These Bucks County Dining Experiences Have Backstories You Probably Didn’t Know

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soda fountain
Image via Sine’s 5&10 Cent Store.
Sine’s 5&10 Cent Store, Quakertown.

Most restaurants have a hidden gem. Maybe it’s a dish that the locals rave about. Maybe it’s the history of the dining room. A scan of Bucks County dining experiences on Yelp yielded several culinary instances of “I didn’t know that!”

Vault Brewing, 10 South Main Street, Yardley

Vault Brewing, established in 2012, occupies the former site of Yardley National Bank.

When the bank closed, several other financial institutions tried to make a go of it on the property. They didn’t stand the test of time, either.

Vault Brewing became the first business other than a financial institution to occupy the site. Its owners transformed the reinforced repository into a cellar room for aging various beers and then named the restaurant/brewery for it.

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Image via Vault Brewing at Instagram

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DeLorenzo’s the Burg, 8919 New Falls Road, Levittown

This pizzeria has been making Trenton tomato pies for more than 75 years.

Tyler DeLorenzo learned the craft by working for his uncle and his grandfather for more than a decade, atop his degree from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.

And if you’re curious about what constitutes a “Trenton” tomato pie, it’s this: the cheese and other additions go on first, followed by the sauce/gravy on top.

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Image via Lorenzo’s The Burg, at Instagram.

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The Hattery Stove & Still, 18 West State Street, Doylestown

The Hattery was, indeed, a site at which hats were crafted. It was a business-within-a-business, operating under the roof The Doylestown Inn.

The building, however, didn’t always offer guest accommodations. Past tenants included a cigar shop, a shoe store, a Prohibition-era speakeasy, and a hat factory.

The Hattery, with its antique-industrial appointments, harkens back to that bygone era.

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Image via The Hattery at The Doylestown Inn.

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The Salt House, 7 East Ferry Street, New Hope

The building holding The Salt House was constructed in 1751 as (of course) a salt shop.

Moving forward in time, the site was also the location of the toll house for Coryell’s Ferry during the Revolutionary War. It also served as the town library.

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Image via The Salt House at Instagram.

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Sine’s 5&10 Cent Store, 236 West Broad Street, Quakertown

This location has been in retail since 1926 when a store owner bought the former onsite bakery and reconfigured it for merchandise.

Although present inventory includes things like hardware and toys, it has an operational soda fountain serving breakfast, lunch, and beverages.

The 5&10 also sells dozens of varieties of penny candy.

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Image via Sine’s 5&10

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Philomena Santucci’s Square Pizza, 460 West Street Road, Warminster

The Santucci clan has taken a nontraditional approach to pizza geometry since 1959, opting for square vs. round.

Philomena, the Santucci matriarch, used generational recipes for dough and sauce and then squared off the perimeter to create her signature pie. She also flipped the script on the order of toppings, putting the tomato-basil sauce atop the bed of cheese.

Her subsequent generations of pizza creators are following suit.

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Image via Philomena Santucci’s at Instgram

More interesting backstories about Bucks County dining can be found on Yelp.

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