Skeller reopening this weekend
- Thread starter UncleLar
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Eventually it will become a restaurant. The Herlocher's told me that they've been approached by several chains but declined. They want to put a local proprietor not a chain in the spot.
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I'm hoping that Bernd starts up something else at some point. The last time I was in, I got to chat with him for a few minutes and thank him for the years of good food. As his parents got older, he was getting burned out and he said he thought it was better to shut Herwig's down before he started to hate it.
Yep--I know he had/has back problems too.
I always respected how they made everything from scratch. My last meal there was a veal cutlet in a bacon-mushroom cream sauce--fantastic as always. I could drink their salad dressing too.
On Facebook, Bernd posted about possibly doing pop-up type things around town--I hope that comes to fruition. I miss the place; it was such a unique place.
They opened at 2 PM today for a four-hour preview. I cut slightly short a 2 PM meeting with a potential collaborator at the university and got there around 2:45 PM. It was a quiet crowd nursing bottled/canned beer while a video crew was setting up. There was nothing on the walls, and no small "Last Call Memorial" to their greatest customer. I wanted a Guinness draft so I left.
P.S. I can confirm no trough, just one stall and several urinals.
Someone else from Reading might know for sure, but I thought that Stanley's in Reading had a setup like that way back when. Stanley's was a shot-and-a-beer bar frequented by working class folk and women weren't allowed in the bar area. It's now closed, believe it or not.
This is absolutely 100% true. Stanley's was exactly how you described. They had a restaurant in the back that was open to everyone (men & women), but the bar up front was only open to men.
Funny story about Stanley's. Back when me & my buddies were 16-17 years old (would have been like early 80s) we ordered those bogus fake IDs from that back classified pages of The Rolling Stone Magazine. One of the first nights with our fake IDs we go into Stanleys.... Old man Stanley (Yes, there was actually a real to life Stanley) is behind the bar. He comes up to serve us and he says, "You boys have IDs".... we say "Yes" and we start reaching into our wallets to show him. Stanley replies "I don't need to see them, don't show them to me, I just need to know that you have them and need to ask"...... Stanley proceeded to serve us our beers. Stanley will always be fondly remembered by me as the first bar in my life I was ever served.
Looking back. I wish I had some type of Stanley's memorabilia.
There is a bar in the Geno's Pat's steak area called the Birthday Bar that has a trough at the base of the bar.
Thanks. Its amazing what washing the windows, putting in a 100 W bulb and cleaning the floors will do.
Looks good.
I will be interested to see what the "outside" area looks like.
The plan is to be open on weekends through the summer, while they continue with making improvements to the property.during the weekend. I wouldn't be surprised though if they eventually decided that doing the necessary cleanups to open Friday afternoons for the weekend becomes too much of the pain and they just shut it down until they are ready for a grand opening.
I'd have to imagine bars in State College fight to break even on week days during the Summer. It's interesting though that the landlords are now holding up the grand opening.
In the video from the link, the owner said the grand opening is still in flux because the landlord still has a lot of renovating to do above
I'm not suggesting anything. I wasn't one of the people making the trek to SC to see the Skeller one last time. I stopped by for a drink most times when I was in town as recently as mid December. That being said, times change and it may be for the better. I'll know when I stop by again. I'm all for improvement!
Ah. Now I understand. It's not so much that the landlord is holding things up, it's that getting the entire building in shape requires work in the Skeller, which is basically the building's basement. Trosko is coordinating with the landlord so that the building rehab can go on and he can also open for business part time.
I think Onward State is dead on (for once) with this article.
https://onwardstate.com/2018/07/12/skeller-replacement-best-we-couldve-hoped-for/
https://onwardstate.com/2018/07/12/skeller-replacement-best-we-couldve-hoped-for/
When I was at Penn State, I knew a couple guys who would just put an empty pitcher under the table to take care of business. It was all fun and games until a poor girl refilled her beer from the wrong pitcher. That didn’t end well.
I'm from East Reading and heard stories about Stanley's back in the day. 1 story was about a female PLCB officer coming in to investigate Stanley's "females in the back only" policy. She walked in the front and Stanley told her that females could only enter in through the back. She pulled out her ID and told him she was going to fine him for his practice. He told her he didn't give a sh-t and that if she wanted to fine him, she'd have to take her a-- around back and serve it there! LOL !
Stanley's can be seen at the 31 min mark of this video about Rdg in 1974.
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Every GameDay I would drink at the Skellar and eat at Herwigs. This is getting ridiculous!! What's going on up there?
Being candid, I was just in State College and was deeply disappointed with the quality of food downtown. It’s as if none of the restaurants can afford to invest in their businesses or food quality. It felt to me that a number of “old regulars” were teetering on the brink. I don’t know if it’s competition on campus or national chains moving in, but it’s disappointing.
Ah. So we should assume that she was not of German descent.
I suspect it's a perfect storm of drastically escalating downtown real estate value & the Amazon phenomenon. With each incoming class, the population of students who are accustomed to traditional brick & mortar shopping are being replaced by a population moreso accustomed to online commerce & front-door delivery.
It’s possible. I don’t know how eCommerce displaces local eateries. I did see the new Target and Amazon (book sales, I assume) retail locations. That erodes the last bastion local businesses had: a captive student audience downtown. I can’t see it ending well for places like McLanahan’s or the independent bookstores.
I'm amazed my Dad wasn't at the bar. He stopped for a shot and a beer every day after work.
It has been 20 years since I’ve been in there. So technically they are trough killers. Lol
Wouldn’t that help local eateries? I can’t imagine easy delivery of local food hurting sales. Maybe it allowed eateries outside of downtown with cheaper overhead to swoop in?
I don't know which is why I attached "maybe" to my comment. What I believe though is that if people stop going out to eat, downtown restaurants will be hurt. I think you need live bodies in your establishment to make a go of it.
You're unlikely to find great food among restaurants that cater to a student market--that's the pizza and sandwich crowd. There's enough money in State College (actually, there's a lot of $$$ in State College) to supply patronage for some high quality restaurants outside the College Avenue/Beaver Avenue footprint. But I'm not sure where in Greater State College I'd take a high-level business client for lunch or dinner. Recommendations?
Live in area, and we have found great food in area is slim to none. Most places are average with some being very good.
Carnegie Inn is where I would go. Some may say NIttany Lion Inn...meh. They should be better...but they tend to disappoint.
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