The All American Rathskeller and Garden
AKA: the Rathskeller
The corner College Avenue and Pugh St.
108 S. Pugh Street
State College PA
This is one of my favorite bars. I love the people and the
atmosphere. Its just what a college bar should be. No pretense, just alcohol.
The Rathskeller is another one of the famous Penn State bars. It’s dark, damp
and dinghy. The ceiling pipes are exposed. Bottle caps cover the floor and
everyone carves on the wooden tables. I once noticed that all the tables had a
new smooth surface. Here, the owner had just flipped all the tabletops over. By
the end of the week, the new surfaces were just as bad as before.
This was the first Penn State bar I snuck into before the
age of 21. I was 19 and my sister was 18.
We were walking down the alley and heard music. As we got closer to the
bar, we saw that a backdoor was slightly ajar. So we snuck in. BJ and Sherry were singing on stage and the
audience was so enthralled with their talents that no one noticed us. We stayed until closing and were pretty darn
proud of ourselves.
The Skeller used to be the Rolling Rock capital of the
world. It was the only bar in State College that sold Rolling Rock by the case.
The bar maids actually hauled a case of beer right to the table. It was
wonderfully convenient, as we never had to wait to get our next beer. At one time or another almost every
undergraduate student on campus would go to the Rathskeller to do a case study.
I can’t verify it but I’ve been told this bar broke the Guinness book of
records for cases of beer sold in one day. On the day of the event, my friends
and I consumed case #757.
Spaghetti, a local icon, used to sit at the bar, in the
corner. He sat there for years and years
and years. He never seemed to age but he
always looked to be about 80 years old. People bought him drinks and food and
he never bothered anyone. When he finally died, the local paper ran a story on
him and we finally found out his real name. I don’t remember what his real
name. But he was a permanent fixture at that bar and I still look for him on
the rare occasions when I go back to this bar.
I took my parents to the Rathole once. My father looked around and said, “For this,
you left home.” He ordered a round of
drinks for the 8 of us and the bill came to $7. “Are you sure you have that
right,” he asked the waitress. She
assumed he thought she was cheating him.
So she answered in a defensive tone, “This was a buck, fifty, fifty
cents for the beers and the coke was free.”
My father couldn’t believe it. He gave her ten bucks and told her to
keep the change. She spent the rest of
the night leaping over tables to get to my father to refill his drinks.
I introduced my mother to Spaghetti. She extended her hand to
him and he felt a need to be a bit more gentlemanly so he attempted to get off
his bar stool. Unfortunately, he fell on her. I was able to catch him in mid-fall and she
was able to push him back a bit so there was no harm done. But the moment was
lost. My mother then proceeded to
introduce him to another woman who was with us. That response allowed her to
escape to some other spot in the bar.
On many weekends the place is packed. Usually there’s a line to get in. The front room has a loud jute box that plays
rock and roll. A few televisions are always on but there is never any sound. The middle room has a few pool tables,
dartboards, electronic games and pinball machines. The back room has a small
bar and stage. A local band plays most night. There is usually a cover change
to get in to the back room but its money well spent, as the bands are good.
Many locals and college students frequent this place. No one
ever escapes the magical attraction of this dumpy basement bar. Once a rathole
fan, always a rathole fan. In my young days, I spent more time here than did at
church, classes and library combines. This bar has been a Penn State tradition
for almost 80 years. All in all, I’d day
it is a pretty good bar.
UPDATE: In Feb 2018, someone bought the Rath Skellar and closed it down. A new bar is moving in. There are plans to upgrade the ambience and make it more upscale and I am never going there ever.
UPDATE: In Feb 2018, someone bought the Rath Skellar and closed it down. A new bar is moving in. There are plans to upgrade the ambience and make it more upscale and I am never going there ever.
