For someone who lives in Wyomissing, I make a lot of trips to Boyertown. I’m a member at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles, Jakob is obsessed with the Brickworks (a LEGO store in downtown), and there are some great restaurants.
But I also drive past a lot of restaurants on my way to and from Boyertown. On a recent visit, I finally stopped at one of them – Antonio’s Trattoria.
Antonio’s operates in the former Woods Pub building along Route 73. I had driven past the building many times in recent years – and every time the electronic sign attached to the Woods Pub sign had the same message – closed.
It was pretty apparent that the temporary closure was permanent. And eventually, after a lengthy renovation process, Antonio’s opened in August 2023.
My first visit came a few months later in November. With baby carrier in tow, I stepped into the dining room for the first time and was extremely impressed by the work inside.
Outside, the building doesn’t look like much (though it looks a lot better in the shades of white and gray than it did when it was painted green). But inside, the work that was done was evident.
There were new floors throughout – some hardwood, some tile. In one corner was a quaint fireplace. And the bar had a cool factor thanks to the sheet metal base and wooden top.
I was seated near the window looking out on Route 73. It was a small annex that originally would have been a porch that was enclosed years ago.
The waitress was very friendly and I had my food a short time after I placed my order – a Brooklyn cob pizza with a side of hand-cut fries.I ordered more food than I could eat, knowing that I would be taking some home for leftovers.
The Brooklyn cob pizza was a special offering – sharp provolone under marinara sauce, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
With the light cheese on top combined with the sweet sauce, it had the feel of a freshly made tomato pie. But with a crust that was nice and crisp. It was a great offering, and one that I hope comes back some day because I would definitely order it again.
It was a great first impression with delicious food and friendly staff that will definitely have me coming back.
Next time, I’ll bring the family so I don’t have to eat it all alone.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Very Good Price: $$
Antonio’s Trattoria 1636 W. Philadelphia Avenue Boyertown, PA 19512
Editor’s Note: Nino’s has new owners since this review.
For nine years, Julie and I lived in the Berkshire Heights neighborhood of Wyomissing. We loved the location – close to the highway and within walking distance of all the great restaurants in West Reading.
We also had some great restaurants closer to home. Willoughby’s on Park is one of our favorites for fine dining. Mikura always had delicious Asian-inspired meals. And I had many chai tea lattes from the Park Road Café.
But the one place we had never visited was the restaurant that had been there the longest: Nino’s Pizzeria.
Nino’s is in their 26th year of serving Wyomissing and Berks County. When we knew we were going to be moving, Julie and I made a promise that we had to have dinner from Nino’s at least once before we left.
One night after packing boxes all day, we called in an order, and I walked down the street to the little Italian restaurant in the strip mall. On many of our walks, we would see people sitting inside enjoying their meals, but the chairs were all up on the tables when I walked in, a symptom of the COVID-19 pandemic and the tight restrictions on dine-in.
Talking with the owners, it was easy to understand their decision to focus exclusively on takeout and delivery. With such a small space, 25% capacity would only allow them to seat about 12 people. And with the extra protocols around cleaning and sanitizing tables, it just didn’t make financial sense to offer table service.
But the phone-in orders seemed to be coming in at a steady pace. And I was anxious to get the food back to the house to finally try it.
Julie and I had both opted for one of their Italian dinners. Julie went with her personal favorite, baked ziti, while I ordered the homemade lasagna.
Anytime I order from a restaurant that has a large menu – as Nino’s does – I am drawn to anything that says “homemade.” The connotation, at least, is that the dish takes time to make and it is one that the owners are proud to serve.
By the time I got home the lasagna was not much to look at – it shifted around in the foil packaging so it looked like a blob of cheese atop a blob of pasta and sauce – but it sure tasted good.
The menu describes the meat sauce as slightly sweet with a rich flavor, and I can’t describe it any better than that. The lasagna noodles weren’t the thinnest that I have seen, but they weren’t thick either. And there was plenty of cheese on top. It was definitely worthy of the “homemade” distinction.
Julie’s baked ziti was also very good (and also tasted much better than it looked in the to-go packaging). The tomato sauce was a little sweeter than the meat sauce on my lasagna, probably just because it didn’t have the extra savory element to it.
Both meals also came with a side salad and homemade bread. The side salads were pretty typical – lettuce with red onion, a slice of tomato and choice of dressing. But the bread was much more than typical.
Normally when something comes with bread, I expect a slice or two. Both Julie and I got – essentially – a whole loaf of bread with our meals. We were happy to enjoy it with several more meals throughout the week.
I can say for sure that Nino’s didn’t skimp on quality or portions. And at around $35, we certainly got our money’s worth.
I’m really not sure why it took us so long to get to Nino’s – perhaps we just took for granted that it was there – but we wish we would have gone sooner.
The good news is, we didn’t move that far away so there’s nothing stopping us from going back again.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Very Good Price: Reasonable
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 October 2017, we made a visit to Gino’s Grille just outside Shillington. The restaurant had just opened two months prior, giving Gino’s a second restaurant. The original – Gino’s Cafe – continued to operate a few blocks away.
Despite what appeared to be creating its own competition, Gino’s Cafe is still going strong. A few weeks ago, we made our first visit to the flagship restaurant in Gino’s portfolio.
Unlike Gino’s Grille which sits right along Lancaster Pike,
the Cafe is located off the main drag in a strip mall on Broad Street, across
the street from Geoff Penske Buick GMC.
Taking up just one storefront in the strip, Gino’s certainly
doesn’t have the largest dining room in Berks County but the tables are packed
in, and they needed everyone of them when we visited on a recent Saturday
night. We arrived early – Julie, Jakob and I. It was around 4:30, and the Cafe
was already busy. It only got busier. By the time we left, there wasn’t a seat
left.
Our waitress arrived fairly quickly to take our orders and
we had our salads within 10 minutes of sitting down.
The salads are simple with lettuce, some tomatoes, a slice
of cucumber and red onion that was sliced paper thin. It wasn’t anything
special, but it served its purpose.
We had a much longer wait after the salads. Twenty minutes
went past and instead of food being delivered to our table, we received a
basket of garlic bread that we assume was meant to be delivered with the salad,
if not before. “I think this is for your table,” I heard our waitress
say.
In the cramped confines of the Cafe, the waitresses had
nowhere to hide their frustration – and sometimes, confusion. We were seated in
the first row of tables, right in front of the counter and the soda fountain
where drinks were refilled. I heard the waitresses trying to figure out who
should take the next table that arrived. I heard confusion in the take-out area
about order numbers.
It’s the type of confusion and controlled chaos that
probably happens at a lot of places. But here, with no place to hide, I could
see and hear it all unfolding in front of me.
The good news is that our meals were delivered right after
the bread. I should also note that the garlic bread was very good. The bread
was sliced thin and every piece was very buttery with just enough garlic to
give it a nice flavor. I could have eaten them as a snack.
For my entree selection, I had a hard time deciding. For a
small restaurant, the menu is disproportionately large. There are more than 25
options in the pasta section of the menu, and that doesn’t include another 25
or so dinners that are served with pasta on the side (not to mention the subs,
burgers, pizza, salads and wraps).
Eventually I settled on the “Chef Tortellini” which had tortellini pasta with Bolognese sauce, peas and mushrooms. I always enjoy tortellini, and I’ve had it plenty of times before on the blog, but I’ve never had it with Bolognese.
I enjoyed the combination of the tortellini with the
flavorful meat sauce. I thought it went very well together. The Bolognese had a
nice, meaty flavor to it. But I didn’t think the mushrooms and peas added much
to the overall dish. I certainly didn’t mind them being there, but neither
flavor really stood out against the strong sauce.
It was also a heavy dish. I had to take half of it home with
me when the meal was done.
The same was true for Julie with her baked ziti. It was your
typical baked ziti with a sweet marinara sauce topped with mozzarella. The
addition of a little ricotta cheese gave the dish a bit of creaminess and a little
different texture from other baked ziti dishes we’ve tried. It was very good,
but like my own, half of it came home with us at the end of the meal.
Gino’s has a decent kids menu, mostly pasta with a few
sandwiches thrown in (and pizza, of course). We ordered Jakob the kids’ ravioli.
The pockets of pasta were smothered in a mound of mozzarella cheese. The
full-size raviolis were good, but Jakob probably would have been happy just
eating all that cheese.
(At one point I gave him one of my tortellini and he kept
asking for more of my food instead of eating his own).
Our final bill at the end of the night was right around $40.
It’s a fair price, especially for the hearty portions. And other than the
garlic bread arriving late to the party, our service was good. What I saw and
heard just seemed like the staff wasn’t exactly working like a well-oiled
machine, at least during our visit.
Still, we found Gino’s worth a visit. Maybe next time I’ll
request a table by the window, at the far end of the dining room, away from the
commotion.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Good Ambiance: Good Price: Reasonable
One of the places that has been on my list to try for a long time isn’t really a restaurant. It’s more of a grocery store. But it’s also so much more than that.
Russo Market is a little off the beaten path, away from Penn Ave along Bern Road in Wyomissing, near the Works, Building 24 and Gold’s Gym.
Julie has enjoyed many lunches at Russo, but never with me. I finally had the chance to change that on a recent afternoon.
The drab exterior of Russo Market had not prepared me for the vast market inside. The building opens up to aisles of pasta, imported sauces, beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), frozen treats, and other foods from Italy, Greece and beyond.
At the back of the market is the hot and prepared foods area. There are sheets of Sicilian pizza waiting to take another trip through the oven; a hot bar filled with meals like lasagna, meatballs and fried mozzarella; and a large salad bar that’s better than most restaurants.
There’s even an olive bar with more types of olives than I knew existed.
Guests can do their grocery shopping, grab lunch (or dinner – Russo is open until the early evening most days) and pay for everything together at the registers near the entrance. For those dining in, there’s a nice dining area with booths, tables and mini curtains to separate diners from the checkout area.
I was excited to try the pizza so I ordered two kinds: pepperoni and margherita.
The Sicilian-style pies featured a slightly thicker dough with a small crust around the edges. Both squares were end pieces so they had nice crusts.
The pepperoni pie was your basic Sicilian pizza, but I really liked the pepperoni choice. They were a little spicier and more flavorful than at some restaurants, and it made it more enjoyable.
On the margherita, I was very impressed. What looked like just a pile of mozzarella, tomato and basil actually was a delicious meal. Each ingredient was fresh and full of flavor, and even though I never had a bite with all three toppings at once, I enjoyed it from start to finish.
Across the table from me, Julie had built quite the salad for herself. Among the greens, she added carrots, mozzarella, cucumber, red pepper, pepperoni, tomato, bacon bits, croutons, tortellini pasta salad and her personal favorite, tuna salad.
Tuna salad is one of Julie’s favorite foods, and Russo has the best around, according to her expert opinion (I am not a fan of tuna or mayo so I will take her word for it).
Her eyes were a little too big for her stomach. Declaring she was getting full, Julie started skipping the salad and eating just “the good stuff.”
It’s really no surprise that the foods at the market are so good. Russo is also a wholesale distributor, supplying ingredients to Italian restaurants all around the region.
For our meals, plus a water, an iced tea, and a quart of soup to take home, we spent around $25. It was only after our lunch that we explored the market more, salivating over the bakery section with homemade cannoli, tiramisu and more desserts that we could no longer fit in our stomachs.
But now that I have finally enjoyed my first taste of Russo, I have no doubt that I will be back to enjoy even more of their Italian meals (and sweets).
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Ambiance: Good Service: Good Price: Reasonable
When it comes to meals for Berks County Eats, I’ve found that some of best meals are the ones that are unplanned. They are the places we go on the spur of the moment or out of necessity.
Recently, we had to make a trip to the Berks County Recycling Center to drop off some old electronics. The Recycling Center is located near the new Reading Fairgrounds and Berks Heim. There are no restaurants in the immediate area, but there a few that are nearby on Route 183, including Plum Creek Farm and the Blue Marsh Italian Restaurant.
Last year, we paid a visit to Gino’s Grille to try their new wood-fired pizza. It was a good, but slow meal. The menu at Blue Marsh had some similarities so it seemed like a good place to try, especially being just five minutes away.
We arrived around 11:30 a.m. for an early lunch. When Jakob is along, we try to eat early so he doesn’t become too much of a distraction (or nuisance) to other patrons. Having the dining room to ourselves is just fine with us.
Apparently we were the earliest Saturday customers ever for our server Kailey. She told us that she has never really had anyone before 2:30.
While there are a lot of Italian dinner options, the menu does lend itself well for lunch, especially with the sandwich selections.
Julie ordered a small hot chicken Caprese sandwich. It came topped with mozzarella, tomato, chicken, basil and balsamic vinegar.
The sandwich was very good, from the toasted roll to the fresh basil leaves, it had good flavor throughout. It was exactly what she expected out of a Caprese salad-inspired sandwich.
And it was the perfect size for lunch. Served with chips, it was light but filling.
Craving a good pizza, I ordered a small (12-inch) margherita pizza, knowing that I wouldn’t finish the whole pie during lunch.
Margherita pizza is a personal favorite of mine. The fresh mozzarella – not shredded – along with tomato and basil make a delicious combination. And the sparse toppings allow me to taste every ingredient for what it is.
I was very impressed. The sauce was delicious, a little on the sweet side. The mozzarella was nicely spread out on the pie. I was surprised by the sliced tomatoes. It’s not uncommon on margherita pizza, but I’ve found more crushed tomato on the pies I’ve tasted around Berks. I certainly didn’t mind it either.
I found the crust to be solid as well, crispy around the edges but not burnt. The slices did sag when picked up, though. But I have zero complaints about the flavor.
I also have no complaints about the price. For the pizza, sandwich and a glass of iced tea, it was only $20 and change. That’s not bad at all for what turned out to be a private dining experience.
And while no one else joined us in the dining room, there were plenty of takeout orders and even a few customers that made their way to the bar located on the other side of the building.
If we find ourselves in the area again, I could easily see us making another stop.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Price: Very Reasonable
Blue Marsh Italian Restaurant 5035 Bernville Rd Bernville, PA 19506
In summer 2017, Salute Ristorante Italiano in Sinking Spring began advertising Dante’s 900, a new artisan pizza shop that would open in the space next door. It was at the top of our list to visit during our annual National Pizza Month celebration in October.
Unfortunately, “soon” was a little further off in the future as Dante’s didn’t open until after the new year.
So it was back on our list – at the very top of the list – of new pizza places to check out.
Dante’s website and PDF menu both tout the hours as 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
What neither mentions is that the dining room is only open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. We didn’t find that out until we walked through the front door and saw the note where a “please wait to be seated” sign would be expected. Instead, the sign pointed us next door to Salute for the wood-fired pizza.
Salute is a very nice restaurant, a date night place that’s more upscale than most restaurants where we take Jakob. (In fact, Julie and I visited for Valentine’s Day in 2015). But we had to roll with it and after our second time asking for a high chair, we were all set in a corner booth, separated as far as possible from the rest of the dining room.
Our service wasn’t great on this night. The specials were not explained well to us (the explanation we received was different than what the table behind us received). And after Julie and I both ordered Caesar salads, we were given house salads with balsamic vinaigrette.
Not wanting to waste food, we ate them without complaining. I’m not big on balsamic, but the dressing was actually very good, much thicker than most vinaigrettes that I have tried.
But it wasn’t a Caesar salad.
Sitting down in the main dining room and looking at the full Salute menu, I couldn’t help but change my plans. The weekly specials were inspired by Tuscany (our waitress was able to explain that the chef is doing a taste of Italy, crafting menu items themed by region), and one of those specials was the tortelli alla Mugellana - potato filled ravioli with duck ragu.
I felt guilty for not ordering pizza, but I didn’t feel guilty after eating this. It was delicious. The filling was like a well-seasoned side of mashed potatoes. It was a perfect pairing with the duck ragu.
The dark duck meat was rich and done very well. The ragu itself was a little sweet. Together, it was beautifully cohesive dish, one that I would happily order again.
Julie stuck with the original plan and ordered one of the personal sized, wood-fired pizzas. Her choice: the pizza Montanara.
It featured mozzarella, mushrooms, sausage and white truffle Béchamel sauce.
After all the anticipation, we both had to admit that it fell a little flat. Or floppy, to be more accurate. The dough was not thick enough at the center to hold the heavy toppings. And, of course, all of the toppings slid to the center.
But the flavors were there. The Béchamel sauce was excellent, and gave it a creamier taste. It paired really well with the savory sausage. The mushrooms were just kind of there. If you absolutely love mushrooms, I suppose they were a good addition.
The pizza, and our visit, was certainly not what we expected. There were bright spots, for sure. But overall, the experience was not on the same level as our Valentine’s Day trip three years ago.
And I wouldn’t put it near the top of the list for celebrating #NationalPizzaMonth again.
BCE Rating Food: Good to Very Good Service: Poor Ambiance: Very Good Value: Reasonable
Salute Ristorante Italiano / Dante’s 900 4716 Penn Ave Sinking Spring, PA 19608
In 2015, we paid a visit to what became one of our favorite Italian restaurants in Berks County – Basil Restaurant and Pizzeria.
Located in the village of Fritztown, just outside of Sinking Spring, Basil was headed by Chef Gianluca Longo, whose resume included stints working for Giorgio Armani’s restaurant in Milan and De Niro’s Restaurant in Miami.
The restaurant closed abruptly in April 2017, and in its place, Cosa Pizzeria and Restaurant arrived. Cosa was a worthy replacement, but unfortunately it closed after less than a year.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2018, and what’s old is new again. Juliana’s is the new restaurant in town, but it’s headed by a familiar face – Chef Gianluca.
The interior of the restaurant has evolved. It’s still split into two seating areas, but they feel more cohesive, whereas before there was a distinct difference between the restaurant and the pizzeria. A bar has been added, replacing the waterfall that once adorned the dining room wall.
Juliana’s menu features a mix of classic Italian pasta dishes, pizza and sandwiches with rotating dinner specials.
We started our meal with an order of homemade ricotta balls. The cheese was rolled, baked to a light crisp on the outside, and served in the house marinara sauce.
The red sauce was nearly perfect – thick with tomatoes and just a little sweet. The ricotta melted in your mouth and worked so well with the sauce. It was an excellent starter.
Also with our meals came starter salads with choice of dressing. I enjoyed the fact that the salads were actually prepared – instead of whole cherry tomatoes and large slivers of onion, both were diced and mixed in with the greens. It wasn’t the largest salad but it was large enough with a full meal to follow.
I ordered my entree, the pasta al forno, off the special menu. The dish featured penne pasta in Bolognese sauce with soppressata (a type of salami), ham, peas and mozzarella.
I have to say, first impressions were not that impressive. The Bolognese was fine but my first bite had just ham, and it really didn’t do much for me.
Then I took a bite with the soppressata, and the whole complexion of the dish changed. The meat was packed with flavor, a spice that complemented the Bolognese perfectly. And after that first bite, the flavor stuck with me through the whole plate. The longer I ate, the more the flavors mixed and the better the dish became.
Julie ordered the tagliatelle alle Norcina off the regular dinner menu. Her pasta was tossed with pancetta (think Italian bacon) and onions in a white cream truffle sauce.
She really enjoyed her dish. Pancetta is a great addition to any pasta dish, but it starred here. The truffle sauce was a perfect partner for the salty pancetta. The pasta was homemade and cooked perfectly tender. And the shaved parmesan finished off the dish nicely.
I also want to mention the complimentary bread basket that included slices of olive loaf and toasted Italian bread served with oil and balsamic. Did we need it? No. Did we eat it all? Yes.
Our service was also very good – though there really were not many other people in the restaurant with us for our Sunday dinner. (It was the first week of pro football so I didn’t expect to have much company).
The final bill – just shy of $50 – felt right for a nice night out.
We’re happy that Juliana’s is here. Basil was a favorite of ours and our extended family and the new restaurant, while completely renovated, feels familiar.
And the food is just as good as we could have hoped.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Good Price: Reasonable
Juliana’s 776 Fritztown Rd Sinking Spring, PA 19608
There’s always an anticipation around a new restaurant opening. Sometimes there’s a lot of hype; sometimes there’s only a little. But there’s always people who are anxious to try it and anxious to taste it.
When the restaurant is reopening, that anticipation is even greater. A loyal customer base is waiting to return. And the longer the wait, it seems, the larger that customer base becomes as word spreads.
In December 2015, a fire broke out in the restaurant. It seemed like a small fire and that clean up and repairs wouldn’t take too long.
But days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years. Instead of repairing the building, it had to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch. Driving between Wernersville and Robesonia on Route 422, we could watch the painfully slow progress that was being made.
In late April of this year, we drove past and for the first time in 29 months, the parking lot was filled with customers and not construction equipment. Calabria was back.
Fast forward to June, and we paid our first ever visit to Calabria. Despite growing up in Robesonia, I had never stepped foot in the old Calabria. I remember the building looking more like a dive, but the rebuilt restaurant is a thing of beauty. The outside is clean and modern with large curved windows and a hint of Old World in the brick facade.
Inside, the bar and dining area are much nicer than I would have imagined. The black tablecloths with white disposable covers make it feel like a premium dining experience. While the blue uplighting at the ceiling and around the bar make it feel cool.
Julie, Jakob and I were joined by our friends Matt and Tori. Matt is a lifetime resident of Wernersville, and like me, had never eaten at the old Calabria.
It was a Wednesday evening, and the parking lot was packed. We didn’t have reservations, but we only had to wait a minute or two for a table to be cleared before we were seated.
Our meals started with a basket of garlic bread, complimentary with the purchase of an entree. The bread was sliced small so the slices were easily snackable. Though not toasted to a total crisp, there was plenty of garlic and butter flavor throughout. We ate through them quickly and almost finished the entire second basket that came during our dinner.
Entrees were also served with a simple house salad or Caesar. The house salad came with mixed greens, two large slices of tomato and cucumber – the usual. It was topped with shredded mozzarella, a nice touch, and served with your choice of dressing. There were no complaints at all from the table about the salads.
Our entrees arrived relatively quickly. Each of us ordered a different Italian pasta dinner. For me, it was the tortellini in vodka sauce.
Vodka sauce (a creamy tomato sauce infused with vodka) is not something that I normally order when I dine out, but it caught my eye and I had to give it a try.
It was a good dish. The tortellini (I choose meat instead of cheese) was small so it looked like I ate more than I actually did. The sauce was good and very creamy. There wasn’t a lot of herbiness to it, but it was still a good dish, overall.
Julie ordered her favorite Italian meal: baked ziti. This was different than most versions of the dish that she has tried. Normally, it’s a lot of the traditional red sauce with cheese on top. This version was cheesier with a mix of red sauce and ricotta that gave it a different texture and a slightly different flavor.
It was a good change of pace, something that definitely stood out. She wouldn’t call it her favorite version, but it was good.
Matt’s manicotti was loaded with both ricotta and red sauce. The oversized stuffed pasta was a hit. I got to try a bite. I thought the red sauce was good, nothing outstanding, but the dish overall was good.
Tori also enjoyed her chicken Parmesan. There was more than enough chicken – plenty of it went home – and the rest of the plate was filled with pasta. As far as our party was concerned, we had four meals, and four winners.
For Julie and I, our total bill came to about $35, average for what a similar meal would cost at Italian restaurants across Berks County.
I have to say, Calabria made a great first impression on us. The food was very good. The service was great. And the building, itself, just seemed to enhance the experience.
And judging by the parking lot every time we drive past, it’s made a good impression on a lot of others, too.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Great Ambiance: Great Value: Reasonable
Calabria Italian Restaurant 6646 Penn Ave Wernersville, PA 19565
Driving past the restaurant along Lancaster Pike, you don’t get a proper sense for the scale of the building. Entering into the take-out counter, we were led to a booth in the back corner of a spacious dining room.
The decor was a bit clichéd, just another Italian restaurant only larger. A doorway opened into the bar area, itself a spacious dining area with even more seating. And with unseasonably warm temperatures, the outdoor patio was also in full swing.
If I totaled up all of the tables in the restaurant, Paolo’s has to be among the largest capacities in the county.
Julie and I arrived hungry for our dinner and needed something to hold us over until our pizzas would arrive. Opting to go light for our appetizer, we both made trips to the salad bar.
We had passed the salad bar – and its the three rows of ingredients, add-ons and dressings – on the way to our table, and it looked appealing enough.
I built a rather simple salad with broccoli, cucumber, red onion and ranch dressing. Skipping on the vegetables, Julie loaded her salad with cheese, pasta salad, bacon bits and ranch dressing (with a few cherry tomatoes for show).
All of the ingredients were fresh – not always the case at salad bars – so we were pleased.
The pizza was up after about 20 minutes, good timing because we had just finished our salads. And both pies looked amazing.
Julie and I each ordered personal 12-inch pies knowing that we would be taking some home with us when our meal was finished.
As much as I love trying foods that are unique and inspired, I love pepperoni pizza. And there was a lot to love with Paolo’s version.
It was a beautiful pie with a crisp, but not overcooked, crust. It was a little on the greasy side, but it should be. It’s a pepperoni pizza after all.
There was also a generous amount of pepperoni, enough that most bites were popping with that salty, savory flavor. Overall, it was a great pie, and one that I would happily order again.
Julie went with a “lighter” pie, a white pizza with broccoli. It was good, but not my style. I much prefer white pizza with ricotta, not mozzarella. It’s a richer, more flavorful cheese. For me, this pizza lost something in the cheese.
As predicted, several slices were leftover when we were finished. Julie enjoyed them for lunch later in the week. Despite getting multiple meals out of our food, the $40 price tag felt expensive.
Our one-time trips to the salad bar were $6 each. That’s a lot for just salad, even if it is build-your-own. We could have saved $2 each by ordered side salads, but the extra cost seemed worth it for making them to our liking.
I was impressed by my first visit to Paolo’s. And clearly many other people are impressed, too. With as many seats and as much parking as the restaurant has, it’s clear that the business has built up a loyal following.
Add two more to the list of satisfied customers after our visit.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Good Ambiance: Very Good Price: A Little Pricey
Paolo’s Restaurant & Bar 2480 Lancaster Pk Reading, PA 19607
