Salami, Pesto & Goat Cheese
Bertha’s Café

Any of Bertha’s nearly two dozen sandwiches, wraps, panini and tortas are excellent. (We particularly like the breakfast brioche topped with bacon, arugula, pesto and Parmesan, while dessert might be peanut butter, raspberry jam, bananas and Nutella served warm on brioche). But the most delicious deal of all is the combo, because the casual, friendly-as-can-be Bertha’s encourages us to mix and match from any half-sandwich plus a cup of homemade soup or a generous helping of any of the gourmet salads, finished with chips and a cookie.

May we suggest this flavor explosion? A tangy layering of Italian dry salami, pesto, sun-dried tomato and goat cheese on chewy Simply Bread ciabatta, paired with Thai chicken salad in a crunchy rainbow of carrot, cabbage, cucumber, bell pepper, tomato, peanuts and chicken (pesto-roasted in-house) tossed in spicy peanut dressing. Oh, baby! ($7.50 for combo; $6.50 for sandwich alone)

Info: 3134 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix; 602-955-1022, berthascafe.com

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Bertha's Café
Bertha's Café is a blink-and-miss-it little eatery that is off the beaten path. After just one visit, however, you will be fabricating excuses to eat there twice a day for the breakfasts, sandwiches, salads and wraps made from simple, fresh ingredients.

Serving breakfast and lunch six days a week, Bertha's has successfully relied on word-of-mouth for advertising. The small parking lot fills up quickly each day.

On the outside, three tables are shaded with umbrellas, with a pair of potted plants creating the illusion of a sidewalk café. On the inside, the look is that of a neighborhood bistro with chalkboard menus and original photography on the walls. Satellite radio plays a smooth café mix in the background. The bakery case is the first thing to greet you, filled with brownies, scones and cheesecakes. Somehow, the pastries all knew my name, because each called to me [.....]

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Best of 2007: BEST CHEESECAKE
We usually order dessert when we're out somewhere fancy, when the conclusion of a multicourse meal calls for something sweet to go with our after-dinner cup o' joe. But after lunch at a sandwich shop? Hardly ever — unless we're at Bertha's Café, where it's a given.

At this friendly, inconspicuous little eatery, desserts are impossible to resist, appealingly displayed in a big case right next to the front counter. From cookies and muffins to malted brownies, it's all good, but we're particularly fond of their rich, creamy, homemade cheesecakes. Sometimes it's actually hard to choose from the daily assortment of just-made mini-cakes, with creative concoctions like s'mores, baklava, and banana cream. Bertha's flavors are anything but plain Jane [.....]

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SHWEET!: Toffee Bar at Bertha's Cafe
While La Grande Orange gets all of the love (and for good reason), there's another European-style cafe on 40th Street that deserves some attention, too.

Writer Tania Katan turned me on the Bertha's Cafe a few years ago. When she grew tired of LGO and Mama Java's while writing pages for her awesome memoir My One-Night Stand with Cancer, she began to spend hours at Bertha's due to the spot's quiet vibe, friendly staff, and good eats.

Soon thereafter, I discovered she was right. The place is charming as all get out with its rotating art exhibits that usually features saturated color travel photography. Thankfully during a recent weekend afternoon, I found out that Bertha's still maintains that chill factor. Plus, the dessert selections are it, from cheesecakes to home baked cookies.

I suggest the chocolate chip toffee bar. For about two bones, enjoy this perfectly baked, square-format treat bathed in caramel and oozing with marshmallows goodness [.....]

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Review: Bertha's Cafe
Every so often, I stumble across the most out of place eatery. Often, it is stuck in some cruddy, little strip mall that hasn’t seen fresh paint in decades. But it is always mixed emotions for me because I dearly fear walking in, ordering, paying my hard earned dollars and then sitting back and trying to enjoy food made by people who had grand dreams of being the next Durant’s, but ended up being something worse than Taco Bell.

Granted, most of these little places are passable, but some are downright scary and I wish I was bold enough to engage them in conversation and say, “You know, you can do better than Kraft American Singles on your sandwich.” Alas, I just finish my meal, shake the dust off my shoes and vow never to go there again.

Thankfully, I won’t be saying or doing such things with regards to Bertha’s Cafe, a small, almost overlooked restaurant near 40th Street and Thomas Road in East Phoenix [.....]

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