Italian Restaurant Looking to Open in Downtown State College High-Rise

A new Italian restaurant could be coming soon to downtown State College.

Figo Italian is looking to open on the first floor of The Standard high-rise at 330 W. College Ave., according to a request for a liquor license transfer sent to State College Borough on behalf of the restaurant’s owner, Philadelphia-based GLU Hospitality.

A public hearing on the liquor license transfer is scheduled for borough council’s April 3 meeting, a borough spokesperson said.

GLU owns and operates multiple restaurants in the Philadelphia area, including the only current Figo restaurant, located in the city’s Northern Liberties neighborhood.

Figo’s State College location would be a full-service, casual Italian restaurant with a separate side for a fast casual pizza counter, attorney Mark Kozar of Flaherty & O’Hara, which is representing GLU for the liquor license request, wrote in a letter to Borough Manager Tom Fountain. It also would include a separate breakfast area that will not serve alcohol.

The menu would feature “a wide variety of handcrafted Italian dishes and speciality pizzas,” with “an assortment of appetizers, salads and sides,” Kozar wrote. Meal prices are expected to range from $12 to $20 per person, according to the liquor license transfer application. Figo’s Philadelphia location offers brunch and dinner menus, wine, beer and cocktails, and pizzas and hoagies.

Anticipated hours of operation are noon to midnight Monday through Thursday, noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 10 or 11 p.m. on Sunday, according to the application.

The restaurant would have table/booth and bar seating. A total capacity was not listed in the application, but the bar is expected to seat 35.

Figo Italian has an agreement to purchase the restaurant liquor license currently held by the former Luna 2 Woodgrill & Bar for 2609 E. College Ave. in College Township. For intermunicipal license transfers, Pennsylvania’s Liquor Code requires the receiving municipality’s approval when it has more than one liquor license per 3,000 population. It also allows the municipality to place conditions on the license.

State College had long placed strict conditions — particularly on the ratio of food to alcohol sales — on licenses transferred into the borough, but in the past few years has taken a more relaxed approach for establishments operating primarily as restaurants.

In January, council held a public hearing for a request by Brothers Bar & Grill to transfer a liquor license from Fuji & Jade Garden’s former location on Westerly Parkway to 134 S. Allen St., where the sports bar chain plans to open its first Pennsylvania location. The Fuji & Jade license had conditions — including a requirement that food sales constitute 80% or more of gross revenue and council approval to be transferred anywhere else in State College — from when it was first transferred into the borough from Spring Mills in 2006.

State College Police Chief John Gardner, citing alcohol-related crime in the borough and the increased police responses that accompany restaurants that serve alcohol, recommended several conditions be placed on the transferred license for Brothers. Among those were a requirement that at least 60% of revenue come from food sales, no happy hours and no alcoholic drinks in containers larger than 22 fluid ounces.

Several residents also pushed for the restrictions, saying they worried about the concentration of liquor licenses in a small downtown area and the health and safety impacts. State College has 23 restaurant liquor licenses and a total of 42 retail establishments selling alcohol under various licenses, including 36 within a five-block radius downtown.

Brothers owners Marc and Eric Fortney said those conditions would make it unlikely that they would proceed with the restaurant.

Council ultimately voted 5-1 to approve the transfer with none of those most stringent restrictions. It did include conditions such as that food must be available for purchase at all times that alcohol is sold — with Brothers stipulating the scope of its food menu wouldn’t change — and that council must approve any future transfer or relocation of the license in the borough.

No other active restaurant liquor licenses with council-imposed conditions remain in the borough, and one council member said it would be unfair to treat Brothers differently than other alcohol-serving establishments.

Kozar, who also represented Brothers in the transfer request, wrote that he is hopeful council will take a similar tack with Figo Italian.

“Figo Italian will offer a unique dining alternative in State College,” he wrote. “Approval of an inter-municipal transfer of a liquor license by Figo Italian will permit the operation of a restaurant in State College that will be a positive attribute to the community.”