the pragmatic chef™

Making a 'mess' is business as usual for Reading, Pa. eatery

FROM Reading Eagle, Pa.

By Jason Brudereck

READING, Pa. (Sept. 14) -
Sep. 10--Using a large spatula, Cheryl L. Burton shovels a serving of diced potatoes to the side of a massive mound of them sizzling on the grill.

She places peppers, onions, chopped sausage and cheese on the smaller pile of potatoes and covers it with a lid.

She is making a mess.

Customers can order messes in two sizes: mini-messes for $2.50 and big messes for $4.75.

They can order them with or without any kind of ingredient.

For almost any breakfast or lunch order, customers get whatever they want at the Marvel Ranch at Fourth and Penn streets, where Burton, 32, has been the owner for 14 years, since she took over from her parents, Roger A. and Sandra J. Bermel, who still work at the busy restaurant with her.

A lot of the staff is family, such as Cheryl's father-in-law, Jim Burton, a delivery driver for the Marvel, and Cheryl's grandmother, who identifies herself only as Nana as she makes dozens of pieces of toast every day.

"I do it to get out of the house," Nana says.

The staff that isn't related seems as if it is, such as Jackie Butler, 67, a waitress at the Marvel ever since it opened in 1959.

Cheryl's been working there since she was 12.

"I guess it's all I know," she said. "This is our life. It's all we've ever done."

Whether they're wearing expensive suits, dirty coveralls or clothes that look as though they've never been washed, as many as 300 customers eat large, inexpensive meals at the Marvel every day.

And that really is every day.

The family even opens on Christmas and New Year's Day.

And every day is busy.

In the morning, the staff begins cooking 40 pounds of bacon that will be sold by 2 p.m., makes three homemade soups and loads work stations with ingredients for omelets, sandwiches and salads.

Cheryl mans the grill, answers the phone, loads a takeout order into a bag and rings up a customer at the register almost simultaneously.

All of her seven employees are just as busy.

The frantic pace behind the counter, and the banter among the staff, entertains customers.

"Dad, you gave a kid jalapeno poppers instead of chicken nuggets," Cheryl admonishes Roger as she hands him a plate with the offending entree.

"You're fired," Sandra tells her husband.

Roger shrugs and says, "That's just another story for us to tell."

The poppers are replaced almost immediately by chicken and the plate is whisked away by a waitress.

Roger has amassed dozens of similarly amusing stories about the eatery, and he soon pauses to tell one of them.

As he walks by with a takeout container in his hand, he says, "There was this time this guy came and said he hadn't eaten for a few days.

"I never turn away anyone hungry, so I said I'd give him a meal.

"He asked me to put it on his account, so I said I would even though I never actually expected to see the money.

"So the guy got his breakfast and after he ate it I notice he's walking around and sitting at other people's tables and talking with them, just being nice.

"After two hours he was ready to leave and he hands me 14 checks.

"I asked what he was doing and he said he was talking to all these nice people and decided to buy them all breakfast. He took all their checks.

"Then he told me to put the checks on his account.

"Till he left, I probably lost $115, but if he came in tomorrow and said he was hungry, I'd probably buy him breakfast again."

Roger finishes packing up a takeout order and waitress Candis Donato, 46, begins ringing up a young customer at the register.

"Where have you been all my life?" the customer asks Candis, who laughs in his face.

"How old are you?" she asks.

"21," he replies.

"Yeah, right," she says.

As the grinning boy walks away, Candis turns to tell Cheryl what just happened.

But Cheryl is on the phone trying to track down the origin of an order that was faxed to the Marvel without any address or phone number on it.

With a quick call to the switchboard of a local bank that often orders from the Marvel, Cheryl soon figures out which bank office placed the order.

It's good she figured that out because she had been confident she would track down the office that placed the order and she had already told the Marvel staff to prepare the meals.

"I knew we'd find them," Cheryl says.

Cheryl knows her customers because most of them are regulars.

She points to one man sitting at a table and says, "He's a three-eggs-over-medium-homefry guy. I know what a lot of our customers are going to order before they even open their mouths."

© 2005, FROM Reading Eagle, Pa.; Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Such a cool story, it's hard to imagine people doing business like this any more.