For Meryle Voytilla, opening Mushrooms was “like coming
home.”

Mushrooms is a new café and coffee shop at Route 1 and
Hickory Hill Road in Pennsbury Township, next to Brandywine River Antiques and
across from the Pennsbury Inn.

It’s the same location as the former Red Clay Café that
Voytilla owned and operated in 2008. As the name implies, mushrooms are key to
many of the dishes. Mushroom specialties include mushroom soup, portabella
mushroom sandwiches, a roast beef sandwich with mushroom gravy, stuffed
mushrooms with sausage and a mushroom salad.

“It’s all made here,” Voytilla said.

They also serve roast turkey, roast beef, chicken, ham and
quiche specials. Morning fare includes a variety of coffee, tea, scones and
fresh bagels.

“It’s a pretty eclectic, well-rounded menu,” she said. “We
use all fresh ingredients and we do it all here. … It’s all home made. If I
didn’t make it, my caterer from West Chester made it from scratch. It’s all
fresh and local.”

Voiytilla said the scones are baked fresh daily. Mushrooms’
own baker makes the mixture and the scones are baked on the premises. They also
make their own banana bread and fresh pies.

“Breakfast will also include pancakes once I get the grill,”
she added.

Voytilla wasn’t always in the food industry. She spent about
five years as the office manager at Bill Bunch’s auction house in Chadds Ford
before being hired away to manage Harrington’s Coffee Shop in Kennett Square.
After three years there, she opened the Red Clay Café. A poor 2008 economy put
an end to that venture after nine months.

She stayed in the food industry working for Pace One and
Aramark in 2009. When Sinful Snacks went under, Voytilla saw a chance to get
back into her old location.

“I feel like I’m back home,” she said. “The colors are
different and the atmosphere is different, but it’s home.”

One of the differences now, though, is that she is focusing
on the tourist industry.

“We’re working with the Brandywine Tourist Bureau. We’re
trying to get those people from New Jersey and Philadelphia who come into the
area to understand Kennett and Chadds Ford a little bit better,” said Voytilla.

She’s working with several mushroom houses for fresh
mushrooms and will be sharing mushroom recipes with her customers and let them
know how, and where, they can take a mushroom tour.

Voytilla thinks she has good visibility at her location and
hopes the economy has turned around enough where her shop, and the complex with
Brandywine River Antiques, can become a hub of activity.

“It’s a challenge. I can’t tell you how many people come in
here, locals, who have never been next door. And the antique store has been
there for 14 years,” she said. “Visibility-wise we have the greatest location.
It’s what you make of it.”

Mushrooms is open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday
and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.