A downtown State College sandwich shop has closed its doors after more than a decade in business.
According to a Facebook post, Bradley’s Cheesesteaks & Hoagies is shutting down its downtown shop that called 119 S. Pugh St. home for almost 14 years. The franchise’s other location on North Atherton Street will remain open, according to owner Ben Lippincott.
“Bradley’s has been the longest tenant at our corner of Pugh & Calder (beating out the Pancake Cottage at ~12 years), a record that will likely stand until the building falls down,” Lippincott wrote. “We persevered through personal and professional tragedies, the economic impacts of scandals, a global pandemic, and the ever-changing nature of State College for nearly a decade and a half.”
Lippincott cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the driving factor behind the downtown shop’s closure, particularly how “the balance of personal/professional life events were knocked ‘out of sync’ with all the disruptions that the pandemic caused.” He said Bradley’s planned on transitioning to a “new, larger, better storefront” downtown – as well as a third regional location – before the pandemic hit.
Bradley’s will continue delivering orders and serving food at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park during baseball season, Lippincott said. The owner said he wouldn’t rule out future plans and called the Pugh Street location’s closure a “so long, for now.”
“To the hundreds of characters that have been a part of Bradley’s on Pugh Street: I Thank You with the deepest sincerity,” Lippincott wrote. “Pugh Street will always be near to my heart because it gave me the opportunity to build a family and home in parallel with a livelihood, but mostly because of the amazing people that it brought into my life, and the honor of being a part of theirs.”
Some of Bradley’s menu items also will be available at Blue & White Pub when it opens at 222 W. Beaver Ave. Located next to Blue & White Bottle Shop, which opened last year, the pub project has been delayed by supply-chain issues but is now “coming along more quickly,” Lippincott wrote.
