Students know The Phyrst, 111 E. Beaver Ave., as home of pewter mugs lining the ceiling around the bar, Saturday night sing-a-longs and live music pumping off of cavern-like walls.

With new management taking over the popular bar, the clientele may wonder if the bar will retain the same ambience and flavor it had before.

"We saw buying the bar as keeping with Penn State tradition. We love entertainment and music and we want to keep it running as is," Tom Wareham, co-owner said.

Along with Ivan Segal and Scott Lucchesi, Wareham said the three new owners plan to continue the customs.

Segal saw opportunity open when purchasing the area bar.

"We basically want to make it better if we can," Segal said. "We want to see what's going on in business but I doubt there will be any dramatic changes at this time."

The same band lineup and the popular sing-a-long on Saturday night will be kept as usual.

Changes being discussed by the new owners are slight and will not take away from the nostalgic atmosphere The Phyrst provides to students, alumni and other customers of the bar. Food may become available in the bottle shop and installing air conditioning that will make the bar more comfortable will become added amenities.

"We're just making more mechanical changes to make it a nicer environment," Wareham said. "It's popular now, we just want to add."

A wider variety of beer and other drinks may also be offered eventually.

To keep visitors of The Phyrst informed, a mailing list may be drawn up to describe drink specials and band lineups.

"A lot of people who graduated love to come back to The Phyrst," Wareham said. "It would be great to keep them informed of bands and other entertainment."