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Review: Isaac’s Famous Grilled Sandwiches

menu cover for Isaac's Famous Grilled Sandwiches featuring a flamingo in the logo

A soup and a sandwich. It’s about as stereotypical a lunch as you will find. That’s probably why so many restaurants offer soup and sandwich specials during the midday rush.

But just because it’s simple, that doesn’t mean it has to be to boring. Some places have taken it beyond grilled cheese and tomato soup.

One of those places is Isaac’s Famous Grilled Sandwiches.

Isaac’s began more than 30 years ago with a single location in downtown Lancaster. From there it has grown into a successful and popular regional chain with 17 locations across six Pennsylvania counties: seven in Lancaster, three each in York and Cumberland, two in Dauphin, one in Chester, and a single location in Berks County.

A bright pink flamingo beckons customers into the Village Square Shopping Center along Broadcasting Road in Wyomissing.

What makes Isaac’s unique from other restaurants is the simplicity of its menu. There are no “dinners,” no smattering of side dishes. Instead, it’s all about soups, salads and sandwiches.

That doesn’t mean the menu lacks variety. On the contrary, there are plenty of options, especially for sandwiches where you can order flatbreads, pretzel sandwiches, French bread sandwiches, Reubens, clubs and more.

Soup offerings are more limited. The creamy pepperjack tomato is available every day, along with one other flavor that rotates daily. According to Isaac’s website, there are more than 100 flavors in rotation.

cup of potato soup with a toast point

On our visit, the soup of the day was potato garlic. With the main ingredients being two of my favorite things, I could not resist ordering a cup. While not overly garlicky, you could definitely pick up its flavor. Every bite it seemed had a sliver of potato skin, which only enhanced the delicious flavors. The soup was complimented by a piece of toast, which did more than just add to the presentation.

As it was December, I decided to be festive with my sandwich choice and order from Isaac’s holiday menu: the swan club.

club sandwich arranged in four corners around a pile of chips

No, there is no swan in the swan club. Every sandwich at Isaac’s is named for a type of bird, and the swan club was the name given to Isaac’s version of the Pilgrim sandwich (better known around here as the Wawa gobbler). The club was stacked with  turkey, brown gravy, bacon, mayo, tomato, lettuce, cranberry sauce (I decided to hold the cheddar). With it soaked in gravy, the middle slice of bread served as a stand-in for stuffing, creating an entire holiday meal in one sandwich. The bacon was a nice addition, adding saltiness and a crunchy texture. What could have been a soggy mess was instead a delicious, cohesive sandwich.

While I was looking for a more substantial sandwich, Isaac’s offers a combo of a bowl of soup and half of a sandwich. Julie decided on a mix of Isaac’s tomato soup and the hoopoe: tun salad, melted cheddar, bacon and tomatoes on multigrain bread.

cup of tomato soup with croutons

The pepperjack cheese gives the tomato soup a completely new flavor, adding both a little spiciness and a little creaminess to the bowl. The homemade croutons only add to it, providing a zesty crunch to compliment the soup.

half a tuna sandwich on multi-grain bread on a plate with chips

The tuna in the sandwich was very flavorful, and mixed very well with the cheddar cheese. And as you know, bacon makes everything better, and it was a welcome addition. Multigrain bread seems odd, but it worked really well to compliment all of the ingredients.

When we finished with our sandwiches and piles of homemade chips, our final food bill was right around $20 (the addition of a couple speckled lemonades brought the total up a little higher).

With a menu that consists almost exclusively of soup and sandwiches, Isaac’s is not your traditional restaurant.

And with soup and sandwiches that are anything but traditional, it’s a great place for lunch or dinner.

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

Isaac’s Restaurant
94 Commerce Dr
Wyomissing, PA 19610

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Road Trip: Dunderbak’s

plate of sliced bratwurst from Dunderbak's in Allentown

Berks County Eats crosses the county line to bring you some of the best dining both near and far. This edition takes us 39 miles north of Reading to Whitehall, Pa.

Most restaurants I visit for Berks County Eats are new to me, a chance to discover something different, something unfamiliar.

And I love being able to experience a new place for the first time and discover something I have never tried before.

But there are also the places that I have been frequenting throughout my lifetime to which I continue to return.

One of those places is Dunderbak’s.

I first visited on a field trip with my high school German class. We watched a German-language performance at the Allentown Symphony Hall, then hopped on the bus and headed to the Lehigh Valley Mall for lunch at the most oddly placed German restaurant I know.

Dunderbak’s is like a whole different world, tucked in the corner of the mall next to Macy’s. A yellow awning with white stripes covers the entire dining room, casting a pale haze over the seats. In the center room, a line of European flags hang suspended from the ceiling. Toward the back of the room, the flags are replaced by a collection of woven baskets.

The menu includes a heavy dose of German-American foods (and like any good German restaurant, the beer list is also extensive, with four German, four Belgian, and four craft beers on tap at all times). German favorites include schnitzel, pork and kraut, sauerbraten and seven different wurst sandwiches.

If you are too busy shopping to enjoy a sit-down meal, wursts are one of many items available to go at the front counter.

Lately our visits have come in December, and there is nothing better than a hot cup of soup to warm you up on a cold shopping day. So I started off my meal with a cup of chicken and dumpling soup.

cup of chicken soup with dumplings and carrots

It’s a hearty soup with very little room for broth among the chunks of chicken, celery and carrots, and the thick round balls of dough. A bowl of it would probably make a satisfying meal; just a cup is enough to spoil even the hungriest appetite.

crock of French onion soup topped with bubbly cheese

Julie also was looking for something to warm her up so she went with what is probably the most un-German thing on the menu, French onion soup. Unlike my own soup, hers was brothy with chunks of onion and bread, but the best part was the melted cheese that filled the top of her crock.

There are very few entrees at Dunderbak’s I haven’t tried (all of them good), and on this occasion I opted for the Munich wurst and pasta: smoked sausage served atop a bed of spaetzel pasta with onions, peppers and mushrooms.

plate with sliced bratwurst and a cup of gravy

Each component of the meal is good in its own right, but what really brings it together is the cup of brown gravy. Once that’s poured on, it gives a little moisture to the spaetzel and compliments the smokiness of the sausage to perfection.

On the side, I enjoyed an order of hot German potato salad. For those who have never had it, it’s almost a cross between roasted potatoes and sauerkraut, with a mostly sour, but not unpleasant, flavor.

plate with a bratwurst loaded with cheese and sauerkraut with a side of fries and a pickle

Next to me, Julie was enjoying the Dunderbrat, one of the seven sausage sandwiches on the menu. The Dunderbrat is a traditional German bratwurst, topped with weinkraut and Swiss cheese. The bitterness of the kraut mixed with the sweetness of the Swiss made for a well-balanced sandwich. Dunderbak’s battered fries are a great addition and an easy way to overdue it.

Normally that would be the end of our meal, but we were dining with some friends and we collectively decided that there was room enough for dessert so we got ourselves an order of apple pie pierogis.

plate of three pastries with dollops of whipped cream

These fried treats, which looked more like hot pockets than pierogis, were filled with cinnamon and apples and served with whipped cream. Fried pies are always good, but the addition of the whipped cream for that little extra sweetness put this over the top.

Eating all of this at lunch time, this served as our last meal of the day so the $40 price tag for the two of us ($80 for our table of four), was well worth it.

Dunderbak’s is always well-worth the (sometimes aggravating) drive to Whitehall and back. It’s great food, an atmosphere unlike any other in the area, and a place that I will continue to come back to for years to come.

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Dessert Lunch & Dinner Reviews
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Review: Tosco Pizza & Italian Restaurant

Lighted sign that reads "Tosco Pizza & Italian Restaurant"

When you see an Italian restaurant in a strip mall, it’s easy to dismiss it as just another pizza shop.

We have been conditioned to believe that sit down restaurants are found in stand-alone buildings while strip malls are nothing more than take-out counters, a place to grab dinner on the way home, not to pull up a chair and enjoy a nice meal.

But if you discount these restaurants all together, you are missing out.

When Tosco Pizza & Italian Restaurant opened up between Robesonia and Wernersville (it has a Wernersville address, but is barely outside the Robesonia borough limits), it looked to be just another pizza shop.

Prior to Tosco’s arrival in 2011, the space housed a Chinese restaurant, and before that, a sandwich shop. Both were standard, non-descript restaurants offering nothing but counter service.

mural on a wall depicting a coastal town in Italy in the 18th century

Tosco took a different approach. Renting out the adjacent space, the restaurant created a connected dining room.  Paintings of the Italian coast adorn the walls above the wooden booths. It’s a rustic feel throughout, except for out-of-place flat screen TV on the back wall.

In addition to pizza, the menu includes a wide range of pastas as well as wings, cheesesteaks, hot and cold sandwiches, burgers and an entire line-up of sandwiches served atop garlic bread.

basket of garlic knots

While garlic bread is reserved for sandwiches, each meal is served with a basket of fresh-baked garlic knots. These little beauties are exactly what they sound like: knots of dough that are slathered in butter and minced garlic. If only they were served with a side of marinara, I could make these delicious bites into a meal.

Catching my eye on the way in was the daily special, written on a chalkboard at the entrance to the dining room.

tri-color tortellini topped with a light red sauce

The tri-color cheese tortellini was tossed with chicken and rapini in a creamy tomato sauce. I tried to get a little bit of everything, but there wasn’t room on the fork for much more than the little pasta pockets. Still, the tortellini were small enough that the cheese filling did not overpower the pasta. As I dug in to the seemingly endless bowl, each bite was better than the last as the tortellini soaked up the rich flavors of the sauce.

Along with the garlic knots, each meal also comes with a starter salad. With as large as the bowl of pasta was, I almost wish they would skip the salad because the last thing I needed was something to fill up on before my tortellini arrived.

But if you are craving salad for dinner, Tosco’s specialty salads are perfectly sized for a hearty meal.

In the mood for something  “healthy,” Julie opted for a cheesesteak salad, one of nearly 20 salad options on the menu.

salad topped with steak meat and cheese

The base salad was similar to mine, a bed of lettuce topped with shredded carrots and ribbons of onions. The difference is the pile of shredded beef and melted American cheese on top, which turned this from an oversized appetizer into a legitimate main course.

With large menus comes a wide range of prices. Our meal came in around $25, but you can easily spend less if you are willing to split a large sandwich, or a little more if you are looking only at entrees.

If you were driving past Tosco, you probably wouldn’t even guess that entrees were an option. From the outside, it looks like a typical pizza and sandwich shop.

But looks can be deceiving. A strip mall is an unlikely place for a real Italian restaurant, but sometimes you find great things in unexpected places.

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

Tosco Pizza & Italian Restaurant
6889 Penn Ave
Wernersville, PA 19565

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Italian Lunch & Dinner Reviews
Sign reading "Bowers Hotel"
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Review: Bowers Hotel

Sign reading "Bowers Hotel"

For a small town, Bowers offers a lot to the culinary scene in Berks County. Most notably, the tiny village of 326 residents is home to the Bowers Chile Pepper Festival, one of the largest festivals of its kind in the country.

But it is more than just a once-a-year destination for foodies. Like all small communities, Bowers has its own gathering place, one that serves great food and drinks to neighbors and strangers alike.

The Bowers Hotel has a long history that dates back to 1820 when Jonas Bower (of the family from whom Bowers is named) built a small log cabin that served as a tavern.

More than 100 years have passed since the log cabin was replaced by the current two-story structure, but the hotel does not show its age. It maintains some 19th century charm in the wallpaper (red with beautiful white scrolling) and dim overhead lighting with votive candles on the tables, but the tables and chairs are much newer and add a modern feel to the historic property.

We were seated in the first of what are three partially divided dining rooms with a more “early bird” crowd while later arrivals were seated in the far room where a jazz band kicked off their set toward the end of our meal.

two seeded dinner rolls in a basket

The menu also recalls the past with traditional dishes like liver and onions, shepherds pie, oyster pie and chicken pot pie (not the Pennsylvania Dutch favorite, but the baked-in-a-crust kind). And like most traditional restaurants, all meals are served with a basket of warm baked rolls.

rectangular plate with four pierogies sitting on cream sauce

We started our meal with the most interestingly named appetizer on the menu, pierogies au schpeck. The potato-filled pierogies were wrapped in strips of bacon and served atop a bed of sour cream, chives and sautéed onions.

The result was a cross between a pierogi and a baked potato, deep-fried and delicious. It had the perfect mix of texture, the crispy outer shell and bacon mixed with the fluffy potatoes and dense, creamy sauce made for an exceptional appetizer.

For my main course, I didn’t go in looking for something simple, but upon seeing pork and sauerkraut on the weekend specials, my decision was made.

plate with pork and saurkraut and a side of mashed potatoes

Pork and sauerkraut may be the most quintessential of German American dishes, one that is normally reserved for New Year’s Day. But there’s no rule that says you can’t get some good luck in mid-November. And while I can’t confirm that the pork and sauerkraut brought me good luck, I can tell you that the Bowers Hotel brought me some darn good pork and sauerkraut.

The key to the dish is the sauerkraut: too sour and it leaves a poor taste in your mouth, not sour enough and you lose the flavor. This sauerkraut was done just right, injecting a jolt of acidity into the pork. Adding mashed potatoes to every forkful made it even better.

plate of chicken parmesan with garlic bread

Also opting for traditional, Julie decided on chicken Parmesan for her main dish. The chicken and spaghetti were covered in a thick tomato sauce and a layer of melted cheese. It was just about as good as any Italian restaurant.

We were tempted to continue our meal with dessert, but I managed to show restraint and leave on a full stomach instead of an overly full one. With Julie’s addition of an apple cider sangria, our total bill came to just over $40.

I always love things that are new and different, but sometimes it is good to remember that the classics are classics for a reason. And the Bowers Hotel does classics as well as anyone.

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

Bowers Hotel
298 Bowers Rd
Bowers, PA 19511

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Exterior view of a restaurant at night with blue lights that read "Coastal Grille"
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Review: Coastal Grille

brick wall with a blue-lit sign that reads "Coastal Grille"

As a general rule, I will never visit a restaurant during their first month in business.

It’s not that I’m not anxious to try new places. I am.

It’s not that I don’t want to give them business. I do.

It’s that I don’t want my opinion of a restaurant to be clouded by a bad experience early in its life. I hear stories all the time from people who go to a restaurant during its first two weeks, and all they talk about is how long the wait is, and how long it took to get drinks, and how long it took to get food.

So I wait. Not in an hour-long line to get in, but until the restaurant has had some practice. No amount of mock service days can prepare you for when the open sign comes on for the first time and you have customers waiting out the door.

That’s why I waited until recently to make my first trip to Coastal Grille.

Coastal Grille opened in late September in the Broadcasting Square Shopping Center, taking over a building that has seen Uno Chicago Grill, Mason’s Chophouse and, most recently, Seafood Shanty come and go.

Like Seafood Shanty before it, the new restaurant plays heavily toward the seafood lover. The connection to the ocean is apparent from the moment you walk through the door and see the large aquarium that separates the main dining room from the bar. Silver sculptures of deep sea fish hang on the wall, shimmering brilliantly between the windows.

More than a month removed from their opening, Coastal Grille was still packed on this Saturday night. Many more people streamed in behind us during our 30-minute wait until we were escorted to our table.

loaf of ciabatta bread with a cup of butter

The menu is heavily inspired by the sea, but it does borrow a few favorites from its sister restaurant, Austin’s, including baby back ribs and shoestring fries. And like Austin’s, you have the option to begin your meal with a loaf of bread. In this case, it’s a warm, fresh-baked ciabatta that required all the willpower we had not to devour before our food arrived.

As someone who prefers animals that graze to those that swim, I passed on the surf and opted instead for turf with the Reggae Ribeye.

steak smothered in sauce on a plate with green beans and potato chips

The menu describes the Reggae Ribeye as a 12 oz. steak that was marinated and basted in a sweet and spicy sauce. I was expecting a typical steak that had maybe been brushed once or twice during cooking. What I got was a beautiful cut of meat, glistening from the reflection of the light on the sticky sauce.

A rush of flavors hit my tongue on the first bite. The sauce tasted like a mixture of teriyaki, barbecue and chili oil, a mild kick tempered by the cooling sweetness, with a hint of salt besides. Cooked medium well, with just a hint of pink in the middle,  it was one of the best restaurant steaks I have ordered.

All of their grilled specialties, and most of the entrees on the menu, are served with the vegetable of the day and a choice of side. While I love Austin’s shoestring fries, I knew I needed to change things up so I opted for house-made chips instead. The kettle-cooked chips were extra dark—not burnt—sealing in the flavors absorbed during the cooking process.

Caesar salad topped with large croutons and shredded parmesan

While none of the entrees include a starter salad, you can substitute a salad as one of your sides. That’s exactly what Julie decided to do, opting for Caesar. The leafy greens were piled high on the plate and topped with deliciously flavorful croutons that were obviously homemade.

baked haddock from Coastal Grille

Deciding that at least one of us had to order seafood, she decided on the Boston baked haddock for her entree. The fish was topped with a garlic cream sauce with lumps of shrimp and crab. The dish offered a mix of flavors and textures, with the cream sauce bringing everything together in a coherent dish.

Sadly, dinner proved too much for me and dessert was not in the cards. It was especially disappointing after seeing a Chocolate Bag walk past me. The Chocolate Bag is a dessert unique to Coastal Grille: hardened chocolate in the shape of a small bag, filled to the brim with whipped cream and topped with cherries. I may or may not have let out an audible “oooh” when it came near.

Instead we called it quits after our entrees, our total bill coming out to about $45.

After waiting a month (and an extra 30 minutes) my first visit to Coastal Grille did not disappoint.

I’m happy we waited, and will be even happier when we go back again soon.

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

Coastal Grille
2713 N. Meridian Blvd
Wyomissing, PA 19610

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Finer Dining Lunch & Dinner Reviews
white pizza with meatballs
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Review: Paradise by the Slice

Editor’s Note: Paradise by the Slice was sold to new owners in 2019.

As part of National Pizza Month, I have spent four weeks sampling some of the most clever and unique pies in Berks County.

Each restaurant has impressed in a different way, taking pizza in completely opposite—but delicious—directions.

Still, the question remained: Who has the best pizza in Berks County?

Despite devoting my October to finding the answer (I stopped counting after my 15th slice), it’s a question that I would be hard-pressed to answer.

What I did know is that my research would not be complete until I tasted the pizza from the restaurant that was voted Best in Berks 2013 by the readers of Berks County Living: Paradise by the Slice.

Wernersville is no island paradise, and the restaurant’s logo—a pizza slice sitting on a beach chair underneath a palm tree—certainly seems out of place on a cool fall evening.

One of the things I am always looking for is the unique: unique food, unique experiences, or anything else that sets the restaurant apart from their competition. So when I found out that Paradise by the Slice has their own app, I didn’t hesitate to download it.

screenshot of an app with a logo for Paradise by the Slice

The app is just a cleaner version of the restaurant’s webpage with options to view photos, get directions, follow them on social media, learn about the restaurant, and order on your phone.

In all my times of ordering take-out on my phone, it has been the old-fashioned way (10 digits, speak to an actual person, hope they get the order right). But after using Paradise’s app, I’m hoping more restaurants offer online take-out ordering because it made it fast, easy and convenient—three of the four things you look for when ordering take-out.

screenshot of an app showing confirmation of a pizza order

The fourth thing, of course, is the food. And with a Best of Berks award in their back pocket, I wasn’t too worried about that when I walked up to the take-out counter (which, oddly enough, is completely detached from the rest of the restaurant).

I resisted the temptation to sneak a slice on the drive home, a difficult task when you’re trapped in a car that smells like cheese and garlic for 15 minutes.

After finally arriving home, I threw open the lid and got my first look at the White Meatball Pizza.

white pizza with meatballs and ricotta

The 14″ pie was topped with garlic butter sauce, sliced meatballs (cut to look more like pepperoni) and mozzarella with handfuls of ricotta, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes strewn about on top.

It’s rare to find any dish—pizza or otherwise—that doesn’t pair meatballs with marinara sauce (Swedish meatballs being the exception) so I was intrigued by the combination of them with the garlic sauce. But I can safely say that it worked.

The key was proportions: there was not too much of any one ingredient to overpower the rest. The sauce was very light, just brushed onto the crust before the toppings were added, and though you could certainly taste the garlic, it wasn’t overly strong. The meatballs, by virtue of being cut so thin, were also milder, and with the mozzarella in between, it wasn’t that much different than taking a bite out of a meatball sandwich.

If one ingredient did stand out over the rest, it was the ricotta, and I think it’s because it was such an unusual topping. The fresh cheese was dropped on in clumps, and while it is a very mild cheese by comparison, getting a mouthful of it really changed the flavor, making it a little sweeter with a light texture.

basket of fries topped with sesoning

Wanting to try more than just pizza, we added a side order of Paradise’s beach fries. Advertised as hand-cut to order, they were reminiscent of Boardwalk fries, thin-cut with potato skins clinging to the ends. Though they were very good, I wish we could have enjoyed them fresh from the fryer at the restaurant because the container had begun to sweat on the ride home, making them a little soggy. I’m sure they would have been even better on the table.

As has been the case with most of my pizza adventures, the meal was too much for two people so Julie and I had two slices and a serving of fries to put in the fridge so we could stretch our $20 across two days.

If you asked me if Paradise by the Slice is the “Best in Berks,” I don’t know that I could give you a definitive answer.

But if you asked me if I would go back again, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: N/A
Price: Reasonable

Paradise by the Slice
63 E. Penn Ave
Wernersville, PA 19565

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Lunch & Dinner Pizzerias Reviews
Best Pizza: Nonno Alby's
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Review: Nonno Alby’s Brick Oven Pizza

sign that reads "nonno Alby's wood oven pizza" with a drawing of a pizza man in front of a brick oven

For many, food is a family affair.

Whether gathering the family around the dinner table at home or at your favorite restaurant or helping your mother or father in the kitchen as they make your favorite recipe, food has a way of bringing families together.

The same holds true for restauranteurs, where children are brought in to the family business at a young age in hopes that they will someday carry on their parents’ legacy.

In the case of the Nonno Alby’s Brick Oven Pizza, it means proud parents watching their children take what they have learned and create something uniquely their own.

Opened in 2013, Nonno Alby’s occupies the original G.N.A. Ristorante property in West Reading. The second generation of the Grande family named the restaurant for their father Alby, who still oversees operations at G.N.A., now located just a few blocks east.

While Nonno Alby’s and G.N.A. have a family connection, the two restaurants are vastly different. While G.N.A. offers a fairly expansive menu of Italian dinners, sandwiches and pizza, Nonno Alby’s is all about pizza and burgers.

Walking through the front door, you can see the heat glowing from the brick oven behind the bar at the far end of the dining room. Unfortunatley we lost site of the glowing coals once we were seated on the opposite side of the room divider.

The only deviation from burgers and pizza is found in the appetizers, mostly sharable salads, but a sign at the front door advertised the addition of baked wings to the menu. Our waittress read off the available flavors and suggested honey BBQ (which is not actually on the menu, but honey and BBQ are, and the two are easily mixed). It did not take much to sell us on it so a few minutes later we had a plate of 10 wings in front of us.

plate of bbq wings with carrots and celery and a cup of ranch dressing

Served on a plate with mixed vegetables and a cup of ranch (bleu cheese is also available, if you are so inclined), the wings were glistening with the honey-infused glaze.

Baking them gave them a nice crisp, but not as much as if they were fried. The honey came through more than the barbecue sauce, giving them a nice sweet flavor.

The wings were just a precursor to the pizza. While most pizza places offer small and large pies, Nonno Alby’s only serves individual 12″ pies, each with its own signature toppings, many of which are imported from Italy.

My eye did not have to travel far to find my pizza of choice as the namesake Nonno Alby’s pizza was at the top of the list. The Nonno Alby’s is topped with imported San Marazano tomato, buffalo mozzarella, fresh Italian sausage, sauteed rapini (broccoli raub) and red pepper flakes.

pizza with golden crust topped with mozzarella, broccoli rabe and sausage

Brick oven pizza has a crispier crust than traditional pies. Slices are rigid so you don’t have to worry about the toppings sliding off as it sags. Every bite included a healthy helping of toppings that hit on a wide range of flavor profiles. Sweet ground tomatoes, mild heat  from the ground sausage and buffalo mozzarella, and the slightly bitter rapini came together for a memorable pizza.

In the seat next to me, Julie had ordered something completely different: the Bianca (white) pizza. Her pie was topped with baby arugula, buffalo mozzarella, proscuitto di Parma, shaved Parmigiano Reggiano and extra virgin olive oil.

pizza with golden crust topped with prosciutto, arugula and shaved parmesan cheese

As much as I enjoyed my own pie, hers may have been even better. I have never been a fan of white pizza, but I think that’s because it usually comes sans toppings. This was something completely different. The proscuitto, and even the parmesan, gave it a salty flavor while the arugula leaves helped to tone it down just enough that instead of becoming overpowering, it was near perfect.

In hindsight, we did not need to order so much food. Though we certainly got our money’s worth for $40, we would have been fine skipping the wings, or we could have justed ordered a single pizza with the wings and been fine. As it was, Julie took home two slices while I cleaned my plate but probably shouldn’t have.

Nonno Alby’s continues a family tradition of serving great food in Berks County.

If I were Alby, I would be proud to have my name attached to the restaurant.

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

Nonno Alby’s Brick Oven Pizza
701 Penn Ave
West Reading, PA 19611

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Review: Bella’s Subs & Pizza – CLOSED

small building with red and white siding and a sign that reads "Bell's Subs & Pizza"

Editor’s Note: Bella’s has closed. The location is now home to San’s Sushi, Poke, Ramen.

The great thing about pizza is that there is no “right way” to do it.

A Yelp search for pizza shows more than 250 results for Berks County, and that means more than 250 different styles of pizza to choose from.

Most of the differences are subtle: lighter or heavier sauce, spicier or milder pepperoni, thicker or thinner crust.

But then there are the places who are serving something that strays a little farther from the round pie with canned sauce and shredded mozzarella.

Bella’s Pizza opened in 2013 in a small location along State Hill Road. The building, which had previously housed a Coney Island hot dog stand (and before that, a patio store) is actually connected to the much larger Kwik Stop convenience store.

Seating is limited, especially when the weather renders the outdoor picnic tables useless. Thankfully delivery is available for those of us fortunate enough to live close enough to the restaurant, and I will happily trade the 45-minute wait for the convenience of delivery.

The restaurant offers more than pizza. Their menu boldly proclaims the “best cheese steaks in town.” There are also plenty of hot and cold sandwich options, six flavors of wings, burgers, salads and traditional Italian dinners.

While all of those sound appealing, one item on the menu stood out to me: grandma pizza.

Maybe it was the yellow highlights around the three grandma pizza options, or maybe it was the description (“THIN CRUSTY SICILIAN Delicious!“). Either way, I was having a Tony’s Special Grandma Pizza delivered to my door.

I knew from the description that I was getting a Sicilian pizza with roasted peppers, tomatoes, mozzarella and spinach, but that does not begin to describe the beautiful pie that was inside the box.

Like all Sicilian pizzas, it was a large, square pie, but that was where the similarities ended.

square pizza topped with cubes of mozzarella, chunks of tomato, and spinach leaves

Fresh ingredients meant bright colors as the golden brown crust was topped with alternating bursts of milk white, bright red and deep green. The fresh mozzarella was dropped on in chunks, too big to melt during its trip through the oven. Large slices of tomato and whole spinach leaves were scattered about as well.

Though every bite included the crunch from the crispy crust, the layering of ingredients meant each was different. Sometimes it was the creamy taste of the mozzarella, or the sweetness of the tomato, or the mild bitterness of the spinach, or a combination of all three. In any case, every bite was enjoyable.

Nervous that a single pie would not be enough for myself and my three hungry friends, we added a Bella’s Special to our order.

pizza topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions and peppers

A more traditional round pie, the Bella’s Special was loaded with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions and green peppers. Everything about it was very good, from the slightly spicy pepperoni to the generous helpings of veggies (I have never had a pizza with too many onions), but after experiencing the uniqueness of the Grandma pizza, this pie just could not compete.

Sadly, two pies proved to be too much for us, but we could all agree that the pizzas, especially the Grandma , were well worth the price (just over $40 after tipping our delivery guy).

Our two pizzas could not have been more different. And while I would like to say they were equally enjoyable, one was clearly a notch above the other.

There may not be one “right way” to make a pizza, but Bella’s Grandma pizza was definitely done right.

BCE Rating
Food: Good
Service: Good
Ambiance: N/A
Price: Reasonable

Bella’s Subs & Pizza
1912 State Hill Rd
Wyomissing, PA 19610

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Review: Island Pizza

large building with a neon sign palm tree and the words "Island Pizza"

No one would ever confuse Berks County for the Caribbean.

Reading is a long way from Aruba. Birdsboro is very different from Barbados.

But there is a place in eastern Berks County that at least tries to make it feel a little more like the islands.

Island Pizza sits along Route 422, about 10 minutes east of the city. The building sits on an “island,” its neon palm tree shining bright atop a hill high above the highway.

With the divided highway, the only way to reach it from the west is through one of those jug handle turns that are a rarity in Berks County.

But there is more different about this place than turning right to go left.

mural with an iguana and parrot in an orange sky with the sun in the upper right

Inside, every square inch of the walls are covered in bright murals depicting parrots, flowers and iguanas. An underwater scene adorns the short wall at the kitchen counter, with crabs and clownfish and others brought to life in vivid color.

order counter with a painted mural of multi-colored fish

The menu is a lot larger than I would have thought. In addition to more than 20 specialty pizza options— most of them featuring island names like the Martinique (chicken, red onion, tomatoes, bell peppers and mozzarella) and the Bermuda (white pizza with fresh garlic, broccoli and spinach)—the restaurant features burgers, steak sandwiches and hoagies.

Island Pizza is also “crazy about fries” with 18 styles that range from Cajun and seasoned fries to ranch bacon cheese and pulled pork BBQ. We decided to go with something a little more Italian in nature with the Parmesan garlic fries.

basket of fries topped with parmesan and minced garlic

Too hungry to wait for our pizza, we asked to have our fries first. The crispy fries were dusted with in powdery Parmesan; a small pool of oil had gathered at the bottom of the basket. The fries at the bottom were too soggy to pick up without a fork, but using a fork was only a minor inconvenience.

The fries were greasy and good, and the garlicky sauce was doubly good, serving as a convenient dipping sauce for the pizza yet to come.

stuffed pizza with a cup of tomato sauce for dipping

For our pizza, we decided to go all-out with a gourmet stuffed pizza, the Aruba.

stuffed pizza with the top peeled back to show the sausage and cheese inside

Peeling back the doughy lid revealed a meat-lovers dream, filled with meatballs, sausage, pepperoni, ham, bacon and mozzarella.

Everything about it was excellent. All of the meats worked well together with the pepperoni adding just a hint of spice to the pie. The sauce, served in a bowl on the side, was thick marinara that added just a little sweetness. in the end though, I dipped more into the garlic sauce from the fries than I did in the marinara.

The pizza, which cost about $20, was enough to easily feed a family of four. After we each finished two of the oversized slices (mine were bigger than Julie’s, of course), we still had two slices left for lunch later in the week.

It may not be the Caribbean,  but Island Pizza is an oasis of sorts, a relaxing place friendly service.

And some darn good pizza.

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

Island Pizza
3060 Limekiln Rd
Birdsboro, PA 19508

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Road Trip: Franz’s Tavern

White and green sign the words Franz's Tavern and Restaurant

Editor’s Note: Franz’s Tavern is now closed.

Berks County Eats crosses the county line to bring you some of the best dining both near and far. This edition takes us 27 miles west of Reading to Lebanon, PA.

As a lover of unique, home town restaurants, I love checking out Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network.

Guy Fieri may rub some people the wrong way, but he is essentially doing the same thing that Berks County Eats does every week: exposing people to new restaurants and new flavors that they may not have known about before.

What I love most about the show are not the diners (though there is something awesome about the stainless steel dining cars) or the drive-ins, but the dives—those hole-in-the-wall places that may not look like much from the outside, but are serving up food that is as good as any fine dining restaurant.

I don’t know that I have found any place that exemplifies the dive quite like Lebanon’s Franz’s Tavern and Restaurant.

Heading south along Route 897, it’s easy to overlook the haggard-looking building on the left side of the road.

We were seated in the corner of an enclosed porch with light strips on the ceiling and thin carpet on the floor. The shelf above us was crammed with a conglomeration of books that ranged from the Fanny Farmer 1896 Cook Book and 500 Soup Recipes to Real Hauntings and World Explorers and Discoverers.

stacks of cookbooks on a wooden shelf

I have to admit that the shear number of cook books (especially generic cook books like Pasta Cook Book and Soups and Sandwiches) made me more than a little nervous, but my concerns were eased when our bread basket came out.

basket filled with assorted bread

Instead of slices of white bread, the basket included a variety of homemade treats including sesame bread sticks, fresh-baked dinner rolls and even a slice of chocolate bread, which tasted just like a moist brownie without the mess of the cake and icing.

We had a lengthy wait for our entrees as everything at Franz’s Tavern is made to order. Thankfully the bread was enough to hold my growling stomach at bay for 30 minutes.

When my pork scallopine arrived, I was shocked, both with the portion size and presentation.

large pasta noodles covered in cheese and sauce

The wide, curly strips of pasta were topped with a healthy layers of tomato sauce, melted cheese and grated Parmesan.  Hiding underneath it all were three cuts of pork loin, each one about the size of a large steak.

Everything was exceptional, starting with the homemade pasta, which had a nice density that allowed all of the sauce and cheese to stick to it. The pork was also cooked to perfection, holding its own with the sweet, rich sauce and perfect pasta.

chicken parmesan atop a bed of large pasta noodles with green beans

All of the meals at Franz’s Tavern are served in gargantuan proportions. Julie’s order of chicken Parmesan was almost identical to my own with crispy breaded chicken in place of the pork. Hand-breaded, the chicken had a nice golden-brown tint and great flavor.

Neither of us had enough room to finish our meals, so for about $30, we got what amounted to four meals. Four delicious meals.

The Tavern’s menu includes many more robust entrees including fish and chips, crab cakes, fried shrimp, wings and their “range-free” chicken sandwiches. Add that to a robust drink menu, and you have a restaurant that can satisfy all of your cravings.

Remember the old saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover? In the case of Franz’s Tavern, that certainly holds true. Outside of the restaurant, only the full parking lot gives any indication of the culinary treasures inside.

It may be a dive, but it’s darn good food.

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