The four stars is just for memory and nostalgia - the experience this time around when I went back with my wife was not that great but, while a student at Penn State, this was a regular haunt. Its great for the poor college student with its happy hour specials. Great patio in front and back. Basically just a great place for the college student to get some cheap drinks!
Review Source:This is a great place to grab some drinks with friends. You will definitely want to go during happy hour because they have amazing specials! It's really nice because they have outdoor seating, so on nice nights you can chill outside, which is really great for when you want to have a conversation because inside can get really loud.
This is a really popular bar so be prepared for a crowd. This was my favorite place to go during the summer because it is much less crowded, or you can get there earlier to avoid waiting in line. There are always food and drink specials so you can go there and grab some food and hang with friends or you can party and dance with the band.
You should definitely check Cafe out. It is one of my favorite bars to go to in downtown State College.
Great drink specials, good cheap bar food, and the patio all make Cafe one of my favorite spots in State College.
I come here pretty regularly. They have a predictable schedule of specials every weekday (excluding event weekends), that make it easy to plan for. Looking for something to eat on a Wednesday? $3.50 pulled pork sandwiches. Hungry on a Monday? Burger and fries. Looking to get drunk on something sweet? Long island iced tea pitchers, every day. 1/2 price drinks and appetizers for most Happy Hours is another plus. This is the sort of place you can get a good buzz without spending a lot of money, and everyone needs a place like that.
The food is actually pretty good. Most of it is just normal bar food. Fairly standard wings, burgers, fries, and chicken fingers...But their cheesesteaks are really good! These are real Philly Style steaks, made with chip steak and cheez whiz, served on an Amoroso roll with or without onions. Probably the best cheesesteak in town. As a weekday lunch special, you can get a cheesesteak and fries for $5. Honestly, I think I'm here for that lunch special more often than I come to party. Just sidle up to the bar, order a cheesesteak and a beer, and get out for less than $10.
Even with all that, the patio is the best feature of the place. As Winter turns to Spring, and the semester starts to wind down, you begin to see more and more people grabbing tables outside to enjoy the good weather. It's a perfect place to sit and people watch on a warm Saturday evening, or enjoy lunch on a Summer afternoon. The patio can get a bit crowded, but that's the price you pay, I guess.
I cannot recommend the Cafe on account of a poor service experience -- being removed for being "visibly intoxicated" in my one time going.
Scenario: In a narrow aisle-way, which happened to be the main one, there was this guy embracing his girlfriend with a *pitcher* of beer in hand. He embraced her more, and he dropped his pitcher to the ground. I just happened to be walking past at the time to use the washroom. The guy blamed it on me; I ignored him because his demeanor suggested that he was considerably inebriated. I used the washroom and emerged from there to resume my conversation with my friends; five minutes later, a bouncer tapped me on the shoulder to inform me that I was "too drunk to be there" and escorted me out. After a couple of minutes' shock at what had happened, I asked the bouncer outside what the manager's name was. He replied that "he doesn't give out names." Then, I asked his name; he refused to give that out, as well.
It turns out that I had had only one beer that evening. Â Needless to say, I will not return until I receive a reasonable explanation from the management. Â Beyond that, I am not sure that I would return: Â I sampled nachos that were extremely salty, and the happy-hour prices are not that great ($4.25 for a 12-oz draft of Yuengling -- c'mon!).
Establishments that abuse the PLCB regulation for removal of "visibly intoxicated persons" do not deserve anyone's business!
I haven't finished making the rounds yet, but so far Cafe is definitely my favorite bar in State College. The outdoor seating is great when the weather is nice and I am a big fan of the flavored cafe tea pitchers. I also love that this bar every Friday is host to My Hero Zero, a band that MAKES the party. Â My friends and I split an order of their skillet fries which were delicious but easily devoured in minutes. The service is sub par but the prices are great, cheap beer, reasonably priced teas, and a lot of space to hang out with friends!
Review Source:Cafe is a State College bar landmark that no respectable bar tour would be without. Their food and alcohol is cheap and they have seating areas out front and in the back that are great on nice days.
The reason I won't give it a better rating is that the main reason for liking Cafe (the outdoor seating) isn't really a function of anything the owners do, other than the fact that they wisely bought a place that had room for outdoor seating. Cafe has no appeal to me in the winter time. The inside is unremarkable and the service is almost always sub-par. I've also had friends get kicked out for very weird reasons, like one friend whose shoe had unfortunately broken while she was out. They deemed that to mean she was too drunk, but actually her shoe just broke. It happens. And I had another acquaintance who was kicked out after someone picked a fight with her, because according to Cafe "Both parties in a dispute must be escorted out."
It's a great place when the weather's nice, but most places in State College have good drink specials, so if it's raining/cold, I'd go somewhere else.
Best place in town to grab a table and have some drinks outside on a nice day. Good drink specials, live music inside and two outdoor seating areas. The front is ideal for people watching and waiving down old friends strolling down College Ave on game weekend. The back outdoor seating area is more secluded but a great option for dinner and drinks.
Review Source:CHEAP! And I don't mean cheap like the date I had where the excuse of "I only have a 20 dollar bill and didn't realize this steak house would cost more than that" or "You like beer? Cheap date! Why don't we just buy some at the store and go back to my apartment over my grandma's garage?"
NO!
So the $2 cover (because of a band) threw us off at first. I do not even get charged for covers in NYC! Oh I was mad. I stared down the money taker as I thrusted my crumpled left over $2 in her face and tapped my foot impatiently.
When did my mood change???
$3 for a large beer? YAY! $5 for shots? YAY! I had a lot of  beer. I had a lot of shots. I had to be up early to do a group presentation in my grad school class. I got 3 hours of sleep. It was worth it.
THE END!
I was in town for a recruiting event for work which involved doing some on-campus presentations and interviews at Penn State.  I ventured to Café 210 West with a group of young coworkers...it is a typical college dive with big crowds and live music.  I didn't notice any beer pong or other games going on while I was there. Â
A plus - the huge back deck with ample outdoor seating. Â A con - I waited in line for almost 45 minutes before being able to get in, and this was on a Wednesday night at the end of September. Â
Drinks are relatively cheap (I stuck with my go-to vodka soda), and the crowd was pleasant. Â Bathrooms weren't too offensive. Â The location is great, right in the heart of downtown, and it was walking distance from my hotel. Â All in all, a so-so experience. Â However, I've never been to any other bars in State College, so I don't have a local basis for comparison - but I have been to plenty of bars in other parts of the country!
Located in the heart of State College is where you'll find Cafe 210 West. It's conveniently located right across the street from Penn State, so prepare yourselves to be bombarded with undergrads galore. This place is your typical college bar.
Beer pong? Check. $2.75 20oz of Coors? Check. Pitchers of long island? Check!
They even have the authentic college feel to it. Sticky floors and plastic cups. As much as I don't like drinking around college kids, I can't knock on these prices. With a $20 bill, you can walk away with a decent amount of alcohol. If you do come early enough, there are plenty of seats for you to hang out with you friends. Any later, and you're stuck crowd surfing to the bar and back.
Here, they also have an outside area for all you smokers and further inside is where they tend to have live bands perform. Pretty good I suppose. This place takes me back to my days as an undergrad where I would love to pound pints of cheap beer and have shots of Bacardi Superior. I love it, but I don't know how much I love it at age 27.
Alright folks, Cafe 210 is definitely worth your time. This place is among one of the most visited bars in the Penn State community. It really captures the atmosphere of what going out in a large college community is like. Also the music is usually good and they have special events like pong tournaments.
That's the good part of Cafe 210. The downside that stops this from being a 4 or 5 star review is the combination of prices for their drinks and their cover charges. While their house made teas usually go on sale, other drinks are pricey (but this is common in this market). Also their cover can be pretty high during certain weekends.
If you are looking for a place to grab a drink and watch State College pass on by, hit up Cafe 210.
The service tends to be slow here, but I love the patio during warm months and I love the wings here! There are many places to feast on wings in State College and these are some of the best. They've also got an excellent strawberry spinach salad which is wonderfully tasty when you want to get away from the grease and fattiness of the diets of most college students.
Review Source:I miss this place. Great place to go when the weather is warm on a Friday afternoon and just have lunch and a few drinks outside.
I'm not too fond of coming here during the night hours, but I think this place is perfect for the afternoon/evening hours to just hang out with your friends.
The food is okay, nothing special, but I usually just order whatever food special they have that day.
Cafe 210 is a staple of State College. As soon as the weather warms up in the Spring, there really isn't a better place to spend your Friday afternoons. Â Sipping on teas with your friends on the patio? Â What could be better?
Food is pretty decent too. Â I'd really recommend the Chicken Parm Grinder, as well as the fries. Â Nothing goes better with some Teas, than skillet fries.
Cafe has become the go-to place on Wednesdays too, now that they have Go-Go Gadjet performing every week.
This was probably my favorite of the places I went to during my visit. I agree with Jackie V. - avoid the place like the plague on Friday during football season (it was packed so we didn't even attempt), and that the service is slow. The beer I ordered was in a huge Go Lions! cup, and the food was a pretty big portion, at least for me. We sat on the patio on a gorgeous night and watched everyone going by. It was pretty relaxing, and very cheap.
It was also very spacious and the back yard looked pretty fun, even though we didn't get out there. They too are extremely strict with carding, and studied my ID for what seemed like ages, passing it between three people at the door! But once we got in it was a good time.
Four stars might seem a little inflated for the Cafe, but what can I say? I'm a total sucker for patios. Let's just call this 3.5.
I've been here in the hot weather, the cold weather, during the day, during "happy hour" (which, may I add, begins at 10pm), and after work. I've never really had a bad experience (note: in order to prevent said bad experience, I do avoid the Cafe during Senior Week, Arts Fest, and warm Fridays during football season). Obviously the Cafe's best feature is the patio, but I suppose I could say the same thing about my backyard. There are always drink specials, they will make vegan food as needed, and the bill is always less than I think it will be. Â The biggest drawback is the service. No matter what day it is (including 2pm on a random Tuesday in the early non-patio going spring), service is always s.l.o.w. Typically I don't mind, however, since I don't go if I'm in a rush, but if you're looking for something speedy, this place isn't it.
With all that said, as much as I like patios, there's no way I'd wait in line or pay a cover to get in. Do you feel the same way? Get here before 9pm on weekends and snag some prime time seating for free ;)
I actually decided to come during the daylight hours for a change and to be honest it changed my impression of 210 a lot. That's not to say it still doesn't become a cesspool of drunk nouveau frat types come happy hour, but a daylight lunch experience is a nice changeup. Got a pint of Victory summer pils, their "Clem's" burger (uses their BBQ sauce among other things), and a side order of beer battered fries. Fries are close to Otto's, but not quite the same. The burger was a tad pricey ($8.50) but it was extremely delicious. Service was meh but didn't really mind since it was such a nice day out.
In the least amount of words, there's a reason as soon as people turn 21 around here that they come for lunch, perch themselves at an outdoor table with a Long Island and the daily special and watch State College go by.
I wavered between 2 and 3 stars, and am going with 3 for benefit of the doubt.
We went pretty early (6:30) on a Saturday for dinner. Â We had to pay cover just to eat, which was frustrating, because the band barely started by the time we had left at 8. Â It wasn't terribly busy, but our waitress seemed very frazzled. Â She forgot my beer, and then gave me the wrong one on top of it. Â I asked her what the "Pennsylvania Craft Beer" was, and she told me it was like Yuengling... but it was the Lancaster Milk Stout. Â Little bit different :) It took us probably about 30 minutes to even get our food order in.
Previous posters are right: generally, the booze is pretty cheap. Â And hey, the food is decent-- I liked that they had jalapeno cheddar wraps, so I wrapped my buffalo wrap in that... but let's be honest, it still wasn't spicy. Â I can dream, right? I keep hoping... Â
I'm sure it will be more towards the 3 stars I gave it come summer when it's warm out, but right now I'm ambivalent towards it.
Fairly mild mannered bouncers (except on crazy nights of course, and the occasional deutsche bag), fun and mostly energetic waitresses, bartender friendliness can be hit or miss (it does get crowded and insane), and the long island ice teas are phenomenal... kind of their signature happy hour thing! Â Without fear of hurting their business, I would stay away from it on football weekends...its just too crowded!!.
Oh, and by the way the food is really good!
Cafe 210 is the place you walk by when you're under 21 and just think "I can't wait till I'm 21 and can sit outside at Cafe!" and let me tell you, its a wonderful thing when you first can! After graduating, I've learned to appreciate the $6 teas and bacardi pitchers and the group bonding around the tiny tables. Minus 1 star because it's not nearly as nice when you're inside, and the food is OK. State Patty's was fun here; they served green beer and had a good band. I'd rather spend my afternoons here than evenings, but can be a good place to start out the night!
Review Source:The front patio of the Cafe is the best place to sit outside for drinks in State College and the first part of the place to fill up in nice weather. The inside isn't bad either and I like the back patio when you want things a little quiter. The place is famous (or infamous, depending on how many you've had) for their Long Island Iced Teas. They have your normal domestic beers on tap and serve the typical bar food like wings, nachos, quesadillas. Last week when I was there I really enjoyed their chicken quesadilla. They've also got good nachos and wraps. The staff has never been the friendliest or most competent, but nothing out of the ordinary for a college bar. Depending on when you go, this can be a good place to chill or be filled with frat boys/sorostitutes. Luckily, you'll be able to tell just by what crowd is out front.
Review Source:I've ended up here a couple times while in the area for work conferences. There is nothing special about the place other than the simple fact that you can sit outside on a nice day and get $4.50 - $5 pitchers of beer and some cheap eats. Hanging out and eavesdropping on all the college kids around the patio fills me with nostalgia for my own college days mixed with relief that I'm past all that drama!
Review Source:I've been to Cafe 210 several times for random reasons. Last time I visited, I realized I didn't pay cover, and I told the bouncer on my way out. He said to not worry. (I guess I dropped enough at the bar, but I paid the few bucks anyway.) Apparently there's a restaurant past the front patio and bar, but I've never seen it for myself.
Patrons are pretty friendly, with a few folks dancing, but most usually sit, especially at the front patio. (After a few shots of tequila, sitting isn't the worst idea.) It gets crowded, but I've never had issues getting a bartender's attention. Bartenders haven't always been the friendliest, not sure what's up with that? But hey, your mileage may vary.
Cafe 210 isn't worth waiting in line for, but it isn't a bad stop if you're hitting multiple bars.
We went here on a Tuesday night, arriving around 7. At that time the front was fairly empty, but when we left an hour and a half later it was full.
We ordered three pitchers of Miller Lite for $4.75 each. A bargain considering a month ago I paid $12 for a pitcher of Bud Light in LA. The waitress must have forgotten about the third one because it took awhile to get to us.
The food--save your money. $6.75 for a raw veggie wrap and over seasoned tortilla chips.
"The Cafe" as it's known locally is part bar, part restaurant, but a lot of people don't get beyond its front patio seating. Â That's just fine, since the front patio is by far the biggest draw and the only way you're really getting the true Cafe 210 experience. Â Most entrees and appetizers on their menu will leave you full and satisfied, but I think they do the best job on their sandwiches (especially the "Godfather"). Â Their lunch specials and their Nachos Grande were always my favorites, and they have a really good salsa. Â They do have a lot of food specials daily (check out their website for these and entertainment schedules, as well as their full menu). Â The seating is a bit crowded and if you're outside, you can choose only from large or small round tables with plastic patio chairs, so don't expect to get *too* comfortable.
The real reason to come here, though, is to sit out front, drink a Long Island Iced Tea, and watch the people walking and driving up and down College Avenue! Â Who needs a band?! Â
Inside, the restaurant has an elevated seating area in the front and a few tables at entrance-level. Â In the back, a long, fully-stocked bar leads to a large room with a few additional tables and the stage for musical acts. Â Weekly performances by local bands and musicians usually begin around 10 p.m. Â The back patio is accessible through this back room and features more outdoor tables and picnic tables, but it's not as exciting as the front patio, and definitely not as clean.
For its nightlife, the Cafe usually offers nightly beer and mixed drink specials. Â The crowd is varied and depends on what kind of entertainment is featured that night.
Ah Cafe 210. My lasting impression of you will always be the evening my friends and I were enjoying a drink or two on your back patio only to have a beer dumped on us by some a**hole standing on the landing above us. When we reported said dbag to the staff we found ourselves being escorted out of the establishment because "both parties of any type of confrontation must be deported from the premises." Smart move making us leave out the back and the other guy from the front....like we couldn't have run around to the other side of the street to kick his ass. Lucky for you my friends achieved our revenge by pissing on the side of your building : ) Cheers cafe 210!
Getting to the facts: wait staff always seemed 100% rude : the northface/greek life types who wanted a cool job but never learned those ever so important customer service skills. Get off your high horse. You work at a bar.
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