He wrote the book on eating like a local in State College. Here are 5 of his favorite spots

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If trying new foods is a trade, then Brian Douglas is an expert — and it’s a craft he takes seriously. Most days, you can find him out and about town, tasting everything Happy Valley has to offer.

He might visit a local staple, somewhere he used to frequent while studying hotel and restaurant management at Penn State in the early 2000s. Or he’ll check out one of the restaurants that popped up in the past year, like Delhi Junction Indian Cuisine or Tasty K .

A State College local of 20 years, Douglas knows his way around the area’s ever-evolving food scene. He worked in the restaurant industry for a few years after graduating in 2006, before going into supply chain management instead, a shift that he said allowed him to better balance work and family life .

“But I just never lost that love or passion for food, even though I switched careers,” Douglas said. “Then, COVID came around, and it was a hard time for restaurants. I saw local stuff struggling and thought, ‘What can I do to help out?’”

Answering this question soon became its own hobby. When he’s not eating his way through State College, Douglas is sharing his experiences with the community — either on his Instagram account, @psufoodscene , or, more recently, in his book , “Eat Like a Local: State College, PA.”

Douglas’ first book, which came out June 21, pulls from the Pennsylvania native’s two decades of experience and offers readers a diverse look into State College’s food scene. At about 200 pages and 33 chapters covering everything from farmers markets to Vietnamese food, it equips even the least experienced palates with the tools to branch out and explore.

Breaking down a scene that can be hard to navigate even for locals, let alone tourists, was Douglas’ goal. The book is a valued alternative to more traditional recommendation sites, like Yelp or Tripadvisor.

“A lot of the time when people travel, they go to places that are nationally recognized for information, … but it just overlooks so many smaller (restaurants),” he said. “The descriptions, the local knowledge — a lot of that is lost with other resources. That’s a little niche that I thought could be filled.”

The book was published by CZYK Publishing , a company run by Mill Hall resident Lisa Rusczyk, and is one of more than 200 similar titles featuring cities all over the world. It will join two other guides, published in 2020 and earlier this year, exploring the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia food scenes .

Rusczyk approached Douglas in January about writing the book after a friend who works in online publishing passed his name along. He spent the next few months putting the book together, squeezing in a few hours of research and writing each week in between work and coaching his son’s basketball team.

The writing process was a combination of drawing from memory, revisiting restaurants he’d previously featured on Instagram and conducting research into places he might have missed. He also searched online groups he’d already been following, like Hector Cruz’s immensely popular “Foodies of State College” Facebook group.

State College’s restaurant scene is more diverse than people might realize, Douglas said. In the book, he outlines more than a dozen different cuisines — including Japanese, Korean, Eastern European, Greek and Indian — alongside more generic categories like sandwiches, wings and dessert.

Each restaurant is followed by a short blurb drawn from Douglas’ knowledge and personal experience. It resembles his captions on the PSU Food Scene Instagram, where he’ll often include a short history of the restaurant and its owners in addition to photos of the food.

“Eat Like a Local: State College, PA” also includes 20 of Douglas’ favorite places to eat in and around the borough — a handful of which he shared with the Centre Daily Times. Here are five of his top recommendations.

Olde New York Restaurant & Taproom

Cuisine: German and American

Address: 2298 E. College Ave.

Favorite menu items: Jägerschnitzel and curry salmon

Founded by longtime Happy Valley restaurant owners Kenny and Susan Kempton, Olde New York blends traditional German dishes with elements of Kenny’s New York upbringing. Its menu includes a smorgasbord of sandwiches, sausages, specialty entrees, cocktails, beer and more. There’s also a gluten-free menu available.

For Douglas, who’s been visiting the restaurant with his wife since before they got married, his go-to order is the Jägerschnitzel: a crispy pork cutlet smothered in a mushroom wine sauce and served alongside red cabbage and spaetzle, a noodle dish.

“It’s rich and creamy with the sauce, then the buttery, salty spaetzle soaks it all up,” Douglas said. “The sweet and sour cabbage taste cuts through all the richness and provides the release that you need. It’s something I just crave now.”

The curry salmon, drizzled in sweet chili sauce and served alongside polenta cakes and seasonal vegetables, is also an all-time favorite of Douglas and his wife — so much so that they learned how to recreate it at home.

The Koop

Cuisine: Korean

Address: 129 Locust Lane

Favorite menu items: Fried boneless chicken with honey garlic sauce and specialty dumplings

Before owner Stacy Lee opened The Koop , originally branded as Waker Chicken , the spot on Locust Lane used to be occupied by Korean restaurant Seoul Garden. Douglas and his wife used to frequent the joint while studying at Penn State, he said, and were sad to see it close after the owner passed away.

“It was one of those places that was close to home and sentimental because we used to go there,” Douglas said. “We’re glad that there’s still a Korean option, and we love going. We love those flavors and different foods that you can’t really find anywhere else.”

The Koop offers a taste of traditional Korean cuisine — everything from tteokbokki and bulgogi to soups, stews and noodle dishes — but it’s most known for its Korean fried chicken. Customers can choose from a variety of mild, sweet and spicy sauces, but Douglas’ favorite is the honey garlic.

He also loves the specialty dumplings, which are filled with cheese and covered with a spicy gochujang, or red chili paste, sauce.

American Ale House

Cuisine: American; some Southern fare and seafood

Address: 821 Cricklewood Drive

Favorite menu items: Bone-in ribeye and El Jefe meal

As a self-proclaimed “steak and potatoes guy,” Douglas has spent countless date nights, business lunches and family dinners at American Ale House .

Located about two miles from campus in Toftrees, the restaurant is loved for its quality steaks and unique appetizers, a category that includes original creations like oyster nachos. The ale house is also known for its El Jefe special : an off-menu offering that feeds two to four people and requires 24-hours advance notice. Included in the meal is a 40-ounce tomahawk ribeye steak, oysters and an array of sides and sauces.

Bistrozine

Cuisine: Asian-American fusion

Address: 409 E. Calder Way

Favorite menu items: Seafood explosion, basil ribeye and kimchi bulgogi tots

One of Bistrozine’s most compelling traits is the way it experiments with different flavors, resulting in a menu that’s likely to catch anyone’s attention. The fusion restaurant, which opened in 2018 , boasts a variety of rice, ramen and seafood dishes, fruity drinks and a rotating selection of desserts.

One example of its culinary creativity is the seafood explosion: a combination of fish, crab meat and cheese deep fried and topped with guacamole. It may not seem like the flavors would go together, Douglas said, but they always do — that’s part of the restaurant’s charm.

Some menu staples that Douglas has grown to love over the years includes the basil ribeye — stir-fried steak served with vegetables, brown sauce and a fried egg — and the kimchi bulgogi tots, a Korean-inspired dish that blends crispy potatoes with bulgogi beef and other Asian flavors.

“When you read the menu, you just want to try something new every time,” he said, “but you also love the dishes that you tried last time, so it’s hard to decide what to get.”

Bistrozine also boasts a cozy and casual atmosphere, offering outdoor seating and chairs that double as swings.

Big Bowl Noodle House

Cuisine: Chinese

Address: 418 E. College Ave.

Favorite menu items: Fried chicken filet with black pepper sauce

You may have to travel down a set of stairs to find it, but that hasn’t stopped Big Bowl Noodle House from serving customers since it first opened in 1998. To Douglas, the establishment thrives in its large portions for reasonable prices — and the food is always spectacular.

The extensive menu offers a variety of rice, noodle and other specialty dishes, but Douglas’ favorites are anything that comes with crispy pork or chicken. Moist and juicy on the inside while still being delightfully crunchy on the outside, the protein is a standout item, he said.

For those who like grazing over a sampling of different dishes, Douglas said, the restaurant also offers a diverse selection of sides — items like scallion pancakes, pork wontons, barbecue pork buns and fried chicken wings.