PHYRST

Fifty years ago, a 22-year-old landscape architecture student named Don Bartoletti signed a $250-a-month lease at 111 ½ E. Beaver Ave. for a bar he had wanted to create since arriving in State College four years earlier. This bar would be a welcoming place where businessmen, students, Viet Nam vets, and those just passing through could have a drink, tell a story, sing a song, argue about politics, and do so freely, without prejudice... Fullington said that the personality of a bar emanates from the people serving the drinks. "We look for the nicest, sweetest girls. Even if they haven't had experience, we'll hire them to be bartenders if they have good personalities," he said. "That's what really sets the tone for the whole place. We want to treat everyone that comes in here like family."... Why would you wanna be anywhere else? State College, Pa's greatest basement bar next to the Nittany Lion Nation. Home of the Twenty-Phyrst birthday! Live music 365 days a year without fail. We..

Also known as: The Phyrst

Primary location: State College United States