Something special will be on menus around Centre County as Happy Valley Restaurant week gets started on Friday and continues through June 25.
The annual event will feature nearly 20 participating restaurants offering limited-time specials showcasing their variety and their chefs’ skills.
“This year, we expanded to include two weekends, following a chef’s suggestion last year,” Maggie Anderson, the event’s organizer and a local food writer, said in a statement. “So restaurants who aren’t open seven days a week have extra days to showcase their special dishes, and local eaters have even more time to try them all.”
Started in 2012 as Happy Valley Culinary Week, the event has become a summertime fixture. Anderson and Matt Fern have organized Restaurant Week since 2021, with sponsorship support from the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau to provide professional marketing and promotion for participating restaurants.
Among specials lined up for the week is a “dessert burger” State Burger Co. in Bellefonte, featuring “chocolate marshmallow ice cream in a cracking chocolate shell, topped with a strawberry pizzelle, and sandwiched between a caramel-glazed butterscotch cake bun, stuffed with a cheesecake whip. Served with sugar cookie fries and strawberry ‘relish.”
Other featured items are expected to include grilled pork chop with broccoli rabe, caramelized apples, celery root puree and candied bacon sherry vinaigrette at Federal Taphouse; deep fried eggs topped with a remoulade filling and a pickled jalapeno at The Naked Egg; nettle toast with seared asparagus, pea shoots, nasturtium and duck egg aioli at RE Farm Café; and tuna tataki at Pine Grove Hall — to name just a few.
In most cases, the special dishes will be exclusive to Happy Valley Restaurant Week.
“Except in the case of restaurants who find their special Happy Valley Restaurant Week dish to be so popular that they add it to their menu after the week is over!” Anderson said.
Participating restaurants include:
• Carter’s Table
• State Burger Co.
• Creekside at The Gamble Mill
• Gigi’s Southern Table
• Federal Taphouse
• The Field Burger and Tap
• Robin Hood Brewing Co.
• American Ale House & Grill
• The Tavern
• The Corner Room
• The Naked Egg Café
• RE Farm Café
• Oeuf Boeuf et Bacon
• Hublersburg Inn
• Pine Grove Hall
• Bonfatto’s Italian Market & Corner Café
• Alla Spina at HiWay Downtown
• HiWay Downtown
• HiWay West
For updates on specials and more visit happyvalleyrestaurantweek.com.
