The Den

One location in downtown state college that’s always good for a beer is the Lion’s Den, mostly referred to just as the Den. The bar is on S Garner right next to Bar Bleu, across from Baby’s Diner. My favorite part about the Den is the back patio. It’s nothing special but I just prefer drinking and smoking outside. The patio is also covered so even on rainy spring days, the Den patio is still a good option.

The Den has a happy hour from ten to twelve everyday. As far as my experience goes they also have varying specials before that depending on the day of the week but Lionbars doesn’t indicate that anymore. While a good resource to get a general idea of what special there are, Lionbars is sometimes a little outdated or incomplete. Back to the Den, on good days, whether week or weekend, chances are there will be a line outside anytime after nine. The Den always gets really busy and sometimes it’s a pain to finagle your way through the crowd inside. The Den basically is just one dance floor and that makes such finagling much harder. As soon as you enter you have to make across the dance floor for just maybe three feet to get to the bar and that can already be difficult. The bar itself is probably one of the larger ones in State College and that makes getting drinks a little easier. And as always, tip well; especially once it gets crowded, you want to be remembered. Most nights they have a DJ and after eleven the inside turns into a good place to party while the outside remains a good place to just hangout and drink beer.

The option of choosing whether you want to party or chill in one place is probably what makes it so attractive and that’s why I like it, too. Just got to be prepared for some elbow-fighting, particularly fun with drinks in your hand… But I don’t want it to sound too bad, it’s all manageable.