Brunch Bowl Cafe: breakfast brilliance

If breakfast is your favorite meal of the day, there’s a new restaurant in town that’s calling your name.

Brunch Bowl Caf at 31 N. Canfield-Niles Road in Austintown opened its doors in January and serves up some of the best omelets, waffles and other breakfast delights you’ve ever sampled, as well as sandwiches and lunch items.

“Having a restaurant was always something I dreamed of,” said owner Angie Mraz. “Growing up, I loved to cook, and my dad owned a truck stop in Pennsylvania and cooked for the truckers. I loved hearing his stories. The passion for food and cooking was passed down to me.”

Mraz studied food service at the Mahoning County Joint Vocational School during her junior and senior year of high school and had planned to attend culinary school in Pittsburgh after graduation, but her life took a different path: marriage, motherhood and eventually driving a bus for Austintown Schools for several years and then working as a an AV tech at Austintown schools.

Mraz still works as an AV tech, but also spends considerable time at Brunch Bowl, which is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week.

Omelets have been one of the top sellers at the cafe. Patrons can create their own special order, or choose from a ham and cheese ($7), a cheese ($6), a Philly Style that’s packed with Philly cheese steak, grilled onions and peppers and cheddar ($8.25), a mushroom Swiss ($6.50), a spicy jalapeno ($6.50), a Western ($7.25), a veggie ($7), an everything ($7.50), or a Brier Hill ($7).

I sampled a Western omelet with Texas toast and home fries. Everything was prepared to perfection — thin, slightly crispy home fries, generous slices of buttery Texas toast and an omelet laden with melted cheese and bursting with chunks of ham and peppers.

The next dish to appear at my table was a large Belgian waffle topped with cherries and whipped cream. The Belgian waffles are served with blueberry, apple or cherry topping ($6) or with bacon or sausage ($5.50). They are absolutely delicious — warm, thick and fluffy — and the tangy-sweet fruit topping blends nicely with the mild wholesomeness of the batter.

Besides waffles and omelets, Brunch Bowl Cafe serves eggs and toast, pancakes and French toast, oatmeal and other breakfast favorites.

But don’t forget about the restaurant’s lunch menu.

The cafe offers a variety of sandwiches, including a fried bologna ($7.50), a meatball sub ($6.75), a pepper and egg ($7.50), a BLT ($6.50), a Philly cheese steak ($8.75), a chicken salad ($6.50) and a Monte Cristo ($6.75). This triple-layered sandwich boasts ham, turkey and Swiss cheese grilled between layers of French toast-style bread. It is served with maple syrup for dipping and offers a unique blend of tastes.

The restaurant also serves a variety of salads including a grilled chicken salad ($8.75), a bacon club ($7.75), an antipasto salad ($8.25), and Monaco’s salad ($8.75), which consists of a pleasing mix of greens, lemon pepper chicken chunks, diced cucumber and pepper, black olives, homemade croutons and cashews. I had mine with ranch dressing, and thoroughly enjoyed the delicious medley of tastes and textures.

The salad gets its name from Monaco’s Concession, which Mraz operates along with her friend Carrie Hurd. The two visit about 13 local festivals throughout the summer and sell various fair-food delights.

A portion of the Brunch Bowl Cafe menu, called the Fry House, is a spin-off of items Mraz and Hurd sell at their concession. Mraz cannot eat grains, so she developed various recipes using potatoes in place of bread.

“Because I can’t eat grains but was craving a sandwich, I would find myself buying French fries at the fairs and then taking them back to my concession and topping them with chili, or peppers, or cheese, or other kinds of food,” Mraz said. “People would ask me for a sample of what I was eating, and pretty soon they wanted me to make them some.”

Thus the Brunch Bowl Cafe’s Fry House menu was born. Patrons can get fresh cut French fries, homemade home fries or a baked potato loaded with a variety of toppings.

Some examples of Fry House delights include the Italian ($3.75), which features fries topped with grilled onions, peppers and mozzarella cheese; the meatball supreme ($4.75), which consists of fries topped with sliced meatballs, grilled onions and peppers and mozzarella cheese; the loaded fries ($3.75), in which fries are smothered with bacon, sour cream and cheddar; and the chili cheese ($4.25), which features fries topped with Coney Island chili and cheese sauce.

“We bought the franchise from Coney Island Hotdogs, so people can have the chili here any time they want,” Mraz explained. “People often stop in to buy a container of the chili.”

Patrons also often visit Brunch Bowl Cafe’s pick-up window, known as the Brunch Bowl Express.

“We sell a lot of take-out, and the pick-up window makes things very convenient for people who are in a hurry or who are just tired after a long day of work and don’t feel like having to get out of their car,” Mraz said.

Brunch Bowl Cafe has daily specials and can seat around 100. Patrons can also book a separate 30-seat room for their special event.

“One thing people may not realize is even though we close at 3 p.m. daily, we will rent the restaurant out during the evening,” Mraz said. Brunch Bowl also offers catering.