Penn State grad plans to bring hot pot dining experience to downtown State College

New restaurateur and Penn State graduate Laura Luo is combining her backgrounds in hospitality and economics to open a restaurant in downtown State College. She hopes to open The Hut Pot, a restaurant focused on Taiwanese-style hot pot dining, with business partner and serial restaurateur Hitham Hiyajneh in the previous Yallah Burrito Company location on East Calder Way by the end of August.

“There’s only one restaurant in State College that has hot pot and they only do delivery service,” Luo said. “If I want to go to a hot pot restaurant, I have to travel at least to Washington, D.C., or to Delaware. I think there’s a potential market for a hot pot dining restaurant in State College.”

Following Hundred Degrees Hot Pot’s closure at its location at 428 Westerly Parkway in State College, GuDong Hot Pot Delivery opened within Nittany Mall in 2018, before moving to a location on North Atherton Street. It currently offers Chinese-style hot pot dining via GrubHub and direct orders on a delivery basis only.

For those who’ve yet to try the hot pot communal dining experience, Luo describes it as a Chinese style of fondue, but instead of dipping bread, veggies and similar items into melted cheese, diners dip meats and veggies into a cooking broth and sauces. A social experience, hot pot dining is often enjoyed alongside families or friends, and the new Hut Pot restaurant will be set up to facilitate groups of diners, with seating for groups of six and four.

“Most Chinese people have already had it, but many people in (Centre County), they may have heard about hot pot, but it might be a new thing for them to try,” Luo said.

While it’s been a dream of Luo’s to open her own restaurant, the process hasn’t been exactly easy so far. Originally hoping for an earlier opening date in either late July or early August, she has experienced building and shipping delays, waiting for furniture shipments from overseas and changing the restaurant’s design to fit ongoing construction challenges.

Luo had also originally planned for a menu focused on Chinese-style hot pot, but recently diverted her focus to Taiwanese-style hot pot (originating in Mongolia, each region of Asia boasts its own hot pot cooking style). She now expects her menu to resemble what diners might find at West Coast and Canadian hot pot restaurant chain Boiling Point. Boiling Point’s menu includes hot pot-style soups with varying levels of spice, from no spicy to “flaming spicy,” all packed with an abundance of meats, vegetables, noodles and traditional East Asian ingredients.

Still, Luo is optimistic about opening and says she’s keeping her focus on overcoming all of the hurdles that have appeared in her path thus far. Otherwise, she hopes to pay back a loan from her parents that they offered her to help open the restaurant, within a year and a half. If all goes well, she can see herself opening hot pot-style restaurants in other cities that have yet to be introduced to this particular style of Asian cuisine.

The 48-seat restaurant will offer delivery.