How Barberton used its food to steal my heart: A love letter

No, this is not about chicken.

Sure, the city is well known for its Serbian-fried chicken, hot rice and vinegar-based coleslaw but over the last few years I’ve learned there’s so much more to Barberton’s restaurant community.

Having grown up in Tallmadge, I had little exposure to many municipalities in Summit County, including Barberton. That all changed when I became an intern for the Beacon Journal in 2020.

Now, having created stories and TikToks about various eateries in Magics territory, I’ve concluded that Barberton has the best food scene in Summit County.

No, don’t laugh at me! I’m serious!

Hopefully by the end of this whole shebang, you too will see that chicken is only a small portion of what Barberton has to offer in terms of food. But don’t worry Barberton chicken, I love you just as much as everything else in this story.

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Where to get ice cream in Barberton? A true dilemma

Okay I’ll admit it. I love ice cream a little tiny bit more than Barberton chicken.

But to be fair, I love ice cream more than just about everything. That’s why I surveyed readers about the best ice cream shops in Summit County and wrote a story on the results in 2020.

Barberton’s Skoops and Durbin Magic Freeze won first and second place, respectively.

Skoops is best described as a never-ending stream of creative sundaes, flurries and ice creams. My friends are feral for their seasonal menu items, which never cease to amaze. Skoops offers cookie butter sundaes, puppy chow flurries, Miss Trunchbull chocolate cake sundaes, chocolate éclair fudge stuffed waffle cones, pumpkin roll sundaes and much more.

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When I’m not sure what to order, I fall back on their funnel cake sundae with whatever rotating ice cream flavor catches my eye. I mean, what other ice cream shop has a piping hot funnel cake as the base of your sundae?

Durbin Magic Freeze is the only ice cream shop where I just order vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. Simplicity rules the roost at a place where they make their own hot fudge, and dang is it good.

Find marvelous meats at Al’s Quality Market

This was my exact face when I bit into the best sausage I’d ever had.

It was, of course, from Al’s Quality Market, a place known for its Polish, Italian, Slovenian and Hungarian sausage. In fact, owner Dennis Gray said the shop sells at a minimum 130,000 pounds of sausage each year between its meat market, cafeteria-style restaurant and catering.

In recent years, Al's has gained a wider reputation, appearing in food industry and consumer publications, including a prominent place in "Road Food" by Jane and Michael Stern.

The restaurant also serves other Eastern European staples like chicken paprikash, cabbage and dumplings, stuffed cabbage rolls and pierogi. All that said, it was really the flavorful sausage that blew me away when I first visited a few weeks ago.

Barberton's borders count too

Then there are those eateries right on the border of Barberton that take the whole area from “huh, isn’t it odd that so much good food is here?” to “so many of my favorites are in Barberton that a story must be written about this.”

Those two places are The Funky Truckeria and Pav’s Creamery’s Manchester Road location.

The Funky Truckeria has 20 specialty tacos including Jamaican jerk chicken, buffalo cauliflower and — my personal favorite — Korean pork belly. For this specific taco, the pork belly is sous-vided for 14 hours, deep fried and sautéed in marinade before serving with feathered cabbage, Asian sauce, carrots, sesame seeds, cilantro and lime.

Pav’s Creamery is pretty inventive with their custard and ice cream flavors.

Actually, Pav’s produces the only custard I enjoy – and I have tried many custard places to change that to no avail.

They also have some unique ice cream creations, my favorite of which is the baklava sundae.

I’m so hungry now…

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk on Barberton eats.

Now that I’m extremely hungry, I’m open to suggestions. Email me rival cities with a number of delicious, unique restaurants and who knows, it may turn the tide on my whole case.

But don’t get your hopes up. The Barberton area has three different ice cream stands, fried chicken, tasty sausage and tacos – what more could a girl want?

Got a restaurant recommendation? Contact Beacon Journal reporter Tawney Beans at tbeans@gannett.com and on Twitter @TawneyBeans. And follow her food adventures on TikTok @akronbeaconjournal.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Barberton has the best food in Summit County – here’s why