by Cynthia Hill

One of the most familiar dining spots in State College is about to emerge from a dramatic total makeover — everything is changing — even the name. And you likely won’t recognize the place.

We’re talking about Home Delivery Pizza Pub — a fixture in these parts for nearly six decades. You’ve probably seen construction crews working on the building for the past six months. What you haven’t seen is what’s going on inside. The restaurant is adding some eye-popping upgrades, including an outdoor dining area, outdoor fireplace, 12 new big screen TVs, and more beers on tap than you can count.

That’s not all. They’re also adding a 700-bottle wine cabinet, a gelato machine, and a second bar as part of a new expanded dining room. There’s a new wood-fired pizza oven. A total of 120 additional seats will be available, some inside and some on the new outside deck. On top of that comes a whole new dining experience.

“Once we are finished I would say we are probably going to have one of the largest menus in the area,” says Kelly Swisher, sales and marketing director since September 2012.

Workers are installing new bathrooms and expanding the kitchen, which will be almost three times bigger than the old one.

For Lecta Snook from Burnham, Pa., it’s the food that’s kept her coming back for 30 years, but even she admits the place needed a face lift.

“I think it was time, because it had an older inside and outside,” she says.

Swisher is proud that the restaurant boasts fresh ingredients in its food, and she says that tradition is one thing that won’t be changing.

“What people don’t know is that we hand bread everything ourselves,” says Swisher. “We make all our own dough. We make all our own sauces. We use all local ingredients in our products.”

Home Delivery has hired a brewer to make beer at its Bellefonte location, and the beer will be sold in State College under the Robin Hood Brewing Company brand.

Home Delivery is also changing its name to HomeDPizzeria. The new addition and the new name will be unveiled in a few more weeks. And loyal customers can’t wait.

Zeke Zembower from Boalsburg has been eating there for 35 years. He says Home Delivery Pizza Pub is a hot spot for the community and that the upgrades are only going to make it better.

“This is a place where on the weekends you’re going to wait for a seat, and that’s always a good sign,” he says. “It’s a great nineteenth hole.”