A long dormant State College area restaurant building is ready to come to life again.
Happy Valley Live, the new restaurant from Pat Romano of Philipsburg’s We Are Inn, is set to begin its soft opening on Wednesday at 1031 E. College Ave. The building, located just a mile down the road from Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center, was the longtime home of Damon’s Bar & Grill before becoming Lettermans in 2015 and Tailgate Sports Bar & Grill in 2019.
Romano has been working on renovating the three-floor building since late last year, turning it into a Penn State-themed restaurant and bar with “wall-to-wall” Nittany Lion memorabilia, as well as a place for nightlife activities.
It will have a nearly identical menu to the We Are Inn, including Italian meals from Romano’s family recipes, steaks, cheesesteaks he learned to make in Philadelphia and sandwiches.
But as one of the largest restaurant properties in the area, with an indoor capacity of 583 and patio space for about 60, Romano has been able to create different atmospheres and offerings.
The upper level will have the bar and more casual dining, while the middle level will be a bit more upscale “for people who want to come in and just have a little bit more peace and quiet around them,” Romano said. The lower level, meanwhile, while be a kind of event center, complete with a mechanical bull.
“You can come in here maybe on a Friday night and there’d be karaoke going on in the bar upstairs. The middle level could have an acoustic duo, and then the lower level could have the bull going with a band,” Romano said.
In addition to bands and DJs, Romano said he expects to have comedy and trivia nights, country nights and potentially even rodeo nights using the mechanical bull in the lower level and offering prizes.
Live entertainment is part of the reason the restaurant has the moniker Happy Valley Live. The other part is to avoid confusion.
When Romano first revealed plans for the establishment, he intended to call it We Are Inn State College. But it isn’t a hotel, and because of the neighboring Hampton Inn and the fact that the Philipsburg location does have lodging, he felt the name wasn’t right.
“We didn’t want people thinking that was part of this and calling here for rooms all the time, because we could get inundated with that,” he said. “So we had to sit down at the table and I came up with Happy Valley Live just because it’s Happy Valley and we’re going to do a lot of live entertainment.”
Romano and his team have spent months painting, decorating and reconfiguring spaces in the building. There was no demolition involved, but he brought in all new kitchen and bar equipment, and reset areas like the bars to be more customer-friendly.
Now Happy Valley Live is ready to welcome customers with a soft opening. It will be open starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, with closing hours to be determined.
Romano plans to have 70 to 80 full- and part-time employees and the restaurant is still hiring, particularly for cooks and kitchen staff. Those interested can stop in or email pat@theweareinn.com.
The restaurant will be getting staff and operations acclimated during the soft opening. Once its fully up and running, kitchen hours will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and “we’ll stay open and as long as there’s people,” Romano said.
“We just hope to bring a wonderful experience and great food to the community,” he added.
