The Lesser of the State College Cafes Will Get a Celebrity Makeover Afterall

My brother told me this story a few weeks ago and I thought it was pretty funny. Up at Penn State there are many many bars. One of the bars that everyone knows, but not many people frequent is the Sports Cafe (not to be confused with my second home at Penn State, Cafe 210 West). The lack of patronage was apparent after National Penn Bank sued the owners for over $464,000 for violating a forbearance agreement and the bar closed in December. So while the owners were trying to reopen the bar and sell it, LaVar Arrington approached them about selling the bar to him so he could open an establishment of his own. Arrington is one of Penn State's most beloved alumni and a successful restaurant owner, so I'm confident that his bar would have been the most successful up in State College. So LaVar is pumping up the new place and talking to people all over town and then he goes to do the final deal at the bank in September and the owners of the Sports Cafe don't show up and cut off the deal. Arrington is furious and his quotes to the Daily Collegian are so honest and so funny. "I hope the plague falls upon the Sports Café," he said, adding "I hope it's rat infested. Frickin' roach infested."He goes on to accuse the owners of the Sports Cafe for using him for publicity and then going back on their word. I just found the whole thing so amusing.

Well this morning as I was gathering resources for my sports update, I saw that the new owners of the Sports Cafe are going to be working with Arrington to become partners on the bar. He's going to bring in some quasi-famous acts and overhaul the whole image of the bar. And I'm just very excited about the whole thing because Arrington got what he wanted and the Penn State bar scene, although not really lacking much by any means, will get a huge boost. I can't wait to visit. Seriously, if you've never been to State College, you need to go.