Former restaurant in State College area demolished quickly after new plans were revealed
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- A former North Atherton restaurant was demolished to clear the site for a 7 Brew.
- 7 Brew submitted preliminary plans for a roughly 510-square-foot prefabricated drive-thru.
- Plans are under township review and could reach the planning commission by late July.
A former restaurant along North Atherton Street in Ferguson Township has been demolished and is now being cleared to make way for what would be a third Centre County location for a popular drive-thru coffee shop.
7 Brew submitted preliminary development plans in late June for a new location at 1272 N. Atherton St., the former home of Mario’s Italian Restaurant, which closed in 2017. The plans have not been approved yet, but developers wasted no time removing the building that has been vacant for nearly a decade.
While construction on the new coffee shop can’t take place until its final development plans are approved, a demolition permit was issued to 7 Brew by the Centre Region Code Administration, which allowed the coffee chain to clear the grounds.
Ferguson Township Community Planner Miles Zakos told the Centre Daily Times in June that the preliminary plans call for a roughly 510-square-foot, prefabricated building with a drive-thru that follows 7 Brew’s typical mold. The chain’s locations usually feature a dual-lane drive-thru with a canopy, where employees take and fulfill orders.
Zakos added that the plans are currently under review by township staff, and that they could appear on a township planning commission agenda as soon as late July or early August.
“So here in Ferguson Township, a preliminary land development plan usually is seen and commented on first by the planning commission, where they then recommend approval or denial to the supervisors,” Zakos said Monday. “Once it goes through that process, which takes a couple of months depending upon the conditions that are set by the board of supervisors, the plan returns for final approval by both the planning commission and supervisors again.”
He added that he cannot say at this early stage what the project’s construction timeline will look like.
Given that the plans are approved and construction goes smoothly, the North Atherton coffee shop would be 7 Brew’s third location in the State College area. The company introduced itself to the area in December with a drive-thru in the Hills Plaza shopping center on South Atherton Street, while another is in early planning stages outside the Nittany Mall.
The Arkansas-headquartered company’s footprint in Pennsylvania has nearly doubled since 2025 with at least 15 locations operating in the Keystone State. 7 Brew oversees more than 700 franchises across the U.S.
The drive-thru coffee company has long viewed State College as prime expansion target for Pennsylvania. Matt Peters, 7 Brew’s director of operations for Pennsylvania and northern Delaware locations, said last September that more Centre Region sites would likely be in the works if the company’s first drive-thru hit the ground running — which it did.
“It’s a great market, and that’s undeniable. It’s a market we’ve been trying to get to,” Peters said in September. “We thought State College would be a good fit for the overall economics but also a positive light and business in the community to continue spreading joy and happiness and a different drive-thru experience no one else has seen.”
7 Brew is known for its drink-only menu and drive-thru ordering system that prioritizes quick and friendly service, the company says. New franchises are constructed using prefabricated buildings that aid quick expansion.
Updates on 7 Brew’s preliminary, and eventually final, land development plans will be shared at future Ferguson Township planning commission meetings, which take place at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Updates will also be shared at future township supervisors meetings, which take place at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.