Business at Herwig's Bistro -- one of College Avenue's newest restaurants -- has been booming, its manager said.

Herwig's, 132 W. College Ave., opened on Sept. 12 in the space formally occupied by Mio Zio. The restaurant offers Austrian cuisine and has been doing well at its new location, manager Bernd Brandstatter said.

The location has had a major impact on business, at least tripling profits in comparison to the former Fraser Street address, he added.

As State College's only Austrian restaurant, Herwig's Bistro brings a more flavorful and ethnic cuisine to the area, he said.

"We make everything fresh in-house each day; nothing comes in preprocessed," Brandstatter said.

Herwig's signature Austrian dish and biggest seller, wienerschnitzel, is ordered about 60 times per day, he said.

Other Herwig's delectables are homemade sausages, real sauerkraut and rosemary roast pork, he added.

Austrian food uses spices like garlic and Hungarian paprika, he said, and the restaurant uses a lot of local ingredients, like butchered meat, when they are available.

"[The food is] Germanic in origin, but don't call us German," he said.

The Fraser Street branch always smelled enticing walking by, Caitlin Wockenfuss, a faculty member in the School of Theatre, said.

The food sounds interesting and it's a great addition to the area, Wockenfuss added.

"Whenever I walked by [the Fraser Street location] I wanted to try it. I've never had Austrian before," she said.

Herwig's Bistro will expand to a second location in Lewisburg, which is scheduled to open Wednesday, Brandstatter said.

The cuisine is a family tradition, he added, that goes back to his father, who owned an Austrian restaurant near Tussey Mountain called Herwig's Edelweiss from 1982 to 1986, before the family got their green cards.

Jonas Schoeler (senior-biotechnology) has tasted many different dishes at Herwig's, where he goes because of its authentic food.

"I'm Germanic, so it's really close to my culture," he said.