Q&A with Pat Daugherty

by Chris Rosenblum

Pat Daugherty hasn’t been a part of the Tavern Restaurant for its whole history. It just seems that way.

CDT/Nabil K. Mark

Pat Daugherty has owned the Tavern Restaurant in downtown State College for 28 years. The restaurant opened in 1948 and he bought it in 1980. CDT/Nabil K. Mark

Click here for the Pat Daugherty photo gallery

Since 1980, Daugherty, 62, has owned the landmark downtown State College establishment that’s celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. But he waited tables there in the 1960s while studying engineering at Penn State. Waves of students subsequently have followed suit, a Tavern tradition along with memorabilia-covered walls, celebrity patrons and a sinful cocktail.

Q: Was it a tough decision to buy the restaurant?

A: I was leery going into a field I didn’t know anything about. There’s still a lot I don’t know. And in this business, I only know the Tavern. There’s people who take the classes and go through a lot of people’s different training programs, and they know quite a bit about the food business. I really only know this business as it relates to the Tavern. I wouldn’t know what to do for breakfast.

Q: Where did you get all the pictures and photos?

A: About half of them came with the restaurant. When we bought the restaurant, the founders of the restaurant [John O’Connor and Ralph Yeager] had already started the decor of the restaurant with Penn State and State College memorabilia. And then they expanded into very interesting lithographs, historical Pennsylvania town views and other lithographs. ... Their lithograph collection is now in partial donation to Penn State and is in the Palmer Museum on view. [The rest of the restaurant’s decor] is a combination of purchases and donations.

Q: Do you recall any famous customers in particular?

A: I still remember the night [in 1986] that Andy, one of the twin dining room managers, who worked here for 38 years, came upstairs and told me who was in the restaurant. Our policy here is we try and leave people alone, whether it’s the [ESPN College] GameDay people, who were here, or Billy Joel, who was here. We try and say, “They’re here to have dinner. They didn’t come in here to talk to us. They didn’t come in to sign autographs. They didn’t come in here to have their picture taken.” They came in here to have dinner. We try to respect that.

But it was late at night, and [the 1986 customer] was by himself. And I came down, and Walter Cronkite was here, having dinner. Sat at the F1 table. We talked a little bit. He was here because NASA was having the “Journalists in Space” program, and he ... was here to be interviewed ... When he signed his credit card slip, we asked him to write his phone number — dark ages, you know. Somewhere in a box, I have Walter Cronkite’s signed credit card slip and his phone number.

Q: What did you say to him?

A: ... I was telling him that my grandmother had one of these fancy, new color televisions. You had to adjust the tint. ... She would adjust her television and the network news until Walter Cronkite’s ears were just a special shade. ... If she got Walter Cronkite’s ears the right color, her color was going to be good for the rest of the night.

Q: The Tavern’s known for a drink called “Original Sin.” What’s in it?

A: It’s got a cherry flavor to it. Different brandies, and some other things like that. It’s a drink we developed when we added the bar [in 1982]. ... The name, we had a contest to name our new bar, and the winner was Adam’s Apple. When we tried to come up with a name for the drink, one of the suggestions for the name of the bar was “Original Sin.” We said we didn’t like that name for the bar, but it might be a good name for this drink.

Q: Do students who worked here come back?

A: They do come back a lot, and that’s one of the reasons I look forward to some of the big weekends. And not just football weekends. Thon is a weekend where I know I’m going to see a lot of my alumni. Arts Festival. It’s really interesting. You know, football weekends, homecoming, other big games, I’m going to see people who worked in the Tavern in the 1950s, and I’m going to see people who worked here last year.

Q: What does that mean to you?

A: There’s a lot of people who worked with me who come back. There’s a lot of people who worked before me who come back. They made the Tavern a special place for the people who were here. So what it says to me is I haven’t messed that up.