Construction is in full swing at Primanti Bros., which will be located at the site of the old Gingerbread Man restaurant, 130 Heister St. in downtown State College.
According to Mike Mitcham, operations director for Primanti Bros., contractors are working seven days a week to get the site ready for a January grand opening.
“We’re coming along well,” Mitcham says. “We have a good construction crew out there. We ran into a couple of different issues with the building. Second- and third-generation buildings always present a couple of surprises here and there. But the crew has stayed on schedule pretty well.”
Mitcham couldn’t pinpoint an exact day when Primanti Bros. would be open for business. Although the building is expected to be ready sometime in December, Mitcham says it won’t be up and running until 2015.
“We don’t have a firm date in January, but it won’t be until the students come back,” he says.
Although Mitcham doesn’t want to reveal much about the décor inside the restaurant, he says people who have been to one of the Pittsburgh-area Primanti Bros. locations will recognize the design.
“Our new model moving forward is kind of like a mix between our city locations — your Strip District, your Market Square, your Oakland — and our suburban concepts, which are like the Cranberry, Grove City, Monroeville types of locations. It’s a mix between the two of those,” Mitcham explains.
Mitcham adds that the State College location will still have its own unique décor.
“The things we have up our sleeve,” he says, “are going to be pretty cool. We’re really excited about it.”
On Nov. 12, Primanti Bros. opened a new location in Wheeling, W. Va. Mitcham says that the restaurant chain’s growth over the past couple of years has been both amazing and unprecedented.
Mitcham has been with Primanti Bros. for 15 years.
“I started working at Primanti Bros. when I was in college. I got in at the time when all of the television food shows started. The popularity of the Food Network and the Travel Channel shows really took off. You’d see guys like Adam Richman, Andrew Zimmerman, Anthony Bourdain coming in and you realize the thing has taken on a life of it’s own,” Mitcham says.
Primanti Bros. specializes in sandwiches loaded with french fries and coleslaw. But it’s really much more than that according to Mitcham.
“It’s truly a work of art,” he says. “It’s something we’re really proud of.”
The State College location will be run by Greg DuBois, who recently left Damon’s Grill to join Primanti Bros. DuBois points out that the Primanti Bros. locations do not have general managers, per se.
“We’re called head coaches,” he says.
For the past few months, DuBois has been visiting different Primanti Bros. locations in preparation for the grand opening of the State College site.
“The company is moving so fast on so many different fronts it’s like a whirlwind. They’re being really aggressive right now. I’m so excited because there’s nothing like this in the market right now. It’s not your typical chain restaurant,” DuBois says.
According to DuBois, the unique offerings at Primanti Bros. set it apart from other restaurants.
“It has something that no one else has,” DuBois says. “It has history, it has culture.”
Throughout his travels, DuBois has learned that the uniqueness goes beyond the food.
“I’ve been to three or four locations and each one is unique. They customize each location to the market that they’re in. It’s not a cookie-cutter concept. The food is fantastic, of course, but everything — the environment, the culture — everything is adapted to the location,” DuBois says.
If you’ve ever been to the Primanti Bros. in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, you will have seen a mural on the wall with famous Pittsburghers. In State College, expect to see sports stars and celebrities from across the Keystone state.
“State College will have it’s own environment,” DuBois explains. “We’re branching out from Pittsburgh and embracing everybody.”
To say that DuBois is excited would be an understatement.
“It’s going to be the place to go to watch the game, have a great sandwich and have a cold beer,” DuBois promises. “It’s going to be awesome.”
According to DuBois, Primanti Bros. is now hiring. For more information, visit www.primantibros.com.
