cd's place: rock and roll's delicious rumble with breakfast, lunch, & dinner

Nearly everyone resembles regulars at Boyertown's CD's Place—whether you casually waltz in for brunch, or if you are embracing your obsession with above-par diner food displays. The small town café, peeking from a corner of North Reading Avenue, comfortingly resides in one of three once-notorious “cup” ice cream stops assembled in Berks and Montgomery counties in the early 1940s. However, if you speed indoors, the illusion of a soda, milk-heavy spot is shattered—but only for something better.

Chris Dietz, owner & chef of CD's Place, unleashed his breakfast, lunch, and dinner café to the local dining scene eight years ago, come February, offering closeby empty stomachs simple, comfort cuisine that doesn't cut corners to affect the integrity of his food. From slapping fresh, never frozen slabs of beef and scrapple on his flat-top, to preparing his own 20-ingredient rub for his jerk chicken, Dietz tackles all the eatery's tasty concoctions himself, all while socializing and talking shop in an always-booming dining room.

Confessing that he knows over 90 percent of his everyday clientele, the local haunt also celebrates other small businesses doing simple stints, including supporting Bally-based Butter Valley Harvest, which provides the owner with fresh produce, even through winter. While he regularly trots specials that do include locally-produced goods, the standard CD's Place menu marvels in some of the area's best brunch bites, including the generously-sized Jamaican omelet that packs the New Hanover-native's jerk chicken cozily aside sautéed onions and the dutch-inspired three-egg beauty, the country-style potato, and onion roundup.

Of course, Dietz would be amiss to omit appropriate accompaniments for your morning platters, including his crinkled cottage fries, homefries, all necessary meats (bacon, scrapple, etc.), toasts and, if you live in hungry man's delight, short flapjack stacks, and even full stacks, done in regular, blueberry, or chocolate chip. His endless array of fresh, from-scratch soups, sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and baskets will please all variations of personal taste preferences, and we hear that his “slaw dog,” made with mustard, onion, and the namesake, is a favorite amongst many.

The mouth-watering, guilty pleasured lineup is what keep patrons repetitively revisiting, but the dining room flooded with memorabilia from Dietz's other obsession—music—is what keeps CD's cushioned on being named one of the best decorated hub's in town. With black-and-white photograph-lined tabletops sourced from his own album collection, ticket stubs, concert posters, musical instruments situated on the walls, and even, a rock-and-roll mural painted by his daughter, Aleah Dietz, the whole eye-catching package of the past “cup” shop is successful in being a necessary, must-visit addition to the borough of Boyertown.

Find CD's Place at 237 North Reading Avenue or online at www.cdsplace.com (he does catering, too).

Hours of operation are as follows—Tuesday & Wednesday, 7 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Thursday & Friday, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Saturday,  7 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. – noon.

( This post also appeared in print and on news, not blues. Enter a contest to win a $20 gift certificate to CD's Place, by clicking here. )

peach paradise at jukebox cafe

As if I couldn't be anymore excited to wave farewell to the summer season, and also, praise the pumpkin pleasures that have already claimed a place in my everyday diet, I have to announce one last award-winner(s) for the steamy season.

Peaches are one of the most perfect fruits. Vibrant and fiercely fuzzy on the outside, juicy and deliciously fleshy on the inside, the locally grown peach nabbed a necessary place in my diet over the course of the last few months. 

While I typically enjoyed noshing on an individual round just as so, what I found pleasurable was the seasonal "Peach Mania" menu at my favorite brunch spot, The Jukebox Cafe.

From glorious peach muffins, to peach and bacon breakfast sandwiches, stuffed peach sticky buns, and my favorite, fresh peach french toast, the golden trophy of a fruit reached impressive lengths this summer season, and I couldn't ignore saying "BRAVO" to the adorable fifties-inspired eatery for embracing the gorgeous gem, aplenty.

Visit The Jukebox Cafe for yourself at 535 South Reading Avenue, Boyertown or call for some quick breakfast and lunch to-go at 610-369-7272. Although you may be too late for Peach Mania--don't worry. Fall's on the brim, and autumn's amazing assortment will easily satisfy your 'buds at this must-visit morn' munchies hotspot!

casual gourmet's gorgeous specialty sandwiches

In a hunger-crazed lunch hour, the upscale sandwich is a star. For Casual Gourmet of Limerick, their savant stage that is keen to crafting the tastiest handheld bites sings victory over all of the area's packed buns.

Since 1999, when Casual Gourmet was launched by Mary Klumpp, the pristine plates of slightly fancy midday meals marveled in the mouths of many locals. Klumpp, transforming a diffident deli to an epicurean eatery, was instantly popular.

Although through a tragic turn of events, in 2003 the proud owner was killed in an automobile accident, and her establishment was eventually purchased by the nearby owners of the Lakeside Inn. Triumphantly, earlier in 2006, a trio of female gourmands grasped the opportunity to gear the local cafe back to its original roots, praising Klumpp's past ways.

Joanne Hinmon, a proclaimed culinary connoisseur, worked closely with Casual Gourmet's original owner, and when given the opportunity to restore the casual eatery to its once hustle and bustle, requested the resources of Stephanie Montoya, a certified chef, and Renee Snow, an operator of a petite catering company, to form a tantalizing team.


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Casual Gourmet, 475 W. Ridge Pike, Limerick, 610-495-6626. Breakfast served, Mon.-Sun., 8 a.m.-12 p.m.; Lunch served, Mon.,-Sun., 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; Dinner served, Thurs.-Sat., 4:30-10:30 p.m., BYOB.

the pleasing and pristine pub of wegmans

In the 132,000 square feet of the No. 74 store of the $4.8 billion family-run grocery company, Wegmans, lays nestled a full-scale, Irish pub-styled eatery — a first for the Rochester-based company.

The East Coast supermarket chain placed third on Fortune magazine's 13th annual list of "100 Best Places to Work." Sliding up two spots from last year's ranking at No. 5, the Collegeville location roughly employs 550 full- and part-time positions in one of their newer establishments, with a small chunk of those employees maintaining their in-house restaurant for area grocery shoppers.

Pristine and welcoming, the on site tavern lessens the load of supermarket shopping by offering affordable, speedy cuisine that may not necessarily be on the healthier side, as their chain raves elsewhere, but does in fact succeed in conveniently working with the hustle-bustle of our everyday lives.

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breakfast bites of nudy's cafe

As meals go, breakfast has become a celebrity. Proudly carrying the title of the "most important meal of the day," a decent breakfast can influence you and your body the rest of your awakened hours of your hectic day.

But, with all fussing over and fantasizing of what to shove in your mouth, first thing, most of us sadly settle for the normal boxed cereal, or a simple egg scramble. That's where Ray Nudy comes in — the namesake and owner of the Nudy's Café, a six location breakfast hot spot.

With locations in East Whiteland, West Whiteland, Uwchlan, Wayne, Dowington and, of course, locally at 450 Bridge Street, Nudy has sculpted a satisfying, sit-down brunch eatery that not only offers traditional morning munchies like creamed chipped beef and finely chopped hash browns, but also is borderline quirky with grilled cinnamon bun French toast and year-round pumpkin pancakes.

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hot diggity dogs at philly hot dog cafe

It was about frickin' time I ate a hot dog.

Soon, the time passed of not eating a bunned wiener would amount to a decade and, honestly there isn't anything I wouldn't eat anymore.

Yet, in the amount of years passed, I promised myself that the first dog I'd chow down on would be worth the wait. My ultimate hot dog shack-of-a-crush has always been Hot Doug's in Chicago. The menu is quirky and phenomenal, including foie gras-topped dogs, aside duck fat-fried frenchies.

But, I'm not in Chicago, I'm in the suburbs of Philadelphia so, I had to uncover the next best thing.

Philly Hot Dog Cafe, first opened last year as a diamond-in-the-rough of a Limerick strip mall, boosts itself at having an overwhelming roster of hot dog combinations. Only some of which are listed on their online menu, the 100% domestic beef dog are loaded with varying fresh ingredients that appear as though "dragged through the garden" with everything from dill pickle spears, coleslaw, roasted reds to celery salt, spicy chili, corned beef and Bleu cheese.

My choice: The Southern Dawg topped with a sweet-and-spicy chili and a homemade coleslaw. The bun, fresh and soft, also allowed for an overall excellent bite.
B's choice: The Chicago Dog, which he selected because it reminded him of the specialty wiener served at Hot Doug's, was amazingly loaded with tomato slices, sport peppers, dill spear, diced onions, relish, mustard and celery salt--all served on a poppy seed bun. In addition to the Chicago, he also selected the simply pleasant Polish Dog, served with spicy mustard and sauerkraut.

With an exciting beef-and-bun experience, hot dogs may not become an everyday thing, yet I will be more willing to bite into another cylinder sometime soon. Also, next visit I am opting for the town-appropriate dog, The Limerick Dog, served dosed with a nuclear hot sauce and Bleu cheese.