What were you doing when you were thirteen?
By age thirteen, Andy was working on his dream.

Andy Zangrilli

Andy began his restaurant career at the young age of 13 at a pizza shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He knew he caught the “bug” of the restaurant industry when at 19 he became a manager. At 22, he was ready to strike out on his own when he persuaded his employer to form a partnership, opening Hi-Way Pizza in State College on Heister Street in 1963.  Just a year later in 1964 at the age of 23, Andy bought out his partner and became sole proprietor and the rest, as they say, is history. Andy’s talent, vision and charisma would help pave the way over several decades to form Dante’s Restaurants, one of the most unique multi-concept restaurant and nightlife companies in Pennsylvania. Now, six decades later, Andy is still going strong and is a part of our every day operations. He continues to be a motivated visionary, just the same as that 13 year old kid in the Altoona pizza shop.

A State College Tradition Since 1963

The early success of HiWay Pizza “cut pie” had people waiting in long lines, leading out the door and down Heister Street waiting for a piece of Andy’s unique square-cut Sicilian style pizza. By the early 1970s, Andy’s success helped him open two more HiWay Pizza locations, HiWay “round pie” located around the corner on Garner Street and our first full-service location HiWay “westerly” located on Westerly Parkway.

With Andy’s purchase of his Heister Street next door neighbor, The Nittany Lodge, Andy combined the two locations and re-opened as The Deli Restaurant in 1973. The original HiWay “cut pie” shop would move up to the corner of Heister Street and College Avenue, the same location in which we operate our HiWay Pizza Pub “Downtown” still to this day…

State College’s appetite for HiWay Pizza continued to grow and the 1980s would bring another location to the north end of town. HiWay “North” opened along North Atherton Street in the Village Square Mall in 1980, and we’re still there today.

The 1990s and 2000s came and went operating out of the same locations, perfecting our craft and continuing our concept. A proud year 2013 turned out to be, celebrating 50 years of making pizza in State College, PA. While humbled and reflecting on just how far he had come over the years, Andy and his team began to reimagine what the HiWay brand is to be for the next 50 years…..

2016 turned out to be a busy year. We began to work hard on rebranding and reimagining our beloved pizza concept. HiWay’s history is rooted in decades of being a community gathering place for family and friends. We wanted to make sure we continued to serve that mantra and remain relevant today continuing on our path to the next 50 years.

Today’s customer has more choices than ever and our industry, and society in general, is living through rapid changes. The culture of how and why people go out to eat and drink, in many ways, is far cry than it was when we started out in 1963. What will continue to remain true and relevant is good times and good pizza!

Enhancing the atmosphere and guest experience as well as expanding our food and drink menu became our focus.  Building a new location from scratch would give us the clean canvas needed to present a new look for our HiWay Pub brand for years to come.

Opening HiWay Pizza Pub “West” in November of 2017 offers a peek into what the future of HiWay is to be. Fun modern branding along with a contemporary-casual atmosphere boasting state of the art sound and video, and of course free wifi. “Every Game . Every Day” became a new theme with wall to wall 4K high definition video monitors boasting daily and nightly sports action. A spacious, centralized bar offering a large draft beer list, hand-crafted cocktails and blended frozen drinks serves the happy hour and late-night crowd. Separate seating sections for family and kids supports our long-time commitment to family time together around the dinner table. An expansive carry-out and delivery counter supports today’s trends of internet ordering, eating on the go, and third-party delivery services.

Wait a minute here, we think we just might be onto something…

Following an enthusiastic community response to the opening of our “West” location, we worked quickly in the summer of 2019 to renovate and reopen the “Downtown” HiWay Pizza Pub location in the same spot we’ve operated in since the 1970s on the corner of Heister Street and College Avenue. Even as of this writing, we are still working on updating the atmosphere, equipment and staff training to match our new modernized HiWay Pizza Pub concept.

HiWay Pizza Pub currently operates 3 locations in State College, PA, “Downtown,” “West,” and “North,” and we are very, very excited for the future. In so many ways we feel like we are just getting started, even after all these years.

With no time for complacency, Andy Zangrilli continues to work hard and dream big for the next 50 years of HiWay Pizza.