As the founder of a blog that’s all about weekend trips and visiting new places, I know there is something comforting about returning to places you have been before. This is true for my husband, Bobby, and me when it comes to the Amish Heartland in Holmes County, Ohio. We love to just take a car ride down to Berlin, Walnut Creek and Sugarcreek.
We have places that we visit every time, mostly because we know what we like when we go there. For instance, in Sugarcreek, we always go to Swiss Village Bulk Food. They are the only place around where I can get sandwich spread. (Think ham salad, but made not with ham.) Or Walnut Creek Foods where we can get Mudd Valley Creamery Ice Cream. But this time, instead of heading to Mrs. Yoder’s in Mt. Hope for lunch, we went to Rebecca’s Bistro. Rebecca’s is located in Walnut Creek, just past Der Dutchman.
As many times as we have been to Holmes County and Walnut Creek, I had never heard of Rebecca’s Bistro. It’s located in this quaint little house in what I guess is downtown Walnut Creek. (The main thoroughfare bypasses Walnut Creek proper on its way to Sugarcreek and New Philadelphia.) Bobby had heard about it from our friends, Jeanine and Christy. They loved it and so Bobby thought it would be good for us to give it a try. (In a later conversation with my friend, Judy, she said she was a big fan of the restaurant as well.)
Let me tell you, the food that you get at Rebecca’s is not the standard Amish Heartland type of food. Instead of broasted chicken served mashed potatoes, noodles and gravy, you could get a Cornbread Salad, or Grilled Cheese Sandwich (which is served with provolone and pepper jack cheese with Cherry butter on cranberry walnut bread). Or you could choose what Bobby ordered, which was a Turkey Berry Sandwich. This sandwich included turkey, swiss cheese, grilled pineapple, strawberry jam, cream cheese on a 12 grain bread. (That is certainly a mouthful!) With his sandwich came one side dish. He decided to go with a cup of their seasonal soup, Chilled Strawberry soup. I’ve never even heard of that before!
I ordered the Bistro Burger which came with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, dill pickle, bistro sauce on a pretzel roll. You can get it with an onion, too, but I declined the onion. (Whenever we go some place, if there is a burger to be had, we get it. We’re big burger people. You can see how much by clicking here.) I also ordered a cup of soup, but went with the tomato basil soup.
The plate presentation was tremendous. I felt like I was some where chic and exotic. And then I tried the food. It was crazy good. As usual, Bobby and I split our meals so we could each enjoy all the different flavors. I’m glad we did, because truth be told, I had originally wanted to order the chilled strawberry soup and turkey berry sandwich! So we had the best of both worlds.
After Bobby took his first bite of the Turkey Berry sandwich, he said, “This is awesome.” I agreed. The Bistro Burger was a good burger. It was seasoned well and the Bistro sauce added a nice little kick. The dill pickle, which wasn’t an ordinary dill pickle, added a pleasant crunch.
I really enjoyed the Tomato Basil Soup. So much so that when we were checking out, we picked up a quart of it to take home. It was sweet with chunks of tomatoes, just like I like. Bobby doesn’t have the sweet tooth I have, so he thought it was a bit too sweet.
The Chilled Strawberry soup was definitely different for us. It was very chilled and had a nice strawberry flavor. Bobby ate the mint leaf that garnished it and said it was a nice addition to the soup. I enjoyed the whip cream that garnished the soup.
Our waitress, Marilyn, gave us a little history about the place. Rebecca started it fifteen years ago. Rebecca was gone by the time we got there, but Marilyn stated she was there almost every day to make sure everything got going for the day. While we were there, customers kept coming, even though it was getting close to the time they closed. (They are open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.)
Even though we have our places that we typically visit when down in Holmes County, after this visit, I’m pretty sure we’ll be adding Rebecca’s Bistro to the list! I’d recommend you give it a try, too.
