Berlin Lunchbox: American With A Twist, From Pernil To Cupcakes

Ramon “Ray” Rios and Jamie Lovejoy begin each day at 5 a.m., preparing to open their 18-seat Berlin restaurant for the 11 a.m. lunch. Often, that means they’re jockeying for prime oven space: The pork shoulder for Rios’ pernil dish needs several hours to slow-roast, but Lovejoy also needs to fill the bakery case with various flavors of her signature cupcakes.

Customers have come to expect each of these specialties every day. “If we don’t have cupcakes, I’m getting yelled at, but if we don’t have pork, I’m getting yelled at, double time,” Lovejoy says, laughing.

After meeting as culinary students at Johnson & Wales University and gaining valuable restaurant management experience in Rhode Island, Lovejoy and Rios, partners in business and in life, opened the tiny Berlin Lunchbox in November 2013. The Connecticut natives chose Berlin for their location as it was equidistant from their families, Rios’ in New Haven and Lovejoy’s in Wolcott.

The two decided on “typical American food” with their own culinary twist once they found the Berlin Turnpike space, which previously housed the Chicken Shack and, before that, the Other Place.

“We ended up finding this place, thought it was perfect, researched the demographics and found out people around here want burgers, wings and hot dogs — but they want good [quality] food,” Lovejoy said.

They started with a one-page menu of assorted lunchtime items, and as customers became attached to certain plates, the menu grew to three and a half pages. Diners clamored for Ramos’ soups with house-made stock, including a fiery chili and a French onion with melted Swiss crostini, and fresh salads and sandwiches, like the grilled “springtime” wrap with assorted vegetables, BLT with house-made pesto, Philly cheesesteaks and barbecued pulled pork subs. Six-ounce burgers, made with a leaner 90/10 ratio of lean meat to fat, range from classic (lettuce, tomato, onion) to creative and even outlandish (Blue Moon with bleu cheese, bacon and fried egg; “peanut butter and jelly” with raspberry chipotle sauce, peanut butter and bacon.)

Starters, including fried potato croquettes with smoked Gouda, wings and fresh tomato bruschetta, are $6.99 to $15.99; soups are $4.99 for a crock and $8.99 for a quart. Salads are $3.99 to $10.99, depending on the size. Sandwiches are $7.99 to $9.99 and burgers are $7.99 to $10.99. Kids’ menu items like hot dogs, grilled cheese and chicken sandwiches are $4.99 to $6.99.

Rios’ chef specialty, the pernil with Spanish rice, plantain chips and slices of fresh avocado, is $8.99 for a lunch portion and $12.99 for the dinner size. It began as a special, but sold out in about 90 minutes on its first day, he said. Now he’ll go through six to eight pork shoulders a week, “and that’s a slow week.” It’s a family recipe that he learned from his mother and grandmother as a child. “It’s surreal for me to see it on [my] restaurant menu.”

“He cooked that for me once, and I’ll never let him go,” Lovejoy added.

The couple says working together is anything but difficult. “I couldn’t actually imagine doing it with anyone else, because I know how hard she works,” Rios said. But while they often pull 18-plus hour days at the restaurant, they try hard to cut off any work talk as soon as they reach their home.

“It’s also brought us closer. But we’ve been working together since we met. We were best friends for a long time before we started dating. It just worked; we just kind of fit with each other,” Lovejoy said.

Lovejoy’s front-of-the-house role allows her to chat with customers, engaging young children with crayons, coloring books and even an original Nintendo gaming console. Kids and adults alike enjoy the display of vintage lunch boxes, a collection that grows frequently as guests bring boxes as gifts for the owners. “We’ve had people offer to buy them, but I would never,” Lovejoy said. “They all have sentimental value.”

As the house baker, Lovejoy suggests that guests save room for her cupcakes (3 for $5, 6 for $10), which are baked fresh daily in a variety of flavors: maple bacon, peanut butter, Nutella bombs, double-stuffed chocolate, s’mores. She’s been baking and decorating cakes since she was 8 years old, and she specialized in pastry arts at Johnson & Wales. Twice, she’s applied to be on Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” competition show. In April, her Snickers bomb cupcake — a decadent blend of chocolate, peanut butter and caramel flavors — took the top prize in a contest held by the Congregational Church of Union.

The two are looking into a possible move to a bigger space — for one, their current building has no public bathroom, something they’d like to remedy soon — and they’d also like to expand the menu, possibly adding more Spanish dishes. Rios and Lovejoy say Berlin has been hospitable and welcoming, evidenced by the crowd of regulars and the “Small Business of the Year” award they received from the town’s economic development commission this spring.

“Especially since we’re not from this area, I had no idea that we’d be so welcomed and accepted and … [become] part of the community,” Lovejoy said. “We just get really excited and love what we do, and it’s cool to know the community loves it too.”

Berlin Lunchbox, 224 Berlin Turnpike, Berlin, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 860- 259-5071, facebook.com/theberlinlunchbox.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Ramon “Ray” Rios’ name on second reference.