Fiddlehead Cafe to Bring New Soup, Salad Options to State College

Fiddlehead, a new soup-and-salad cafe in downtown State College, is scheduled to open Monday morning.

Located in the former Chocolate Madness space at 134 W. College Ave., it’s been created by the same three businesspeople who own Irving’s, the bakery and cafe at 110 E. College Ave. They are Marya Schoenholtz; her husband, David Schoenholtz; and his brother Jack Schoenholtz.

Their newest operation will offer ‘food that we would like to have available to us — and (we) always felt like it was missing or underrepresented downtown,’ Marya Schoenholtz said. ‘We were kicking around the idea for a while. And when that spot became available, we decided to jump on it.’

She said freshness will be a staple at Fiddlehead, which plans to make soups from scratch every day. Salads will be made to order with fresh ingredients — and nothing pre-prepared, she added.

‘We’re also trying to locally source as many ingredients as possible,’ Schoenholtz said.

Menu offerings are to include six specific salads, though customers may choose to create their own from more than 40 ingredients, she said. Soups each day will include a chili, some kind of chicken recipe and two or three other different varieties that will change daily, Schoenholtz said.

Offerings also will feature gelato brought in from the Lancaster area, though that won’t start arriving in the cafe for another couple weeks, she said.

Schoenholtz underscored that Fiddlehead will strive to be a zero-waste operation, incorporating recyclable or compostable materials into its daily operations. ‘We’re really striving to reduce the waste output that we produce,’ she said.

Seating will include a bar-style area and a couple tables. Fiddlehead is scheduled to be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.