Ringside Report Reviews Faccia Lunna Restaurant

By Ron Signore

I recently have traveled up to State College, PA for business. Although my best friend went to Penn State University, I never got to come up here and see him while he was here. He spoke fondly of his memories here, that is, those he could remember, and the best memories he couldn’t during his college years.

Upon my arrival, I shot a text to him and asked what the best places to try food wise would be here. He gave me a couple, but the first was a restaurant called Faccia Lunna.

Faccia Lunna was also highlighted by Dave Portnoy on his “One Bite” pizza app, so I was twice intrigued. Upon my arrival, I checked into the hotel, and drove right to Faccia Lunna on a Sunday night. Those who have memories of living in a college town during college or not, know that these towns on Sunday night are pretty empty. It is almost like sleep time from the previous three days of partying starting with “Thirsty Thursday.”

Faccia Lunna had a very vintage local mom and pop Italian restaurant feel as soon as you walk through the door. To the left is a huge relatively open wood fire over beyond the seating in the dining room. To the right, more seating and a bar, which wasn’t open for seating due to COVID protocols.

I was very quickly seated and immediately looked up Portnoy’s pizza review of the joint. Based on that, I ordered the wood fired margarita. It had been a long day of driving, so I made sure I had something pre-pie. I ordered the bruschetta with fresh mozzarella. The fresh mozz was an upcharge, and without comparison to the “normal” mozz, it was well worth it. Fresh mozzarella with the diced tomatoes covered in oil and vinegar, seasoning, salt and pepper were piled on some of the best Italian bread I have had outside of Chicago or New York. Extremely fresh, the very lightly toasted bread was like eating something made in my own home kitchen. The portion was huge as well. I was only able to get through two of the five bruschetta’s before I started to feel a little full. I gained some will power knowing the pie was coming.

Within seconds of that decision, the 14-inch wood fired margarita pizza arrived on my table. It looked very New York-ish being thin and New Haven-ish with the crispiness of the darker wood burned crust.

I grabbed that first slice and folded it New York style to take a bite. The crust was cooked so perfectly that there was zero flop, which is also a result of minimal grease. The cheese has a very distinct flavor. It is a very unique blend of Italian cheeses. I could taste the romano and parmesan in the blend over arched by the mozzarella. That blend combined with the fresh basil gave the pizza a very distinct smell as well, not bad, but it clearly masked the tomato sauce structure. The first bite was highly anticipated and was worth the trip to the destination. It was the subsequent bites that made this pizza for me. The crust was so crispy on the outside and that same amazing fresh doughy texture of the Italian bread on the inside. The perfect combination of wood fire fresh taste with delicious bread to boot. The third bite grabbed the fresh tomato chunks that were clearly part of the sauce, not to be mistaken with the tomatoes found on the bruschetta. The sauce was a sweet tomato base, but not so sweet that one would have to worry how much sugar was added, keeping Aurelio’s in mind for a sweet sauce.

This restaurant must go if you are in State College, PA. The key to good Italian food is the freshness of the ingredients, and the hype on the rest of the menu is high. From a pizza perspective, I give it a 7.2 on the Portnoy spectrum (totally made-up scale, but basically worth going, very good pizza, but not the best out there).

A few days later, upon another recommendation for wings, I tried a place called Champs. It is not the Champs that is a chain that most people may know, this is strictly a local joint. I ate my wings, which were strictly ok. Just before paying my tab, I decided to boldly ask for a cheese pizza to go and keep in the hotel room for later.

I threw the box down on the kitchen counter in the hotel room and lost all will power. No shame. I opened the box and had to try a piece. I was glad I did. This was nothing like Faccia Lunna. This was more typical of a double dough type pie. A little thicker and doughier. This too had a distinct smell to the cheese, but the blend upon taste was significantly lighter on the palate than Faccia’s. The sauce was still very dominant on tomato being the base but was a little sweeter and again a little more palatable than Faccia. The crust was clearly baked in gas-based pizza oven, noted by the golden-brown color and uneven breaking of the crust structure around the pie. With that in mind, the taste profile was similar to the crust of the Faccia Lunna pizza. The inside of the crust was soft and perfect texture with a great flavor, while the outside provided a crunchiness that had a tint of oil or butter in the crust flavor.

For bar/pub pizza, this was very good. For my flavor profile, even better. While I could see Portnoy scoring this in the mid 6’s because of it not being really anything special, but rather more common, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I hit it at a 7.6.

After leaving the office late on Wednesday, I saw a local pizza place on my way back to the hotel called Hi-way Pizza. This was Sicilian style pizza, which is much thicker around the perimeter and a thicker double dough like base throughout the rest of the pizza. Cut into squares, this should never be confused with Detroit style pizza like Jets or Little Caesar’s. Cheese was cooked well, identified by the brown spots on the surface, covering a very light, yet liberally spread sauce that was more tart than sweet, but more familiar to pizza from back home in Chicago. The crust was so similar taste wise to thicker pizza from Chicago, not deep dish. The presence of grease in the crust was just enough to provide comfort in biting into thicker crust. The combination bite was as anticipated. It tasted very “normal” Chicago style-like. The extremely filling pizza was my favorite of the week. This was a 7.7 in my book. Worth traveling to if in the area, and very palatable with the cheese blend combined with the sauce and delicious crust.

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