A former office space just a few blocks from Penn State's Old Main is being converted into a 950-square-foot coffee lounge that plans to rotate beans from acclaimed roasters around the country rather than roast its own. Third Planet Coffee Brewers is under construction at 300 South Allen Street in downtown State College, with plumbing and electrical work recently completed and fixtures expected to move in soon.
Owner Frank Yeager is building out the space with high-top seating, banquettes, and lounge-oriented furniture, according to Onward State. The shop is targeting a mid-October opening, with hours planned for 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends. Yeager told the outlet that the university community has helped fuel interest in specialty products over the past decade.
A Rotating Cast of National Roasters
Rather than roasting in-house, Third Planet plans to center its menu around light-roast, single-origin coffees sourced from a changing lineup of specialty roasters. The launch lineup includes Little Wolf Coffee of Ipswich, Massachusetts, Abracadabra Coffee Co. of Woodstock, Vermont, and Push Pull Coffee of Portland, Oregon. The shop's website describes its partners as some of the country's best roasters and states that its lineup changes, keeps you guessing, and might just wreck your idea of what coffee is “supposed” to taste like.
Little Wolf Coffee was founded in 2016 by Chris Gatti and Melissa Bartz, specializing in small-batch light-to-medium roasts meant to highlight natural bean flavor, according to Sprudge. Abracadabra Coffee Co., founded in 2015 by Clint and Antoinette Hunt alongside Sarah Yetter, focuses on single-origin light roasts, experimental bean processing, and draft cold brews. Push Pull Coffee, established in Portland in 2012 by Christopher Hall, specializes in natural, honey, and anaerobic co-fermented coffees and has expanded to multiple cafes in Portland and Seattle as of this year, per Daily Coffee News.
Local Pastries To Round Out The Menu
Alongside cappuccinos, flat whites, and lattes, Third Planet plans to serve pastries sourced from Chew Chew Bun and The Cakeshop by Tati, two established names in the local food scene. Chew Chew Bun was founded in 2019 by Penn State alumnus Skye Chang as a Taiwanese-inspired bakery known for melon buns and garlic cheese pull buns, and it moved to its downtown storefront at 115 E. Beaver Ave in August 2022 after outgrowing a mall popup, per Onward State's earlier coverage.
The Cakeshop by Tati was launched in 2021 by Culinary Institute of America graduates Derek and Tatiana Polay. The bakery closed its storefront in Pleasant Gap this past December, shifting to a wholesale and custom-order model that allows it to supply cafes across Centre County, according to State College Magazine. Both bakeries have collaborated with Penn State programs before, including Penn State Global's A Taste of Study Abroad event last August, which featured Taiwanese pineapple cakes and Latin American alfajores.
Betting On Foot Traffic Near Campus
The Midtown Square building sits about 0.3 miles south of Old Main, putting the shop directly in a heavy student walking corridor between campus and downtown housing. The building dates to 1987 and sits in a Commercial Service zoning district with ADA-compliant facilities and dedicated parking, according to listing details from Crexi. Street-level retail space in downtown properties like Midtown Square has been leasing for roughly $30 per square foot annually as of mid-2026, a price point that helps explain why a small-footprint concept with limited kitchen needs makes financial sense for a new drink-focused business.
Third Planet will enter a downtown coffee scene that already includes local roasters like Rothrock Coffee and W.C. Clarke's Coffee Roasters, along with multi-roaster and specialty destinations such as Elixr Coffee Roasters on Beaver Avenue and Vibe Coffee Company. Multi-roaster concepts typically set themselves apart by rotating in guest roasters instead of roasting beans on-site, a model Third Planet appears to be leaning into fully by skipping in-house roasting altogether.
Exactly when in October the shop will open, how it plans to staff the space, and whether State College's coffee drinkers will embrace a constantly rotating national lineup over the city's established local roasters all remain open questions as construction continues.
