If you’re looking for a cute, little bit out-of-the-way place for a specialty coffee or a quick bite to eat, look no further than Pump Station Cafe in Boalsburg. The coffee shop has been a Boalsburg staple since October of 2005. The food and drinks are top notch. After all, you don’t survive for 17 years in the Happy Valley restaurant scene without having excellent food and drink.
Heather Jones is one of the owners of Pump Station, which is located at 103 Boal Avenue. Like Pump Station Cafe itself, Jones is quite the success story. She started there as a barista in 2007 and climbed up the ranks.
“There were three other owners at that time,” Jones explains. “Basically, I worked my way up. I became a shift supervisor, then the manager for a while. And then I got the opportunity to become an owner. Two partners got out in 2012 and it has been Sam [Malizia] and I since then.”
So why is it called Pump Station Cafe? Well, prior to being a cafe, the building was Ken’s Texaco, a gas station owned by Ken Tennis. Tennis served in the U.S. Army in World War II as a cook in the Philippines. When he came home from the war in 1946, Tennis opened Ken’s Texaco and operated it for 46 years, until his retirement in 1992. His wife, Margaret, owned the lamp shop that was two houses down on Boal Avenue.
Ken is one of Centre County’s legends. According to Jones, many people still walk in to Pump Station Cafe and reminisce about it being a gas station.
“There are still people who come in and say, ‘I came here as a kid! I’d sit over there and get candy and listen to guys talk about the news while our car was getting worked on.’ So, that’s pretty cool,” Jones says.
Pump Station Cafe features breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, there is a wide variety of car-service-themed breakfast sandwiches. The lineup looks like this: The Muffler (egg and cheese on a toasted English muffin), the Jumpstart (egg and cheese on a toasted white, wheat, or everything bagel), the Rotation (egg and cheese on a toasted croissant), and the Classic (two eggs, cheese, and butter on toasted bread).
“Our Jumpstart breakfast sandwich is our No. 1 popular breakfast item,’’ Jones explains. “People really love that one.”
Customers are welcome to add bacon, ham, or sausage to any sandwich, of course.
If breakfast sandwiches aren’t your thing, there are overnight oats, regular bagels, and a yogurt parfait. Pump Station Cafe also offers a wide variety of baked goods. The menu is filled with muffins, scones, croissants, chocolate-filled croissants, cheese Danish, coffee cake, biscotti, and cinnamon buns.
Simply put, if you’ve got a sweet tooth first thing in the morning, there’s something for you at the Pump Station.
“We do all of our baking in house. We bake every day … we have a lot of different things,” Jones says.
They also make homemade cookies.
“We make those big chocolate chip cookies, the extra large ones that are as big as your face,” Jones says with a laugh. “They’re for sharing, but not everyone shares them.”
Not a morning person? No worries. Pump Station Cafe also has a solid lunch menu. There’s the Boalsburg Beast (roast beef, cheddar cheese, pickled onions, and horseradish sauce), Powertrain (deli turkey, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing), a chicken salad sandwich, a BLT, a club sandwich, a tuna salad sandwich, and an egg salad sandwich as well as hummus and vegetables.
Of course, no coffee shop would be complete without—you guessed it—coffee. Pump Station Cafe offers a plethora of beverages.
There’s coffee, of course.
“We get our coffee from Standing Stone in Huntingdon, Pa., and we also use The Cheese Shoppe in downtown State College,’’ Jones says.
Pump Station Cafe also offers seasonal drinks, teas, lattes, cappuccinos, mochas, macha latte, chai latte, and espressos.
“We do all the specialty coffee drinks as well. Anything with espresso. We have a lever espresso machine. It’s not automated or anything, which makes it really nice for the atmosphere. It’s really pretty to watch and it gives a fun element,” Jones says.
The restaurant also offers fresh smoothies as well as a host of bottled beverages.
Pump Station Cafe has a drive-through, which Jones says is a big hit, especially in cold weather.
“People really love our drive-through,” she says.
Pump Station Cafe is open seven days a week. It is open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sundays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information about Pump Station Cafe, visit pumpstationcafe.com.
Chris Morelli, a resident of Pleasant Gap, is a staff reporter at The Express in Lock Haven and a freelance writer. This story appears in the March 2022 issue of Town&Gown.
