The Rediscover State College Podcast
This is the Rediscover State College Podcast, where we talk to locals about how they were able to find their happy place in Happy Valley.
The Rediscover State College Podcast
Amy and Jeremy Frank on Business, Family, and Finding Home in State College
Amy Frank is the founder and owner of The Makery, a community art studio and local artist market located in downtown State College. Jeremy Frank is a founder and the CEO of KCF Technologies, a tech company based in downtown State College that works with industry partners across the country.
In this episode, the couple shares how they fell in love with both the natural beauty and the vibrant downtown scene of State College. They talk about raising their kids—now in their teens and 20s—in a place filled with opportunities to connect with nature.
They also reflect on their individual experiences launching businesses in the area. Amy shares the origin story behind opening The Makery, while Jeremy offers insight into valuable resources for entrepreneurs just starting out.
And toward the end of the episode, they reveal their favorite spots in and around State College to grab food and drinks.
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Brad Groznik (00:00)
This is the Rediscover State College podcast. On this show, we talk to locals about how they were able to find their happy place in Happy Valley. I'm your host, Brad Groznik. Today we're joined by Amy and Jeremy Frank. Amy is the founder and owner of The Makery, a community art studio and local artist market located in downtown State College. Jeremy is a founder and the CEO of KCF Technologies, a tech company based in downtown State College that works with industry partners across the country.
In this episode, the couple shares how they fell in love with both the natural beauty and the vibrant downtown scene of State College. They talk about raising their kids now in their teens and twenties in a place filled with opportunities to connect with nature. They also reflect on their individual experiences launching businesses in the area. Amy shares the origin story behind the opening of the Makery, while Jeremy offers insight into valuable resources for entrepreneurs just starting out.
And toward the end of the episode, they reveal their favorite spots in and around state college to grab food and drinks. Amy and Jeremy, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and talking to us today. We really wanted to talk to some of the people making waves in the community. us a little bit about who you are, where you came from, how'd you end up in state college?
Amy Frank (01:13)
We came as a package deal or we met here. I'll say that while we were in undergrad at Penn State, Jeremy stayed. I'll let him talk about that. But I left for a few years and worked for a business consulting company and came back when Jeremy started his company here. Subsequently, as our lives unfolded, I founded and now direct the Makery of Central Pennsylvania, which is a nonprofit art studio right in our downtown. And it also has an adjacent marketplace for local regional gifts and art and things like that.
Jeremy Frank (01:42)
And I was here a bit longer. We were both from Pittsburgh originally, but we met our sophomore year at Penn State. We actually met through dance marathon. We were on a, we joined a dance marathon committee together.
Amy Frank (01:53)
which Jeremy joined to meet girls.
Jeremy Frank (01:55)
Exactly.
Very smart. worked. And then we were dating, but I stayed and went to grad school and stayed straight through for my PhD and then started the company, KCF, out of actually about six months before I finished my PhD. I've been here straight through since 1993, but then it was actually, what about eight years later when we got married in 2001 when we came back officially living here as adults. So we've been here ever since.
Brad Groznik (02:19)
Yeah, so you've been here for almost 30 years. That's right. ⁓ Yeah, what keeps you in state college?
Jeremy Frank (02:25)
The beauty of the area, would say, and I would, the beauty of the area to me is forest Rothrock. I was just in Singletown at lunchtime today. The beauty of not ever being stuck in traffic, the beauty of the downtown, the beauty of all the great breweries that are here now that weren't here 25 years ago. And just big thriving university. There's just all those things. We travel and work in lots of cities. We get plenty of exposure to other things. travel around the world, but this, this would be.
A really hard place to leave for me. just absolutely love it.
Amy Frank (02:56)
Yeah, the first thing that came up for me when you said that Brad was you couldn't get me out of here. We have four children, so two in college now, two in high school, and raising them here has been such a pleasure and a just really a delight, a super safe place, a super just kid friendly. I always say it's kind of Disneyland for young families. And like Jeremy said, no traffic, no real worries about crime. you know, our friends come to visit. We have a lot of friends from our undergrad years and they come to visit and they often say, man, you guys live on a movie set.
This is like the setting of some rom-com and it kind of is. It's pretty terrific. So we really feel that way.
Brad Groznik (03:32)
Yeah, you have four kids, right? Yep. How do your kids?
Amy Frank (03:34)
No,
2018, 1614. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Groznik (03:38)
And so what advice might you have for raising kids here?
Jeremy Frank (03:42)
I would just say, do it. Just being here, you can't help but have a good time raising your kids because I mean, there's parks everywhere. The schools are fantastic starting right. I mean, even elementary school, but even the, kids all went to the stay and play preschool and lots of families that we know about a lot of our employees have their kids going there now. But the whole way up through the high school is just a fantastic high school, despite being really still a pretty small community. So there's that.
And it's like there's a festival every weekend when your kids are young. There's literally almost every single weekend, there's so much going on that it's hard to find the time to get to those things. And I just don't think, you know, the people that we know other places, obviously there's things, I mean, honestly, there's more things like that to do in a city. They're just not nearly as easy to get to. And so you don't have that quality of experience. That's what's really so unique.
Brad Groznik (04:28)
Yeah, you pick like the one thing to do on the weekend, but here you can hit like two or three. know, it's like we're at the library and then we're going to the bug festival or, know, all that.
Jeremy Frank (04:39)
Exactly. And it's- festival and a lot of it, just really unique things, special things. Yeah. We were in Reedsville on Tuesday. There was a big Cran, like entrepreneurship event in Reedsville and we went to the restaurants there and just, I've been to the Bluegrass Festival there. Yeah. It's just, there's things that you can only get in a more rural area, but they're also only half hour away.
Amy Frank (04:56)
For our kids, it was really important to have a place that we could easily get them outside, right? To easily just entrench them in nature. That's been a really central part of the way we've raised our kids. It's a really easy place to do that.
Brad Groznik (05:07)
How would you do that? it be on the weekends we're going hiking or would it just happen naturally because of the way state colleges kind of set up?
Amy Frank (05:15)
I
would say the latter that it's just a pretty easy place. know, when our kids were really little, we lived in a bedroom community of State College called Pine Grove Mills, and Jeremy would take them before school and just head out on trails. And that's pretty much the experience. We live closer to downtown now, and we still have that accessibility to other natural places and streams and trails and things like that. So I think all of our kids have kind of grown up with that, and it was really important to us.
Jeremy Frank (05:37)
Yeah,
Whipple Dam. just we have pictures on the walls when they were little, but I used to take them to Whipple Dam all the time, which was a 10 minute drive in its beautiful state park. You could swim, you could hike, you could do you could play in the stream. It's literally 10 minutes from our house. But if you wanted a shorter trip, you could just walk up into the forest from our house and pick blueberries and raspberries and things. Or if you didn't want to go that far, you could go to the elementary school and do it in the bushes next to the farm. just it's was constant just everywhere.
Amy Frank (06:04)
Yeah. And one thing we haven't touched on that's like the most important thing I think people think about is just the school district. And we just could not be luckier. I feel like we're pretty good spokespeople for that because at all times we have at least two kids in every, I feel like every school in the district. Just feel really lucky to in a variety of ways, you know, from extracurriculars to their actual education to the, just the level of engagement and kindness of all of the staff that work in the school district. It's just pretty lucky.
Brad Groznik (06:33)
Yeah. When was that time when you decided, this is home? When did it turn from, here's where I'm going to college. And when did it was it just like, well, now I can't leave. You can't take me out of here.
Jeremy Frank (06:43)
we
Amy Frank (06:44)
Can
I start? We were just talking about this on the drive. Can we start with a funny story? Yeah. Well, I think it's. You teeming up.
Jeremy Frank (06:49)
I'll tee it up.
She actually told me something on the way over here that I didn't know, or I just didn't remember. So we started the company. I was doing my PhD, as I said, and I was actually in Japan with the professor. Professor Koopman is the K of KCF, and he has these relationships all over the world. We were in Tokyo for a semester teaching a class. I was helping him teach this class. One thing led to the other. We got to know each other really well, decided to start a company. And Amy had been working for Accenture, traveling all around, living in big cities for three or so years.
I had been living the grad school life, but then we hatched this idea to start a company, which is what we did. And to me, it was a pretty straightforward step. We weren't really committed to anything else. And that seemed like for me, I was already living here. I loved it already. And that was a natural step. However, for Amy, it was a little bit different.
Amy Frank (07:36)
I was working in DC at the time and I said to Jeremy, I remember, you know, there those moments in your life where you remember where you were standing, you remember what you were looking at. And I was living in this apartment in DC and I remember getting a call from Jeremy saying, hey, Gary, that's Dr. Kuhnman. Gary thinks we should start a company and we would base it in state college. And I remember saying to him, what will we do when we're 30? First of all, that seemed like super old to me. What would you have to go to fraternity parties? Like, what do people do?
has grown up since state college and I was pretty fired up for a while. Got used to the idea. I think pretty quickly after we moved here, we had a really fun experience in our mid to late 20s before we had kids here. There's just a lot of young professionals that we found and just had a really joyful kind of friends experience here for that time of our life. And then once we had kids, I think that's what really locked us in. You once we saw them, first of all, just being able to spend so much time with them that we didn't have the time spent on.
commuting the time spent on getting to and from errands and things like that. We just could really be with them. And the fact that there was so much for them here, that really locked me in.
Brad Groznik (08:42)
That's a common trope with people here. no, not at all. No, I think it's common because it's just how people kind of rediscover State College. That's where the name of this project came from was, you know, people grow up here and they think of State College as just this one place or they go to college here and they think of it as just this one place. But it just keeps changing at every age and at every life stage. And it's still just like such a wonderful place no matter where you are in that space. And so that's why we encourage people to rediscover State
Amy Frank (08:45)
It could be basic.
Brad Groznik (09:12)
That's kind of where it comes from. Andrea and had the same kind of experience where we came back and I remember- Where were you born? We were in New York City. Okay. And our time in New York City was coming to an end. Our priorities were changing and stuff like this and we wanted to start a business and we came here to kind of catch our breath assuming that we'd have to move to another size city. And I remember we would go grocery shopping and just the people at the Weiss grocery store were just so nice and kind and like-
Amy Frank (09:17)
before.
Brad Groznik (09:38)
We developed a relationship with some of them. We just knew them, they knew us kind of thing, because we were there once a week. And I just remember being like, there's no other place like this. I don't want to leave this. We have to figure out how to make it work here.
Jeremy Frank (09:49)
I think one thing that is relevant is in both those cases, we already had each other. I think, we have a lot of employees. is, it is still a challenge. You know, we have a lot of employees that hit that age where you're 20, 25, 30. That's when I think a lot of people are challenged to decide that this is a great place to live during that stage. But when we already had each other, that made it really easy. I think we just stepped right into it as soon as we were here. I mean, I don't remember that. I just remember that being a really fun and easy transition, but then especially once we had kids, we were married for what? Three years before we had.
our first four years. Then it becomes just a no brainer. You couldn't have gotten this out of here with a shoehorn after that.
Amy Frank (10:25)
When you were just, this just came up when you were talking about the people at the widespread. We, another thing that our family always jokes about is that our lives happen within about six blocks of like of our home. Like everything Jeremy's company is, you know, within a handful of blocks from our, our house, my art studio and market are within a few blocks, our kids' school. And, and we can't walk through the town without it feels like Sesame Street. Like that being like, there's.
so and so from the post office and there's all of the different downtown business owners who are so terrific. That's a really special way to live. To feel that integrated in a community is not something that I take for granted. It's really important for children to grow up in that way, to feel known and seen and like they belong. And that's really possible and frankly kind of easy here. I really treasure that.
Brad Groznik (11:12)
And so how long were you here before the Makery became a thing?
Amy Frank (11:16)
We started the Makery about 15 years ago. So about 10 years prior to that. And prior to that, I was having four kids and the Makery really started out of a Bullsburg little community in town. There was a little boutique there and they had space upstairs and said, hey, a bunch of people asking for sewing lessons for their kids. Would you be interested in doing that? And then we just kind of formed organically from that.
Brad Groznik (11:38)
start out as a nonprofit. think that's always kind of unique about that.
Amy Frank (11:42)
Thank you. It started out as kind of a co-op. was a bunch of different, it happened to be women artists who were interested in offering art instruction in a variety of genres kind of came together. And then when we kind of realized a few years in, we kind of have something here and we had to move to a bigger location. That's when we decided to become a nonprofit.
Brad Groznik (12:00)
Did it
go from Boasburg to kind of where Blue Brick
Amy Frank (12:03)
That was our second location and then and now we're in Frasier Plaza right across the street.
Brad Groznik (12:08)
It's kind of bloomed into this wonderful community. I mean, I know it's through a lot of intention on your part, but can you tell me a little bit about what was it like growing that community? What were the struggles and how did it come about?
Amy Frank (12:20)
friend, name is Stacey Egan. has a fantastic business in Bullsburg, had a boutique in Bullsburg at the time and asked if I would, I was doing arts festivals and doing a lot. I've always been pretty artistic and selling work in her boutique. She said, Hey, people are asking if you could maybe teach their kids to sew, would you be willing to do that? And I said, okay, tried a few and it went really well, right? We like, I filled up a bunch of classes and she asked like a good business person, Hey, can you rent this space for me? And I was like, well, no, I have four kids, but
Hey, I know the AP art teacher at the high school is one of my best friends. And hey, I know a lady who teaches photography lessons around her kitchen table. And I know another lady that's a knitter, but she's like a cool knitter. Like maybe we could, if we all took a night, that's literally how it started, maybe we could make something happen. And sure enough, it came together really fast and became a really neat thing so much so that the community of Bullsburg was kind of frustrated with us because we took up all the parking pretty consistently. And that prompted us to move downtown.
And we've been there for 10 years now. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Groznik (13:19)
And then along those lines, Jeremy, you were building KCF, amazing technology startup since 2001. Can you tell me a little bit about the trajectory of that for the last 20 years you've been running that company?
Jeremy Frank (13:31)
this
is our 25th year of the business now and it's been very different over the years and I mean especially as it relates to being in Happy Valley. At the very beginning it was simply a matter of convenience or necessity. I started the company with two professors and they weren't going to leave Penn State so this was really the only place to be. We ended up doing a lot of work for the government in the first 10 years. It was a good place to be because we were able to team with a lot of the university research that was going on so we naturally kind of grew out of that.
What was really interesting was then about 10 years in, similar around the same time, we really just took off. So we started focusing less on the government and focusing on industrial customers, which in one way is interesting because there's very little industry around here. go five miles out of town and it's farms. And we mainly sell two big, big industrial factories, which are in the Southeast and in Texas and all over the country, but very little here.
So you'd think that that was less convenient and it was, however, when we really started growing, we had a massive need for people. And so the engine of all these students graduating from Penn State, engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, that was incredibly convenient and really fueled our growth as we were just really growing and kind of coming into the company that we are now. And then the last thing I'd say is now we really are as necessitated by COVID, we're a remote work company anyway. And so we have people that can work just like most companies do, and they're spread all over the world. Many are here, but many are spread all over the-
country. We can satisfy the need to be close to where the customers are. However, it's also pretty interesting that even though State College isn't really close to any major industrial space, it's within about a four hour drive from most of it, which is pretty neat. mean, that's true for all you can get drive to Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, everywhere. I mean, not everywhere, but a lot like half of the industrial center of the country is accessible.
Brad Groznik (15:19)
Did you always want to be an entrepreneur? know, when you talk to a lot of PhD candidates in engineering, you know, they're looking to be professors or researchers. Was that a choice that you had to make?
Jeremy Frank (15:29)
It wasn't a choice. was more a bit of an outlier. My one fun fact is I've never had or even applied for a full-time job. So I've never, I never had any interest in getting a full-time job, but I also didn't want to be a professor. So my dad was an entrepreneur. So I grew up around that. That's what felt normal to me. He had his own business. He never scaled it. He was a sole proprietor. What did he do? It's actually related to what we do. He did industrial accident, forensic engineering. So when, when an industrial or a high profile accident of some type would happen.
He was an engineer and a lawyer, so he would investigate that accident and then testify in court as to who was at fault. Yeah, so I actually worked for him when I was growing up. So that's indirectly how it's very related to what we're doing now, but there was an interim period. We didn't actually start the company and do that right out of the get-go. It took us about 10 years, but we found our way into doing something that's very related to what I was exposed to growing up.
Brad Groznik (16:16)
So Amy, you were running MakeGreeve for a handful of years and then you decided to launch this market concept. Can you tell me a little bit Yeah, just last year. It's been a huge value add to downtown. Can you tell me a little bit about how that kind of got started and where that idea came from?
Amy Frank (16:31)
Sure, thanks Brad. That's been a dream of mine for a long time. The Maker is located in a plaza called Frasier Plaza right in our downtown. The studio has been there for about five years, but there was a space next to it, the sister space, that was kind of occupied by another business for a long time, but I kind of have had my eye on it. And this summer, finally, it became available for us. The dream of that space has really been with me since I was a kid. My parents were foster parents, so I grew up in a family of four, but we always had at least like,
two or three other kids in our house that my parents helped take care of before they got adopted or returned to their birth families. so foster care and kids in foster care have always been really close to my heart. I'm also the chair of the board of the youth service bureau, which is a pretty amazing nonprofit here in town that supports kids and families in a lot of different ways. And part of my function with that group, I've volunteered at Stormbreak group home, which is a group home for young women transitioning out of foster care. So young women ages like 12 to 20 or so.
And the Makery Market was something I wanted to start because we, felt we needed a place for local artists to really showcase their talent and be able to sell their work and be supported by our downtown. But I also wanted a place that might be a nurturing and gentle first work environment for those young women who live at Stormbreak who are transitioning out of foster care here in our community. And I'll tell you, it's just really been a beautiful experience. We are all volunteer run. And so the market is staffed by
women that look like me in our community, moms and students and other women who just care about these young women who are transitioning out of foster care. We have about four apprentices now. We call them apprentices that are living at Stormbreak and making the process of transitioning out of foster care. So our hope is to provide work experience and some professional skills, but more importantly, to provide a really nurturing and loving community for them so that when they do transition out of foster care, they're surrounded with
kind of a group of aunts, right, that kind of can help them with all the things that life throws at, you know, an 18 to 20 year old that some of these young women don't have that community and wouldn't have that community without the bakery market. So it's kind of a win for local artists, right? Our local artists get to sell their work. It's a win, I think, for our downtown, you know, adds a really fun, vibrant storefront to, least I think so, to the downtown. But then the most important part to me is that it
provides real work experience and community for young women transitioning out of foster care. I don't think that that dreams that's been my, my dream for several years now. I don't know that that dream would be as plausible somewhere else. So in our downtown, I felt very supported by everyone from the borough council to our mayor, who's our friend Ezra to other local shopkeepers in the town, the downtown improvement district. Like all I had to do is say, Hey, I have this idea.
Brad Groznik (19:00)
So, Wunder.
Amy Frank (19:26)
And I just felt this like flurry of support around me. That's not to mention that over 45 women who are volunteering with us now, to all the artists and makers that with 55 that we feature in the market, I don't know that that would happen everywhere. You know, I feel really lucky about that. It's not, it's an easy place to have a dream and just kind of, everybody's kind of willing to say, Hey, yeah, let's just see what happens.
Brad Groznik (19:49)
Yeah, we often talk about how state college is this sandbox and for the certain person, maybe a little bit ultra-preneurially minded or executors, like people that can get things done like you guys, this is a really amazing place for that because you have that kind of support. Whereas other cities, those things, I don't even know how they happen. They just kind of, sometimes they're just around you and stuff like this, but it doesn't feel like you have as much agency. You know, for new residents or for people here, like what...
advice would you have for cultivating that kind of sense? Or how do know the right person to ask about your ideas and dreams? And how do you start navigating?
Jeremy Frank (20:24)
actually on that previous thread, and this will relate to both. think the idea of having an idea and being entrepreneurially minded and wanting to start something. It's very different here than it was 25 years ago when we started KCF for the better. There are legitimate functions stood up. There was invent Penn State, the Penn State launch box, the center region entrepreneurs network. None of those things existed 25 years ago. And so we were just sort of starting and it's not that it was.
more difficult, but it wasn't, nobody was helping us and nobody was facilitating and reaching out to kind of lift up a new technology startup company. There's absolutely that here now. This event that we were just at on Tuesday is spearheaded out of the Penn State unit of Ben Franklin, which is a statewide technology and business entrepreneurship oriented group. But the group here in state college, mean, Todd Erdley is at that center. He's the person to contact and he's very
active and receptive and Elizabeth Hey at Penn State LaunchBox, there are just, are these go-to people. It's just fertile ground for, for doing that particular type of new idea startup.
Brad Groznik (21:27)
So if you want to do a startup, advice would be to connect with Ben Franklin, Happy Valley LaunchBox, any other things you would add to that.
Amy Frank (21:35)
development center.
Jeremy Frank (21:36)
business
development center. You'd almost have to try to not find resources that would help you start a company. But then on top of that, you've got a huge wealth of talent coming out of the university, just like we did have 25 years ago. That's still there. You've got this support system, but you've also got relatively low rent. You've got relatively low costs for a lot of business operations. You can be right downtown, literally across the street from the university. So interns can work there. They can walk there between classes. And we have done that for a long, long time.
So I really think, again, it'd be hard to have as easy of a startup process as you can have here now. And it really is, it wasn't like that 25 years ago and it's definitely like that now.
Brad Groznik (22:17)
for maybe the makers and artists community.
Amy Frank (22:19)
Yeah, it's a little different take, but what came to me is the community's capacity. So everybody that lives here, most people that live here, really love it. And so on a retail or small business, brick and mortar business perspective, the people that live here really love it. And so it's very easy to get people excited about it. Everybody, I mean, you've I'm sure seen that with Pop-Up Ave. I just am forever surprised and grateful that we say, hey guys, we're going to try this new thing. Anybody want to check it out?
and you have a line out the door the next day. know, people really come together to support new and exciting things happening in the community. So advice to somebody coming in that's interested in doing that would be just talk about your ideas, right? Get embedded and reach out to other people that maybe already own businesses or the organizations that Jeremy mentioned are also fantastic. I think just sharing your idea and finding other like-minded people here that might be interested. I think the reason that folks can and are willing to come out and support
is because our community allows them to have a little more capacity, right? Everybody's not super stressed out about their hour long commute or then getting to the grocery store and back before you have to pick the kids up from soccer. Like it's all pretty easy here, that part. And so I think there's a little more capacity to come down to First Friday or check out Papa Bab or head over to whatever local festival is happening.
Brad Groznik (23:38)
Or volunteer. sounds like you volunteer as part of your career. You know, along those lines in terms of ideas, you touched upon it. It's a different kind of town for if you are single and you are in your late twenties. And that is a group that I do think as a community, we should be supporting and we need to support. You're hiring a lot of young folks like that. What are they asking for? What do they wish State College had? Or what can we do as a community to support that group?
Amy Frank (23:42)
life here. Absolutely.
Jeremy Frank (24:04)
Yeah, I would say that is one thing that's still a work in progress. mean, that's one of the harder problems to solve because you just sort of need a critical mass. You need lots of people who have a similar interest in going out and having a good time, but also doing things that are just community building. But at that age where you're not married and don't have kids, it's a work in progress, but I think there is progress. I so we have people in that age.
range who go out, you know, there's a bowling league and they join in a lot of the local companies are in the bowling league. We have teams, a lot of the tech companies in the local bars have teams in the, and just local businesses in the local softball league. And so people will go out and do those things. The other thing that's, I think has improved for the better is just some of the establishments that you can go out to. There used to be just, and we love them. Well, we still love them. The bars that are just, you know, the cafe and the places like that.
Amy Frank (24:52)
places, you know?
Jeremy Frank (24:53)
that
are just fun and they really thrive with the college crowd. They're there and they're best in class. mean, it's not a bad thing. They're very fun. But when you're 28, that's not where you want to go. But now there are actually a lot of places that are just upscaled a bit. And on top of I'm a beer lover. there are a handful. mean, there's half a dozen just top notch microbreweries that are in Happy Valley now. That wasn't there 15, 20 years ago.
And those are also great places to go and hear live music. think, know, Manny's is a neat place now. It's a genuine music club that seems to really be catching on. hope there's more of that. But I think all those things, it'll take time, but all those things create the infrastructure. And then it's just a matter of enough people realizing that that's where they want to live. And then that creates the ecosystem where you have a nice place to live when you're 25, 30 and haven't settled down yet.
Amy Frank (25:43)
And the arts and community perspective, I Three Dots Downtown is doing a fantastic job, particularly for that population. And then I echo what Jeremy said about just there's a lot of spaces for the 28 year olds, but also the 48 year olds. where you can kind of have your own kind of people in your own space and enjoy watching the college kids, but not partying like the college kids.
Brad Groznik (26:05)
When you think about State College and it's an always an ever-evolving place you mentioned places like Manny's are popping up and stuff like this What are we still missing? What do you what do you guys hope to see in the next five years? You know as the as two visionaries of State College
Amy Frank (26:20)
So the first thing that came to my mind was just more restaurants. And there are a lot of great ones, don't get me wrong. Just more that are willing to have people outside and just new and different restaurant options downtown. I think we have a lot, but I will probably always say that there could always be more.
Jeremy Frank (26:37)
more focused on beer, less focused on restaurants, but also music. You know, I play music. I think Manny's is actually a really an excellent category that's kind of underserved. One of my favorite places to travel is New Orleans just because the music scene there on Frenchman Street is just the best. The reason it's the best is because they cultivate a destination that's entirely oriented around music and there's a certain style to it. And I can't think of any good reason why we don't have that here. And I think that's kind of that Manny's is kind of a points in that direction and it's already starting to happen. I think more of it will be that much better.
Amy Frank (27:06)
One other thing I would add as a tangent, we have four kids and they're all teenagers and slightly older than teenagers. And this is something the make-race is going to be thinking about in the next year. Places for teens, so kids that are not in college yet, to be downtown. I think that's a thing that a lot of the parent crew in our community are looking toward, safe places for teens to be that are not college spaces. think anybody out there that's thinking about starting a business, I think that's a really great.
market to look at because I think that's something our downtown could develop further.
Brad Groznik (27:38)
I totally agree. Yeah, we mentioned like the late 20 somethings or the young 30 somethings, but like the teens also, which I'm excited about the new skate park that we're building. I'm thinking that's a step in the right direction.
Jeremy Frank (27:50)
One other one that's in that category, it's just taking progress. And I'm waiting for these trails to open, but there's a trail building process that's well underway, kind of friends of Rothrock. The new trail up from Musser Gap is nearly finished and the trails at Harvest Fields are just closer to town and accessible. Because frankly, I mean, the mountain biking and the trail running around here is best in class, but it's also pretty challenging. What's developing are some things that I think...
For beginners, some of that is taking shape. And think that'll probably be a whole nother thing that'll open up those experiences to a wider range of people.
Brad Groznik (28:23)
What are your kids into? Are they sports or are they into mountain biking or is it all the above? Arts? Everything?
Amy Frank (28:28)
one
artist, one like pretty hardcore artist. She's in Barcelona studying art history right now. We have one rugby playing pre-med kind of kid, one weightlifting, mountain biking, kind of like Jeremy Jr. and one runner, one super track cross-country runner kid.
Jeremy Frank (28:46)
But something that I share, if we want to go for a hike or a hiking trip, backpacking trip, everybody's into that. So they all grew up going to hike in all the local trails and places like Whipple Dam, like I mentioned.
Brad Groznik (28:58)
My daughter is six. We've taken her to the trails. We've done Shingletown and Mussorgap. But I think this is the summer where we go overnight camping. We've done camping the yard kind of thing like this. But I'm excited. I think she's old enough now that we can start doing that stuff. I'm really hoping to install that. I'm excited for you. awesome.
Amy Frank (29:15)
It's also what they so we just asked our kids this recently like a dinner. What are your memory? Like what? What's your go-to memory? I forget how it was phrased but almost all four of them said some version of a terrible outdoor trip But it was like a good memory, know, something terrible happened and everybody was miserable But actually, you know 10 15 years later, it's like the funniest best memory ever. So
Brad Groznik (29:37)
That's good to remember that. Because you hope for the best with camping, but it doesn't always turn out great.
Amy Frank (29:44)
When you were talking about the new trails, the interesting thing about the newer, more developed things around Rothrock is that there's this whole landscape of restaurants and places to go after you are biking or running on the show. I'm thinking about Bull City is like one of our favorite places, J &L Cidery, and all those establishments are kind of popping up in and around. So there's this really neat ecosystem of like, you can go and be in outdoors and then you can come on down the mountain and there are all these wonderful places to eat.
drink and meet up with friends that are easy and accessible. And think that's really special. It's a newer development in town and I just really
Brad Groznik (30:19)
Yeah, that's how we entice our daughter to go hiking. We'll get ice cream at Walsum Farm after we're at a Harner Farm. like, we'll go there. You you like that ice cream or Don's Bones out and off I Whipple, you know? That's So all those kinds of things.
Jeremy Frank (30:32)
And then you get to a certain age and then you're stopping for a beer at Bull City.
Brad Groznik (30:36)
Exactly.
It's great. You know, along those lines, what are your favorite state college spots? Maybe any that are less known.
Jeremy Frank (30:43)
Mine are easy. Yeah, go for it. I don't want to put them in priority order because I love them all, but it's the microbreweries. It's Bull City Brewing, who's also a really good friend of ours. Happy Valley Brewing is also a friend of ours and El Cree out in Millahime. Those are my favorite places to go because they also cater to that crowd, know, the mountain biking music crowd. And then they have this just absolute top notch beer. just those are my favorites.
Brad Groznik (31:06)
I don't want to put you on the spot, guess I'm going to. Anyone that brings up microbreweries, always ask, like, what's your go-to or what's your favorite, favorite pour?
Jeremy Frank (31:14)
Well, that's an easy one for me. Okay. Because, and nothing against the others, but I actually worked out a deal with Greg Summers at Happy Valley a couple of years ago. And he brewed a batch of beer to my specific request. And the reason for it was my family had a, had a brewery in Ohio, actually it was, it was out in Mansfield, Ohio for almost a hundred years back in the 1800s. And the beer was Frank's old fashioned. And so they, brewed a beer at Happy Valley and it's still on tap. They college lager is, the actual name on the tap.
but it was popular enough that they brewed this first batch and then they made it a standard thing. It's a German dunkel, but it's not really dark. It's more like an amber lager. It's like a, just a really drinkable. It's not that strong alcohol wise, but it's very tasty and it doesn't have tons of hops. It's just a beer that you could just enjoy. I'm glad you asked cause that's.
Brad Groznik (32:00)
That's a great story.
Amy Frank (32:01)
Isn't
that cool? And I love our downtown. That's my kind of stomping ground. we do have a crew that meets every Sunday at Bull City. That's definitely one of our favorite places, but I love the lobby bar. I love all of the corner room, Ellen Street Girl, Pickles, that whole scene. I love the upstairs of the Tavern. I love Central Reservation and local whiskey. So those are some standards I know, but those are just my favorites. And the fact that we can pop in there as older community members or not college students and always see people we know and always have just a...
a really fantastic time.
Brad Groznik (32:34)
What would you like State College to look like in 20 years? You guys are both so intentional with how you grow your business and how you're raising your family. Taking that focus toward our town is also really important. And so what should we grow towards in the next 20 years?
Amy Frank (32:47)
the word that comes up for me is open and inclusive. So I think part of the reason that I've been able to create the stuff that we've made happen in the downtown is because people were just really open to, that sounds like a pretty good idea. How can we help? How can we make it happen? How can we support? And I think the more that we all kind of have that intentionality, right, like more is more. So more fresh ideas and more just openness to changing things. I think for a while here, things were going well and it was like, well, why fix what?
what isn't broken, you know, and I think there's a lot more openness and engagement and willingness to try new things. So I hope it just continues to evolve and grow because I want our kids to come back here eventually and raise their families. So we kind of have a vested interest in that.
Jeremy Frank (33:30)
slightly different take on that, but very similar. You we use the word grow a couple of times and we talk about, I'm in the entrepreneurship community and we talk a lot about growing and having a business community that sort of balances out the size and power of Penn State. But I also think that growth is not, there's some negative things that come along with growth. I spend time in Austin, Texas recently, and people often talk about Austin or Boulder, Colorado as a place where state college could become. I think I would move away if it was like Austin because it's too big, it's too crowded and it's
It's not a place that I would want to live. so I think thriving and balanced are the things that I would really aspire to. And we're not really there right now, you know, just even still we're, close enough to COVID that there's still a lot of businesses that went out of business or that there's, you know, the empty spaces. so having the places that are there really be full and thriving, and especially having people come to them and participate and truly be thriving. I think there should be an intentional guideline that the right amount is.
is right. Growth is actually not necessarily the goal. It's balanced and thriving, in my opinion.
Brad Groznik (34:34)
Great.
Amy Frank (34:35)
This is so fun. Great. Thank you so much.
Jeremy Frank (34:37)
Thanks for what you're doing. mean, you really had a positive impact on all the things that we're talking about. I mean, just really calling attention to what a nice place this is, but also setting the aspiration of what we want it to be. That's just been really a positive impact. So thank you for that.
Brad Groznik (34:51)
trying to spread the word. think it's an amazing place. feels like a hidden gem. I agree that we don't want it to be too well known, but I do think there's room to accept a lot more ideas, lot more people and continue to kind of grow. Thank you.
Amy Frank (35:06)
I
Brad Groznik (35:12)
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Rediscover State College podcast. Be sure to follow the Rediscover State College podcast wherever you listen to podcasts to hear more incredible local stories. We'd also love to hear about your state college experience. What aspect of the area or person in town has really made a difference in your Happy Valley experience? Share your thoughts by sending us an email at hello at rediscoverstatecollege.com.