{"id":132968,"date":"2026-03-08T18:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/132968\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T18:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:25:10","slug":"huge-milestone-new-sports-bar-opens-at-site-of-former-longtime-favorite-in-berks-county-eat-sip-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/132968\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Huge milestone\u2019: New sports bar opens at site of former longtime favorite in Berks County | Eat, Sip, Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOWER HEIDELBERG TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2013 The site of a beloved former restaurant is now home to a new tasty concept \u2013 dishing out a diverse array of fresh eats such as chicken and ribs, mac and cheese flights, brick-oven pizza, smash burgers, souvlaki skewers and smoked porchetta \u2013 in Berks County.<\/p>\n

The Valley Bar & Grill, a full-service restaurant and bar serving hand-crafted starters, sandwiches, signature plates and more, opened at 11 a.m. Sunday, March 8, at 4741 Penn Ave. in Lower Heidelberg Township, Co-Owner Frank Lapuma told 69 News.<\/p>\n

The renovated property was previously home to the Bar-B-Q Pit, a beloved, family-run restaurant that closed last fall<\/a> after decades of operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very excited to welcome the community,\u201d Lapuma said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Valley Bar & Grill] is a sports bar, but it\u2019ll be a little bit more high-class than what a typical sports bar would look like. The food is also going to be at a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Valley<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Valley Bar & Grill<\/p>\n

Lapuma is no stranger to the restaurant industry.<\/p>\n

He also owns and operates the eight-year-old Giuliana\u2019s, a popular Italian restaurant that was featured on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Best Restaurants,\u201d<\/a> in Spring Township.<\/p>\n

At The Valley Bar & Grill, Lapuma said he is partnering with Steve Symons and Mario Caloiero, the latter of whom previously operated the longstanding Margherita\u2019s Italian restaurant<\/a> in Laureldale.<\/p>\n

The Valley Bar & Grill offers starters such as crab dip, hot honey ricotta dip, Buffalo chicken wontons, grilled or fried calamari, glazed pork belly bites, homemade mozzarella sticks and a mac and cheese flight (classic yellow, creamy Cooper cheese and bacon mac and cheese).<\/p>\n

All fried starters will be prepared in 100% beef tallow.<\/p>\n

Chicken wings, served fried or smoked, are available in a variety of sauces such as chipotle ranch and parmesan peppercorn, along with dry rubs such as Cajun and lemon pepper.<\/p>\n

Other menu highlights include \u201cfrom the grill\u201d handhelds such as a turkey BLT (with sliced avocado and mayo), \u201cValleysteak\u201d (Cooper cheese sauce and caramelized onion), hand-sliced pastrami (served hot with Swiss cheese and honey mustard) and house-smoked brisket (with yellow American and barbecue sauce glaze); brick-oven pizza such as pesto heat (ricotta, Pecorino Romano, pepperoni, hot honey and pesto drizzle), truffle rabe (fresh mozzarella, broccoli rabe, mushrooms, red onions, black olives and truffle oil) and the meat market (loaded with pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham and fresh mozzarella); and focaccias such as mortadella and pesto, prosciutto and fresh mozzarella and capicola and ham.<\/p>\n

Customers also can enjoy soups of the day such as lobster bisque, pasta fagioli and creamy corn chowder; salads such as caprese, Cobb and Greek; and signature plates such as smoked porchetta, souvlaki platter and half chicken and half rack of ribs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom stacked burgers and wings to fresh sandwiches, appetizers, and more \u2014 we built this menu with one goal in mind: great food, great drinks, and the perfect place to watch the game,\u201d reads an announcement on the business’\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Valley Bar & Grill also features a large full bar, and a new outdoor dining area is expected to debut by the summer, Lapuma said.<\/p>\n

Hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Lapuma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve pushed through every setback, worked countless hours, and poured our hearts into this moment,\u201d reads another online announcement on the business\u2019 Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Come celebrate with us, we\u2019d love to share this huge milestone with you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER HEIDELBERG TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2013 The site of a beloved former restaurant is now home to a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7764,349,61532,524,61531,61205,29494,128,130,129,51046,12629,61530],"class_list":["post-132968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-barbecue","tag-berks-county","tag-brick-oven-pizza","tag-community","tag-frank-lapuma","tag-mac-and-cheese","tag-outdoor-dining","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-restaurant-opening","tag-sports-bar","tag-the-valley-bar-grill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}