Celebrating New Year’s Eve in Happy Valley? Here are some ideas for where to eat & drink
Whether you’d like to ring in the new year by indulging in some of Happy Valley’s finest culinary experiences, you prefer to bid farewell to 2023 with a drink or two or you’ve already made plans to attend First Night State College, area foodies will find lots of options for tasty ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Centre County.
Fine dining and live music
Grab your tickets and make reservations for a night of gastronomic delights at one of two favorited area eateries known for their modern and creative approaches.
Pine Grove Hall welcomes 2024 with a night of fine dining, beverage pairings and live classical music. Keeping with the restaurant’s local focus, the prix fixe menu incorporates regionally sourced ingredients. Guests are greeted with a decadent welcoming bite (such as warm poached blue point trout roe or mini crabcakes with saffron), before the main event kicks off with a burrata and blood orange salad starter, your choice of either a whole roasted branzino or coulotte beef steak entrée and then cardamom coffee and Medjool date tiramisu for dessert.
Tickets are $85, plus tax and gratuity, and can be purchased on the restaurant’s website.
RE Farm Café offers a special, New Year’s Eve Euro-style seven-course menu, with wine-pairing options and accompanied by a performance from Eric Ian Farmer. The menu includes Alaskan wild-caught sockeye salmon gravlax, garlic and herb-rubbed lamb from the adjacent farm, local cheeses and maple cheesecake.
Tickets are $95 and reservations can be made on the restaurant’s website.
Prefer to order off a menu you already know and love? In downtown State College, The Tavern is offering its regular dinner menu, along with New Year’s Eve specials (such as a surf and turf plate featuring an 8-ounce filet mignon, lobster claw and smoked gouda potatoes).
Grab a drink at a favorite watering hole (or take one to-go)
Prefer something a little more casual and a little more focused on the drinks portion of the evening (but still with the option to order some spectacular eats while you celebrate)? Area breweries and distilleries have you covered.
At Bellefonte’s Big Spring Spirits, you can start the party early. While the tasting room will hold its normal Sunday hours, noon-8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, it will offer, alongside its cocktail menu, a special food menu courtesy of Justin Leiter at Belle City Bites, with options including charcuterie boards, a steak and gorgonzola flatbread, a wild mushroom tart and more.
When you’re ready to head home, grab one of Big Spring Spirits New Year’s Eve-themed cocktail four-packs on your way out the door, available to-go all week. The four-packs contain fun options such as the Ball Dropper (a classic gin rickey with edible glitter), Hare of the Dog (made with white rum, white rye, pineapple, lime and jalapeno), Walk of Shame (a Bloody Mary made with Pittsburgh Pickle Company’s Briney Mary Mix) and This One’s for Dick (made with rye whiskey, triple sec, lemon, simple syrup and club soda).
At Voodoo Brewing Co., the brewery’s new kitchen will be open later than normal on New Year’s Eve, until 8 p.m., so you can grab a beer or cocktail and fuel up on new menu items like the grilled mahi mahi tacos.
Discover a new food truck at First Night
For those headed to First Night State College, stopping into the University Baptist & Brethren Church First Night Soups & Sweets Takeout Café or the Faith United Church of Christ First Night Chili Café (or both!) is a must, but don’t miss a relative newcomer to the festival. The Bean Box is an area food truck that serves Australian-style eats, including meat pies and sausage rolls, alongside “Aussie Style” coffee and other caffeinated favorites. The food truck will be serving on the 100 Block of South Allen Street until 10 p.m.
Holly Riddle is a freelance food, travel and lifestyle writer. She can be reached at holly.ridd@gmail.com.
