Don’t get me wrong, there are some great restaurants in Berks County that have adventurous, creative menus. But for a quick lunch or a simple dinner with the family, less is more.
The restaurant has been a staple on Lancaster Avenue for more than 45 years. While the sign out front is retro cool, the inside feels clean and modern with wood floors, black tables and chairs, counter seating and a stainless steel order counter.
Above the order counter, the menu is scrawled out in colored marker on a black dry-erase board. It’s simple at its core: burgers and hot dogs (with hamburger BBQ and a pork roll sandwich thrown in) with fries, coleslaw and soup on the side.
Simple doesn’t mean boring, though. There are more than 20 specialty dogs and burgers to choose from, everything from California cheeseburgers and Chicago dogs to local twists like the Berks County dog with American cheese, scrapple and bacon or the Pagoda dog topped with hamburger BBQ.
I was flying solo on my visit and wanted to taste as much as I could so I ordered a Coney burger, a bacon BBQ dog and a small order of fries.
My food was out quickly – the burgers and dogs were ready and just needed assembling. I started in on the burger first, a traditional Coney burger with chili and cooked onions. The no-bean chili sauce was mild with a subtle flavor compared to the onions. The burger, itself, was a pretty standard fast-food patty so the chili did add a little extra savory flavor to it. The bun was a bit soggy by the end, but I had the fries to scoop up any sauce that fell out.
The fries were very good, fresh-cut and piping hot. The closest comparison I have to them are the fries from the Oley Fair. I gave them a little spritz of vinegar from the squeeze bottle on one of the tables and enjoyed every bite.
The hot dog was solid, too. It came topped with cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce and a strip of bacon. The Dog House uses Berks hot dogs, which I love. And BBQ bacon is usually my go-to burger order so I knew I would enjoy the flavor combination of the toppings.
With a bottle of iced tea to go with it, my total was just $17. It was more than enough food (though I forced it all, anyway), and I would have been fine with either a burger or a hot dog so I count this among the best bargains out there.
There’s nothing fancy about The Dog House. It’s good food and fast service – simplicity at its best.
BCE Rating Food: Good Ambiance: Good Service: Very Good Price: $
The Dog House 1216 Lancaster Avenue Reading, PA 19607
I can think of several locations around Berks County that feel like a revolving door for restaurants. Each time, I think “this is the one that’s going to stick.”
One of those locations is 100 Constitution Boulevard in Kutztown, currently the home of Saucony Cafe.
This is actually the fourth time we’ve reviewed a restaurant in this space. One of our earliest blogs was CC’s Wooden Grill which closed in 2014. We also visited Potts’ U Hot Dogs (2016) and Mad Dogs (2018).
Saucony Cafe took over the space in 2022, already outlasting its two most recent predecessors. It helps that the business began across town seven years earlier.
I arrived on a Thursday afternoon in June – the students were all home for the summer and the Cafe was quiet. It was clear they weren’t expecting dine-in guests – boxes of supplies were on a table by the front door, and the lights were dimmed at the far end of the space.
After I ordered, I took a seat at one of the three available tables. In just five minutes, my food arrived.
I ordered a rodeo burger – onion rings, bacon and BBQ sauce – with fries. I had watched as the burger was hand-patted while I paid so I knew it was fresh. And you could taste the difference in the first bite.
I’ve had many similar burgers, and this was one of the best. The twin patties were smashed thin so they caramelized on the outside. The onion rings were good, the bacon was excellent, and there was plenty of sweet BBQ sauce on top.
The battered fries on the side were perfect for cleaning up the sauce that fell on the plate. They were hot and crispy, perfect on their own or to dip.
With my Icy Tea, the meal came to about $18, a fair price for the portion sizes and quality. I would order again, but with a less-than-inviting dining room, I would probably stick to takeout.
Although this was my first visit to the Saucony Cafe, I had tried their food the prior week at the Cougar Cafe, the snack bar at Kutztown Park where Jakob was playing in a baseball tournament.
On that day, I had a chicken bacon ranch sandwich. The chicken breast patty was fried to order so it came out piping hot. It was loaded with ranch dressing and bacon. Unlike some places that put strips of bacon on top, this featured finely chopped bacon which ensured that salty and savory flavor in every bite of the sandwich.The seeded roll was a nice touch.
And on the side, I had the same delicious fries they serve at the restaurant.
They also have indoor seating with sports trophies adorning the walls around the brick structure. Just be aware that the building is not air conditioned so it didn’t provide any relief from the 90-degree heat outside.
If you’re attending an event at the park, I recommend grabbing a bite from them. And I would definitely recommend a burger from the Saucony Cafe.
With good food like this, it has a great chance to be the restaurant that finally works in this location.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Poor Price: $$
If there’s one thing that almost every Berks Countian loves, it’s a good deal. When you have kids, finding those deals is even more important. That’s why I have a guide on Berks County Eats highlighting all of the restaurants that offer free kids meals.
On a recent Sunday night, with Julie out of town, I found myself looking for a spot to take our boys (Jakob – 8 and Lukas – 2) for dinner.
I wanted to take advantage of a free kids meal, if I could, and we had several choices of where to find one on a Sunday night. One of those restaurants is Copperz Brewing in Hamburg.
This was not our first visit to Copperz – Julie and I had brought Jakob in 2022, when it was just the three of us. This time, I had Jakob’s little brother in tow for his first visit.
We arrived just at 5 p.m. I was surprised to see so many cars in the parking lot already as that’s usually early enough to beat the crowds. Once inside, we saw a few other families taking advantage of the Sunday special as we sat in one of the last two open tables.
Thankfully, Copperz has a fairly large dining room with tables for six along the wall, four-seaters in the middle and plenty of bar seating. Behind our table were two large brown couches. At the opposite corner, a party of eight was gathered at tables by the door. A few more tables were set up outside, but we didn’t dare brave the heat and late afternoon sun.
We made some quick decisions on dinner and when our server arrived to greet us, we already knew what we wanted. Just 20 minutes after we arrived and 15 minutes after we ordered, our food arrived.
I had decided on one of the restaurant’s signature sandwiches: the brewdaddy. It starts with a pretzel bun with either a burger or chicken sandwich (I chose a burger) topped with spring mix greens, bacon, beer cheese and “a drizzle of hot honey.”
Even though I don’t drink beer, I really enjoy beer cheese on a burger or a sandwich. This was no exception. The flavor was solid – with that little bit of hoppiness coming through. The bacon was a true star, with little hints of heat and sweet pairing well with the salty bacon.
The burger was served with fries (a slight upcharge from the chips). The golden battered dipped fries were excellent, but I couldn’t finish them as large as the burger was.
Jakob happily helped me with them. He had ordered the kids’ flatbread pizza – a half flatbread topped with sauce, mozzarella and seasonings. It’s not “real” pizza, but it was solid. And it was much better than the frozen stuff we’ve found on some kids’ menus.
And with it only being a half of a flatbread, Jakob was happy to finish off the fries that I couldn’t.
Lukas got his own fries with his chicken nuggz kids meal. (The flatbread is the only kids meal that doesn’t come with a side). The chicken was more like boneless wings than generic nuggets. Of course, Lukas had to start with his fries – eating all of them so he only had enough room for two of his nuggets. Again, they could have taken the easy way out with the kids meal, but it felt like we got quality.
Jakob’s flatbread was $5, the cheaper of the two, so that was taken off our bill, bringing the total down to about $35, a reasonable price for three meals (with an iced tea for me and a lemonade for Jakob).
We loved our food and had a good time. At the end of our meal though, we found ourselves waiting for our check as our server was tending the bar. But we were still in and out of the restaurant in under an hour.
Overall, it was a great boys’ night out. And we made a great choice when we chose Copperz.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Service: Good Price: $$
Copperz Brewing Co. 798 S. Fourth Street Hamburg, PA 19526
As much as I try to get to all parts of the county, it’s easier said than done. Places with more restaurants – like Reading, West Reading, Boyertown and Kutztown – get more reviews than the rest of Berks.
For whatever reason, the southern end of the county is the one that seems to be the hardest for me to get to. But there are great restaurants to be found in and around Morgantown – restaurants like Nuse’s Deli.
Nuse’s Deli has been serving Morgantown since 1986. New owners arrived in 2019, and they have grown and expanded in the years since. This included adding new menu items like specialty burgers and fries, ice cream and milkshakes, and a variety of sandwich options.
In 2025, the business grew its footprint, moving to a larger space next door in the former Clair’s Family Restaurant.
I made my first visit in early April 2026, arriving a little past 12 noon. There were a couple parking spaces available in front of the restaurant along Main Street (Route 23), but I guess everyone was parked around back because the tables were packed.
The restaurant is split into two sides. The first has a handful of booths around the perimeter with the order counter and deli case at the far end. On the other side of the separating wall is another dining area with larger tables and more booth seats, along with Nuse’s ice cream counter.
I ordered a burger and fries, fully expecting to grab some ice cream before I left. But when the burger arrived at my table, I realized that was not going to happen.
Somehow I missed that these were half-pound burgers. And with my Texas BBQ burger, I also got two onion rings, cheddar cheese, lettuce and BBQ sauce on top.
I’ve had similar style burgers in other places, but this one stood out to me. And it wasn’t just the size. The sauce was just the right amount of sweet, and the onion rings were the right size for burger-toppers. There was a little too much bun, but everything else about the burger was as good as I could have hoped.
The fries arrived five minutes later, and I was already deep into my burger. There was certainly no skimping on portions as the boat was filled with thick-cut fries. Maybe it was the fact that they were hot and fresh out of the fryer, but I absolutely loved the fries. They were golden and crispy, and they were perfect with a little dash of salt.
My only regret is that with so much food already, there was no way I could handle a milkshake on this visit.
That will have to wait until next time. And I’m sure my next trip to Morgantown will be sooner than later.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Ambiance: Good Service: Very Good Price: $$
Over the years, the Shillington Farmers Market has been home to some of our favorite spots. Brocmar Smokehouse and Matt’s Chicken were favorites before they closed while Eve’s Thai Kitchen remains one of our go-tos.
And now, I can add That Burger Place to the list of great offerings at the market.
That Burger Place opened in late 2023 as Shillington Burgers and More in the former Matt’s Chicken stand. It became That Burger Place in early 2024, and last year, the business moved to a larger stand at the north end of the market.
I visited for the first time in early January. The stand was hopping at lunchtime with a line of people waiting for their food and another two people in line in front of me waiting to order.
The menu is written out on blackboards on the front of the stand. It starts with cheeseburger combos – quarter-pound burgers with fries and a drink for $8. Other options include grilled chicken, pulled pork and chopped cheese.
Normally, I would have started with the basics but not knowing when I’d make it back, I couldn’t pass on the January burger of the month: the French dip burger.
Roast beef and Cooper sharp cheese topped the burger which came with a side cup of au jus for dipping. After about a 15-minute wait (all burgers are made to order), I got my food and headed to the upstairs seating area.
To say I was impressed would be an understatement. The burger, itself, was delicious: perfectly cooked and flavorful on its own. The roast beef on top was also flavorful and the Cooper sharp was a great choice for the cheese – melty, but not overpowering in flavor. That Burger Place couldn’t have made a better first impression.
The fries were also good. Though they weren’t anything particularly special, they were hot, golden yellow, and perfectly satisfying while allowing the burger to be the rightful star.
I enjoyed the meal so much that I had to go back for another taste. This time, it was a simpler burger.
The standard toppings are cheese, mustard, ketchup and pickles. I prefer the classic lettuce, tomato and onion so I passed on those toppings and spent the extra dollar for the veggies while also adding some BBQ sauce. It was about a 10-minute wait while they made everything fresh, then I made the short drive home rather than eating at the market.
Everything traveled very well. The burger was excellent again with the patty showing a nice caramelization as it hung out the sides of the bun. It was good from the first bite to the last. The fries also held up well on the trip home and remained crispy.
The prices are excellent, too. The French dip special was $13 for the combo while my custom burger combo was still less than $10. Two meals for less than $25 is a great bargain, but the best part is that That Burger Place doesn’t sacrifice quality for those prices. These are some of the best burgers in Berks at half the price of a sit-down restaurant.
I know I’ll be paying more attention to their monthly burger specials, looking for an excuse to return. Not that I need one, the burgers at That Burger Place are just that good.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Good Price: $
That Burger Place Shillington Farmers Market 10 S. Summit Avenue Shillington, PA 19607
State Hill Craft opened in 2023 in the former Tino’s/Santino’s along State Hill Road. It’s always been an awkward location with limited parking. That was partially solved when the restaurant purchased the adjoining property and expanded with a new patio and larger parking lot. Even so, we still found a full parking lot when we arrived for dinner on a Friday night in December.
We had reservations, so we weren’t worried, but it turned out the crowd was for a private party on the patio and there were plenty of tables for us in the main dining room.
We were seated at a table for two at one end of a large oval-shaped banquette. Julie sat on the blue leather booth side while I took the chair. Behind me were two tables against a wall with two mirrors. More black tables with blue chairs lined the front wall.
Our first trip to State Hill came in November 2023. I wasn’t writing reviews at the time, but we were incredibly impressed with our meals that night.
I had the umami bomb pasta – a mushroom-infused pasta dish with miso cashew cream while Julie had the coho salmon. It was absolutely excellent, and while the gray-tint of the pasta didn’t make it the most appealing visually, the earthiness of the mushrooms combined with the nutty sweetness of the miso cashew was so good.
But by the time I got back to writing reviews, they had already swapped out their seasonal menu and the pasta was gone.
The menu has morphed many times since our visit, and the latest iteration came out in November. It’s a mix of large and small plates with a few sandwiches and burger options. There’s nothing quite as adventurous as the umami bomb, but even familiar items had a little bit of a unique twist to them.
For example, my billionaire smash. The traditional smashburger got an upscale makeover with wagyu beef, truffle aioli, bacon onion jam, smoked cheddar, lettuce, and tomato.
As much as I love a good aioli, it was the bacon jam that made this a great burger. The salty-sweet combination is just a great addition. I had just a few bites where I didn’t get enough of the jam, but others where it really shone through.
The fries were also delicious. It didn’t list it on the menu, but I’m guessing it was garlic, parmesan and herbs. They were addictive, and I just had to finish them, even after I was full.
Julie ended up taking some of her meal home. She had the wagyu meatloaf which came with an applejack demi glace, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus and crispy shallots.
Like my burger, the wagyu beef had a deeper flavor than regular ground beef to start. But the applejack demi-glace, with its sweetness and little bit of bite to it, was excellent. It made it feel like something more than meatloaf.
Part of the reason that she took half of it home was that we started with an order of birria bao buns.
The fluffy buns were filled with birria-style short rib, red onion, cilantro, and mozzarella. On the side was birria consomme. We found the consomme to be more like a spicy chili rather than a traditional broth, but I really enjoyed it. The bao soaked it up well and we each finished off one-and-a-half of them before our entrees arrived.
Overall, it was a great meal for a great date night.
In addition to the food, Julie had a strawberry “no-jito” mocktail that she really liked, and I had my unsweetened iced tea. We spent $65 after using a $10 off coupon. Even at full price, it felt reasonable for the quality of the food.
State Hill Craft impressed on our first visit and our latest visit, and we are looking forward to more impressive meals to come.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Excellent
State Hill Craft Cocktails & Kitchen 1 Wellington Blvd Wyomissing, PA 19610
In September, Julie and I made our first visit to the Black Sheep Tavern. As is the case with nearly all of our blogs, we went unannounced so we could get a true feel for the experience and the food. No special treatment. No free meals.
When the owners saw the review, they invited me in for a second visit to meet with them and to learn more about the history of the building. (And they did offer us a free meal this time).
So on a Sunday in early October, we drove out Fritztown Road once again, this time to meet with Darrell and Carol. From the first introduction, it was clear how much the tavern and its history means to them.
A Deep Connection
Darrell’s personal connection with the building goes back to his childhood. His father was a friend of the owner so he spent a lot of time during his childhood hanging out at what was then Die Scheier (“The Barn” in Pennsylvania Dutch).
Standing in the main dining room, he points to the patches of lighter color on the wood-paneled walls. A small strip by the bathroom door was where the pool cues hung. Photos of Italy hung in a row along the opposite wall. After the walls were cleaned, it left these small hints to old decor, the places where the wall protected from the cigarette smoke that filled the room decades ago.
Cleaning the space was no easy task, nor bringing the building back to life after 25 years of sitting vacant. Darrell said that it was 22 months from the time he bought the building until the Black Sheep opened in the spring of 2025.
And that doesn’t include the months it took just to get in touch with the right people about purchasing it. Spring Township had all but given up on finding someone to fix up the property and at first wouldn’t answer Darrell’s calls.
But thankfully they did because the owners have taken great care of the century-old property that served as a speakeasy 100 years ago.
The Original Speakeasy
While upstairs is a gorgeously remodeled bar and restaurant, the downstairs is where men gathered in secret to enjoy drinks and other illicit activities during prohibition. (The owners joke that in the 1920s, “it offered drinking, gambling, and prostitution but today it only offers two out of three, you decide which two”).
Back then, the property was owned by Ralph and Anna Riffert. They operated a legitimate business, as well, installing a gas pump to make it one of the only service stations along the stretch of Fritztown Road while Anna’s ham sandwiches drew in repeat customers. The Black Sheep upholds that tradition with Anna’s ham and cheese sandwich as a staple of the menu.
Darrell and Carol took us on a tour of the downstairs where the original bar still sits. According to Darrell, the last time the basement was used was during the 1970s, and that was only for band practice. It hadn’t served a drink for decades at that point.
The original wooden bar looked like it could use some TLC but otherwise had survived rather well. Behind it was the metal sink and a wooden back bar that was looking a little worse for wear.
A staircase on the right dead-ends now, hitting the floor of the dining room. A hidden door would have opened here 100 years ago, letting thirsty patrons downstairs to their true destination.
Attention to Detail, Rooted in Community
While the family is working to clean up and restore the downstairs, it won’t quite be original. That’s because much of the usable material from the basement was incorporated into the upstairs remodel. The original floorboards – the usable ones at least – are now the floor of the game room. The sink from the downstairs bathroom was also moved upstairs (the antiquated style required a variance). And wood panelling from the walls became the front of the upstairs bar.
Hearing Darrell talk about every detail, it’s clear how much he cares about the building. Restoring it has been a labor of love for Darrell, Carol, and Darrell’s 91-year-old father who has done much of the woodwork, including customizing the server stand by the kitchen door. The stand, which he cut from eight foot to six foot, came from the former American House which operated just up the road in Fritztown. (Darrell told me that the American House had its own hidden history as a stop on the Underground Railroad).
And the dining room tables? Look closely because they are made from the alleys of the former Berks Lanes, now Bowlero. The lanes were repurposed into tables for the bowling alley’s onsite restaurant then known as Gilligan’s Pub. The pub’s former cutting boards are also now serving as tables inside the Black Sheep.
The Black Sheep obviously takes pride in local history. That extends to Wilson High School where Darrell is an alumnus. (His father graduated from the former Sinking Spring High School). When they found out Julie was also a Wilson grad, they insisted that she sign the alumni book, an old black-and-white covered notebook where line after line of Wilson and Sinking Spring graduates have signed their name and year.
Another Fine Meal
The challenge for the restaurant and bar is to live up to the building’s rich history, and so far, they are succeeding. In addition to our tour, we also had another great meal.
It started with an order of sweet potato fries as an appetizer. Julie had tried them when she came with some work colleagues a few weeks prior, and they were very good. The waffle-cut fries were served with a sweet maple dipping sauce. It was almost like eating sweet potato pancakes.
Our meals came out a short while later. On our last visit, I had enjoyed the rumrunner burger but I wanted to switch it up this time. So I decided to try the Virginia Hill burger. Named for the former girlfriend of mobster Bugsy Siegel (who also has a sandwich named after him), the Virginia Hill is a blended burger with onions and jalapenos cooked into the patty, topped with pepperjack cheese.
It was flavorful, but I wouldn’t say it was spicy. The peppers didn’t overpower the burger, just adding little hints, enough that I quickly went through my glass of iced tea, but not enough that I ever felt a burning. It was a very, very good burger.
Even though we had the sweet potato fries, I still got regular fries as my side. They were crispier than last time, maybe slightly overdone, but still good.
Julie passed on chips and fries with her sandwich, the Bugsy Siegel. (Look at us making the perfect pair). Julie chose grilled chicken for the protein, saying she wasn’t feeling a burger that day. And the sandwich that came topped with pastrami and kraut.
The chicken and pastrami played better together than she expected, and everything on it was cooked well. The sandwich also came with mobster sauce, which she described as like a Thousand Island but with a little kick to it. But it was a good kick that helped pull the whole sandwich together.
Even though we were offered dessert, we had to pass, and instead spent another 20 minutes or so talking about little details about the tavern – like the original supporting posts and beams, the nearly hidden stained glass window by the front the door (custom fitted by Darrell’s father), and the digital fish tank that is framed out by the historic fireplace in the corner.
As much as we enjoyed our first visit to the Black Sheep Tavern, we appreciate it so much more now.
We will definitely be making more visits. There are more stories to hear, and a lot more food to try, too.
Original Review: September 16, 2025
Speakeasies hold a fascination in the American mind a century after prohibition came and went.
Last year, we visited A Light in the Attic, which bills itself as a “modern speakeasy.” It’s a fun concept. They did up the theme with a bookcase at the top of the stairs and a curtain keeping the restaurant “hidden.” But that’s all it is, a concept.
The restaurant and bar opened at the former Camelot Inn on Fritztown Road in the spring of 2025. The building’s story is told at the bottom of the menu. Apparently it was owned by Ralph and Anna Riffert during the 1920s, and they operated a speakeasy throughout Prohibition, “despite paying fines for selling alcohol, gambling, and other illicit activities.”
It’s certainly ironic that 100 years later, guests not only can pony up to the bar for a drink but sit down at a skills machine.
The skills machines are set in a back room off the main dining area which is filled with low- and high-top tables with a banquette along the wall. The U-shaped bar takes up most of the second half of the space.
It was quiet when we arrived for lunch on Friday, just one other table filled, though a few people arrived later during our visit. Our server was fantastic throughout, and I suspect she would have been great even if she would have had a full dining room. But she came to our table quickly to get our drink order and answered all of our questions about the menu.
And we did have a few questions because all of the sauces have names that are connected to the restaurant’s theme, like sheep sauce, rumrunner sauce, and mobster sauce.
My burger came topped with rumrunner sauce, which is their homemade version of A1. It also featured Cooper Sharp cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion.
The burgers are listed as hand-patted, and you can tell by the thickness. It was a hearty meal, and a delicious one. The sauce was really good – I love steak sauce on a burger – and it worked well with the creamy Cooper cheese.
I opted for fries on the side which were also very good, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.
Julie had fries with her burger, the Bulger, which came topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and sheep sauce. Sheep sauce is their ketchup-mayo mashup and Julie enjoyed every bite of her burger.
And while Julie also found the fries to be OK, she had the opportunity to go back a few days later with some of her coworkers. Her recommendation: get the sweet potato fries with the dipping sauce. They are totally worth it.
Our visit ended up being a perfect lunch. The food was out quick, too, so we were in and out of the restaurant before anyone could miss us at work. And at $40 for burgers, fries and drinks, it felt like a fair price, too.
Maybe the experience is a little different during busier times – we drove past on a Sunday afternoon and there wasn’t a space to be had in the parking lot – but we really enjoyed our experience. (Obviously, Julie already went back for more).
The history of the building is fun, but thank goodness we’re not living with prohibition because it means I can blog about it without risking a raid.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Excellent Ambiance: Very Good Price: $$
Black Sheep Tavern 665 Fritztown Road Sinking Spring, PA 19608
Quality is a word you’ll see in the marketing materials of many restaurants, but in Kutztown, one restaurant puts it in their name.
The Quality Shoppe is located off Main Street in the Dollar Tree strip mall on Constitution Boulevard. It takes up the corner space in the strip, the words Quality Shoppe over the door are the only hint that there’s a restaurant inside.
Quality Shoppe’s dining area is bigger than it looks like from the outside, partially because the grill is located at the counter service area at the front of the shop. The back half of the space opens into a dining room with booths lining the walls on both sides and tables spread out in between.
My first visit was for breakfast. We were seated at a booth not far from the counter seating at the front of the restaurant. The service was quick – it has to be because the food is coming in and out of the kitchen in a hurry.
The breakfast menu is fairly extensive but rooted in traditional diner favorites like pancakes, eggs, and French toast. But within each there is plenty of variety plus daily specials.
One of the daily specials on my visit was lemon cheesecake pancakes – a dish that sounded so sweet that I couldn’t resist.
Two heaping pancakes arrived topped with creamy cheesecake frosting, lemon sauce and a large helping of whipped cream on top. I immediately regretted ordering a side of potatoes, but I did not regret getting this sweet treat.
The lemon sauce had the sour notes you expect, but mixed with the incredibly sweet cheesecake and whipped cream, it wasn’t overpowering. In fact, they balanced out very well. Quality Shoppe does these special cheesecake pancakes and French toast often and I would definitely try another flavor in the future.
I mentioned the side of homefries. While I should not have had them, I was almost glad to have something non-sweet just to break up the sweetness bite after bite. They were good, too. They had a nice crispy edge to them. Nothing fancy, just a diner staple done really well. The same could be said about the crispy bacon strips. These came with the pancakes – though they were also completely unnecessary with how large the stack was.
I finished most of my meal, which totalled around $18 with a drink.
The next time I stopped in at the Quality Shoppe, in early May, it was lunchtime. Like breakfast, the lunch menu is mostly no-frills diner food with a few daily and weekly specials. There are sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and entrees.
I decided on a burger for my meal – the Texas BBQ burger to be specific. It came topped with fried onions, cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce.
It’s not the fanciest burger you’ll find in Berks County, but it was good. The BBQ sauce was simple but did the job to give that little bit of smokey sweetness.
All of the burgers come in either four-ounce patties on a regular roll (like mine) or an eight-ounce on a Kaiser roll. The four-ounce burgers also come with a side of fries, which I really liked. They’re fresh-cut and sliced thin. And there was no skimping on the portions.
The burger meal was actually a really good deal: it was less than $10 (my drink put it over that mark) and like all good diners, it came out quickly, which is exactly what I’m looking for at lunch time.
I would say that breakfast was my favorite of the two, but for a reasonably priced meal, good service, and quality food, the Quality Shoppe is a great option.
BCE Rating Food: Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Good Price: $
Quality Shoppe 45 Constitution Blvd Kutztown, PA 19530
Tucked away in the northwest corner of Berks County, the village of Bethel is a quaint little country crossroads. It feels a world away for many in the other corners of Berks County, though it’s an easy side trip for thousands of motorists traveling I-78 every day.
If you exit the Interstate, you’ll find a couple blocks of old buildings, including at least one log cabin that’s been added on to. It’s mostly residential with only a few businesses, one of those being Bouchette Vineyards & Winery.
Bouchette opened the winery in 2017. In May 2025, they added something new: an on-site food truck called the Mountaintop Bistro.
We hadn’t visited the Bouchette before, but the menu at the food truck features two of our favorite things, smash burgers and BBQ, so we had to make the 30-minute drive from Wyomissing to check them out.
We pulled in around 5 p.m. on a Saturday night, Julie and I taking advantage of a babysitter to have a night to ourselves. There was a couple waiting for food and another person waiting to order when we got into line. We had to wait a couple minutes to place our order as the food truck was a one-man show, with one person both taking and making the orders.
But that gave us time to figure out what we wanted. Then knowing that we had a few minutes before the food would be ready, we headed inside to check out the winery options.
Bottles of various varietals and vintages line the shelves inside the door. There is also an assortment of hard cider in cans in one corner.
The bar is small with four chairs and room for another person or two to stand. In addition to wines and ciders, they also offer wine slushies. (The featured flavor while we were there: black cherry merlot).
Julie sampled some of the wines and ciders and decided to pick up two cans of cider to take home while enjoying a glass (or plastic cup, in this case) of Daybreak, their strawberry wine. Julie is a fan of sweet wines, and this one was on the sweeter side but not overly so. It had a freshness to it with a subtle strawberry flavor that she really enjoyed.
She sipped it while she ate her Classic Smash smashburger. It featured two three-ounce patties on a Brioche roll with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup and burger sauce (and mustard, which Julie opted out of).
The burgers were made fresh, and the patties had good flavor on their own. And there was plenty of fresh flavor coming from the toppings, too. The Brioche roll was the perfect choice because it held everything together nicely.
Not being a drinker, myself, I settled for a can of Sunkist to go with my pulled pork sandwich. That was my choice for dinner, and it was a good one. The pork is marinated in their apple hard cider and topped with coleslaw on the same Bricoche bun.
The pork was perfect. I could taste hints of the cider in every bite, kind of like how you can taste the subtle notes of the alcohol in a whiskey BBQ sauce. The coleslaw was also very good, the cabbage adding a little crunch to the dish.
Both of our meals came served with French fries (and their French fry dipping sauce). They were absolutely delicious: fresh cut and reminiscent of the Oley Fair fries. The dipping sauce was like a Chick-fil-A Sauce. I passed on it, but Julie liked it.
There are three distinct seating areas at the winery: a pergola with cushioned chairs and fire pits; a pavilion with bistro tables and chairs; and a collection of uncovered picnic tables. Even though others came and went while we were there, we had the pavilion to ourselves so Julie and I sat and talked long after our meal was done.
We were there long enough that we decided to go back inside to pick up a couple bottles of wine to take home (including the Daybreak that she had just enjoyed).
In all, we spent $25 at the food truck and about $50 for wine and cider. And though Julie and I enjoyed our date night, the setup makes it a place where we could bring the kids if we wanted.
And maybe we will next time (I’m sure there will be a next time) because both the winery and the Mountaintop Bistro exceeded our expectations.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Service: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Price: $
Mountaintop Bistro at Bouchette Vineyards & Winery 9684 Old US Route 22 Bethel, PA 19507
I get asked all the time to name my favorites. The most common question: “What’s your favorite restaurant?”.
It’s a hard one to answer so I usually rattle off a couple names. But when someone asks me, “Who has the best burger?”, that’s easy for me to answer: Louie’s Kitchen & Bar in Flying Hills.
Louie’s opened in 2022 and we reviewed them in early 2023 (see full review below), but that review was mostly focused on brunch. Since that time, Louie’s has continued to evolve, and I can safely say that Louie’s has found its niche: it’s now the go-to place for burgers in Berks County.
At least, it’s my go-to place. And after winning best burger at the Taste of Hamburg-er Festival in 2024, Louie’s has the accolades to back it up.
The burger that won them the award is our absolute favorite: the caramel burger.
With twin smash burgers topped with bacon jam aioli, caramelized onions, American and Provolone cheeses, and caramelized bacon, the caramel burger is both an indulgence and incredibly flavorful.
The sweet and savory combination is hard to beat, especially the caramelized bacon (which is available as a side on their Sunday brunch menu). It’s crispy and sugary, adding both texture and sweetness to the burger.
Between Julie and I, we have ordered it three times and it never disappoints.
But it’s far from the only great option on Louie’s burger menu. Another is the smokehouse burger with double-smoked bacon, cheddar, bourbon BBQ sauce and onion petals.
There are plenty of places around Berks that do a similar burger with BBQ sauce and onion rings, but Louie’s just feels like it’s a level above, especially thanks to the perfectly crispy bacon.
Also, don’t sleep on Louie’s fries, described on the menu as “skin-on russet potatoes fried until golden and crispy in a combination of bacon fat and lard.” They look like other fries, but the frying oils give them a little different flavor. It’s a $3 upgrade to go from chips to fries, but it’s well-worth it in my opinion.
The restaurant also has a cheeseburger on the kids menu that Jakob really enjoyed. It’s simple, just a burger with American cheese and fries, but it’s a nice size and made with the same quality ground beef.
But Louie’s is more than burgers, and the Hamburg-er Festival was not the only competition where Louie’s has taken top honors. At the 2025 Wilson Iron Chef event, Louie’s entered the People’s Choice competition with their Bulldog Cheesesteak.
The sandwich featured a Liscoio’s seeded roll, ribeye, mushroom rice creamy mayo, sauteed onions and cheese sauce.
It got enough votes – including my own – to earn the title of People’s Choice champion. And though I only had a small sampling at the Iron Chef, I got the full experience when we visited Louie’s a few weeks later and found the sandwich on the specials menu.
I had to order it. It came as a half of a large roll, overstuffed with filling and swimming in cheese sauce. But there was something about the “mayo,” maybe an earthiness from the mushrooms, that was unexpected and made the sandwich stand out from other cheesesteaks.
I only wish the savory masterpiece was on the regular menu because I would gladly order it again. (They do have three cheesesteak options on the regular menu).
The prices are reasonable enough to keep us coming back. Even with the upgrade to fries, dinner for two will be less than $40. And kids meals are priced at less than $10 each so it’s still a reasonable night out for families.
But it’s also the quality of the food that you’re getting for the price: some of the best burgers and sandwiches that you’ll find anywhere.
BCE Rating Food: Excellent Service: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Price: $$
Louie’s Kitchen & Bar 12 Village Center Drive Reading, PA 19607
Back in 2018, I discovered a restaurant in Lancaster County called Gracie’s on West Main. Located in the heart of Leola, it’s a fantastic place – especially for breakfast (with an entire menu section devoted to bacon). I’ve been there several times since, including taking the family there for dinner just a couple months ago.
So when it was announced in the spring that the owners of Gracie’s were taking over what was then known as Divot’s, I was very excited.
After a small update, the newly renamed Louie’s Kitchen & Bar opened in the space in May 2022.
I actually made my first visit over the summer but never wrote about it because shortly afterward, the restaurant went through some changes in the kitchen and my chili huevos rancheros tacos were off the menu.
The restaurant serves as the unofficial “19th hole” for the Flying Hills Golf Course. Located just steps from the clubhouse, I would imagine that it fills up quickly on warm days when the course is full. But with a chill in the air, the course is empty and Julie and I have the place mostly to ourselves.
Louie’s is unique to itself, but it has callbacks to Gracie’s. Most notably are the chalkboards throughout the dining room, each one adorned with inspirational quotes from sports legends like Babe Ruth, Emmitt Smith and Bo Jackson (plus fictional sports star Rocky Balboa).
The menus, however, diverge. Whereas Gracie’s is primarily known for its breakfast items, Louie’s is a lunch and dinner spot (though the restaurant did try breakfast, at first, and still does weekend brunches) so the menu is built upon burgers, wraps and sandwiches.
For my lunch, I went with chicken bacon avocado wrap with a side cup of chili.
The wrap is pretty basic and similar items can be found on menus around Berks County, but I enjoyed it.The wrap was filled with grilled chicken, red onion, lettuce, tomato, avocado and ranch dressing. It may not have been anything special, but it was done well and I enjoyed it, especially the bites that were loaded with avocado.
I was really impressed with the chili – the triple double chili, that is – which is one of the items that can also be found on the menu at Gracie’s. It gets its name because it includes three meats (ground beef, ground pork and bacon) and two beans (kidney and black). It’s hearty, for sure, and a bowl with some fries could easily be a meal. The chili, itself, was not too spicy but definitely had the familiar sting of chili pepper every now and then. Though the heaping helping of shredded cheese on top helped to tone it down.
Across the table from me, Julie enjoyed her Mediterranean pita and fries. The pita features chicken, hummus, olive tapenade, tomatoes, onion, cucumber and feta with tzatziki sauce. It was really good and really filling. The hummus was really good and helped make it a very filling dish.
The fries were a real highlight. Crisp, golden and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, Julie and I both kept going back for more even after we were already full.
Because Julie upgraded to fries and I added on the cup of chili (and splurged on a fresh fruit iced tea), our lunch was a little more expensive than we would typically aim for with our total coming in around $40.
BCE Rating Food: Very Good Ambiance: Very Good Service: Very Good Price: $$
Louie’s Kitchen & Bar 12 Village Center Dr Reading, PA 19607
