Federal Taphouse — Restaurant in State College

I'm alumni and was visiting for a recruiting event for my company. I drove up the night before the event and needed a place to watch the Eagles in the NFC championship game. Unfortunately in the 8 years since I've graduated, most of the bars I used to know have closed or turned into something else so I wasn't really sure where to go. After walking through Champs sports bar (which had music blasting and nowhere to sit) I came across Federal Taphouse. I walked in to see it mostly empty with plenty of large TV's - much more my speed than Champs.

I sat at the bar where a young guy named Sam was bartending. I had a couple beers then ordered the fish tacos, which were pretty bland. Despite the bar being pretty slow, I almost always had to get his attention for another beer which was a little annoying since I was drinking out of a clear pint glass.

With 7 minutes remaining in the game, it's clear the Eagles are going to walk away with the W. There were a few other Eagles fans to my left that started talking to me, and we're all pretty excited. Sam happens to be close by and I ask for one more beer. He says "How about you drink that?" and points to a glass of water he put on the bar to my right when I was talking to the other customers. I'm a little shocked and offended, but I hate controversy and just say "ok". I finish the water and a few minutes later I ask for the beer. He says "How about you wait another minute?". I replied back with "How about you just give me my check?". I'm not sure what they taught Sam in bartending school, but this isn't how you treat someone who isn't giving you problems. I'm a man. I'm 30. I don't need a dude disrespecting me and treating me like a child. Angry, I paid without tipping (I regularly tip 20+%), left, then went to Pickle's to finish out my night where neither the bouncer or bartenders had any issue with me.

To be clear, I don't have a problem with Sam cutting me off. I know my limits and I was nowhere near them, but I understand bars have to look out for themselves for liability reasons. I do have a problem with the way Sam decided to go about it - all he had to say was "Sorry, I can't serve you anymore" and I would have been fine with that. Instead he decided to treat a customer poorly who had been been nothing but polite to him.

The two stars I'm giving is for the ambiance and being an alumni-friendly spacious design with lots of seating. The staff seems much younger and inexperienced compared to other bars (one girl was training another girl on how to bartend the majority of the time I was there). Given how dead it was in here in a big NFL night, I feel like this place isn't going to last very long. It unfortunately misses the mark for the student demographic. College seniors don't care about having 100 beers on tap. They care about light beer specials and keeping the drinks flowing, which they can go...

I have gone to this restaurant several times since it opened. While the service has gotten a little better, the food has not improved at all. While most of the time the pizza is your best bet, last night it wasn't even cooked through. It was a very busy night and there were lots of big grouped, but that is no excuse for how bad all of our food was. For appetizers we ordered pretzels, wings, calamari, dates and crab dip. The seasoning on top of the pretzels was tasty, but it was super dry and the cheese they served with it looked like it had been microwaved. The wings were burnt and also really dry. The calamari just tasted like the fried breading and was mushy. The dates were bacon wrapped but the bacon was not rendered, the dates were complete mush and the blue cheese in the middle was rock hard. It was also absurdly served on a giant pile of arugula. The crab dip was not seasoned and tasted like artificial crab. It was also served with a giant hunk of bread that wasn't sliced, also a questionable choice.

Everyone's entrees were just as bad as the appetizers. The fish tacos were bland, the chicken was dry and served on a bun that was too big, the pizza dough was raw and the vegetables that came with some of the entrees were complete mush.

While they do have 100 beers on tap, most nights they are out of several of them. Last night our waiter told us they were out of five and then didn't tell us which ones. The cocktail menu is just ridiculous, it reminds me of a Friday's or Applebee's list. They are under the impression that mixing vodka with a bunch of stuff (pumpkin puree, Rumchata) and putting it in a martini glass makes it a martini - it really doesn't.

After last night's meal I will only be coming back here if they have a beer I really want to try. It's a shame that a really nice space has been used so terribly with a kitchen that does not seem to care about any of the food...

We had a reservation for lunch after church on Easter day at the Federal Taphouse, I wasn't crazy about the menu, but it couldn't find a place for Easter Brunch. I ordered a salmon Burguer with Ceasars salad instead of fries. The food took a little longer than it should, but nothing ridiculous crazy. When our meals came and I was ready to eat, I noticed mold on the bread. It was so disgusting and noticeable. The hostes were walking by, and I asked if he could call my server, and his answer was, he didn't know who it was. I described her to him and after a few minutes she came to our table. I was in shock, she apologized and said she was going to bring me a new fresh burguer and asked me if I wanted a new fresh salad too. I said yes because even if the salad was served in a little plate, it was placed next to the burger on the same plate. The server then brought the salad, but it wasn't a new fresh salad, it was the same plate from before and I knew it because I noticed a big crouton on the salad that really stood out when i first got my meal with mold. Few minutes later the new "fresh" burger came, while I'm sure it was a new bun I couldn't tell if the salmon was new or not and my doubts raised when I saw the pickle with a little bit of sauce on it where there was not way the sauce could touch the pickle, so it was the same pickle from the previous plate. What it upsets me the most was that the waitres told me she was going to call the manager to come and talk to me. The manager never came to apologize or anything, I never saw the face of the manager. I was not charged for the salmon burguer but my Easter lunch was ruined specially when I felt the manager didn't care how I was feeling after being served a burguer with mold on the bun, very unprofessional. I would never go back to that restaurant even if there is no other place to eat when we go to visit our daughter...