It’s exactly one year since Joe and Diane Church and chef Terry Printz embraced the opportunity to claim Black Dog Café as their fine dining mission. All the years of food-ing here and there around Berks County pale by comparison, says Joe, a chef who is clearly at home in this town that’s as old as the nation. The old inn that houses the restaurant stands on the main street of Stouchsburg, just one quiet block off busy Route 422 near Womelsdorf, close to the American House where George Washington himself actually did sleep.
On entering, the ambience of the 1800s pervades. That group of doctors from Hershey Medical Center dining at the next table could, with a lightning flash of imaginative time travel, just as well be wearing Civil War-era clothing, lifting a glass of ale and downing pot roast.
AN OLDIE BUT GOODIE
No wonder it makes sense to start with an Old Fashioned (if it’s on your favorite cocktail list, this is THE place to order that drink), or perhaps a bite-y, fruit-y martini called the Black Dog Cosmo—vodka, lime juice, a splash of blackberry brandy and cranberry juice. A hearty crock of soup seems the perfect opener: the French onion is intensely traditional, yet as smooth as dessert, while the cream of shiitake mushroom with sesame and crispy fried leeks imparts a deeply roasted flavor, coaxing these steak-like Japanese mushrooms to their fullest power and finest hour. It’s a delectable concoction: creamy, creamy, creamy.
Appetizers include something you would not find in George Washington’s day: sushi, with its very own specialty menu. Next to the main dining room, the tavern side of the restaurant serves not only sushi, but also gourmet sliders.
Featured first courses also include Greek mussels on the half-shell, escargot bourguignon, scallops massaman, stuffed portobello mushroom, hot legs (done hot-wing style), fried calamari and French bread pizza or bruschetta.
On a recent evening, the featured appetizer was smoked salmon, homemade pasta, and grilled artichoke hearts. Practically a meal in itself, this is super-fresh, ultra-light fettuccini drizzled with a white wine butter sauce dotted with brilliant orange Scotch smoked salmon, with the seared artichokes declaring that this appetizer swears much allegiance to Italy.
ENTREES A WORK OF ART
Entrée choices are impossibly alluring. Their plated presentations easily match the artistry of any establishment in Philadelphia or New York City. There are, for example, veal medallions with morel mushrooms, and roast Long Island duckling, as well as twin filet mignons with two sauces (one a cabernet fog sauce, the other a creamy bleu cheese) next to a pile of the Black Dog’s homemade monster onion rings.
The tournedos of beef are twin petite filet mignon pieces rubbed with rosemary and roasted garlic, topped with bleu cheese and mushrooms (if you desire) and red Zinfandel sauce. A kingly dish, aromatic and full-flavored, this is the sort of treatment that meat has always yearned for, the flavor of steak powerfully enhanced by select herbs and cheese.
The haddock, fresh fennel and colossal shrimp served with a pinkish-tan, caramelized sauce, and paired with Pinot Grigio in between tender forkfuls, proves once and for all that there is nothing whatsoever boring about haddock. The just-picked fennel lends a woodsy forest finish as it greets pure white chunks of fish and succulent shrimp. The only problem is that other haddock will never catch up with this culinary high-scorer, hence this diner’s awareness tinged with melancholy. The only cure may well be…to head back to the Black Dog, to order and savor it once more.
VA...VA...VEGETABLES
Vegetables are created with care. A thick-cut, tangy homemade coleslaw harks back to Colonial times, as does the zucchini custard and a mashed sweet potato made with caramelized rum sauce (rhymes with “yum sauce”). The whipped potatoes, a must-eat with the beef dishes, are a small mountain of garlic- and chive-humming spuds, swirled throughout with tasty bits of nutritious potato skin.
Beyond that is a full array of sandwiches (including a cornmeal crusted catfish sandwich) and salads, pasta dishes and ample vegetarian choices.
END ON A HIGH NOTE
But eat slowly. Talk. Look around. Walk around. Even the doors on the bathrooms are worth checking out for their age and heft and charm. This buys time and stomach-space for an unforgettable dessert. One to sample is the crème brulee with its sticky, burn-y top, served in a ramekin with a side mini-pot of strawberries marinated in Grand Marnier.
And then there’s the Black Dog’s homemade rum raisin ice cream. (What? Homemade ice cream? Who does that?) The fact is, this ice cream has fun flavors running in all directions. Eating this is like wearing a big hat and wandering into a party where everyone’s imbibing and wearing similarly big hats, and you are saying “Hi” to Mr. Raisin and Ms. Caramel and Miss Whipped Cream, who fabulously hails from the cows that live right down the road. It’s true—they get their cream from a local dairy.
Now that’s a happy ending. Cheers!
BY MARIAN WOLBERS | PHOTOS BY HEIDI REUTER
