It’s not just football season when we get together for fun!  On February 10, 2018, Penn State Alumni, locals, and friends of the University slotted some time to make a trip to The Plaza, the center of Old Town Orange known as ‘The Circle’, for this year’s Winter Bar Tour. The Orange Plaza is a quaint atmosphere lined with clothing, antiques and novelty shops, with many dining and nightclub establishments.  It brings to mind College Ave. on a non-football weekend. Our focus was food and drink and spending time with our OCIEA Chapter family.

We pre-arranged 5 stops for the Bar Tour. From 2 – 4 p.m. we gathered at Watson’s, an establishment nearly as old as Penn State itself, where we ate and enjoyed the ‘newly renovated meets historic landmark’ vibe.

From there we crossed from Chapman to Glassell, 1 quarter of the circle, and landed at O’Hara’s. Dark, gritty and fun, we added to the noise, played pool, and left our mark among the Chapman College kids and regulars.

We then journeyed back toward the Chapman side for 1-hour stop-ins at both Paul’s Cocktails and The District (where the art both excites and offends) before finally finishing our tipsy trek at Haven Gastropub, the classiest stop on our circular route. They were thrilled for us to arrive, as you can imagine.

We finished by 9:00 p.m. and those who could still stand made their way to the exits to be transported safely home. The service and food was great, the bartenders welcoming, and the close proximity of locations made navigating the stops a piece of cake! An afternoon playing pub games, catching up, and reminiscing about Dear Old State was a splendid way to start a new year! Please join us this summer for our next “tour” – location to be announced.

If you have any ideas for pub crawls or activities you’d like to share, please contact us! We are always open to new ideas and venues that bring the Penn State family together!