Centre County’s dining scene will be in the spotlight once again as Happy Valley Restaurant Week returns starting Friday.
The annual 10-day event (June 14-23) will include 30 participating restaurants, each featuring a creative culinary concoction crafted exclusively for Restaurant Week.
Started in 2012 by the Centre County Convention and Visitors Bureau (now the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau), Restaurant Week has been organized since 2021 by Maggie Anderson, Matt Fern, Laura Mustio and Carolyn Meehan and sponsored by HVAB. The organizers encourage chefs to get creative with their dishes, then visit the restaurants and showcase each at happyvalleyrestaurantweek.com.
Restaurants throughout the county, from State College to Philipsburg and Bellefonte to Millheim, are taking part in this year’s event.
New participants for 2024 include Alloy Kitchen at Titan Hollow, Belle City Bites, Big Dean’s Hot Chicken, Happy Valley Brewing Company, Super Duper Cafe and Tasty K.
Among returning restaurants is State Burger Co. in Bellefonte, which each year gets its staff involved to come up with something special. Past years have featured the Dessert Burger and The Circus Freak (a buttered popcorn-flavored milkshake topped with cotton candy, a salted pretzel, a lollipop and a popcorn ball).
For this year, the featured menu item, available starting June 18, is the Sip n Slide: Three sliders (Highland cow, wild boar and walnut) paired with three mini milkshakes ( bourbon caramel, cranberry vanilla and spicy chocolate).
“This is our Super Bowl. We’ve been working on this for months,” State Burger Co. co-owner Dustin Smith said in a news release. “Restaurant Week seemed like a great opportunity to showcase what we’ve been working on and to give our guests an idea of what we might have up our sleeves for the near future.”
A few other special offerings at restaurants around the area include crab mac and cheese at Robin Hood Brewing Co., Cajun shrimp and sausage pasta at Federal Taphouse, strawberry shortcake at RE Farm Cafe, the Happy Valley Local Heat Burger at The Field and a New York strip with jumbo shrimp and lump crab in a saffron cream sauce at We Are Inn.
Webster’s Bookstore Cafe in downtown State College will feature jackfruit barbecue with date sauce, with planks of local tofu drizzled in tahini sauce, a side of polenta with parsley and sunflower seed pesto and a chickpea salad on top of local romaine with ginger miso dressing.
“At this time of year in our town, things get a little quiet,” Webster’s owner Elaine Meder-Wilgus said in a news release. “So Restaurant Week is this beautiful celebration of local and regional food. I love that it brings folks into town for the day and really celebrates the culinary exceptionalism we have in this area.”
For a full list of restaurants and to see the specials, visit happyvalleyrestaurantweek.com.
