The Hearth Family Restaurant

On Rt. 422 in Lebanon not far from the Lebanon Valley Mall sits "The Hearth Family Restaurant", a 24-hour staple in Lebanon's culture. As I attended college in nearby Annville, I spent countless evenings there doing homework, chain smoking, chatting with friends after the bars closed. Evenings would draw not only college students, but older, slightly haggard-looking people you would never see by the light of day nor in any other location; the sort that are wrinkled beyond their years, missing a few teeth and either morbidly obese or extremely underweight. It was so busy at night you would often have to wait for a seat. A heavy cloud of smoke hung in the air at all times, despite the restaurant having a "no smoking" section. Each booth had its own jukebox, and being a creature of habit, there were artists I put in regular rotation (Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Patsy Cline were among the usual suspects). The Hearth meant cheap food at any hour with smoking allowed. That was enough for my friends and me.


Once we graduated and moved away, I had little desire to return to The Hearth - it was not the type of establishment you go to with your family, despite its name. But late last Saturday night I was invited to go there with a local celebrity of sorts (who will remain nameless to protect his identity) and one of his employees. He said, "Come to The Hearth with me. I want to eat an egg." Sold.


On my drive there I remembered one of the waitresses from my college days. She always knew what my order was: grilled cheese and a side of mashed potatoes with no gravy. She would say, "Do you want your usual?" I wondered if she was still there. As I walked in with my dinner companions the very first thing I saw was that waitress. Part of me felt sorry for her, but part of me loved that she was still there. Lebanon is the place where time stands still. As we were seated at our booth and I looked at the jukebox, this was reaffirmed. Nearly ALL the same CDs were there as when I left all those years ago.


The menu had changed - both in items and design - but as long as mashed potatoes and grilled cheese were there, I didn't care ... and they were. Our waitress, not the long-time waitress, sadly, brought us our drinks and took our order. I ordered mozzarella sticks as an appetizer for the three of us, and then my "usual". My diet is starch, cheese and sugar. Can you tell? The unnamed celebrity who wanted to eat "an egg" ordered not just an egg, but two eggs, bacon, toast and a side of stuffing with gravy. His employee ordered a grilled cheese and fries.


As we waited for the waitress to come back with our orders, I noticed for the first time how quiet it was. I looked around the space and this was not The Hearth I remembered. I was too distracted by the waitress and jukebox being the same to notice that The Hearth had indeed changed. It was redecorated, though I'm not quite sure what exactly was different - I could only tell something was. There was no cloud of smoke hanging in the air. In fact, there was no smoking at all. And despite it being roughly 1:00am, there were only two other tables occupied in the entire place. This was not at all how I remembered it (although the table next to mine did have morbidly obese people whose pants were falling off).


Had The Hearth's best times come and gone?


The waitress brought out the mozzarella sticks first and I immediately dug in ... or tried to. They were so hard it took quite a great deal of effort to cut through one with my knife. Eating them was almost not worth the effort involved. Almost. Our meals arrived shortly thereafter, and despite my request for NO PICKLE and NO COLESLAW, they were both there on the plate, with the pickle precariously close to my grilled cheese. Ahhh! There is nothing worse than a sandwich touched by an errant pickle that forces the entire sandwich to taste like said pickle. *Sigh* I decided to not let the hard-as-rocks mozzarella sticks and pickle debacle influence my assessment of the grilled cheese and mash. Thankfully, they were just as I remembered them. Starchy. Salty. Cheesy. Delicious. Not the best, not the worst, just good enough for 1am in Lebanon.


3 Stars

Nov 26: The Filling Station

The Filling Station
320 West Main St.
Palmyra, PA 17078

• Service: speedy, slightly grumpy
  
• Location: on 422 (boo) but accessible from back alleys (yay) and has ample parking
  
• Clientele: a favorite stop for the regulars of the 422 corridor (Lebanon to Hershey)
  
• Prices: very affordable...and that's saying something, coming from a grad student
  
• Cuisine: traditional PA breakfast fare, including scrapple, of course.
  
• Ambience: 75% diner, 25% truck stop/gas station
  
• Bonus: they make over 40 kinds of donuts.
  
• Next time, I'm...ordering the Belgium waffle. And some donuts.