Landis Store Hotel can claim a long history of giving customers what they want—feeding them what they ask for, when they ask for it and the way they asked for it. It can also claim a long history as a hotel and a store, but it no longer offers those services to the public. Instead, Landis Store is a charming restaurant, set in the Berks County countryside in a rambling building with a well-landscaped back patio for al fresco dining. “We were rated number two in outdoor dining,” says Gary Henshaw, referring to a recent designation from the website Only in Your State. Henshaw, along with his wife, Janet, has owned and operated this restaurant for 42 years.
In 1975, the Henshaws bought the business from Janet's parents, Ralph and Helen Hoffman, who had owned it since 1952. At that time, it still operated as a store: Gary explains that the area to the right of the bar comprised the general store—that's all the front of the building, facing the street. Naturally, though, because it was the hub of the village (and not a trolley stop, says Gary), Landis was also a bar, hotel and post office, along with a coal and feed business. With five rooms upstairs and a common bathroom, the hotel became less of an interest over time. Adding a restaurant to an old country structure like Landis isn't unusual, but it happened because people were asking for things like sandwiches to eat at the bar.
“Janet's parents started cooking on a Thursday night and decided they wanted to put a restaurant in,” says Gary. This happened around 1970. It sounds so matter of fact the way he explains it, it's tough to imagine any other fate.
Luckily, the Hoffmans had seven children, and Janet, along with her two sisters, Marilyn and Nancy, became immersed in the all-consuming nature of restaurant life. Janet laughs easily when describing those early days. “We had no idea what we were doing! We didn't have numbers for the tables; we would go out and serve people and deliver food and then go back into the kitchen and cook,” she says. When you're starting something from scratch with no experience, you do what you have to do to make people happy and keep them coming back. “We even did the dishes, too!”
“We had no idea what to expect,” she continues. “On the first Sunday we were open, the place was full. We were going back and forth [between the kitchen and the dining room]... we should have stopped then. I don't know how long we did that back-and-forth thing.” She is laughing.
Love of food and an imparting of a very personal touch to service moved Gary and Janet to purchase the business from her parents in 1975. The whole baptism-by-fire intro to the restaurant world didn't daunt them. Gary says they “always enjoyed good food, and I was in the accounting field but not really happy with it,” he says. The Henshaws plunged themselves into it, with Janet cooking and Gary managing the front of the house. “We have a staff and systems now,” she says.
Through time, the menu went through shifts as personnel in the kitchen traveled and became exposed to new and different foods. The fried foods and more traditional, rustic fare of the earlier days were both gradually de-emphasized. Landis began to serve more sautéed dishes. “We definitely evolved,” says Gary. “We do everything here, everything by hand, from scratch, except for the vanilla ice cream, which we get from Longacre Dairy, right down the road,” says Gary. (And there's no reason to go elsewhere: the Barto creamery is a destination in its own right.)
These days, Janet has reduced her culinary duties. She makes their well-regarded crab bisque, a recipe she came up with after her brother raved and raved about one he had at the shore, and their rotating selection of cheesecakes. Sometimes, Janet will jump behind the line and help prep soups and salads on a busy weekend night. (Her hands are never idle—she's the talent behind the wide variety of quilts decorating the restaurant's walls.) By and large, the kitchen duties are tasked by chefs Scott Fisher, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh (which sadly has closed), and Seth Williams, who trained at the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
“These guys are professionals. I don't meddle in what they do. Seth is very good with Asian flavors,” says Gary, adding that Seth's parents were customers long before he started working at Landis in 2011. “And Scott, he is great with French and Portuguese flavors,” says Gary of his head chef, whose pedigree includes working at Baum Vivant under Toni Pais, a James Beard Award winner and best Mid-Atlantic Chef nominee in Pittsburgh.
The menu changes “daily, weekly,” says Gary, depending on what's available and what's in season. However, it's not the kind of place where the chefs are upending the menu in its entirety with those alterations; there are tweaks here and there. Typically, the Landis offerings are straightforward classics with some creative riffs showing up in the small plates portion of the menu. One can count on the menu to showcase about a dozen entrées, among them the well-regarded Maryland crab cakes; there's also always a lamb, filet, chicken and fish dish on the menu, with the sides and presentation changing. (Landis also happens to be the kind of place where you can select among a starch, salad and/or veggie side with most entrées.)
Traditions hold sway at Landis, often predicated on the bounty of seasons. Soft-shell crabs are always eagerly awaited, and every summer, the kitchen is known for turning out delicious corn fritters, and will work hard to steam and freeze a whole mess of fresh corn.
Landis isn't the kind of place where trends typically get ahold of the kitchen, but both of the chefs say the fried Brussels sprouts dish is a big hit. People are rediscovering vegetables like never before, broadly speaking, and most good chefs are happy to comply. Flash-frying this cruciferous veggie imparts a bit of sweetness and heightens the crunch factor—adding blue cheese, bacon and a balsamic reduction brings both depth and balance. It could quickly transform into a brunch dish (they do that, too, on Sundays)—just slide a runny, farm-fresh egg over the top and serve with some roasted potatoes.
Speaking of the farm, it's easy to think that, given the bucolic set up, Landis is actually on a farm; there's a barn across the street and an orchard, Hobert's Fruit Farm, next door. Seth talks about going over and picking fruits such as cherries, apricots or peaches for service later that night. “There's a lot you can do here that you can't do at other restaurants,” he says.
It'd be foolish to set up a restaurant that ignored the bounty of the region's agricultural offerings. Like its neighbor down the road, Savory Grille, Gary stresses that they've always been local supporters. He buys lots of produce in season from the Mennonite farmers who sell to several of the regional wholesaling operations; they also buy organic lettuces. There's a garden on site that's teeming with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, greens, peppers, sweet peas and all the herbs the kitchen needs. The local-loving ethos extends to the bar too, where you'll find three taps typically occupied by some permutation of beers from Victory, Yuengling and Saucony Creek breweries. (Otherwise, the bar is home to both modest wine and martini lists.)
As much as a menu exists to serve the purpose one would expect at a restaurant, the philosophy at Landis, though, is really old-fashioned and personal, in the most comforting way possible. Basically, if the kitchen has the ingredients for a dish they've made before, the chefs will make it. That tradition goes way back. “People would come in and say to my parents, don't you have this or that, and we'd add it to the menu. And then people kept coming,” says Janet.
“People call us and ask us for things all the time. They'll ask if they can have baked oysters, which is a dish we often do. Tonight we have fried oysters, but if we have the other ingredients, we will tell them we can make it for them, even though it's not on the menu,” says Gary.
“If I can make you happy and make you feel special, I will do it. That's what it comes down to. People like that,” he says.
Landis Store Hotel
4 Baldy Hill Rd., Boyertown | 610.845.2324 | landis-store.com
Hours
Wed.–Sat.: 4–9 p.m.; Sun: 11 a.m.–8 p.m. (Brunch: 11 a.m.–3 p.m.)
Reservations
Recommended, especially on the weekends
Parking
Three lots on the premises
Payment
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover
What to Order
This is one of those places where the menu changes pretty frequently because they use lots of local, seasonal ingredients, but there will always be some mainstays. You'll always find Janet's crab bisque, some version of cheesecake, along with crab cakes, calamari and protein-based entrees with lamb, chicken, fish and so forth.
Specials
The restaurant offers two mid-week, prix-fixe dinner specials. Wednesday's a two-course soup and entrée (from $27.50 per person) and Thursday's special is a three-course (soup, entrée and dessert) for $30 per person.
