Following a public hearing on Monday night, State College Borough Council is considering whether to approve a liquor license transfer for a new downtown sports bar and restaurant — and whether the license should come with any restrictions.
Brothers Bar & Grill, which operates 19 locations in 10 states, including several Big Ten towns, is looking to open a restaurant at 134 S. Allen St. The building was most recently home to an Amazon pick-up store that closed in 2022.
The restaurant expects to have table and booth seating for 232 and 35 seats at the bar, with anticipated hours of 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily and meal prices ranging from $12 to $20. Marc Fortney, who cofounded the chain with his brother Eric in 1990 in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, said the location is expected to have about 100 part-time employees, along with full-time staff including a general manager, kitchen manager and two assistant managers.
To move forward, though, a sports bar needs a liquor license, and the Fortneys have a deal to acquire the restaurant liquor license held by Fuji & Jade Garden for its former location at 418 Westerly Parkway. Fuji & Jade did not seek to transfer the license when it moved in 2019 to the Northland Center in Ferguson Township.
The license is subject to a conditional license agreement from when it was transferred into State College from outside the borough in 2006. On Monday, after a presentation on alcohol-related crime, medical emergencies and police calls to retail alcohol venues in the borough, Police Chief John Gardner recommended several similar, though less stringent, restrictions be placed on the license if transferred to Brothers.
Those proposed restrictions include:
• A requirement for 60% of revenue to be from food sales for each two-year licensing cycle.
• Alcoholic beverages may only be sold by the drink in a container that does not exceed 22 fluid ounces.
• No discounted drink specials and no advertising of alcoholic beverages.
• Alcohol sales not permitted when food sales are not available.
• No smoking anywhere in the restaurant.
• The license cannot be expanded outside of 134 S. Allen St. or transferred to another location or entity without council approval.
Marc Fortney told council that he and his brother ultimately had a long conversation with Gardner and Borough Manager Tom Fountaine, but that he “actually wanted to get up and walk out,” when first presented with the proposed restrictions. While some, like alcohol sales only being available when food is available for sale and no smoking were not a problem, he said others were “difficult at best.”
“We have unrestricted liquor licenses in every state we do business,” he said. “We have six licenses in Indiana, several in Colorado. If, in fact, we were bad actors that you need to put these types of restrictions on, we wouldn’t be in business today, nor expanding.”
Councilman Gopal Balachandran said he wanted to see a comparison with other alcohol-serving establishments in the borough “to make sure Brothers is not treated unfairly.” Fountaine said the license would be the only remaining active license in the borough with such restrictions if they were approved.
Final action on the license transfer request is scheduled for council’s next regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Feb. 6.
Why Can State College Restrict the License?
The license would be transferred within the borough, and typically local governments don’t have a say on intramunicipal transfers if the license is going to another location where alcohol sales are already permitted. But the Fuji & Jade license was among State College’s first intermunicipal liquor license transfers when it was acquired from The Hummingbird Room in Spring Mills.
When the Pennsylvania Liquor Code was amended in 2002 to allow intermunicipal transfers within a county, it included a requirement for the receiving municipality’s approval when it has more than one liquor license per 3,000 population. While State College’s numbers have fluctuated, it has always been above the quota during that time, and today has 1.8 per 3,000 people, with 23 restaurant liquor licenses. In total, the borough has 42 retail establishments selling alcohol under various licenses, including 36 within five blocks of 134 S. Allen St., Gardner said.
Generally seeking to prevent more establishments predominantly geared toward drinking, the borough historically placed restrictions on intermunicipal restaurant liquor license transfers. In addition to requiring council approval to transfer it within the borough, Fuji & Jade’s license included no alcohol sales after 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday or 11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; no sales of alcohol in containers larger than 22 ounces, except wine; no advertising the price or availability of alcohol or selling alcohol at a discount; an agreement not to apply for an amusement permit or allow bands or DJs to perform; bar seating limited to 10 seats or fewer; and a requirement that food sales constitute 80% or more of gross revenues.
The borough gradually reduced the food sales requirement on conditional agreements, and the last time it approved a transfer — in 2019 for the Queenstown restaurant that never opened at the corner of South Pugh Street and East College Avenue— council did not include any food-to-alcohol ratio among the conditions.
In recommending restrictions on Brothers’ proposed license transfer, Gardner detailed alcohol-related crime statistics. In 2018, 54% of crimes in the borough were alcohol-related. By 2022 that fell to 29%, though Gardner said he believes that is because of COVID-19 factors as well as how crimes were coded in the records management system. Historically, he estimated two-thirds of all crime in the borough is in some way alcohol-related.
He added that the average number of police calls to establishments with a restaurant liquor license is 16 times greater than all other borough properties, and six times greater for bars than restaurants.
“Where alcohol is, we generally get called more often than not,” Gardner said.
How Brothers Responded
Operating in a number of college towns, Marc Fortney said he sees the same concerns in other communities.
“He’s spot on,” Fortney said. “The problems that are presented there with your community are no different, the challenges are no different than any other community. What’s different is that you have people like us that are good listeners, that want to be part of your community, want to do the right thing. We go 0 to 1,000 if there’s an issue of some sort.”
Attorney Mark Kozar, of Flaherty and O’Hara, who is representing the Fortneys for the liquor license transfer, said the business initially won a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board auction for a liquor license. Borough representatives subsequently told them they would prefer if they acquired a license already existing within the borough.
“Being the good neighbors they are they said ‘OK, we’ll do that,” Kozar said. “It cost them a bunch of money because they lost their deposit on the winning bid on that license and in turn entered into an agreement to purchase the Fuji & Jade Garden license for a substantial amount of money, mid-six figures.”
Marc Fortney said that kind of investment helps ensure a business will want to be a good community member.
“To expand here in State College… it’s very expensive,” Fortney said. “You’ve already weeded out the bad actors at such a high level. A license at a half-million dollars would be the most expensive… investment we’ve ever made in a license.”
Some of the proposed restrictions would make it difficult for Brothers to operate, the Fortneys said.
The requirement that drinks be served in containers of 22 ounces or less was unclear, because it was uncertain if they could sell pitchers of beer, Marc Fortney said. Drink specials, meanwhile, are common to every bar, he added.
“We have drink specials,” he said. “Everybody in State College has drink specials, and so I’d like a level playing field…”
The 60% food revenue requirement, though, seemed to pose the biggest hurdle.
“We never asked to purchase a license with a restriction because we know it’s very, very difficult to meet that restriction,” Marc Fortney said. “A cheeseburger basket is $10 and today’s craft beers are $8. If someone’s there for a couple hours watching a game at a sports bar … we want them to squat, we want them to stay and be part of the environment, enjoy the Rose Bowl victory. But you can’t stay there over an hour and have more than one beer because we would be over the limit.
“It’s very difficult. We’re not going to stand up here and say we can do that because we won’t, we won’t be able to do that.”
Brothers’ daily operations are comprised of lunch, happy hour, dinner and late night. It’s a family-friendly environment with a large menu, Marc Fortney said, though after 9 p.m. it is limited to 21 and older unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. The full menu is served until 10 p.m. and a late-night menu of appetizers is served until close.
“Our food’s terrific but it’s casual dining,” Marc Fortney said. “We’re not a gourmet place but we’ve got really handmade food. The only thing frozen on our menu is french fries.”
To quell concerns that the establishment could transform over time into only a nighttime bar catering solely to the college crowd, Eric Fortney said the business would stipulate as part of the license agreement that the size and scope of the menu will not change.
“Six months from now, two years from now, if the council is gracious enough to give us our approval, you won’t see us standing here opening three days a week on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights at 9 p.m. and there’s 10 items on the food menu,” he said.
Kozar noted that even the PLCB abandoned its food revenue ratio requirement that was originally in place for Sunday alcohol sales.
“There were so many shenanigans with that it got to the point where the PLCB said this percentage thing just doesn’t work anymore,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense because people can do all kinds of things to fudge it. So quite frankly, they gave up on the percentages. I don’t think percentages make sense in today’s day and age.”
All of the restaurant’s employees will be certified in the PLCB’s Responsible Alcohol Management Program and Brothers has extensive policies, training and rules for alcohol safety, Kozar said. Anyone appearing to be younger the 40 has their ID scanned for alcohol purchases, and after 9 p.m. all IDs are scanned at the door.
The company has a “call early, call often,” policy for notifying police of any problems, Marc Fortney said.
Fountaine said that borough staff contacted administration from three peer communities where Brothers operates.
“We heard positive things overall about management of the businesses, the way they manage the businesses and do the things they described here this evening,” he said.
“Marc and Eric are responsible and proven owners, 33 years of experience operating bars primarily in college towns,” Kozar added. “They’re making a significant investment here in State College, and this is an investment they will protect with responsible management and well-trained employees.”
That investment includes substantial build-out inside the Allen Street property, with the Fortneys saying they take pride in the “fit and finish” of their establishments. Eric Fortney said that though the location does not lend itself to outdoor seating, they expect to convert to operable storefront windows that will allow for open-air seating inside.
Jonathan Friedman, of building owner State College Downtown Properties, said he believes Brothers will add value to the downtown community while filling a commercial vacancy — something the borough has sought to address in recent years with the proliferation of new space brought in with high-rise construction.
“Inside our own internal structure of what we see strategically for the downtown and what we think will add vitality and energy to the community, the brothers represent the best opportunity for this space that we have come across in the over a year we’ve had to lease the space,” Friedman said.
Community Response
Just three residents entered comment for the record, all expressing reservations. One sent a letter to the borough saying restrictions should remain on the license.
Mark Huncik, president of the Highlands Civic Association, said the scheduling of the public hearing “didn’t provide sufficient time for residents to meet to discuss and provide adequate comments.”
He added that some residents do have concerns about the number of liquor licenses in the borough and their concentration in a small area. Crime in the downtown in 2021 was at its highest level since 2013, he said, citing statistics provided to the association.
Resident Vicki Fong said her concerns were not about Brothers specifically, but about the density of alcohol-selling establishments and the impact on health and safety.
“…More density of alcohol establishments I think needs some rules and needs some understanding from the business owners,” she said. “Many are very responsible… I think it’s good to be prudent and I urge all the factors to be considered.”
Mayor Ezra Nanes did not voice an opinion on how council should handle the license transfer, but did say adding value to a central location downtown is important.
“This is a prime location downtown,” Nanes said. “It’s really right in the middle of our premier downtown block, which is fantastic because we want those spaces filled with businesses that bring vibrancy and life to the community. During the day on weekends you’re going to have families and children visiting. We want this to be a place that adds ambience and atmosphere and beauty to the downtown. And we understand we have a really incredible college town and there’s going to be college kids who want a place to go and have fun and watch a game and things like that.”
