July 11, 2009
Not as good as Schnitzels used to be but they make the same great sausages and the German dinners are excellent. The sandwiches are mediocre and the rest of the food decent. The beer is good. Only 12 on tap but absolutely everything is served in the right glassware. Nice long bar area for seating. The atmosphere is somewhat modern warehouse with a nice bar, fireplace and breweriana. The service has always been good and the staff fairly knowledgeable about the limited selection of beers that they serve. I do not get in here very often but have always been satisfied.

June 19, 2008
I’ve now visited both the restaurant and the bottle shop. The bottle shop is underwhelming in my opinion, but I have higher standards. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. The restaurant is really interesting. Ho-hum NY style decor, with nicely dimmed lighting, professional-looking waitstaff and an empty restaurant. What I was most impressed with was how they treated the beer. I don’t often seen most places give beer this proper a treating, even if most of what they serve is common, session material. They have three nice tap heads, with special glassware for each draft beer they have. The beer is at the right temperature and the pours are nice. I had two Kaiser Pils, the obligatory Perogies, and a sandwich. The Pils was fresh, the Perogies pedestrian, and the sandwitch tasty, if not predictable. The bartenders were pre-occupied with other things. It’s a pretty middle American restaurant, with greater than average appreciation for the proper treatment of draft beer. Worth a stop if you’re in town for a few days and have somehow tired of the more visit-worthy locations.

January 24, 2008 [ Updated March 18, 2008 ]
Update March 2008: They now sell Otto’s Bottles. Olde New York is a restaurant, bar and beer store in one location. It was opened by the same folks who ran Schnitzel’s in Bellefonte before it closed down due to a fire. They promised to have a few of the Schnitzel’s dishes on the menu, and the weinerschniztel and red cabbage are quite good, and they also offer a few other German dishes, some common American fare, as well as the obligatory central PA perogies. Draft selection is mostly German or German-style, with a few Paulaner, Franziskaner, one seasonal Brooklyn tap (small batch, limited release stuff like the Antwerpen Ale), and more recently a special tap for Penn Kaiser pils. The bottle shop located next door has an average selection for State College: Victory, Troegs, Penn, a couple of common Belgians and Germans, and I get the feeling that it’s this way because it’s a new place. Hopefully in the future they expand the beer selection and sell more seasonal and special releases (and more singles). But for the time being, it’s a really decent restaurant on the east side of town and you’re sure to find something new on draft.