State College approves liquor license transfer for Buffalo Wild Wings with some conditions

Plans for a Buffalo Wild Wings in downtown State College can move forward after the borough council approved a liquor license transfer Monday.

Buffalo Wilds Wings applied for a liquor license transfer from Don Patron Mexican Grill, which operated in Patton Township until it closed in March 2017. Since the liquor license is coming from outside the borough, the borough council had greater authority over it. They could choose to deny the request or approve it with conditions.

As the council has done in other liquor license transfers, it approved the request with a number of conditions. At least one other liquor license transfer request in recent years has led to debate, but over three meetings, there wasn’t much discussion from council members about Buffalo Wild Wings’ request. The council approved the request unanimously with the following conditions:

• Food Beverage Ratio: 60% of total business is required to be food sales (versus alcoholic beverages) for each liquor license renewal period, which is every two years. The company will need to provide quarterly reports to verify the sales.

• Food Stipulation: Alcohol sales will not be permitted at any time when food sales are not available

• Container Size: Alcoholic beverages can only be sold by the drink in a container that does not exceed 22 fluid ounces.

The liquor license is only valid for 131 Heister Street and the license can’t be transferred without approval from the borough.

During a hearing on the transfer earlier this month, the council heard from Mark Kozar, who was there on behalf of the State College Wing Company (owned by Grube Family Investments, which is the largest privately owned franchisee of Buffalo Wild Wings). He described Buffalo Wild Wings as a family-friendly, casual dining sports restaurant.

“I don’t call them a sports bar, because it really is a restaurant,” Kozar said.

Wings are the main food item — regular style wings, boneless wings and cauliflower wings are all available with 26 sauces and dry rubs to choose from — but other items, like hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and more are on the menu.

The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Seating for 260 — 214 inside and 46 on an outdoor patio — will be available, Kozar said.

He said alcohol is served to complement the food, not as the main attraction.

“The average percentage of alcohol sales at Buffalo Wild Wings is 14.5%, with food and non-alcoholic beverage making up 85.5% of the sales,” Kozar said. Most of the time, people only order food, he added.

During the public hearing, Kandy Weader, senior commercial associate at Bennett Williams, spoke in support of the liquor license transfer. State College has been her primary market for 11 years and she has about 50,000 square feet of raw space vacant in downtown State College.

Of that 50,000 square feet, 19,000 of it is in The Maxxen building, where the Buffalo Wild Wings is planned.

“It’s an amazing location and the owners are very excited to have this opportunity. They feel it’s a great fit. Plus, we’ve been trying to get a wing establishment in State College of this caliber for as long as I can remember, so we think that’s a very good fit for our area,” Weader said.

She said it can be difficult to bring national brands to the area because State College’s population and vehicle traffic can’t compete with larger metropolitan areas. Between inflation and interest rates, it’s hard for even the national brands to build out the gray shell space, which she estimated would cost them $300/square foot.

This would be Buffalo Wild Wings’ first in Centre County. Its nearest restaurant is in Lycoming County, about an hour and 15 minutes away. It has more than 1,300 locations nationwide, including 30 in Pennsylvania.

Buffalo Wild Wings has long been interested in the State College area. The chain submitted plans in December 2015 to open in Ferguson Township, but withdrew them about two years later.