Category: Closed

Editior’s Note: Pretzel Revolution & Creamery closed on December 31, 2016.

It was in March when Julie and I made our first visit to Pretzel Revolution and Creamery.

We were both fans of the stuffed soft pretzels from our visits to the original Pretzel Revolution in Kutztown, and were beyond excited to have a location closer to home.

The fact that the new Route 12 location served ice cream was just a bonus.

We enjoyed small cones of ice cream on that trip, but it was really all about the pretzels. On our return visit, we skipped dinner and went straight for dessert.

Pretzel Revolution expanded their hours since our last visit, and since May have been open every night until 10 p.m. That makes it a lot easier for us to get there on a weeknight, especially when all we need is dessert.

There was a family of three sitting at one table and an older couple at another when we arrived around 9.

Pretzel Revolution has both Kreider Farms and Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream. I didn’t even look at the Kreider Farms flavors. (No offense).

On our last visit, I had the Berkey Creamery’s most famous flavor: peachy Paterno. This time, I went with another Hall of Fame flavor, keeney beaney.

Keeney beaney uses chocolate ice cream as its delicious base, but it’s made even better by the addition of chocolate chips and vanilla bean.

Berkey Creamery ice cream is not quite as creamy or heavy as Longacre’s Modern Dairy, but it is heavy enough. And I always love the combination of vanilla and chocolate. Everyone makes a vanilla ice cream with chocolate swirl so I really appreciated getting the reverse.

Julie went with even more chocolate for her cone, ordering the death by chocolate ice cream. The creamery’s version of death by chocolate features chocolate flakes, fudge pieces and chocolate swirl.

She really enjoyed it, especially on her pretzel cone. I just wish there was a pretzel bakery nearby that could do a homemade pretzel cone (hint, hint).

Pretzel Revolution and Creamery is the only place in Berks County where you can find Penn State’s fantastic ice cream flavors. And the price of $8 and change for our two specialty cones was equally fantastic.

On our trips to Pretzel Revolution and Creamery, we have enjoyed both the stuffed pretzels and the ice cream.

While there, I also saw a sign saying they were now serving pretzel pizzas.

Sounds like I’ll be going back again soon.

Editor’s Note: The Stony Run Inn is closed. The restaurant closed at the start of the pandemic and never reopened.

For an area that has such a long, proud German heritage, there aren’t many places to enjoy traditional German food.

Sure, you can find Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie and shoofly pie, but I’m talking about German food: schnitzel, wurst, sauerkraut, etc. With the exception of private clubs like the Reading Liederkranz and the Evergreen Club, there just aren’t places to find it around the city.

It’s here in Berks County, you just have to be willing to drive for it. And that’s just what we decided to do.

We drove north, north of Kutztown along Route 737. We drove past the I-78 construction and the abandoned Krumsville Diner. We drove past the Gunmakers’ Fair at Dixon’s Muzzleloading Shop, continuing north until we saw the German Bundesdienstflagge hanging from the front porch of the Stony Run Inn.

The Stony Run Inn began as the Wessnersville Hotel in 1856, according to the history on the restaurant’s website. But it is only in past decade that it has been known for Old World specialties. After some down years, new owners stepped up in September to rejuvenate the restaurant.

Since then, the response has been overwhelmingly positive across all review sites. I couldn’t wait to see what the fuss is all about.

The dining room isn’t very large so we called ahead to make reservations, just in case. We had to wait in the bar area, only briefly, while they finished clearing and resetting our table. There was one other couple waiting with us — without reservations — who had to wait just a few minutes longer.

Once seated, we had another short wait until the waiter took our order, but he was quick and attentive thereafter, dropping off our bread and dipping oil just a few moments later.

I don’t normally comment on the dipping oil, but this was worth mentioning. The herbs and spices were unique. Salt, oregano, garlic and paprika combined for a salty dip with the mildest afterburn that we both really enjoyed.

The menu, like the dining area, is small. It’s a single sheet of paper, two-sided, with appetizers, salads and sides on the front, burgers, sandwiches and entrees on the back.

While some of the burgers did sound good (especially the Hunters: beef tenderloin tips in Burgundy sauce with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and bacon), I had my heart set on an Old World German-Austrian dish.

The Austrian Bauernschmaus was a mini smorgasbord. Four kinds of meats — bratwurst, smoked sausage, roast pork and smoked pork — served with mashed potatoes and a healthy portion of sauerkraut.

I thoroughly enjoyed everything on the plate, but my favorite was the smoked pork. The meat was tenderized and flattened like unbreaded schnitzel. Though it took only six bites to down, each one was heavenly.

The smoked sausage was cut like a bloomin’ onion, with four petals all connected at the base. It had a nice, mild heat, the spiciest of any of the four meats on the plate. The bratwurst was very good, and even the roast pork, which was basically ham, was enjoyable, especially with the light au jus-like sauce.

I really liked the sauerkraut. It was a little more sour than I usually prefer, but was great mixed in with the mashed potatoes.

All in all, I couldn’t complain about anything on my plate.

Julie, meanwhile, was in love with her dish.

Her chicken paprikash included a chicken breast in a paprika roux, served with red cabbage and spätzle. The sauce was exceptional, with a truly unique flavor from anything else we have found.

The spätzle was a little al dente and very buttery. And the red cabbage was done just right, with maybe just a hint of vinegar.

After she finished, she called it one of the best meals that she has had in a long time.

Of course, we couldn’t skip dessert once the waiter told us there was apple strudel.

It was definitely worth it. The filling was spot-on with the right amount of brown sugar to sweeten the apples further. Strudel dough is always thin, but this was flaky like filo, making it feel much lighter.

We were more than full by the time we finished the last bite. But we both agreed that it was $53 well-spent for one of the better meals in recent memory.

Stony Run is about a 40-minute drive for us from Wyomissing. That’s not exactly right around the corner.

But if you have a craving for good German food, it’s definitely worth the drive.

BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Good
Ambiance: Good
Price: Reasonable

Stony Run Inn
2409 PA-737
Kempton, PA 19529

Editor’s Note: El Morro Cafe is now closed. Takkii Ramen occupied the space for several years. It will soon be home to a new restaurant, Drunken Chicken.

In February, Julie and I had our first chance to visit Reading’s Old San Juan Cafe for a taste of Puerto Rico.

We loved the simple little counter-service restaurant in the old Outlet District.

So when, just a few weeks later, it was announced that Old San Juan would be expanding into West Reading, we got more than a little excited.

On our walks through town, we kept tabs on the progress at the corner of Sixth and Reading Avenues until the grand opening celebration in mid-May.

Two months later, we made our first visit to the brand new El Morro Cafe.

The setup is much the same with entrees and sides sitting in warming dishes at the order counter. Steph, El Morro’s manager, was more than happy to help us overcome our ignorance of the options.

We felt bad as a small line formed behind us, but we made our decisions and grabbed one of the handful of tables in the “dining room” off to the left side of the restaurant.

Our meals were delivered to our seats, with the plates looking very much the same as they did at the city location. Mine featured a mountain of rice — we both ordered yellow instead of white this time — and a pile of fried pork (chicharon).

The tender meat was covered in a thick fried outer skin with excellent flavor and texture. Black beans were sprinkled in with the yellow rice, and while I enjoyed it, it was just too much for me to handle both the rice and the meat (and I wasn’t going to let any of the meat go to waste).

If I have one complaint, it’s that the plastic cutlery wasn’t strong enough to cut through the hard fried shell around the meat.

Julie enjoyed her stewed chicken from Old San Juan so much that she ordered the same thing at El Morro.

The dark meat chicken (her request), along with the chunks of potatoes and carrots, absorbed a lot of flavor from the broth. It’s hard to pick out the spice(s) that make it so good, but it is definitely worth a try.

Each meal also includes a choice of salad. And, just like in the city, I went with a boring side salad while Julie had an excellent potato salad. It still had the bell peppers mixed in, but wasn’t as creamy. Instead, it ate almost like a mashed potato.

What’s most amazing about El Morro is that even with two drinks, our total bill was less than $20. I can’t remember the last time we ate dinner for less than that outside of a quick-service restaurant.

Not only is El Morro Cafe a great extension of Old San Juan Cafe, it fills a much-needed niche for Puerto Rican food in Reading’s western suburbs.

The fact that we can walk to it from our house is just an added bonus.

BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Fair
Price: Very Reasonable

El Morro Cafe
36 N. Sixth Ave
West Reading, PA 19611

Note: Giannotti’s Italian Kitchen is now closed. The restaurant’s former location became a doctor’s office in 2017.

While crisscrossing the county looking for great food, it’s inevitable that I will end up at a place from my childhood every now and then.

Growing up in the Robesonia area, there were not a lot of options to choose from, unless you wanted Italian. Then you had two choices: Tony’s Family Restaurant on the west side of town or Giannotti’s Family Restaurant on the east side.

Recently, Julie and I paid my grandmother a visit and offered to take her out for dinner. We headed east to Giannotti’s.

It’s been more than a decade since Julie and I last visited Giannotti’s in Robesonia. We’ve changed a lot since then, and so has the restaurant, rebranding itself last year from Giannotti’s Family Restaurant to Giannotti’s Italian Kitchen.

The building also received a major facelift. The bar used to be hidden in the back of the building. Now it’s right inside the front door (and looks great). The dining room felt more intimate with softer lighting and a faux fireplace in the center of the room.

Our server brought down the mood right away. Introducing herself before adding, “I guess I’ll be serving you.”

Still, I was excited about our meal at the new Italian Kitchen. With a family restaurant, you expected pizza, sandwiches and some pasta. But with an Italian Kitchen, I expected some truly inspired dishes from the Old World.

Seeing the new menu was another let-down. It’s still mostly sandwiches and pizza, though now they are pizzabellas, with an upcharge to make them “family size.”

Instead of offering unique pasta selections, everything is now build-your-own — choose one of four pastas, four toppings and five sauces (over 100 combinations, the menu proclaims).

There are also seven additional entrees, including chicken marsala, stuffed sirloin, and my choice, risotto with broccoli and lamb shank in Béarnaise sauce.

If I’ve learned one thing from watching Guy’s Grocery Games, it’s that you can’t make great risotto in less than 30 minutes. Mine arrived in 20.

The lamb looked great, and was very good. Béarnaise would not have been my first choice to go with lamb, but it worked. Because it was just drizzled on top of the shank, it never had time to marinate with the meat so only the first few bites had any sauce at all. Still, the meat was tender and cooked well so I enjoyed it.

As I had feared, the risotto was a little off. I don’t know if it was cooked too long or not long enough (my guess), but some of the rice was a little hard, making it chewy and less enjoyable the longer I ate.

Our waitress, who seemed a little off herself, had tried to talk me into an additional side, but I was glad that I passed because there was more than enough food on my plate (I finished it, but I could have stopped much sooner and still left full).

Julie went with an entree as well, the chicken parm. Unlike my dish, which included three components, the chicken parm is served with no sides. It was an additional charge for a side of pasta, but she got it.

It was a good thing, too. The chicken parm was fine, but wasn’t anything special. The pasta (linguine was her choice) was good with a light red sauce and diced tomatoes.

My grandmother’s lasagna was good, and just the right amount of food for her (again, our waitress had tried to talk her into adding a side, which, incidentally, are not listed anywhere on the menu).

All of our meals did come with house salads. Though I have to say, I miss the salad bar that used to be in the dining room.

I will give them credit for their prices because even with my $21 entree —  the most expensive on the menu — our final total was only around $55 (that also included a mixed drink and an iced tea).

While the meal wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what I was hoping for. Our server was less than enthusiastic about her job (though the hostess and other servers seemed great).  The food was good, but nothing wowed me like I was hoping.

The next time I revisit my childhood, I think I’ll order a pizza.

Editor’s Note: D&J’s is now Salvatore’s. The restaurant was sold and the new owners have transitioned to a pizza shop, rebranding it in January 2025.

A good sandwich is never hard to find in Berks County. There are dozens of great sandwich shops that offer quick meals for lunch and dinner.

You’ll find at least one in almost every little town. And like with pizzerias, everyone has their favorite sandwich shop.

For Julie and I, one of our favorites has always been D&J Sandwich Shop on the edge of Wyomissing and Shillington.

Julie and I have both been to D&J often. I needed an outsider’s perspective for the blog so I called up my brother, Matt.

The location is not ideal for a restaurant — or any business. The corner of Revere Boulevard (Route 724) and Old Fritztown Roaddone a tremendous  is heavily trafficked, but the restaurant lacks parking.

Customers are welcome to pull up in front of the building in unlined spaces. It can be challenging to get in and out, however, especially if another car is entering or leaving the lot. It’s also a challenge if you drive a Toyota Tundra like my brother.

But there was still a steady flow of customers while we were there so they either found space out front or did what we did and park along Old Fritztown Road.

D&J’s interior has been retrofitted, literally, with the classic look of a 1950s-era diner. The stainless steel counter stools are covered in teal and purple leather seats. The same colors are used on the chairs around the half dozen tables that sit on the black and white checkered floor.

Everything else seems to have a Coca-Cola logo on it, from the napkin dispensers to the ceiling fans, where every blade is in the shape of a glass Coke bottle.

After ordering at the counter, my brother and I took a seat and waited for dinner to arrive.

We ordered a lot of food: two sandwiches, an order of fries and some mini tacos that my brother ordered on a whim (because I was buying).

The mini tacos were the size of a folded over tortilla chip, filled with beef and deep fried. And they were actually pretty good. I’m sure I could find something similar in the freezer section of the grocery store, but we downed them quick.

I ordered a meatball sub for my main dish. I’ve had them before at D&J and always enjoyed them. The meatballs are big; the sauce is good; and they always add the right amount of peppers and onions. With all of the other food, I probably should have just had a small, but I managed to finish it.

Matt felt guilty about ordering his ham and cheese because he thought it was boring. It actually was anything but.

D&J doesn’t make their grilled ham and cheese with slabs of lunch meat, but with chopped ham. It looked like a steak sandwich where someone grabbed the wrong meat. But the chopped ham worked, and little bro enjoyed it.

One of my favorite things about D&J is the fries: crinkle cut, crispy (but not burnt), well-salted and addicting. Matt agreed.

Fries here are shareable, even for two hungry eaters like us. (If you’re going solo, ask for the more manageable half-order).

Our more than $30 total was a little more than I usually expect to pay at D&J, but we can blame that on getting large sandwiches and an extra side (plus our two drinks).

D&J has been one of our favorite sandwich shops for many years now. And after taking my brother, I think there was another convert.

BCE Rating
Food: Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Very Good
Price: Reasonable

D&J Sandwich Shop
200 Revere Blvd
Reading, PA 19609

More Restaurants Near Shillington, PA

The Back Forty Bar & Grill is now closed. The restaurant closed for ‘vacation’ in the summer of 2017, but never reopened.

The year 2014 was a tough one for diners in western Berks County. Both of Stouchsburg’s two restaurants, Risser’s Family Restaurant and the Black Dog Cafe, shut their doors for good.

It took more than a year, but both locations are once again thriving. Risser’s is now the Blue Star Family Restaurant. (Editor’s Note: Blue Star closed after the writing of this blog). And in August, 2015, the Black Dog was transformed into the Back Forty Bar & Grill.

While the Blue Star sits right along busy Route 422, Back Forty is located in the heart of the village of Stouchsburg. An oversized sign points passersby to the restaurant from the highway. It’s easy to find, but it can be a little challenging crossing Main Street to get to the restaurant and its parking lot.

The place is divided in two, one room is the dining room, the other is the bar (with a few extra seats for overflow). Pigs and chickens are stenciled on to the multi-colored chairs around every table. A license plate sculpture depicts a pig on one of the walls.

All of these depictions are a reminder of the restaurant’s promise: to use locally sourced proteins whenever possible. That means farm-to-fork meats in many of Back Forty’s signature dishes.

One of those dishes is the Back Forty Farmhouse Chili. The chili includes two meats: smoked pork and cubed steak, and it’s topped off with cheddar and sour cream.

It was a hearty chili, but not too spicy (the vegetarian Dragged through the Garden Chili was advertised as the hotter option). It was still a very enjoyable start to the meal.

Also enjoyable was the bread and house made garlic butter. Normally, I don’t talk about the bread and rolls at restaurants (and the bread, here was thicker and heavier than I would have cared for), but the garlic butter was just too good to ignore. It was packed with herbs, a little salt and plenty of garlic. And I loved it.

While I enjoyed my chili, Julie’s meal came with a house salad with “fresh spring greens, hand-picked garden vegetables and house made croutons.” The salad was good, but we both agreed that whatever ranch dressing they were using had a salty taste to it that we didn’t care for.

When it came time for the main courses, our waitress apologized to me. I had ordered the pappardelle pasta and asked to add chicken, but she had forgot to add the chicken to our order.

The pappardelle can be served as a vegetarian dish, and that’s how mine started. The pasta was tossed in brown butter and sage with kale, green and yellow peppers, and yellow squash. It was very good, though the brown butter settled to the bottom of the bowl, not sticking very well to any of the ingredients.

My chicken appeared a short time later (I had more than half of my pasta left). It was coated in herbs and grilled perfectly. It had lots of flavor, but I felt like it didn’t blend as well with my pasta. Maybe it was because it hadn’t been tossed together; or maybe because both the pasta and the chicken were flavorful on their own. Either way, I enjoyed them more as two separate dishes.

Being St. Patrick’s Day weekend, all of the restaurant’s specials were take-offs on Irish dishes, like the smoked pulled pork and brisket shepherd’s pie that excited Julie.

This was one hearty meal. The bowl was overflowing with potatoes and gravy. It was packed with pork and brisket, with peas and carrots. But it was also very wet, soup-like at times thanks to a generous amount of gravy hiding beneath of the top layer of potatoes.

It was also hard to get used to the pulled pork and brisket. Eating them with gravy and mashed potatoes is very different than eating them with a sweet barbecue sauce, which is how we usually find both of those meats.

Neither of our meals left us with room for dessert, but we had a lot of family with us, and between the eight of us, we figured there were enough mouths to manage an order of the chocolate raspberry truffle tortes.

The tortes consisted of layers of chocolate cake, mousse and ganache, topped with raspberry puree and served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

It was a heavenly dessert. All of the chocolate layers were incredible, especially the ganache. The raspberry was highly concentrated and gave a jolt of sweetness. It really did taste like you were biting into a rich chocolate truffle.

Everyone was in agreement that this was the best part of the meal.

The dessert was $9, but as the waitress said, “you get what you pay for.” The rest of our meal — two entrees and a cup of chili — was around $40.

While we ate, all of the tables in the dining room filled up around us. It’s clear that Back Forty has already become a very popular place in the seven months since it opened.

Stouchsburg has its two restaurants back, and it looks like that’s how it’s going to stay.

Editor’s Note: Pretzel Revolution & Creamery closed on December 31, 2016.

Last fall, when Berks County Eats visited Blind Hartman’s Tavern, a new sign was going up across the street, announcing the arrival of Pretzel Revolution and Creamery to Route 12 just north of Reading.

It was exciting news. Years ago, long before Berks County Eats came into existence, I made a couple visits to the original Pretzel Revolution in Kutztown and fell in love with the savory, greasy stuffed pretzels.

Though the new location serves the same recipe pretzels, it is serving a very different clientele. The Kutztown location is open until 3 a.m. three nights a week. On Route 12, it closes at 8 p.m. daily.

On our visit, the main dining room, with three booths along the wall, was empty. But the private room behind the counter was packed with a Brownies troop and their moms.

Bringing in ice cream and making it a family-friendly experience was the right move for a location that doesn’t have 9,000 college students in its backyard.

If you’re looking for a meal, Pretzel Revolution has seven flavors of stuffed pretzels to fill you up: Buffalo chicken, chicken bacon ranch, ham and cheese, Italian, pizza, pretzel, and steak and cheese. There are also traditional pretzels (though even these come in six varieties, like garlic, sesame or banana Nutella cinnamon). French fries stand as the only hot food item that isn’t a pretzel.

Julie and I both opted for a stuffed pretzel and fries combo meal. I went with a pizza pretzel; she opted for a steak and cheese.

The pizza pretzel is stuffed with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. The pretzels are wrapped so that they have one layer of dough on the bottom and two on the top.

If I had sliced the top off, you would have never known that it was a pretzel and not a pizza. It was a little too saucy, but the pretzel was so good that it made up for it.

Mine was good, but I was envious of Julie’s steak and cheese pretzel. It was packed with steak meat and just a little cheese. It worked really well with the pretzel, especially the salt on top.

The fries arrived a few minutes into our meal, piping hot after their bath in the fryer. The thick, fresh-cut beauties were delicious, though Julie and I probably would have been fine sharing a single order with as filling as the pretzels were.

It is called Pretzel Revolution and Creamery, so we couldn’t leave without dessert.

This is the only place in Berks County, that I know of, that is serving Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream. And Pretzel Revolution has two freezers full of the famous frozen dessert.

My choice was the orange vanilla sundae, orange sherbet swirled with vanilla ice cream. On an 80-degree day that felt more like summer than mid-March, it was a refreshing, summery treat.

Julie, meanwhile, was enjoying a scoop of mallo cup, a chocolatey treat with marshmallow and coconut shavings. I’m not much for coconut, but I would have eaten all of her ice cream if she had let me.

Two pretzels, two orders of fries, two fountain sodas and two ice cream cones later, and we were as stuffed as the pretzels. And all of that food only cost us a little more than $25.

Pretzel Revolution and Creamery takes the brand in a new direction, and that’s not a bad thing. The franchise location stands on its own as a kid-approved, family-friendly place to grab lunch or dinner.

More Ice Cream in Berks County

Editor’s Note: Sofrito Mohnton and the original Sofrito in Reading are both closed. The Mohnton space is now home to La Casa Del Rincon.

Two years ago, I visited the ill-fated Maniaci’s Italian Bistro.

The restaurant had gained fame after appearing on Restaurant: Impossible in 2013. But one year later, just a few short weeks after my visit, Maniaci’s closed for good.

My review of Maniaci’s is the most-read review in the history of Berks County Eats, continuing to receive hits every day.

While Maniaci’s was buzzworthy for all the wrong reasons, a new restaurant has taken over the space and created a buzz all its own.

Sofrito Mohnton opened in the spot in February. The restaurant is the second location for the Chef Hector Ruiz, who runs Sofrito Gastro Pub on Douglass Street in Reading.

East Wyomissing Avenue is a long way from Douglass Street, but the new location tries its best to capture the vibe of the original.

The walls have been painted in a bright reddish-pink, replacing the dull grays and greens. The shelves are more sparsely populated with just a handful of stylized martini glasses replacing the potted plants and herb jars that Chef Robert Irvine had decorated Maniaci’s with.

It’s a more polished look than the eclectic Douglass Street location, but while it falls a little short on ambiance, the menu includes all of the Sofrito’s favorites plus a few items you’ll only find in Mohnton.

One of the carry-overs is the Centre Park Urban Salad, a spring mix with tomatoes, purple onions, Spanish olives and roasted red peppers with a rosemary garlic and brown sugar vinaigrette.

The Urban Salad is my favorite starter at Sofrito. I usually prefer creamy dressings, but I love the sweetness that comes through from the brown sugar in the vinaigrette. Onions were scant, and I would have liked to have seen a few more of those, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Among the additions to the menu is the picadillo stuffed poblano pepper.

The pepper was stuffed with ground beef, potatoes, onions and cheese with ranchera sauce, cotija cheese and a dollop of sour cream on top.

Poblanos are mild peppers, but it had a little bit of a kick on the back end. The pepper wasn’t stuffed evenly so some bites had more ground beef, others more potato. Eventually, I just mixed everything on my plate including the rice and beans.

The yellow rice and black beans are another hallmark of Sofrito. The addition of vegetables like celery, carrots and onions add more depth and color and ensure the rice and beans are not just an afterthought.

Another carry-over to the new restaurant is the plantain-encrusted crab cake sandwich. Though we have visited the original Sofrito multiple times, Julie had never tried the crab cake until our meal in Mohnton.

The fried plantains provided a nice change from a traditional crab cake, giving it a little sweeter crust. The cake was also meaty with very little filler, making it rich and filling. The ciabatta bread that it was served on held up well, but the crab cake fell apart easily so it was hard to eat as an actual sandwich.

Finally there are the fresh-cut fries. A must-have accompaniment for any meal at Sofrito, the fries are among the best in Berks. And Sofrito Mohnton has the same slightly crispy, golden brown treats as the original.

Like the original, the prices at Sofrito Mohnton are very reasonable. We spent just shy of $25 for the two of us (including one iced tea).

Sofrito Mohnton is a worthy second act for the celebrated Reading restaurant. Just as importantly, it’s a great addition to the dining scene south of the city.

And for a location that has an infamous history, it’s a restaurant poised to create a positive future.

More Latin American Restaurants in Berks County

Editor’s Note: It’s Just Barbecue is now closed. The restaurant’s last day of business was September 29, 2019. The family announced in a Facebook post that they are stepping away after 12 years in business. A new business, Brothers’ Barbecue, operates in the space.

For the last two years, I’ve been teased with tastes of It’s Just Barbecue and the restaurant’s signature sauces.

We’ve sampled their pulled pork at Iron Chef competitions at Wilson and Hamburg (including the 2015 event where pit master Jeff Stumpf competed in the live cook-off). Every time, we say that we need to try it.

So finally, on an unseasonably warm Saturday, we decided to make the drive north on Route 61, a few miles over the county line to Deer Lake for the full experience.

There’s nothing fancy about the place. If not for the bright pink pig-shaped smoker out front, the restaurant is nearly invisible, set on the back side of the building facing away from traffic.

The pig is so recognizable that most people know the restaurant as the Pink Pig.

Inside, it’s much of the same. Pigs of varying shapes and sizes can be found wherever there is a ledge. Trophies from their barbecue competitions and the Hamburg Iron Chef fill in the bare spots.

After ordering at the counter, most people take their meals to go because the dining room consists of just six wooden picnic tables.

While a steady stream of customers poured in while we were there, we were the first (and for a long time, only) ones to grab a table and enjoy our meal in the restaurant.

The menu doesn’t offer much in the way of variety — it fits on a tri-folded sheet of ordinary paper — but what It’s Just Barbecue lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality.

What I really wanted to try was their ribs, but they were already sold out for the day (like any great barbecue restaurant, the meats are slow-cooked for hours in the smoker so when an item is gone, it’s gone).

Thankfully everything else was still available so I went with a beef brisket platter with baked beans and cinnamon apples on the side.

The brisket is simply outstanding. Though it was pulled apart, you could still see the distinct pink smoke rings, a sign of well-prepared barbecue. And from the first time my fork touched it, the meat fell apart.

Even without the sauce, the meat was juicy and flavorful. The tables all had a bottle of the original house barbecue sauce (which I found to be too sweet for my tastes), I doused my brisket in a full cup of hot and sweet sauce that had just the right amount of after-burn.

The baked beans, like those at any good barbecue joint, are cooked with a little bit of leftover meat. There was just a little bit of pulled pork in mine, and I found myself wanting a little bit more.

The cinnamon apples were also very good, so much so that I was scraping the bottom for the extra syrup that remained when the apples were gone.

Julie’s meal was a little bit lighter than my own. She went with a smoked chicken breast sandwich and a side order of chili.

The chicken, like the brisket, was delicious on its own. It really captured the flavor from the smoker. After pouring on some honey barbecue sauce and closing the bun, it made for an excellent sandwich.

Her chili was a little lacking so she added some of that same honey barbecue sauce to it to give it a little more flavor. I would have probably done the same thing with the hot and sweet sauce if I had ordered the chili; it just needed a little something more.

But it’s hard to complain when the barbecue was as perfect as you will find. The price was great too, with our two meals (plus a couple bottles of iced tea) coming in at just over $25.

It’s Just Barbecue is worth the drive for any lover of smoked meats.

It’s a restaurant that truly lives up to its name.

Editor’s Note: Haag’s Hotel closed in December 2017. The space has not had a restaurant since.

If you don’t live in northwestern Berks County, you may not think of Shartlesville as much of a destination.

But between the miniature village at Roadside America and the demolition derbies and rodeos at Mountain Springs Arena, thousands of people visit the village every year.

For many of those passing through, it means a meal at one of Berks County’s oldest restaurants: Haag’s Hotel.

The business, which has operated in its current building since 1915, is located in the middle of the village at the corner of Main (Old Route 22) and Third Streets. If you’re coming from the south along Wolf Creek Rd, you can’t miss the twin hex signs and “HAAG’S” scrawled across the roof.

Haag’s property is extensive, and includes seven hotel rooms, a large banquet hall, full dining room and a separate bar. It also includes a collection of at least 200 ducks.

The ducks are everywhere. Stuffed. Wooden. Plastic. Rubber. From the moment you walk through the door, you can’t escape them. They’re on the wall. They’re on the window sills. There are even wicker napkin holders shaped like ducks on every table.

At one end of the room is the duck pond, a great mural of a mountain stream at twilight. In front of it is a waterfall, flanked by a flock of ducks (plus a mother goose with gosling and a rubber frog) perched on the rocks.

Oddly enough, there are no ducks on the menu.

Instead, Haag’s offers “classic dishes to satisfy the hardiest appetite,” according to its menu, which features Pennsylvania Dutch-inspired dishes and American comfort food.

That Pennsylvania Dutch influence is found in unexpected places. The pierogis are one example.

While most pierogis are filled with mashed potatoes and cheese, I have never before found some that are filled with Dutch potato filling.

The two main ingredients in potato filling are mashed potatoes and onions, and with the addition of some cheddar cheese, the result was not that far off from a traditional pierogi. I double- and triple-dipped mine into the garlic sauce of garlic butter on the side.

The pierogis would have been better if they had just spent another 30 seconds in the fryer. The filling in the middle was still a little cold, especially the cheese. But the flavor was spot-on.

I struggled to select a main course until my eyes found the Haag’s Dutch Burger. Less a sandwich and more of a monster, the Dutch burger consists of a meatloaf patty that is surrounded in potato filling, then breaded and deep-fried.

You’d be hard-pressed to find anything more Dutchy than a deep-fried ball of meat and potatoes. Somehow I was able to pick up this creation and eat it as a burger, ladling more gravy on with every bite.

It was a lot heavier than I expected, “hardy” as Haag’s would describe it. I really enjoyed the filling, but the meatloaf was lost inside of it. I could have pulled it apart and ate it like a meal, but then I may as well have ordered it as a platter.

With my Dutch burger, I got two sides: French fries and dried corn. The fries were good, but like our pierogis, they could have used a little more time in the fryer. Another minute would have crisped them up nicely. Instead, they were still flavorful, but a little floppy.

The dried corn was not at all what I was expecting. Dried corn normally has a sweet flavor that is amazing when baked. This dried corn was bathed in vinegar. Maybe some old Dutchies like it sour, but I was not a fan.

Julie’s entree was the ultimate in American comfort food: fried chicken. Haag’s version features a “secret blend of breading” that was heavy on the pepper, but quite enjoyable.

On the side, Julie also got the dried corn (and had the same reaction as me) and chicken pot pie. The pot pie was done in true Dutch style with chunks of potatoes and dough (plus a little celery and carrots) mixed in with the chicken. It can’t compare to a good pot pie dinner from your local fire company or church, but it was a nice side dish.

The two of us managed to finish off a lot of food for just a little more than $25. Haag’s initially gained fame for its family-style dining, which is still offered for $18 per person, if you and your party can agree on three entrees to share.

Haag’s has a long and storied history that dates back more than a century. The menu may have been updated since 1915 (and a few more ducks have been added to the dining room), but it still provides familiar meals to those living in and traveling through Shartlesville.