Home Brew Cafe

Home Brew Cafe is a wonderful little restaurant in Berea, Kentucky.  My partner in crime and I happen to enjoy going to Berea and decided to grab a bite to eat while there.  This quaint cafe is set just off the Interstate and slightly camouflaged by a gas station.  We received wonderful service and had a delightful meal there.

 I ordered a Chef's Salad and a bowl of their Vegetable Soup.  The Chef's Salad was amazing!  They provide you with such a large serving for the price I was honestly surprised.  It came out in a simple bowl that was filled to the brim with delightful toppings such as ham, turkey, cheese, cucumber, egg, and tomato.  I chose to have it served with Ranch Dressing.  Now if you are a person who eats a lot of Ranch Dressing (which I know a ton of people in a certain state that do) you know that not all Ranch Dressing is created equal.  Some that I have tasted have been so bad that I chose to eat the salad without dressing on it at all!  However, this Ranch Dressing was perfect.  It was creamy and delicious.  I was even more amazed to discover that there were enough toppings to actually blend in with the lettuce.  I didn't end up with just lettuce!  That in itself is worth praising this establishment over.  But just wait there is more to come.

The Vegetable Soup turned out to be more of a stoup.  That would be thicker than a soup, but thinner than a stew.  I know unusual, but it is actually the thickness I prefer.  I was so happy.  The soup contained the typical Vegetable Soup ingredients but had cabbage thrown in as well.  For those of you who love meat, there was an abundance of ground beef in the soup as well, so much as a matter of fact, I don't recall a single bite that didn't have some in it.  Wonderful on a cold day for certain.

Now for the best part of the meal - the dessert!  We shared a heavenly Hot Fudge Cake.  Now I know most of us enjoy chocolate, but you know how you usually get a piece of chocolate cake and it is so sweet that you can't eat it all?  This is not that kind of cake!  The first bite that I took burst with pleasure in my mouth.  It was perfect!  The warm chocolate cake was paired with vanilla ice cream between the layers.  My mouth almost had a mini heart attack trying to figure out what the heck just happened!  The mixture of the warm cake and the cold ice cream created such a state of confusion and joy that I had to savor the moment and couldn't say anything for a full minute!  As my companion and I continued to savor each mouthful it became evident that, even though we were both mostly full, this dessert wasn't going to last very long.  We were able to eat the entire thing without ever having that "oh my goodness, this is cavity central" reaction.  It was decadent in just the right way and so heavenly for the taste buds.  As we drew closer to the last morsel, the thought of fighting for it crossed my mind.  (Thankfully that didn't have to occur as she relinquished any claim to it.)  I dug out every single crumb of that delightful cake and wished that there had been more.  As you can tell this cake has a special place in my heart and I know that another trip down to the Home Brew Cafe is definitely in the near future!  I wonder if they would think I was weird if I ordered dessert first and last?