Café Ah Roma — Restaurant in Berea

Skip Panera, go here instead! I was in Berea for a few days and needed a place to do remote work on my laptop for several hours. This place came up with my search for coffee shops and I'm so glad it did. Right from the start I knew I'd found myself a local gem!

The staff here are clearly well-trained, very friendly, and enjoy what they do. Lots of young people who know what they are doing and know a lot of the regulars who come in daily or weekly. The man who I assume is the owner/manager is also behind the counter in the morning, serving customers and chatting up everyone.

The coffee here reminded me of the coffee from my favorite place back home, so naturally I approve of that! While here I had a breakfast sandwich on a tomato-basil bagel, as well as a turkey wrap with fire feta, a ham and cheese on brioche, and a chicken salad wrap (which is a specialty recommended to me by the owner/manager). All of it was delicious! Everything was light and fresh and ready in 5 minutes.

For three days in a row I took up a window seat with an outlet, working on my laptop for about 6 hours. Lots of people came and went, lots of locals, lots of students and professors (who the staff knew from the college). Some people worked, did homework, others just chatted or grabbed their stuff to go. At peak business around 11-12, they had two people taking orders and were still churning them out in 5-10 minutes.

I'm not sure when I'll be in Berea next, but I'm coming here when I am. I love this place and I wish there was a place like it in...

My daughter loves this place a lot. She got engaged to her husband seven years ago at Cafe ah Roma. She gets coffee, and their festy chicken wrap all the time. She has a severe case of Gird, so they make it without the sauce for her and put mayo on instead. They make sure her belly is not upset by her choice of food. She also has IBS and a few other abdominal stomach issues that can become very irritated by food and drinks, but the Gird is the worst. If activated, it brings on pain so bad she can't walk, and she'll scream like she's in labor. Her friends at lsco and sheffield Township EMS took her to the er twice, and her husband also has in 2017, and her restrictions from mercy they said are a mile long two sheets said can't have anything with spice, acid, citrus. They labeled all the foods by name and category. Southwest Gerneral Hospital did the same thing. I went to see her in Berea in 2021, and they were good to us all. This was our only way to see her since her landlords wife wasn't a nice person. Thank you for taking care of my daughter and making her experience one of the best since 2016. She's been...

We come here pretty regularly, especially during the summer when we visit Coe Lake - this is a great place to stop by if you spend an afternoon in Berea. The Fiesty Bagel Ah Roma is great, and their Turkey wrap and bagel with vegetable spread is pretty good too. We've enjoyed our coffee and drinks as well. The interior is surprisingly nice and cozy compared to what your first impression might be from the outside of the building itself. The staff is also nice and friendly. What is not so nice is the very offensive messages they have scrawled on the chalk board on the way to the bathroom basically calling people who don't agree with them "fascists". I've had plenty of conversations with the owner/ management and he'd probably be surprised I'm one of those people. So, 4 stars for that... I'll change it to 5 if when I go there in the future I notice they just focus on selling food and coffee instead of...