Friday Food Feature with Berks County Eats: Brenda's Fresh Start Cafe

By Zach Brown, Berks County Eats

One of the best parts of shopping at the Fairgrounds Farmers Market is grabbing a meal while you’re there. Most of my visits are at lunch because it’s the easiest time for me to get there. But after a recent breakfast at Brenda’s Fresh Start Cafe, I now have a reason to shop early.

Brenda’s opened in early June, taking over the space that the Hot Spot most recently occupied at the north end of the building.

The stand is part diner, part sandwich shop with a menu that includes both breakfast and lunch/dinner items. Both parts of the menu are robust. On the breakfast side, it’s French toast, pancakes, omelettes and egg platters. For lunch, it’s burgers, quesadillas, sandwiches and wraps.

But while the menu headings all look familiar, Brenda’s offers some unique twists. Especially at breakfast. And especially with French toast.

French toast doesn’t just come with white bread or brioche. Instead, there are varied options that include raisin bread and banana cake, plus weekly specials. And during my visit, they were offering French toast flights. Each flight came with three slices of your choice from among six styles: banana peanut butter, pumpkin cream cheese swirl, banana cake, blueberry cream cheese swirl, strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cream cheese.

I opted for the pumpkin, banana and blueberry.

The cafe has limited seating – a single row of four or five stools adjacent to the order counter – so meals are packed to go. After a short 10-minute wait, I grabbed my bag and took a seat at a nearby table in the market’s communal dining area.

Aside from the styrofoam container, the presentation was beautiful. Each one was uniquely topped (though everything was dusted with powdered sugar).

I dug into the banana cake first. It was topped with fresh bananas and a sprinkle of cinnamon. The bread, itself, was delicious but a little dry before I added syrup. It had a strong banana flavor even without the fresh bananas on top.

The pumpkin bread was probably my favorite. It had a blend of spices that reminded me of a spiced cookie you eat at the holidays. With the addition of the cream cheese on top, it was more like a pumpkin roll. I could have eaten several slices of it.

The blueberry swirl was the last on the plate. Not only was it topped with fresh blueberries, there was fruit baked into the bread. The cream cheese made it extra sweet and decadent, the perfect ending to a breakfast that felt more like dessert.

At least during my visit, the French toast flight was a weekly special for $11. On the regular menu, French toast ranges from $7 for a plain short stack to $13.50 for a full stack of one of their specialty breads.

Everything coming out of Brenda’s kitchen looked good, and with decent prices across the menu, I’ll definitely come back to try more of their menu.

BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Fair
Price: $