WC Clarke's The Cheese Shoppe

WC Clarke's pairs a cheese counter and a coffee roastery under one roof in State College, and the smell of roasting coffee dominates the small old-world shop in a way that probably violates some merchandising principle and that nobody who walks in seems to mind. Proprietor Ray (and Mr. Clark) personally helps customers pick beans, which is the kind of service that disappeared from most coffee shops thirty years ago and that turns out to be the whole selling point when you find it again. The roasting happens in view of the room; customers watch it as they wait for their cortado.

The cortado and the cappuccino are the bar orders for anyone who wants the espresso pulled cleanly. The Sumatran dark roast is the bag to take home if you don't know where to start and want a roaster recommendation rather than a guess. The cheese counter runs an expansive selection and gives the shop its second identity; you can pick up a wedge for the weekend alongside the beans without making two stops. Loose leaf teas fill in the non-coffee side. Recommendations come from the owner, not from a chalkboard, which is the operational difference that keeps regulars coming in to ask rather than ordering from a printed menu.

Seating is limited, with a few tables out front with fresh flowers in season. This isn't a laptop-work cafe and not a place to settle in for an hour, and the layout actively pushes you to take your coffee and your cheese and head out. It's a stop for bean buyers who want a personal recommendation, a wedge of cheese for the weekend cheese board, and a cortado at the counter while the next batch of beans rotates in the roaster ten feet away. The combination of cheese counter and coffee roaster under one small old-world roof is rare enough to justify the trip on its own, and the personal-recommendation model makes it more than a novelty shop. Shipping is national for anyone who fell for the Sumatran on a State College visit and ran out of the bag by the time they got home.