A new downtown State College shop will offer a variety of stadium-style food and cold sweet treats, including a different kind of water ice than is currently found in the area.
Happy Valley Concessions owner Mik Vajda is opening a Polish Water Ice franchise location at 127 W. Beaver Ave. The eatery will have a soft open this week selling ballpark-type concessions such as chicken tenders and sandwiches, fries and hot dogs, as well as Hershey’s ice cream.
After equipment installation is finished and code approvals are granted, it will also offer the creamy, soft-serve Polish Water Ice.
“We’re going to be kind of like a family-oriented joint, where you come in, you get your classic stadium foods, you get a dessert for like two, three dollars as an add on and you just come and hang out,” Vajda said.
Vajda has managed concession stands at Penn State athletic venues for the past three years and plans to bring favorites to the downtown storefront.
“The concept is we’re going to be selling the stadium classics,” he said. “So if you have you been to Beaver Stadium, the chicken tenders and fries. We’ll have the same chicken sandwiches that we have at the [Bryce Jordan Center]. So, it’s basically the same stadium classics we have at all the Penn State stadiums and arenas. And we’ve got Hershey ice cream. And once I get coding approval and installation for drain lines, I’ll have Polish Water Ice as well. So it’s a three tiered system.”
This week’s soft opening will be a low-key affair — “If the lights are on and somebody’s in there, you can come on in,” Vajda said. The opening menu will include chicken tenders and fries, loaded fries, fried chicken sandwiches, hot dogs and Polish sausage from Mountain View Meat Company.
He plans to expand the savory menu in the future to add burgers, cheese steaks, chicken wings and more.
“These are student-friendly prices,” Vajda said. “So for instance, three tenders and fry basket is going to be like $10. Hot dogs are going to be $3.25, and these are the big hot dogs, quality Berks hot dogs. The sausages are going to be $4.25, but they’re nice, quarter-pound sausages.”
Polish Water Ice, meanwhile, is unlike the Italian ice found at places like Rita’s, Vajda said.
“Our water ice is made fresh. It’s in a soft serve ice cream machine, so it comes out creamy every time just like soft-serve ice cream,” he explained.
Vajda plans to offer six flavors at a time.
Polish Water Ice was created by in the early 1990s by Thomas B. Curyto, Sr., a Chester County resident of Polish heritage who wanted to create his own recipe for Italian ice. The result was a hit with friends and in 1997 he opened his first shop on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey.
Since then it has grown to 11 locations in New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Prior to the State College shop’s opening, the nearest and only other location in Pennsylvania is in Lehigh County.
Vajda plans for his State College shop to initially be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday but likely expanding later on. On Fridays and Saturdays once at full operation it will be open until 3 a.m.
The inside of the shop will pay homage to the various aspects of the business.
“We have our Penn State decor,” he said. “We’re going to have a little bit of Polish history. We’re going to have a little bit of shore theming. because Polish Water Ice started down the shore. It’s going t try and tie all that kind of stuff in.”
