Tomato Pie Cafe

I couldn’t understand how anyone could tolerate a tomato pie, or why someone would want to squelch her business prospects by naming a cafe after one. Then I tried the Tomato Pie Cafe’s tomato pie. Twice: I also ordered it for dessert. It is remarkable.  

For those as lost as I was, let me bear witness: it is a savoury pie. It is not a custard pie (like pumpkin); it has a buttery, herbed crust, a generous melting of oily cheese, big hearty chunks of mild tomato (and sometimes extras like spinach or artichoke), and I suspect some dollops of ricotta. About the only thing bad I can say about it is that, unless you get it right out of the oven, it’s served warm, not hot. And sometimes the juicy innards inevitably sog up the flaky bottom. But this is like faulting Jesus for having a foreign accent. It is a heavenly pie.  

Regal rooibos lattes at Tomato Pie Cafe

How appropriate, then, that I have spent several lovely Sundays at the Tomato Pie Cafe, sitting at a high table by the window, or at the counter, in the garden or blinking in the sunlight of the second floor balcony, gazing reverently across the street at the stone buildings beside historic Lititz Springs Park. In addition to sandwiches with beets and breakfast specials with sausage and fennel, or buttermilk quinoa pancakes with whipped sage butter and maple syrup, Tomato Pie Cafe knows how to make a latte. In fact, they will make one with rich red rooibos (ROY-bus) tea that is fragrant and silky and a fraction of the caffeine.  

Brunch is my love language. Few things dismay me more than a lauded local joint with all the trappings of a fancy restaurant (price, decor, attitude) and nondescript food. And few things make me more grateful than wholesome, interesting breakfast options, served with casual consideration in a quirky house. Tomato Pie Cafe wins my (totally unofficial and just now instated) On Orange Restaurant of the Year Award.

http://www.tomatopiecafe.net/menu.html 
 

Waltz Vineyard Bottle Shop

Manheim's Waltz Estate Winery has a bottle shop on Main Street in Lititz, with a cute little bar built for an awkward threesome. The cheerful newlyweds behind it last December served up four tastes of their best mediocre wine in plastic cups, which we paid for.

So far, no surprises. Whether by terroir or terrible taste, Pennsylvania wineries delight in making god-awful syrupy Jell-O-pop reds and, out of custom or misplaced pride, Pennsylvanians gulp them down grinning and ask for more. (No judgment here!)

What I didn't expect was to leave with a $40 bottle of 2010 Crow Woods Cabernet. This wine, they said, is so good they didn't even put it on their tasting menu (a backwards business tactic that apparently worked for me).

Several months and one special occasion later, I'm pleased to report that Waltz has managed to make the first Pennsylvania red wine I ever enjoyed. It's almost certainly not worth $40 a bottle, but it is light and dry without an astringent finish.

Cheers!

http://www.waltzvineyards.com/estate-wines.php

Bulls Head Public House

Lititz is a charming town, with boutique shops in old buildings that no one bothered to “improve” in the 1960s. On a winter night with snow falling and Christmas lights glittering in windows, you might be delirious to find a bustling British pub on Main Street, complete with red tin ceilings, two fireplaces and 14 strange and delicious brews on tap.

You might, in fact, go back to Lititz the following morning just to make sure, and find yourself sitting at a dark wood bar with a hot breakfast of perfectly crisped sausage, English bacon, sweet baked beans, squeaky mushrooms, a grilled tomato and two runny over-easy eggs. Plus toast. And a bottomless cup of coffee.

Suspend cynicism for one more hour. This is not the product of some national chain's market research. Owner Paul Pendyck grew up in Liverpool and most of his decor came from England, too. In fact, Lancaster Online reports that not even the name was calculated: Pendyck simply found an old wooden sign from a British pub with big letters in gold: “Bulls Head Public House.”

Let it be.

http://generalsutterinn.com/bullsheadph/