La Porta Via

1192 N Middletown Road
Media, PA 19063
(610) 358-8970
Website

If you like Paesano's, you will love La Porta Via. Located across from La Porta the mother restaurant, this sandwich shop has most of the favorites from the famous Philly stop.

The Italian fry bread makes for an incredible sauce sopping vessel. Covered in parm and herbs, one piece is a meal in and of itself.

Doughy, crispy, and comforting. This is a gluten free dieters nightmare. And while we are on the subject of fad diets, there is nothing vegan here either. Probably.

The daily meat slice of Sicilian style pizza is another quick belly buster. While I am partial to thin crust, this was a damn good hunk of goodness.

The always popular Torrezeaux is a spicy chicken cheesesteak, Italian style. With roasted chicken, mushrooms, sriracha cream, smoked mozzarella, spinach.

As you can see there is no lack of sauce to this sandwich. Creamy, salty, and umami rich, it is a chicken cheesesteak done right.

The Italian Rueben was another stunner. House brisket with sweet and sour kraut, caper mayo, and Swiss on rye. Not for the faint of heart.

Look at those lovely layers. This is sandwich poetry in motion. At this point I have eaten my way around the menu, and you will not go wrong.

Tröegs Brewery

200 East Hershey Park Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
(717) 534-1297
Website

Brewery trips are rarely about the food. Except it sure does sweeten the deal. Tröegs makes some of my favorite beers in the area, and coming home from a recent camping trip in the Pennsylvania Wilds, I stopped in for lunch. This is a huge facility, and even on a scorching hot Sunday, it was packed.

They have what they call a "snack bar" with an abundant menu that goes well above and beyond what you would usually expect from a little league field's snack bar offerings. I went for a couple beers and a couple of sandwiches and it wasn't easy to make my decision. Everything on the menu had my mouthwatering and so at the last minute, I made a snap decision with the order and couldn't have been more pleased with the results.

The braised brisket is served on brioche, with mustard slaw, house steak sauce, and fries. I was also intrigued by the lamb falafel on sesame naan, green tomato and cucumber chutney, harissa, and tahini yogurt. Also shown, cheese sauce.

The brisket was fantastic. It was shredded beef style, very peppery, and extremely tender. I am usually not a huge brioche fan, but the buttery roll worked well on this substantial sandwich. The mustard slaw was perfectly creamy with a tang that cut through the aforementioned rich and succulent meat.

There was a solid ratio of ingredients to carbs, something often overlooked on brioche. This was one of my favorite brisket sandwiches I have had – possibly ever *gasp*.

The lamb falafel was a really interesting twist. I like lamb. I like falafel. Mixed together they were a great pair. It was essentially a falafel-y spiced chickpea and ground lamb meatball, no complaints here. Green tomato and cucumber chutney provided some acidity to the sandwich, and the harissa with tahini yogurt helped moisten what could have otherwise been a dry flatbread.

Harissa is such an underrated condiment. It blends the right heat with sweet and smoky balance.

The lamb-falafel mix was fried crispy, and had plenty of glorious herbs.

The hop fries with spicy ketchup (and let's not forget that side of beer-cheese sauce for dippin') were another favorite. They were larger than I generally prefer my fries, but they were perfectly fried and had a creamy interior to complement the crunchy exterior.

All in all, this was some of the best brewery food I have ever had. And the beer, oh god that beer. Totally worth the trip into Hershey.