Penn State icon Nittany Lion Inn is preparing to open after renovations. We got a sneak peek

Nittany Lion Inn’s returning guests will immediately notice the major renovations when the iconic building officially reopens next week, but one thing remains unchanged: the basket of apples at the entrance.

Gary Brandeis, CEO and founder of the Scholar Hotel Group — which acquired the inn from Penn State under a long-term ground lease — said he was told by “like, 17,000 people” that they’d be upset if the Nittany Lion Inn didn’t have a basket of apples in the front like it did for years before the renovations.

“One of the things that we were told we had to have is lobster bisque in the restaurant, which we’re going to have, and we had to have apples out in front,” Brandeis said during a tour and interview Tuesday.

The famed hotel at 200 W. Park Ave., State College, closed to the public in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and was used for temporary student housing and classrooms. The university hired a consultant in 2021 to begin exploring options for both the inn and the Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center and, in 2022, the university opted to sell via a long-term ground lease. The deal was finalized in 2023, with the university previously declining to release how long the ground lease will be or how much Penn State received for the sale.

Since then the 93-year old Georgian-style Nittany Lion Inn has undergone extensive renovations and upgrades; more than $10 million was expected to be invested into the building. When people walk into the hotel, they’ll instantly feel and see the difference with the new, grand lobby. By opening up the back wall, visitors can now immediately see and access the courtyard from the lobby.

“I hope that (visitors will) recognize the building and the insides, but we made a lot of really great changes, what we think makes the spaces work better. We created new food and beverage outlets, a brand new lobby, we activated the courtyards, all new guest rooms. So we’ve really touched almost every inch of this building, and everything’s basically brand new,” Brandeis said.

Brandeis hopes the Nittany Lion Inn is enjoyed by the guests who are staying there but he also envisions it to be a community space.

“This is a hotel, we’re open 24/7. Anybody can come in and grab a coffee, use our Wi-Fi, hang out, work, meet with people, study, things like that. So we created a lot of really great spaces for that,” he said.

The hotel had a soft opening this week with about two dozen rooms booked to give staff practice before the official reopening. It will officially reopen to the public in September with a grand reopening on Sept. 3.

“I think we’re going to set some new standards for Penn State, State College and the surrounding community,” Brandeis said.

The Centre Daily Times toured the historic hotel before its grand reopening. Take a peek at some of the renovated Nittany Lion Inn below.

Lobby

When visitors enter the Nittany Lion Inn, they’ll see a custom-made “We Are” sign on the wall, reflective of the Penn State aesthetic seen through the entire hotel. All of the art work throughout the hotel is custom made, Brandeis said, and there’s many pieces of Penn State memorabilia on display.

The lobby has couches, chairs and coffee tables arranged throughout, as well as a few nooks with seating. It has an academic feel to it, with custom-made bookcases and antiques, which was intentional.

“We’re on a college campus. We can’t pretend that we’re not. So we wanted the lobby to feel academic,” Brandeis said.

There’s also a table with refreshments such as iced lemon water, coffee, cookies and, of course, apples.

Harpers, a fine clothing store founded downtown in 1926, opened a small store in the lobby. Customers can purchase dress shirts and trousers there, in addition to men’s and women’s clothing from their Penn State-branded line (Harper’s Varsity Club), other fashion accessories and exclusive “Nittany Lion Inn”-branded clothing that won’t be available elsewhere.

Rotunda

By moving the front desk to the rotunda, there’s an obvious pathway for guests to take through the lobby.

Brandeis called the rotunda the “central nervous system” of the hotel. It has the front desks, new guest elevators and reorientated restrooms, and the coffee shop and restaurants are just steps away.

Guest Rooms

The hotel has 230 guest rooms and four different room types available for booking on the Nittany Lion Inn’s website: double queens, a standard king, king junior suites and king suites.

The standard rooms have hard surface flooring, carpet and tile throughout and every room has a mini bar with a coffee maker. The bathrooms look the same in each standard room but are different shapes and sizes due to the layout of the hotel. There’s also a couch in the room.

“Everything in here is brand new,” Brandeis said. “Flooring, walls, furniture, artwork, everything is brand new.”

All rooms have custom Nittany Lion door knockers, which can also be purchased in the lobby shop.

The suites have hardwood floors and there’s a sitting room with a couch, coffee table and TV before entering the bedroom.

The standard rooms and suites both have light walls but the bedroom in the suites have a darker wall color and a lighter wall with custom wallpaper featuring hidden lions.

The suites also have larger bathrooms with double vanities.

A quick glance at the booking page online shows the rates fluctuate depending on when the booking is — you can expect to pay more during a weekend with a home football game. Throughout the fall, rates start from $179/night for a standard room.

Dear Joe:

The Nittany Lion Inn previously didn’t have a coffee shop. The renovations turned the old Barnes and Noble gift shop into a coffee shop, “Dear Joe:”. It will be open from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m.

“You can grab coffee here, you can go sit in the lobby, you can sit in the courtyard. So again, more deliberate spaces for people to enjoy themselves again,” Brandeis said. “This is open for anyone.”

Dear Joe: will have coffees, pastries and breakfast sandwiches. Of course, they have Penn State themed “latte art” where they can put a design on the surface of a drink with steamed milk. They can do the Nittany Lion, the hotel’s logo and the front of the building.

Lionne & 1855 Lounge

Lionne and 1855 Lounge will be the Nittany Lion Inn’s high end restaurant and cocktail lounge. Lionne — French for lion — is where “innovative American cuisine blends seamlessly with European influences for an unforgettable dining adventure,” the website states.

The hotel was built in three parts in 1932, 1955 and 1993. Lionne is located in the 1932 section and all of the woodwork, outside of the booths, is original from the 1930s.

Indoor and outdoor seating is available.

“We really tried to make the seating comfortable. A lot of people don’t like to sit at a table in the middle of the room, so all of our seating is banquette and booth seating,” Brandeis said.

It will open to the public on Sept. 3. Reservations can be made on OpenTable.

In this area of the hotel there used to be about five different “reading rooms” but the area has been opened up, the glass wall was redone and a patio was activated for outdoor dining.

“This will be busy. We can also tent this for events. If someone wanted to have a party out here and it’s going to rain or something like that, we could put a tent up,” Brandeis said.

The menu for Lionne isn’t available yet; the 1855 Lounge — previously the Alumni Lounge — will have a full bar but will have a lot of high end bourbon and whiskey, with an elevated menu of small plates.

The original 1930s entrance takes people right to Rec Hall, the Lion Shrine and to walk downtown. Brandeis envisions that people will be moving in and out of that entrance a lot once they’re settled in the hotel.

Triplett’s

Triplett’s — previously Whiskers — is a more casual bar. Its name is a toast to Wallace “Wally” Triplett, a Penn State football player in the mid-1940s and the first Black student to earn a varsity letter on the team, and the first to be drafted by the National Football League.

Brandeis previously told the CDT he met with Triplett’s family to share what they wanted to do at the Nittany Lion Inn, and his family gave them permission to rename the space for him and to honor his legacy. A picture of Triplett is featured on the wall of the bar.

The bar is completely redone and has a more open feel to it than Whiskers did. It will have beer, wine and cocktails, and casual food. The menu includes chicken wings, crab cakes, burgers, a chicken sandwich, and desserts like a chocolate berry layer cake. Prices range from $8 to $20. Cocktails range from $14 to $18 and features drinks like a pineapple mule and a classic margarita. The drink menu includes zero proof drinks, beer and wines by the glass.