not unpleasant texture. At the event, it was served plain, but on the menu it comes beneath a creamy herb sauce.
Without the sauce, the strata is good, but dry. With the sauce, it’s a very good dish that goes down easy. Non-dairy cream sauces can be hit or miss, but the Greenhouse Café’s is definitely a hit. And unlike the other menu items, the strata comes with a side of herbed potatoes that shine on their own.
Though they haven’t offered the soup CSA again this year, I always get a cup of soup with my lunch orders. A recent favorite is the quinoa bean soup, a hearty soup that made a great plant-based chili.
And whether I’m ordering breakfast or lunch, it’s always accompanied by a large mug of chai. This isn’t a Starbucks-style chai that’s loaded with sugar and syrup, it’s a homemade black tea blended with oat milk with spices that’s warming and satisfying.
I love a good burger as much of the next person, but I also love Greenhouse Café so whether you’re a practicing vegan or just looking for a unique meal in a cool setting, the Greenhouse should be near the top of your list.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Excellent
Ambiance: Excellent Price: $$
The Greenhouse Cafe 18 State Hill Rd Wyomissing, PA 19610
The arrival of a new restaurant to Berks County is always welcomed. But when that eatery offers something different – when it adds a little more variety to the dining scene – it’s a little more exciting.
A little something different is exactly what the Greenhouse Cafe promises as Berks County’s newest vegan spot.
The Cafe is located in an outbuilding on the property of the Bell Tower Salon & Spa in Wyomissing (just off of State Hill Road near the intersection with Penn Avenue). I have never had a reason to go to Bell Tower myself, but Julie tells me the space was at least partially a retail store previously.
Walking in the door, you don’t get the Greenhouse feeling. It’s very minimalist with plain brown walls and simple silver-colored tables and chairs opposite the large windows. The dining room to the right is where you really feel the Greenhouse and feel at home. Natural light pours in from the sides and from above. The seating is varied with both high-tops and more relaxed sitting areas. We sat on cushioned benches around a low-top table. A faux fireplace was unlit on the wall next to us.
With the opening of the Greenhouse Cafe, Berks County now has four fully dedicated vegan eateries with Chen Vegetarian House in West Reading, the Firefly Cafe in Boyertown and HIVE in Kutztown being the other three.
The Cafe opened at the end of November with just drinks and baked goods. They slowly expanded their food offerings to include hummus and soups. The full lunch menu debuted on February 15.
Small plates include hummus and bean dips. There are several homemade dressings for your salad or grain bowl (including lemon tahini and ginger sesame). And entrees include chickpea by the sea (mock tuna), an egg-less salad sandwich and hummus and veggie sandwich.
When it came to deciding on an entree, I was torn between the hummus sandwich and the rotating special, a chana masala sandwich. The special sounded too good to pass up.
Masala is an Indian tomato sauce (chicken tikka masala is probably the most well-known version of the dish in America); chana masala features chickpeas as the primary “protein” in the dish. For the special, the chana masala came served on a hoagie roll topped with pickled cabbage.
It was an excellent entree. The masala sauce was very nice and the chickpeas were cooked well but still had texture to them. There were times while eating the dish where the sauce and the roll reminded me of a Berks County cheesesteak. (The roll was delicious, by the way).
The sandwich came served with a side of cucumber salad. It was good, but there wasn’t much to it.
Julie made a meal out of a small plate of hummus and a side grain bowl of edamame, chickpeas, cranberry and quinoa.
The bowl came out first with my sandwich. The server then appeared with a hummus sandwich only to retreat back into the kitchen for the plate of hummus that Julie had ordered.
Julie started on the bowl, which was very good. We make a quinoa dish at home with dried cranberries that we really like and this was even better. The edamame was softened just enough that it wasn’t crunchy but was still a little firm. The cranberries and (surprise) golden raisins added the sweetness that it needed to tie everything together.
When Julie’s hummus plate arrived a few minutes later, it was worth the wait. The hummus was much thicker and more textured than store-bought hummus. It was also more flavorful with a nice dusting of spices on top. Julie was excited to come back and buy some hummus to-go so she could enjoy it at home, too.
It wasn’t just the hummus, though. The pita it was served with was as good, if not better, than we have found elsewhere. It was more dense than others and was packed with flavors (of course neither of us could put our fingers on what those flavors were that were shining through). We loved everything about it.
The only thing that was a little confusing to me was the menu said it was topped with shawarma. I only know shawarma as the meat that is sliced from the spit. I can only assume that it was a shawarma spice that was on top.
Beyond the food, I was very excited to try their house blend chai tea.
I don’t drink coffee, but I love a good chai latte. The Greenhouse has their own special chai spice blend and they use oat milk to keep it vegan. It didn’t have a foamy head like a lot of chai that I’ve had, but it had a nice aroma and flavor from the spices. The oat milk even added a little bit of an earthy flavor as well that I really enjoyed.
The sizing of our drinks didn’t make much sense, though. Julie ordered a small while I ordered a large. They were served in the exact same size cups. Hers was just filled slightly less than my own.
Our lunch was a little on the pricey side at $37 (about $10 of that were the drinks), but we thought it was worth it. The service was definitely a little off. It wasn’t just the sandwich/hummus plate mix-up either. As we were leaving, a line was growing as two employees looked over the screen of their point-of-sale system trying to find the menu item the customer wanted to order.
Those hiccups will get better with more time and practice. The food is already on-point, and that’s the most important part.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Ambiance: Excellent (in the Greenhouse Dining Area) Service: Good Price: A Little Pricey
Editor’s Note: Squawk Cafe is now closed. The restaurant closed “until further notice” in May 2023 but never reopened. The space is now home to Queens Cafe.
Normally, I try to wait a while before checking out a new restaurant, but when I found out the Squawk Café was opening on January 14, I just couldn’t wait to try it.
Though I have never been, I’ve heard good things about the original Squawk Café at B2 Bistro, and knowing that the new café was being run by the original team, it sounded like a recipe for a great new spot. (Note: the new Squawk Café is in no way affiliated with B2 Bistro or its café by the same name).
The new location is unique, inside the office building that houses Riverfront Federal Credit Union. It’s amazing how the lobby has been fully transformed into a café. What was a reception desk is now the order counter and coffee bar. And off to the left side, a large space has been converted into a dining area with around 30 seats.
Only about a half dozen seats were taken – a table of four and a table of two – when I arrived and claimed my spot by the wall.
The café was running with a limited menu for their opening day. The breakfast burrito I had seen on the menu was unavailable so I switched it up from savory to sweet and ordered the blueberry waffle stack with a side of breakfast potatoes and a chai tea latte.
First out was the chai tea latte. I was, admittedly, a little disappointed with the chai because there was no sweetener. For straight-up chai tea, it was really good. I’m just used to sweeter varieties. (Next time, I’ll be asking for a little vanilla).
What didn’t lack sweetness was the blueberry cinnamon waffle stack.
The stack was technically two stacks, each with four waffle triangles layered with cream cheese, all topped with blueberry compote.
It was every bit as good as I hoped. The cream cheese and the compote were sweet, but not too sweet to overpower the waffles. It was sweet enough though that I didn’t need the maple syrup that was served on the side.
The only issue was that the plastic knife struggled to cut through the waffles. But that was a minor inconvenience while eating such a delicious dish.
My side of potatoes was just as satisfying. I opted for the add-on of peppers and onions. The potatoes were about as crispy as any I have ever had. And the peppers and onions were a nice add-on. As a bonus, it comes served with a cup of aioli for dipping. It was good, but like the maple syrup, it was unnecessary.
I definitely over-ordered, though. The blueberry cinnamon waffle stack would have been plenty on its own. I didn’t regret the potatoes, but with them, I wasn’t hungry until long after lunch.
And with as much as I ordered, my final bill was more than $20. I can’t say that any individual item wasn’t worth the price, though.
The best part for me is that the new Squawk Café is only a couple blocks from my house so I’m sure I will be back sooner than later. Maybe then I’ll get that breakfast burrito.
I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.
BCE Rating Food: Excellent Service: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Price: A Little Pricey
Editor’s Note: The Berkshire Family Restaurant is now closed. The restaurant announced a temporary closing in October 2024 but never reopened. The space was subdivided, with Sam’s Wyomissing Bistro opening in May 2025.
Since starting Berks County Eats, I’ve learned a lot – about food and about the food business.
I’ve also learned that when a new restaurant opens, you have to accept that some things aren’t going to be perfect, but what matters is how you feel when you leave the restaurant.
One new restaurant that had us feeling good when we left after our first visit was the Berkshire Family Restaurant.
The Berkshire opened in August, starting with takeout only before quickly expanding into table service that includes breakfast (served all day), lunch and dinner.
Its location has been a Berks County favorite for years. Set along State Hill Road in Wyomissing, just across from the Berkshire Mall, the building is still remembered as the former Arner’s, though it was most recently Giannotti’s Berkshire, which closed in 2018.
We made a visit to the restaurant on a recent Friday evening – Julie, her mother (Peggy), Jakob and I arrived a little after 5 p.m. for dinner and were told there was a 15- to 20-minute wait. The benches were full in the main waiting area so Peggy grabbed a seat in the spacious entryway while Julie and I took Jakob for a walk around the building.
After a short walk, we headed inside. I went to the counter to see where we were in line only to see our name had been crossed off the list. The hostess was not at the stand at the time so I mentioned something when she returned and we had a table in short order.
We were seated at a table in the middle of the main dining room, near what would be the salad bar (at the time of our visit, it was decorated with pumpkins and other fall décor).
Our waitress was very nice and remained attentive throughout our visit, though there was a slight mix-up early on.
Peggy ordered a soup and salad combo with a chicken pasta soup and a Cobb salad with ranch dressing. When the soups arrived – Julie had also ordered a soup – so too, did a house salad with ranch. It was returned to the kitchen, and after this hiccup, the meal was about as good as we could have hoped for.
The chicken pasta soup was very good with large bowtie pasta pieces and plenty of chicken and vegetables.
I needed something a little more substantial than soup and salad so I opted for one of the seven burgers on the menu – The Frenchy.
The Frenchy is described on the menu as “French onion soup meets the burger.” When it arrived, I could see the melted Swiss cheese on top, just like a crock of French onion soup. With my first bite, the onion and broth started to seep out.
It really was a delicious burger. The flavor of the soup penetrated into the burger patty and throughout the toppings. French onion soup is on the main menu, and I would definitely order it by itself sometime.
All burgers are served with fries with upgrades available. One of those upgrades is Greek fries. For an extra $2, my fries were topped with feta cheese and oregano. Feta doesn’t have a whole lot of flavor on its own, but the oregano added a lot to it and made the upgrade worthwhile.
Julie had plain fries with her basket of shrimp – 21 shrimp basket to exact. Though she doesn’t order it often, fried shrimp is one of her favorites. The Berkshire’s version filled her fried food craving and her stomach.
Peggy’s meal – the Cobb salad – was the most healthful of all of our orders. She opted for grilled chicken on top which she enjoyed along with hearty portions of avocado, onion, egg, tomatoes and lettuce. They certainly didn’t skimp on the portions for this salad.
For Jakob, we ordered the grilled cheese (almost three years old, he is now old enough to tell us what he wants when we read the menu to him). We were happy to see him eat his sandwich – all of it except the crust as toddlers will do – and he seemed to really like it.
Jakob’s meal also came with a scoop of ice cream (not pictured). For whatever reason, he wouldn’t eat it. So, daddy got to enjoy some chocolate ice cream for dessert.
Peggy and Julie both ordered dessert – rice pudding – to go. It’s their go-to diner dessert, and a little bit of a splurge that Julie savored in small portions throughout the week.
For all of our food, it was only around $50, in line with what you would expect from a diner.
There were a couple hiccups early on, but those will go away as the staff gains more experience. But we had no complaints about the food. To the contrary, we all left talking about how good our meals were.
And that’s the most important thing for any meal.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Good Ambiance: Good Price: Very Reasonable
Editor’s Note: Mazi is now closed. The restaurant was sold to new owners in late 2021 and in June 2022, they announced they would be rebranding as Fresh Breakfast and Lunch.
Though I have been doing this blog for more than six years, I still get excited about every new restaurant that opens up. Most times I wait a little bit before I visit, but every now and then there’s a place that I can’t wait to try.
That was the case with Mazi Greek Inspired, West Reading’s new fine dining destination.
Mazi opened in August in the former Bistro 614 along Penn Avenue. We never made it to Bistro 614 before it closed in 2019 so I can’t speak to what the space looked like before, but the new restaurant is beautiful.
Creamy gold cushioned benches line the mirrored walls, filling the room with a golden hue. Beautiful stained glass sits above the large picture window, which accordions open to bring an alfresco feel to patrons inside.
It’s an impressive place, for sure, with an impressive menu to match.
Julie and I haven’t had a true date night since February so we came in prepared to splurge. It started with an appetizer: the sesame feta.
On the plate were two wedges of feta cheese, lightly seared and topped with sesame seeds, a basil leaf and a drizzle of honey. With them were pita points – delicious on their own, but a perfect match for the soft cheese. I’ve found that feta can be overpowering at times, but here it was perfect. Between the sear and the sweet honey drizzle, the creamy cheese almost ate like a dessert.
Along with the appetizer, we were also given two slices of olive bread with oil for dipping. The bread was very good, obviously freshly made. The slices were just big enough to give us a good taste without filling us up for our meals to come.
For my meal, I ordered the lamb shank yvetsi, braised lamb shank served over a plate of tomato orzo. The lamb was delicious, but it was even better soaked in the juicy tomato sauce from the orzo. I did find it to be a little harder to cut and chew than I was expecting. Later I heard a waiter at another table describe it as fall-off-the-bone. It was delicious, but it certainly didn’t fall off the bone.
It was also a lot of food and about half of the shank came home with me (the waitress took the plate, boxed and bagged it up for me, and sat it down between our table and the empty table next to ours to limit contact).
Normally Julie goes for spanakopita whenever she sees it on the menu, but she skipped it this time in favor of the Chilean sea bass. The fish was served over a red pepper feta coulis with a side of tri-color couscous.
I am not a big fan of fish, but I tried some of Julie’s and it was very good. The seabass didn’t have a whole lot of flavor of its own. Instead, it absorbed the flavors from the delicious red pepper sauce. The couscous was also very good, well-seasoned with added spinach leaves for more flavor.
While we both would have been satisfied had we left after our entrees, we had to hear what was on the dessert menu. And when we heard there was baklava ala mode, how could we refuse?
Our waitress dropped off a square-shaped bowl with a large scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and two mini rolls of baklava. And everything was drizzled with honey.
This was an indulgence, and a delicious one at that. The baklava was melt-in-your-mouth good with honey soaking through the layers of phyllo dough and just enough of the nutty flavor from the chopped walnuts (I’m pretty sure). We may have left feeling very full, but it was totally worth it.
Our meal wasn’t cheap – an appetizer, two entrees, dessert and a mixed drink for Julie totaled just over $100 – but it was totally worth it, too.
I don’t foresee us becoming regulars at Mazi but for a special occasion or date night, we would definitely visit again.
We were glad we didn’t wait any longer to enjoy a date night, and we were very glad that we chose Mazi.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Excellent Price: A Little Pricey
Editor’s Note: Berks County Eats is sad to hear about the passing of Linda Bell, owner of the Culinary Classroom. Linda passed away in December 2025, and the Culinary Classroom is now closed.
For years – long before I started this blog – my wife Julie and I have been wanting to take a cooking class together. We both love the time we get to spend in the kitchen (though now that we have a two-year-old running around the house, we don’t really have the option to be in the kitchen together).
I finally resolved to make the class happen. For Christmas, I bought Julie and I two spots for a lesson called “Italian Comfort – Gnocchi” at the Culinary Classroom in Reading. The class cost $85 each, but I will tell you up front, it was worth every penny.
The Culinary Classroom is hosted by Chef Linda Bell, who holds classes in her home, which includes a spacious kitchen with two separate cooking areas – perfect for intimate classes of 6-8 people (we had 10 in our class and though it was a little snug, there was still enough space and food).
Chef Linda runs the classroom with her husband – and sous chef – Mike. She is a retired educator who has combined her passion for teaching and cooking into a business where she imparts that same love of cooking onto her students.
The evening began at 6 p.m. with an introduction to basic kitchen rules: never hand someone a knife, always set it down for them to pick up; always announce when you are walking behind someone else; and always gather your ingredients before you begin cooking.
Mise en place is the proper term for the latter. It’s French for “everything in its place,” and it’s a lesson I needed to hear. In my own kitchen, I have been guilty of making several trips to the pantry for ingredients that I should have had in front of me the whole time.
After learning the rules of the kitchen, we talked gnocchi. The Italian pasta is most commonly made from potatoes and rolled into oblong dough balls. But really, gnocchi can be made with just about anything and can be shaped in multiple ways.
Our first gnocchi, the gnocchi alla Romana, was made with semolina flour. For this, we mostly watched as Linda went over the basics. Instead of rolling the gnocchi right away, this particular recipe called for spreading the mixture onto a buttered parchment-lined tray then cooling it in a refrigerator or freezer. The pasta would later be cut into rounds and layered to be baked into more of a casserole-type dish.
The gnocchi di zucca con salvia e Parmigiano was our second dish to cook. We first had to make butternut squash gnocchi; then we made the sage butter sauce. With this, we got a few takeaways to use in our everyday cooking.
First, always save a cup of starchy water after you drain your pasta. You can use it to thicken your sauce.
Second, always use kosher salt, not iodized salt. It has better texture and ensures you don’t over-salt your dish (also, when the recipe says “add salt to taste,” make sure you taste it so you know how much salt you are adding).
Third, stainless steel pans are better than black-bottomed pans because you can see your butter brown a lot better.
For the second half of our lesson, we needed the more traditional potato gnocchi. Russet potatoes were baking in the oven while we worked on our other two varieties. This creates a drier gnocchi than boiling the potato. It also meant that the potatoes were very hot as we peeled the skins off.
The next step was to rice the potatoes. This makes the starchy tuber a lot easier to work with when combined with the other ingredients.
Linda combined the ingredients using the traditional method of gathering the potatoes and flour, then putting eggs in the middle, slowly incorporating the ingredients together into a dough ball (helpful hint: never add all of the flour the recipe calls for at the beginning – add it as needed because you may need more or less depending on the size of the eggs and how starchy the potatoes are).
Then we got to roll the gnocchi. You can buy a gnocchi roller – a small board that will add grooves to the dough – or you can use a fork for the same effect. Either way, the grooves and ridges are key to allowing the sauce to stick to the pasta.
From here, we split into teams to work on our sauces. One team was tasked with creating a fennel sausage and porcini cream sauce (with homemade marinara sauce as a base). Our team was in charge of the gnocchi alla bava, literally translated as “drooling gnocchi.” It’s not the most appealing name, but it is a delicious cream sauce that includes Parmigiano-Reggiano and Fontina cheeses.
Fontina cheese, I found out, is very soft and very difficult to shred, but I managed. And everything managed to come together nicely and almost at the same time.
It was about 9 p.m. when all of the meals were done. Though the time had gone by very quickly, we were more than a little hungry by this point and couldn’t wait to taste-test all of our dishes.
Maybe it was because I was so hungry, but I think these were the four best gnocchi dishes that I have ever tried.
The semolina gnocchi is one that Linda recommends being served as an appetizer. Because it is baked with cheese and not sauced, it is an easy snack that can be eaten like finger food.
Julie and I both love butternut squash gnocchi (and ravioli) and sage butter sauce. We are so glad that we now know how to make it ourselves because this was better than any store-bought variety and the butter sauce turned out perfect (in a way I have never been able to pull off).
The fennel sausage and porcini cream sauce was amazing. We were all invited to taste the marinara sauce before it was added to the cream and that on its own was amazing (the key is using real San Marzano tomatoes). With the cream and the slightly spicy sausage, it was perfect.
My favorite, though, was the alla bava. Maybe it’s because I helped make the sauce. Or maybe because it was so rich and creamy that I could eat it as dessert. Either way, I loved it.
One other thing I should note: the class was listed as running from 6 to 9 p.m. but we were there until almost 10. The food was worth the wait, though.
We learned a lot more during the class than will fit into this column. But beyond that, we also had a great time with the other eight people that were in the class with us (and Linda and her husband). Everyone else in the class was either a repeat student or came with someone who had taken a class before. The Culinary Classroom is certainly creating a loyal following, and it’s easy to see why.
Linda was an excellent teacher and there were plenty of laughs to go with plenty of delicious food.
Julie and I were both very glad to have taken the class. And I’m sure someday we, too, will be repeat students.
In the last few years, all the news around the Berkshire
Mall has been the negative – the closings of Sears and Bon-Ton at the top of
the list.
But even with their loss, the Mall remains the largest
shopping center in Berks County. And with the holidays approaching, the crowds
have returned once again.
We were among the crowds that headed to the mall on a Sunday
afternoon in early December. We were there to shop, but we were also there to
get a taste – at Latin Taste.
Latin Taste is one of a handful of options in the Berkshire Mall’s food court. It’s also the newest, having opened a little more than a year ago in November 2018 (Lola’s Ice having opened the month prior).
The stand features warming tables with most of the dishes ready-made
for eating in or taking home. And before you scoff at the idea of someone going
to the mall for take-out, consider that the Grub Hub delivery driver picked up
a large order while we were there.
We looked at everything on display, but in the end both Julie
and I went with our favorites: pollo al horno (baked chicken) for her, and
pernil (Spanish pulled pork) for me.
This was a very good version of my favorite Latin American
dish. The flavors from the seasoning and marinade were very strong and the
fatty parts were melt-in-you-mouth.
One thing I have always found with pernil is that it is
richer than an American barbecue pulled pork. This was no exception. As much as
I enjoyed it, I had to leave a little on my plate because it was just too much
for me.
Same with the rice. There was no skimping on the portions as
half the plate was covered in the yellow rice. I liked it, just as I like
almost all Spanish rice. It was just a lot.
Julie’s baked chicken, like my pernil, was very well
seasoned, with the flavors soaking through the skin into the meat. I’m not
normally a fan of baked chicken, but I found this to be flavorful and anything
but dry – always my biggest concern.
In addition to rice, Julie had a side of macaroni salad,
which actually was a macaroni and tuna salad. It was creamy and very good. The
tuna was just a little unexpected. (Even Jakob, our two-year-old, didn’t mind
the tuna as he ate almost all of the salad that Julie shared with him).
Unable to resist, we had also ordered a side of sweet
plantains. There were none ready on the warming table so this was one item that
was made fresh for us. They were also very good, but you don’t have to do a
whole lot to plantains (other than cook them) to make a delicious side.
Overall, we were more than satisfied with everything that we
ordered. The price was right, too. Our bill was $25, but we had a coupon for $7
off a $25 order so we got everything for $18. (Next time you get the Valpak
coupons in the mail, at least pull out the one for Latin Taste. It’s a great
deal).
While the Berkshire Mall may not draw the crowds it did when
it opened, and there are two very noticeable empty spaces, the mall still has a
lot to offer. Especially if what you’re looking for is good Latin food.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Good Price: Reasonable
Latin Taste Berkshire Mall 1665 State Hill Rd Wyomissing, PA 19610
Editor’s Note: Good Life Organics is now closed. The restaurant expanded from its Berks County hub and still has franchises in Exton, PA and Redbank, NJ, but the original location is closed.
For many, an important part of dining out is truly knowing
what you’re eating – knowing that the food is made from the highest quality
ingredients.
By using high-quality, locally sourced, organic ingredients,
Good Life Organics makes it easy for you to feel good about what you’re putting
in your body.
The juice bar and eatery promises that everything is as
close to 100% organic as possible, and the menu gives special mention to the
local businesses and farms that the ingredients are sourced from.
Good Life Organics also makes it easy on their customers by offering the convenience of online ordering through Toast Tab, the same platform we used for our recent lunch at Comalli Taqueria. Not only does it make it easy to order ahead, but there are pictures of most menu items which helped the decision-making process.
After completing the order, I made the short drive to the
Good Life Companies headquarters on Lancaster Pike, just outside Shillington. Good
Life Organics is located in what is essentially the lobby of the corporate
building.
Enter through the main doors, and Good Life Organics is on
the left. There is plenty of seating between the tables and a pair of armchairs
by the window. Across from the counter are the coffee, tea and kombucha taps.
In the corner is the Good Life Grab ‘N Go, a small marketplace filled with
organic goodies that are also found on the menu as toppings and blends.
It wasn’t long after I arrived that my order was ready and I
was back on the road headed home.
With a large menu, we decided to try a variety of their
lunch and dinner offerings. For me, it started with the hummus veggie flatbread.
In addition to garlic hummus, it came topped with sautéed
mushrooms, onions, garlic, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and extra virgin olive
oil. I enjoyed everything, but the garlic hummus really shone through. It
wasn’t overly garlicky, but the hint was just enough. The caramelized onions
were a very nice touch, too, providing all the sweetness that the flatbread
needed.
Good Life has a rotation of seasonal soups available
(according to the menu, they are sourced from the Half Dozen Cafe and Dove Song
Dairy). The one that caught my attention was the sweet potato, black bean and
kale. And I was not disappointed. The sweet potatoes popped with flavor and
along with the black beans made it a hearty, and delicious side.
To get the full experience, I also tried one of Good Life’s
juices (sourced from Rijuice in Lancaster). The “Orange You Glad” is
a combination of mandarin orange, apple, lime and lemon juices with turmeric. It
was good, but I have to admit the turmeric takes some getting used to and may
not be for everyone.
There are eight sandwich options on the menu at Good Life, including
the vegan black bean and sweet potato burger that Julie ordered. It was topped with
greens, Fabanaise (vegan mayo) and guacamole.
It was a good “burger.” The patty was very
flavorful with both the flavor of black bean and the sweet potato coming
through. It was soft, but it stayed together throughout. And guacamole is
always a welcome addition to any dish.
Julie also ordered the most intriguing-looking smoothie on
the menu, the blue spirulina bliss. It included banana, avocado, maple syrup,
vanilla chai multi-collagen protein, vanilla extract and E3 Live Blue Majik
Spirulina, which gives the juice its bright blue hue.
Spirulina, for those that aren’t familiar (like I wasn’t
before looking it up) is a type of algae that has been used in foods for
centuries, and now because of its high protein content and other nutrients,
it’s become increasingly more common in things like protein bars and smoothies.
It may have given the smoothie its distinctive color, but
the flavor was dominated by the banana. It was actually surprising to take a
sip from a blue smoothie and have the strongest flavor be the familiar yellow
fruit. If you can get past the color, it’s delicious.
The food and drinks were very good, but I have to say that
we had a little bit of sticker shock at the price. The smoothie and the juice,
especially, are a little pricy by Berks County standards. All smoothies are 16
ounces and cost $8.95. My 12-ounce juice was $6.75. In all, our total was
around $45. The food was around $30, which is more in line with what we are
used to paying.
And we would pay it again because Julie’s vegan burger along
with my flatbread and soup were all very good. And they were made with foods
that made us feel good about eating them.
Good Life Organics definitely made a good first impression.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Very Good Price: A Little Pricy
Good Life Organics 2395 Lancaster Pk Reading, PA 19607
Editor’s Note: The Pied Piper Diner is now closed. The restaurant closed in 2020. The location is now home to Bally Family Diner.
Good diners can be found everywhere. What I have come to realize is that they come in all shapes and sizes. Not every diner “looks” like a diner with stainless steel inside and out. Sure, there are many of those in Berks County, but there’s also diners in strip malls and in farmers markets, diners that look like ranches and even one shaped like a cup.
The Pied Piper Diner just outside Bally also would fall into
the “unique” category.
Outside, the Pied Piper looks like no other diner in Berks
County with its copula in the center and turrets flanking either end of the
building. Inside, though, it’s all diner. There’s the tile floor, counter
seating for faster service, extensive salad bar and an expansive menu .
The menu is 10 pages and includes everything you would
expect: comfort foods, pastas and stir-fries, soups and sandwiches, and
breakfast served all day.
It can be hard to decide with so many choices, but I found
the one word that makes a dish standout above all others: “homemade.”
As in the homemade beef stew.
The oversized bowl was filled with large chunks of beef,
carrots, celery, onions and potatoes. I definitely made a good decision. It was
so hearty and the beef was perfectly tender and flavorful. But what really set
it apart was the broth which was perfectly seasoned and soaked in to every
bite.
One thing you can be sure of when you visit a diner: if you
go home hungry, it’s your own fault. Entrees are served with your choice of
side, a trip to the salad bar, choice of soup and homemade breads.
The two soup choices during our visit were split pea and Italian
wedding. I went with the split pea because Italian wedding seemed too close to
the beef stew I would be enjoying. Split pea isn’t much to look at, and it’s
not the most flavorful soup to begin with. But it was fine and along with the
bread, it held me over until dinner.
Not wanting to fill up too quickly, I skipped the salad bar,
though it looked impressive enough. I did enjoy both the cornbread and dinner
roll that I was served. Our waitress actually said she doesn’t care for the
cornbread because there’s vanilla in it. I actually enjoyed the hint of
vanilla. The roll was also very good, and neither was too big to spoil my
appetite.
For my side, I kept it very plain with the mixed vegetables.
It was a mix of corn, lima beans, peas, green beans and carrots. It was what it
was, but that’s all I expected. (Seriously, though, what do you get for a side
when your entree includes potatoes, carrots and celery)?
Julie went with one of the diner’s sandwich options: the
Monte Cristo (turkey, ham and Swiss on French toast). It was served with a cup
of Smucker’s pancake syrup for dipping. The syrup definitely helped. The
sweetness was needed to cut through the savory meats. And it had just a touch
of sweet-and-salty with the ham.
I really liked the fries on the side. They were the battered
kind, fried to a golden brown. They are the kind of fries you start eating and
keeping eating long after you’re full.
What I really loved about the meal was the (small) size of
the check. We paid about $17 for our dinners. There aren’t many places where
you can get that much food (served to your table) for under $20.
The Pied Piper may not have the stainless steel diner car
look, but it is all diner, and a good one at that.
BCE Rating
Food: Good
Service: Good
Ambiance: Good
Price: Very Reasonable
Editor’s Note: Fratello’s Bar & Restaurant closed in April 2020. No plans have been announced for a new restaurant in the space.
Back in 2014 when I started Berks County Eats, the Reading Eagle ran a story about the upcoming renovation of the Big Mill, one of the buildings that made up the former Reading outlets. I was excited for the project, mostly because it was to include a new restaurant: Fratello’s Bar & Restaurant.
Then a fire broke out in October of that year and everything
was put on hold. The apartments would open in 2016 with no restaurant – and
honestly, I had assumed the restaurant portion of the project was dead.
Then earlier this year, Fratello’s arrived, celebrating a
grand opening in April. Half a year later, and I finally had a chance to make
my first visit as my friend Dennis and I headed into the city on a recent
Friday night.
Fratello’s address is North 8th Street, but the main entrance
– and off-street parking – is located along Nicolls Street.
Walking through the front door, I felt a little lost. To our left was the bar with seating for about 20. Straight ahead was the take-out counter. Hidden behind the counter was the deceptively large dining area. Booths line the walls, accompanied by a handful of tables in the center of the room.
The whole place has an industrial feel to it with brick
walls and exposed beams. When we arrived, the lone TV in the room was set to
cable news. After stopping by our table, our server changed the channel and
turned on a video DJ station that was playing Latin pop. At some point, the
music switched over to Frank Sinatra and Elvis.
Our server was attentive throughout the meal, but we were
the only patrons in the dining room when we sat down. A young family came in
while we were eating. Our server spoke with them in Spanish as easily as she
spoke to us in English.
The restaurant has a fairly robust menu with pasta dishes, but
we were there for wings and pizza.
Our 10 barbecue wings were out first. The sauce was good and
sweet, though nothing remarkable. The wings were meaty, well-cooked, and
well-sauced. It was exactly what we were hoping for.
We hadn’t quite finished our wings before the pizza arrived.
Originally I had been thinking about an individual pizza, but Dennis and I
decided to split a medium – plain cheese on his half, pepperoni on mine.
The pizza was very good, though a little greasy. The cheese
and sauce were both good. And I enjoyed the dough, which was cooked just right.
I was glad to see that even for a half pie, they didn’t
skimp on the pepperoni. There wasn’t a bite without some of the salty, savory
slices.
No one would mistake it for an artisan pizza like you’d find at a place like Nonno Alby’s, but it was enjoyable for what it was.
Our final total for the meal – which included my usual glass
of unsweetened iced tea – was $32. It’s certainly not the cheapest pizza and
wings around, but it felt right for the amount of food and was a little less
than what we would have paid had we each ordered an individual pizza.
The most important thing, though, was that we enjoyed our
meal.
Hopefully the good food and friendly service will keep
Fratello’s in business for a lot longer than the five years they waited to
open.
BCE Rating
Food: Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Very Good
Price: Reasonable
Fratello’s Bar & Restaurant 702 N. 8th St Reading, PA 19604
