In the years before my wife and I relocated here in 2016, the Gamble Mill helped open our eyes to the fact that life in Happy Valley extended beyond College Avenue and the Penn State campus.
For the better part of two decades, visits to the area consisted of weary treks through Bellefonte on the way to the Econo Lodge, arriving about midnight on a Friday after a 5-plus hour drive from Connecticut.
At that hour, there was little energy or interest in appreciating the beauty of Talleyrand Park or the Victorian downtown.
Our focus was on getting enough sleep to wake up bright and early for the next day’s tailgate outside Beaver Stadium. Postgame meant dinner in State College, followed by a Sunday morning drive back home (with coffee and a steak-and-egg croissant from Sheetz in hand).
We loved – and still do – the vibe of downtown State College. And with the generally hectic nature of our trips – even going back to the days when our daughter was a Penn State student – we never took much time to explore the culinary or cultural scene in the rest of the area. I suspect that’s true of a lot of Penn State parents and football weekend visitors in “normal” times.
That changed for us 15 or so years ago when friends – also out-of-towners – sitting next to us at a game mentioned that the Gamble Mill was one of their favorite restaurants. We’d somehow never heard of it, but we gave it a try. What a cool old place! We loved the historic feel of the downstairs pub and of the dining room above.
It became a must-stop on at least a couple of visits each year. Unfortunately, by the time we moved here five years ago, the Gamble Mill had closed.
Hopes have been raised numerous times since then, with reports of potential new prospects for the historic site. But nothing ever came to fruition – until now.
As Vincent Corso writes in our cover story this month, brothers Christopher and Jonathan Virgilio – who purchased the Gamble Mill in 2019 – are getting set to reopen it in May.
The new Gamble Mill will feature a restaurant, pub, an event space, and even short-term-stay suites on the upper floors. That’s a vision that should be popular with locals – and out-of-towners who take the time to explore.
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Restaurants and bars throughout the area are starting to perk up again as the vaccine rollout continues and capacity restrictions are being eased.
While we’re certainly not out of the COVID woods yet, there seems to be daylight in front of us.
But if you’re one of those folks like me who doesn’t yet qualify for a shot but is anxious to get one, the state’s rollout has been frustratingly slow and seems oddly arranged (18-year-olds and 64-year-olds in the same age category?).
I’ve even gone down numerous dead-end streets looking for one of those leftover doses we keep hearing about, in which a shot just needs to go into someone’s arm so that it’s not wasted. No dice. Or dose. Yet.
As April arrives, here’s hoping for lots of welcome doses of warm spring weather – and COVID vaccine.
Mark Brackenbury
Editorial Director
mbrackenbury@barashmedia.com
