Last call has been announced for an iconic State College bar.
Jan. 27, 2018 will be the last day of business for the 84-year-old All-American Rathskeller, according to a new post Sunday night on its official Facebook page.
That also will be the last day for the adjacent Spats Café, according to a post on its Facebook page.
Duke and Monica Gastiger, the owners of both establishments, announced last week the bar and the restaurant will close due to owners of the Foster Building, the Herlochers, not renewing their lease. The Gastigers had been given until Feb. 28, 2018 before they had to be out.
“The end game is the end of February,’ Duke Gastiger told the Centre County Gazette last week. ‘We have to be out. We are trying to make plans to stay open as long as we can. We have to assume that the businesses will be closing, and you can’t shut down a business that’s been running for 85 years overnight.”
After the Dec. 4 announcement that the Skeller would close, thousands of community members and Penn State alumni quickly responded, starting a campaign to #SaveTheSkeller on Twitter, signing a petition, and leaving one-star reviews and negative comments on the Facebook and Amazon pages of the family’s famous dipping mustard, pledging to boycott the company.
The Herlochers published an open letter to the community on Dec. 5, saying the new tenants plan to “continue operating the Skeller the way you’ve always known it.” They still haven’t identified the new operators, but said they plan to do so before the end of the year. The letter said the new tenants are Penn Staters who understand the value of tradition and the bar’s rich history.
It remains to be seen exactly how the Skeller will continue to operate, but the new tenants haven’t purchased the business from the Gastigers — at least not yet. However, the Gastigers told the Centre Daily Times they would be willing to sell the business and naming rights to new tenants. This sort of agreement, of course, would effectively #SaveTheSkeller.
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