Bites Nearby: Berryland Cafe

Every small town needs a restaurant that has a down home, feel good country air about it.  The Berryland Café in downtown Sumner might possibly have invented this atmosphere all on its own.  Now it’s a good thing that I couldn’t gobble up the warm and cozy character because then I would have been too full to enjoy what Berryland Café is famously known for—its pie.

With local berries ripe and ready for the picking, it is the perfect season to bake them up into thick, sweet and juicy tart medleys.  Because of the variety I found it quite hard to decide just which flavor to settle on.  I was fondly eyeing the pies on the shelves when a voice from behind the counter loudly said, “Marionberry Rhubarb!” 

And that’s when my affair with a sexy piece of wholesome goodness began.

Just the color of this tasty morsel was amazing with its deep dark passionate purple hue swirled with ruby red inflections.  Its crust was thin with golden flakes the color of warm golden butter cream.  Sprinkles of glittering sugar winked seductively at me and tempted me further into gastronomic bliss.

I took a bite.

Oh.  Emm. Gee. (As the kids say).  Was it heaven or the temptations of a darker side that caused me to indulge even deeper.  This was berry, berry good pie.  It was the perfect combination of sweet and tart and was loaded with thick juicy chunks of rhubarb.  The seeds from the marionberries I could have done without only because they distracted me from having a total food experience but I have to say, they did not hamper my ability to devour the entire piece.

So enough about pie heaven; the Berryland Café also serves a great variety of other delicious dishes.  Breakfast is served all day which is a huge plus in my book and includes diner’s favorites such as S.O.S., corned beef hash, country fried steak and omelettes.  Lunch is served as well and includes sumptuous selections such as the German Patty Melt, the Sumner Fair Burger, Philly Beef Steak and Bob’s BBQ Rib Sandwich. 

There are also a variety of salads and soups and an entire page devoted to the hungry little ones of the family.  And of course pie is not the only amazing dessert served at the café; there are milkshakes, malts, floats, sundaes and banana splits.  Berryland is also well known for “The Old Fashion Hard to Find Kind” hand dipped ice cream.  Hmmmm....ice cream.

Menu items are affordably priced, the atmosphere is warm and inviting and the diners have smiles from ear to ear.  For all of this, I definitely will make some return trips to the Berryland Café. Not that I want to cheat on my sweetie pie but there’s a rather attractive Italian Sausage dish which caught my eye that I might just have to meet for breakfast.