Ottos Pub and Brewery

8/18/2008 12:48:01 AM, monday, august 18, 2008
Visited 1 August 2008 (Friday) at 1PM. Very green conscious, and several vegetarian dishes. Some food is made with their beer. Grass fed beef burger was excellent. Buy fresh buy local. Lucked into Firkin Friday where they tap a half barrel metal firkin at 5PM. I was sitting directly in front of where they tapped it at the bar (tapping with a wooden mallet), and I got the first pint from the firkin (which was dry hopped). Great bar service, very knowledgable bartender. However, when my ride came to pick me up, the hostess was VERY rude to her, and moved her several times from seats. The whole hostess thing soured the overall experience - so hopefully they will figure out that their host staff really sucks - it’s not appropriate to be rude to patrons. Fortunately, I remember the bar staff too - and they were particularly good - so it somewhat balances. Beers were all over the board from just OK to excellent. The barleywine was particularly good - nice complexity. Four other beers (Bitter, Pale Ale, Pilsener, and Lager, as well as the beer on Firken) were very good. BEERS (sampler of 6-4 oz beers for $4) - see www.BuildABeer.org for detailed beer ratings.

6/27/2008 1:29:29 PM, friday, june 27, 2008
State College is in a valley and the drive to it from the North presents some postcard picture prettiness. The town is laid back, it is essentially home to Penn State and 46,000 students. The pub, for the most part, is laid back. A large patio for the summer, and spacious indoors. A dark bar area with 8 seats and no-one moving to allow my chair in, patrons collapsing on their pints. Available bottles being sold at reasonable prices, I picked up 4 types including two of the DIPA. Service was friendly, but slow. I am sure if there was a party of four there would have been dedication, but hey I’m just a lone beer geek. Very pleasant. The beer was above average particularly the hefe. The stout, though nitro, was also particularly good.

5/21/2008 4:02:44 PM, wednesday, may 21, 2008
I love Otto’s. There’s not much here that I don’t like (but you’ll be sure to hear about those anyway). The place focuses on local ingredients, which I adore. The food matches well with the beer, always tastes great, and the prices are decent. The beer mostly speaks for itself, but is always fresh, served in decent glassware and well-priced. The Belgians are lacking, but everything else is usually phenomenal. This place is busy, but service usually moves along. The service, though, has been one of the weak points of this place. Sometimes the wait staff is just a little too flaky and not on top of things. The bartenders are great. Logistically, this place suffers a little. It should have more outdoor seating, less loud bands in the bar, much more parking, and it’s so seemingly far from campus. Nonetheless, this is a well-run, top-quality brewpub. I enjoy it regularly and most often think it’s a real class act with some phenomenal beer for a college town.

5/13/2008 10:32:34 AM, tuesday, may 13, 2008
Located on a highway in a boring business/industrial district. Pretty big place. Sits well over 100 and that’s not counting the 50 people that can fit on the patio. I didn’t eat there but from what I could see on the plates around me this was your average greasy pub food, nothing special. After-noon ambiance was pretty quiet with pop music at low volume, I don’t know how it is at night. But the beer is the reason to go there. They had 11 of their own beers on tap (including one cask) when I was there. They have a second cask but there was nothing on it on that day. I think the standard beer menu is about 10 draughts and 2 casks. That includes a few mandatory crowd pleasers but I was surprised at how many of the beers available were aimed at beer lovers (8% IIPA, Dubbel, Tripel, Old Ale on cask, etc.). I tried the five beers that seemed the most beer-geek-friendly, they were hits and misses but none of them were boring. This brewery is trying things and I don’t mind if they get a few things wrong when they get many right and they propose an original brewpub beer menu.

12/22/2007 7:02:15 PM, saturday, december 22, 2007
What an asset to the city of State College. I assumed that this would be like any other local brewpub I was pleasantly surprised. The beer is excellent. They have an impressive range and produce high quality brews. They seem especially poised in the stout category (the Sumatra is amazing). A must stop for anyone in State College and possibly anyone traveling on 80 through PA.I was hoping to try the food, but got in after the kitchen had closed. The service was great and the beer prices are also great.

10/25/2007 8:38:45 PM, thursday, october 25, 2007
Let me start by saying that the beer is quite good. Jolly Roger on cask is worth whatever they might throw my way. The food is pretty good... they have a vegetarian burger made from spent grains from the brewery which is quite tasty. I was here for the National Toast to Michael Jackson, which was a treat. I actually came here three times within the span of a week, and the service varied dramatically. The first time, the service was quite good. The second time, it was ok. But the third time, it was some of the worst service I have ever had at a restaurant anywhere. Maybe it was just a fluke, but damn. But, as I said, the quality of the beer makes it worth it.

8/10/2007 12:47:17 PM, friday, august 10, 2007 [ Updated saturday, august 11, 2007 ]
I stopped in on a Tuesday night after a long day on the road, and who is at the bar sampling every beer in the house? KP!!! The interior is right out the "how to open a local brewpub" book. Nothing really unique here. When I first sat down, the bartender looked to be in a bad mood and walked by me a few times. But that quickly changed after I ordered the first beer. From that point on, the service was excellent and I was able to engage in some short conversations. The locals are also very friendly. I ordered a chicken quesadilla which was very good. They had 9 beers on tap at the time. For the most part, the beers are solid, and the barleywine is excellent. Prices are reasonable ( I love college towns). I had a barelywine, pint of IPA, 5 beer sampler, and a quesadilla for $20!!!!. The only complaint that I have is that the parking lot was totally full and it is a bit noisy in the bar area.

7/19/2007 3:15:39 PM, thursday, july 19, 2007 [ Updated tuesday, july 22, 2008 ]
Very nice friendly place that is easy to find, no trouble with parking, but I did hear that you can’t find a place to park in the evenings. Separate area for the bar and restaurant. Five nice size samplers for $5, can’t beat that. They have a style beer for every taste. However, they were out of a few of the beers I exclusively come here for. The brewing tanks are right up front in behind big picture windows, pretty cool. The blue cheese I had with my wings seemed home made and unique, it was delicious. My only negative experience was that the wings we got didn’t seem to be cooked enough, my wife balked a little when she bit in and it was rather red inside.

4/18/2007 6:56:26 PM, wednesday, april 18, 2007
Nice brewpub in the State College area. Warm atmosphere with a nice selection on tap. Excellent crab cakes !! Will be smoke free in June 07.

11/15/2006 9:25:16 PM, wednesday, november 15, 2006
Good brewpub with good prices. Atmosphere is lacking, mostly sit down dining, with a smallish bar, and fairly small bar area. Decor seems pretty generic. Good beers though plus cask selections and good food, at pretty cheap prices. My bartender was kind of aloof and unfriendly, but the waitresses all seemed really nice, one even gave me a free beer that she had ordered incorrectly. Way out of campus area on the edge of town.