Inside/Outside State College: The Vast Expansion of Outdoor Seating Downtown

Inside/Outside State College is a regular column by Jeff Deitrich offering views on downtown and the outdoors within a 30-minute driving distance.

I remember in 2002 attending an education conference in Montreal—in February. Arriving there from State College, I was shocked to see people sitting outside at coffee shops and cafés everywhere in spite of sub-freezing temperatures. I thought: wow, isn’t that great?

A couple of generations ago when I was a student at Penn State, we basically had three options to sit outside downtown—Café 210, the Lion’s Den and Roy Rogers (where Yallah Taco is now), and they were all closed in winter. One of the things I’ve been pleased with about downtown is the expansion of outdoor seating.

It hasn’t always been well done (Pickle’s, for example), but downtown now has more than 45 locations with at least one place to sit outside on the property or immediately adjacent. That’s fantastic!

At the end of this column, I’ve listed all of the locations with semi-outdoor and outdoor seating.

First, for one of those specialty places, a shout out to Big Spring Spirits for taking a large empty space leading up to The Scholar hotel and turning it into a great patio shaded by its own building on a hot summer afternoon. This is the Art Moderne Glennland Building that had landscaping/hardscaping in its front courtyard up until last fall. Now, it’s a space to gather, and that’s the kind of thinking that makes a town better.  It does also have a very limited food menu after 5 p.m., but the drinks are the draw. Loved your Pink Lloyd cocktail!

Second, probably a bigger shout out to the owners of Doggie’s Pub. First, they remodeled the interior and added a beer garden to make the place an anytime destination. Then they added pizza, and that is late-night deliciousness! 

Now they’re remodeling again to expand even further and make it even more of a destination. And a destination it is. You should have seen the line early in the day during Arts Fest weekend. It was astounding—mostly students, but adults like me and my friends hang out there, too. Love what they are doing.

Third, a shout out to every one of the little restaurants/cafés that decided they needed at least one or two places for their patrons to sit outside. I’m thinking of Café Alina, Irving’s Bagels, Elixr, Roots Natural Kitchen, the Cheese Shoppe/India Pavilion and even the one coveted Chumley’s table.  It would have been far easier to never think of it like so many did in the past. I love the two Adirondack chairs that appear in front of Penn Steaks on occasion, too!  I appreciate that you literally thought outside of your own boxes to give guests this option.

Fourth, another big shout out to the Downtown State College Improvement District and everyone involved with East End Social this summer. To me, it was a spectacular success. From the packed and enthusiastic World Cup watch parties, to Latin dancing, to book club meetings, to driving The Rivet’s 3D-printed tank, it has been a great place to meet people of all ages and do different things. Oh, and it also provided an enjoyable place to just sit outside downtown when there were no events going on, and you didn’t feel like you needed to buy anything to do it.

Fifth, a thank-you shout to The Tavern for providing American fine dining with European style in the beautiful walkway between College Avenue and Calder Way and a second option upstairs on the outdoor terrace overlooking both that you can access off College Avenue. It is so delightful to enjoy a great upscale meal in both of those outdoor locations.

I could go on shouting, but the point is clear: Downtown is far more welcoming to outdoor lovers than it ever has been.

It made me wonder what prompted this expansion. Was it organic, or was it intentional?

I asked Ed LeClear, planning director for the Borough of State College. Turns out that it was indeed intentional and has happened as a result of several changes by Borough Council.

The first change that came about in the late ‘90s was that zoning restrictions were loosened to allow outdoor seating on private property. This allowed a restaurant like the former Hi-Way Pizza on College Avenue to have outdoor seating.

Some years later, council began to allow private businesses to request to lease public right-of-way spaces for other uses, such as outdoor seating.

Third, council started the pilot program at Bill Pickle’s in which the borough allowed a private business to expand into a public space—in this case, parking spaces—and to essentially enter into a long-term lease for those spaces.  

The prior owners of the Hotel State College businesses made the request for outdoor seating before they were sold, with the blessing of the property owner. (The new business owners received permission for the seasonal “pedlet” extending into the parking lane in 2021). LeClear said several other businesses intend to seek similar permission now, and those will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis as they are requested.

A fourth category happened as a result of COVID, when zoning restrictions were removed so that businesses on private property were permitted to allow parking spaces to become outdoor seating. Examples of this are at Sowers Harvest and Carter’s Table.

A fifth initiative is the aforementioned East End Social project that allowed a temporary street closure to create outdoor seating. As I write this, I’m sitting next to 17 other people currently using the space at 2:25 pm on a random Wednesday afternoon—in addition to the guy who cruised among the tables on a scooter of some kind while singing, followed by his buddy who said very politely, “Excuse me.”  Later, my wife and I really enjoyed the closing celebration of this space on Aug. 1 as we sipped Big Spring cocktails and watched people learn the merengue and bachata dances. The only thing that would have made it better, interestingly, was more space. There were so many people that it was a little too crowded!

LeClear said additional adjustments may soon be made as a result of the updates being considered for the borough’s zoning ordinance. If approved, such changes could create additional places to sit, play, and eat outside. Such initiatives are “trying to incentivize private property to be used as open space to create more public access,” he said.

Glad to know that. I’m very happy to see these changes and believe they are making downtown more accessible to a wider variety of people, especially during non-peak student periods.

Without further ado, here is a list of my outdoor seating favorites:

Favorite Place to Enjoy a Beer:
Doggie’s to play games & listen to music

Favorite Place to Enjoy a Cocktail:
Big Spring Spirits at The Scholar Hotel

Favorite Place for a Cider:
The Press

Favorite Place for a Coffee:
Sowers Harvest

Favorite Place for a Tea:
The Whale Tea

Favorite Place for a Burger:
Sauly Boy’s

Favorite Place to be Seen:
Still Café 210—easily the most visible spot on College Ave.

Favorite Place Outside to Avoid Being Seen:
The Cheese Shoppe/India Pavilion

Favorite Fast Food:
Yallah Taco, both locations

Favorite International Cuisine:
Café Alina

Favorite Food Truck:
Sher Halal Gyro & Grill—yes, they have a bench next to both locations!

There are still some nagging issues about outdoor seating, including why it took so long to get going, and that in general there is so little at most locations that finding a seat outside isn’t reliable. However, in my opinion, it creates much more of the daily vibrant downtown that we were missing before.

Even when an outdoor space isn’t terribly well done, like Pickle’s in my opinion, it adds vibrance. Although it took away a couple of prime parking spaces on Allen Street and looks rather clumsily built, Pickle’s is an outdoor space that most people do seem to enjoy, and it sure packs in the students on many nights.

One final note: Local Whiskey is fantastic. I love nearly everything about it, including their open-air stools along the sidewalk in good weather and their breakfast shots (literally tastes like OJ, bacon, and pancakes with syrup!). But they should do something about the tables behind the sidewalk barstools where even grown men feel like tiny children. Either the chairs need to be higher, or the tables need to be lower. I am so, so serious.

But I love sitting on the rail there and next door at Central Reservation to watch all of the people go by.

Thank you, State College, for making outdoor seating happen!

Semi-Outdoor Seating

Brothers Bar and Grill – 134 S. Allen St.

Central Reservation – 101 E. Beaver Ave.

Local Whiskey – 107 E. Beaver Ave.

Outdoor Seating

Antifragile Brewing – 324 E. Calder Way

Bagel Crust – 225 W. Beaver Ave.

Benny Leone’s Pizza – 109 S. Fraser St.

Big Dean’s Hot Chicken – 208 W. College Ave.

Big Spring Spirits – 201 E. Beaver Ave.

Bill Pickle’s Tap Room – 106 S. Allen St.

Bistrozine – 409 E. Calder Way

Buffalo Wild Wings – 134 S. Garner St.

Café 210 West – 210 W. College Ave.

Café Alina – 421 E. Calder Way

Caramel Afternoon – 214 E. Calder Way

Carter’s Table – 407 E. Beaver Ave. Unit Ba (Ambassador Square)

Chipotle – 116 Hiester Street

Chumley’s – 108 W. College Ave.

Doggie’s Pub – 108 S. Pugh St.

Elixr – 123 E. Beaver Ave.

Fava Kitchen – 334 E. Calder Way.

Fiddlehead – 134 W. College Ave.

Fraser Shops/Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza – 100 block South Fraser Street

Happy Valley Eats & Treats – 127 W. Beaver Ave.

India Pavilion – 222 E. Calder Way

Irving’s Bagels – 110 E. College Ave.

Lion’s Den – 118 S. Garner St.

mezeh – 348 E. Calder Way

Mosul Grill – 434 E. College Ave.

Panera – 148 S. Allen St.

Penn Steaks – 119 S. Pugh St.

Primanti Bros. – 130 Hiester Street

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers – 228 E. College Ave.

Roots Natural Kitchen – 270 E. Beaver Ave.

Sauly Boy’s – 124 S. Allen St.

Sharkies Bar – 110 Sowers Street

Sher Halal Gyro & Grill (2) – 137 E. Beaver Ave. (Pugh Street corner) and 200 S. Fraser St.

Sizzling Bites – 129 S. Pugh St.

Snap Custom Pizza – 132 W. College Ave.

Sowers Harvest Café –  – 421 E. Beaver Ave., Suite G1B (Ambassador Square)

Starbucks – 232 W. College Ave.

Tasty K – 325 E. Calder Way

The Cheese Shoppe – 234 E. Calder Way

The Press – 113 Hiester Street

The Tavern (2) – 220 E. College Ave. (Seating above College Ave. and on Pat Daugherty Walkway)

Way Fruit Farm Downtown Market & Café – 252 E. Calder Way

The Whale Tea – 262 E. Beaver Ave.

Yallah Taco (2) – 310 E. College Ave. and 210 McAllister Alley

Jeff Deitrich is a retired hotelier and outdoors writer living in State College. He welcomes comments at psumohs@yahoo.com.