Susan Shellehamer, right, of York Springs waits on Drew Highlands of East Berlin and his son Don Highlands, far left, of York Springs at Hillside Family Restaurant in York Springs. (EVENING SUN ERIC DRUMMOND )
The Hillside Family Restaurant is one of those places a lot of people call a home away from home. Some patrons take that sentiment to the extreme and have all three meals there some days, said owner Delores Carrozza.

Hillside is so inviting, though, that one can hardly blame them.

It's a family restaurant, removed from the hustle and bustle of a downtown area, but close enough on a main road and to just about everywhere else in Adams County and Hanover that you can escape and have a nice, hot lunch in a friendly place.

Carrozza opened shop three years ago. She had worked for years in other people's restaurants before seeing this location on Carlisle Pike, which was closed, but had been a restaurant in previous years.

"I wanted

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    • to see if I could be a success on my own," she said. "So far, I think I am."

    Of course, she's not working just on her own.

    "I couldn't do this without my family," she added.

    Carrozza has a team of children and grandchildren who pitch in. They wash dishes, wait tables and do whatever is needed around the family restaurant. She makes a variety of her own dressings, pot pie, cole slaw and many other dishes using many of her mother's old recipes.

    It's welcoming for families, too, with the look and feel of a country kitchen, like it's a grandmother's house. She has a Christmas tree that stays up all year long with different decorations for each season.

    The broasted chicken is one of the restaurant's specialties, she said. They use a 50-year-old broaster that makes what she and previous owners of the restaurant have boldly proclaimed to be the world's best broasted chicken. I didn't know that going in, so I did not try it, but I plan on going back to give it a shot. After all, you don't boast about the broast unless your broast is the most or you're toast.

    I tried the hot roast beef sandwich with fries. The roast beef was tender and tasty, served on bread with brown gravy over the whole thing. Not a complicated dish, but the kind of thing you might have as a kid for a special lunch at home, like on a snow day when school is canceled, and you have time to concoct more than peanut butter and jelly and a peach.

    The gravy had a bite that warms you and serves as a great example of comfort food.

    If you're driving along Route 94 around a meal time, it's a great place to drop in for a little taste of home.

    Ticket to Lunch is a weekly column featuring local restaurants' meals available during the lunch hour. Reach Steve Marroni at smarroni@

    eveningsun.com.

    If you go

    LOCATION: Hillside Family Restaurant, 7488 Carlisle Pike, York Springs

    HOURS: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through

    Saturdays, and 7 a.m. to

    5 p.m. Sundays

    OWNER'S PICK: Broasted chicken

    PARKING: Lot

    ACCEPTS: All major credit cards

    TAKE OUT: Yes

    DELIVERY: No

    DETAILS: Call 528-8580