Is anybody familiar enough with the Lewistown, Pa area to recommend an eating establishment?

I need a place to take my female companions for dinner after riding 765.

In short, the normal marginal grease holes that suffice for me won't cut it.

Lewistown in my extensive personal experience, is/was almost as bad as Mount Union and Orbisonia--where I had to host an entrepreneur keenly intrigued with the possibility of buying the EBT at the local pizza joint, where he claimed he got some kind of food poisoning. The "place for a night out" in Lewistown appears to be Hoss's, an outlet of a Pennsylvania-based steakhouse/buffet restaurant chain, bound to be crowded. Most of the rest of Lewistown's dining is pizza, burger joints, sub/hoagie shops, etc.

Lewistown HAD a brewpub, Jack's Mountain Brewing, which closed after only a year or so of operation, then was rebranded Cowboy Jack's. It was west of town on 522 about 3 miles, 9074 Rt. 522. It's supposedly been for sale for a couple years now.

Completely honestly and brutally speaking, your better bet may be to head towards eateries "over the mountain" in the State College area.

There IS a place called the Trolley Car Cafe just off the downtown square, but I'm sure a hundred other railfans have the same idea, and it's not exactly fine dining.

Thanks. Oh well.

I actually made a phone call or two up that way.

I got laughter.

"I actually made a phone call or two up that way.

I got laughter."


I think I'm in trouble.

If you can make the drive to Huntington, PA, there is an excellent restaurant in the center of town. I have been there twice and it was excellent. The owners are on site and the food was great. It is Mimi's Martini Bar. It is way more than that and I will try to find their website. Your friend will NOT be disappointed. It is not inexpensive, but reasonable for what you get!!

FYI I called in a favor and contacted a newspaper employee up there.

I relayed his recommendations to Superheater via e-mail so he and his, erm, "ladies" can have some peace and quiet away from the seas of slobbering foam.

By the way, I believe I've located the nearest sushi bars: three in State College, one in Selinsgrove.....

They are indeed ladies. However, If I provided any more detail, I might blow my cover.

I relayed his recommendations to Superheater via e-mail


Alexander, could you email them either here or to superheater at livedotcom?

The old "beermail" address bit the dust about four years ago.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated, in all seriousness.

A few years ago, I was taken to Angelo's Hollow Inn, a couple miles south of town,
on Rt. 103. Food was quite good then (Italian). Don't know about now. I was there only that once.

Lee

A friend who has reason to be in Lewistown on business often has suggested the Waterfront Tavern. I haven't been there myself, but trust his judgement.

http://waterfronttavern.net

Fixed that for you.

Also, there's a former NYC wood caboose and an Erie Stillwell coach outside the building.....

http://www.whistlestopcentrehall.com/

If you’re in that neck of the woods and time allows, another great place for food and drink with railroad theme is the Front Street Station at Northumberland – just outside Sunbury in North Central PA.

It’s a restored PRR station located at the south end of the old Northumberland yard -still used by NS as well as North Shore and Lycoming Valley short lines. The dinning area is extended onto the old platform with big windows trackside. It’s unusual not to see something passing by. Food and prices are real decent. http://www.frontstreetstation.com

Good photo opts are had just outside or from State Park Land to the south. For hobby or antique buffs - Bowser / English’s Model RR shop is a half hour north while the Red Mill antiques and others are just over the hill in Lewisburg – plenty of goodies at both.

I'm trying not to send Superheater (or anyone else reading this, incidentally) that far from Lewistown if he can help it--U.S. 522 is hardly an expressway, and that's an hour out of the way the wrong way--but heading up Selinsgrove/Sunbury way may be useful if anyone is having trouble finding motel or hotel space. The area around Sunbury--Selinsgrove, Lewisburg (not to be confused with Lewistown), Danville, Bloomsburg, and Williamsport--has just enough "civilization" between colleges, hospitals, Interstate 80, and the like to garner you the likes of finer dining, motel chain competition, brewpubs, big-city newspapers, etc., unlike the places like Mount Union, Lewistown, Cass, Titusville, Kane, etc. The "strip" of commercial development--fast food, big-box stores, a mall, motels, etc.--is primarily between Selinsgrove and Sunbury on US 11-15.

Ironically, a few days before the weekend in question (the 21st) I will be receiving my NRHS 25-year pin at a banquet in the just-renovated-and-reopened Morning Glory Station in the Selinsgrove, Pa. PRR station, which had been vacant for decades until last year. But I believe they are breakfast-and-lunch-only without advance arrangements. (The meeting/dinner was scheduled there in part for hopes that the NS local, being handled by an experimental genset these days, will pass just before or during the meeting!) And there are two excellent B&Bs and one of the nation's best-regarded brewpubs all within two blocks!

Front Street Station in "Norry" is a well-done station restaurant, with the walls decorated (last time I looked) with LOCAL historic rail photos, not just the cheesy hodgepodge of anything train-related you may see at a TGIOutBenniBees-style station restaurant. Two Lackawanna MU cars are part of the overflow/banquet space there. Truth be told, though, the NS Buffalo Line is not what it used to be, and you're just as likely to see only the North Shore interchange switching, if even that, in lieu of mainline action. I'm not sure I'd go all the way to Northumberland from Lewistown just for dining, but if you can integrate Selinsgrove/Norry with a hotel/motel stay or your trip to and from Lewistown, all the better.

I'm beginning to have flashbacks of the days when we railfans deemed whether an area was "civilized" or not by whether you could find slide film (Kodachrome or no; we weren't that picky) in the local stores or not. I remember now where that camera store was in Lewistown......

Just yesterday a gang of us CRHS ruffians visited Andrea's Pizzeria in Lewistown.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/andreas-pizzeri ... -lewistown

It was pretty good. They were very friendly, the pie was good, and the place nice and clean.

It's also very convenient to the station area.

So, if you're looking for something like that, check them out.