For those of you THONing your hearts out this weekend, you may have noticed that you no longer have to rely on just hotdogs and Subway to settle that ravenous dancer appetite. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit has opened a stand outside Portal 30 in the Bryce Jordan Center.

“We set up a restaurant that opened on the Benner Pike, and one day some of the BJC staff came in to eat. A few days later we got a call from them asking if we were interested in opening a stand,” said Paula Rhodes, owner of the Benner Pike establishment.

She said that this is a permanent adjustment to the Bryce Jordan Center’s food selection; the stand will remain open during other events held there after THON, though some percentage of the profits made this weekend will be donated to THON.

The restaurant offers a wide variety of saucy selections. These include solo sandwiches, “meat plates” or meals, slow-smoked meats either whole or trimmed/sliced, and family packs. They also offer home-style sides such as creamy coleslaw, mac & cheese, and barbecue beans just to name a few.

The owners of the newly established restaurant , Paula and Jay Rhodes, are also part of the Penn State family and share four Penn State degrees between them.

“My husband and I met here at Penn State. We both graduated in 1996, got married, and moved out to the Midwest. We spent 15 years out there, visiting State College whenever we could. But this is home. Penn State is our home and Dickey’s was our favorite place to eat in Dallas, so it all just fell together,” said Paula.