With his tattered Penn State baseball cap and scruffy facial hair, he looks like another undergraduate.

But Mike Kondash, owner of the month-old Campus Carnival and Wings, isn't a student, at least in the traditional sense.

Mike learned the restaurant business as a kid, cutting his teeth with his family's food stand at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (Arts Fest) and his father's restaurant.

Now he's the owner of Campus Carnival, 433 E. Beaver Ave., which serves usual late-night college fare -- like wings, burgers, hot dogs and chicken sandwiches -- as well as several foods usually associated with hastily assembled Ferris wheels. Foods like funnel cakes, corn dogs, deep-fried Oreos and candy bars, chocolate-dipped bananas, marshmallows, strawberries and cheesecake are all offered.

The menu is Mike's brainchild, and menu-creator is just one of many roles he's had to play. Being the owner of the new restaurant, by extension, makes him the manager, chef's helper, part-time deliveryman, Mandarin Chinese translator, T-shirt designer and a resident handyman.

But more than that, he's a father.

Last Friday night, Mike was manning the register at his restaurant, standing under a blue and yellow awning made out of canvas and supported by PVC pipe. Like most of the restaurant's decorations, this one was homemade, the awning courtesy of a friend of Suzie Kondash's. (Mike and Suzie are no longer married, but are "best friends," said Suzie.) It's also emblematic of another aspect of his restaurant; right now, all of the employees are friends or family. There are only six employees, including the Kondashs' 7-year-old daughter, Kasady.

"She's in the department of princess and funny faces," Mike said.

Behind him in the kitchen, his uncle Drew Kondash and employee Wung Huai Xue (better known in the restaurant as "The General") were preparing wings and chicken sandwiches -- no funnel cakes or deep-fried, double-stuffed Oreos yet.

"To be able to leave the bar at 2 in the morning and come get funnel cake is the basis of the idea for the restaurant," Mike said.

Just a few hours after opening, it was too early for intoxicated patrons, and Campus Carnival was not busy. During the stretches between customers, Mike walked around, explaining the origins of the restaurant.

Campus Carnival is located on the corner where Wing Zone used to be. When Wing Zone closed, the space became available.

"Once I found out how inexpensively I could start up, and when I found Wing Zone was gone and this was available already pretty much built, I thought no way an opportunity like this location will ever come around again," he said.

After moving in, Mike set to work. The first order of business: moving the counter back to create more room for patrons. More changes followed -- like the toss-a-quarter carnival game in the back corner and an in-progress mural Mike and Suzie are collaborating on.

When it came time to find cooks, Mike didn't have to look far.

"When he told me this idea, I was like great. You have to have something that's different," said Drew, who owned a restaurant with Mike's dad before he passed away. "Being a chef, I love to play," he said.

With new sauces each week and a restaurant theme that encourages culinary oddities, he gets to do that.

Working next to Drew is "The General," a cook Mike met when he was working at Uncle Chen's Chinese Restaurant, 430 E. Calder Way. Because "The General" doesn't speak English, a chart hangs above the stainless steel table, giving translations for different foods Campus Carnival uses -- except funnel cake.

"There is no Chinese word for funnel cake," Drew said.

With a theme that's usually seasonal, the question is inevitable: Why carnivals?

Mike said he likes the idea of having food that's supposed to be an annual event, anytime. He also reminisced about time spent in the food booth at Arts Fest and at his father's restaurant.

"Mostly it's because I need to do something for my daughter. I've got a savings account for her. It's nothing to write home about. I don't own my house. I'm still paying on two cars. As of last year, the only thing I had was a broken-down Explorer and various stereo equipment, so I've been scrambling to find something that'll be around for her when I'm gone," he said. "I know when my Dad died, there really wasn't much. I just didn't want that to happen. It seems like I tried everything first and ended up back at opening a restaurant."

"But this idea, it's been fun. The hours for me are perfect. I can pick up my daughter from school every day. I can spend time with her. When my Dad owned a restaurant, we would work 90-hour weeks. The only way to see him was to be at the restaurant, and even then, he didn't really have time."

"I always worked every holiday. Now, I don't have to."

Now he can work for his daughter and spend time with her, too.

"I think my daughter's having a lot of fun being here and I know how much fun it was to run around my Dad's shop when I was her age," he said.

And what if Kasady wasn't around? Would he still have a restaurant?

"If Kasady wasn't around," he said, "there are a lot of things I wouldn't be doing. I don't think I'd be around. She's my guardian angel. I definitely wouldn't be doing this."

"What would I be doing?" he said. "I'd be a delivery driver."

Now, Mike has plans to refurbish the sparse interior, with fake grass, picnic tables, a cotton candy machine and a spin-wheel game.

"I just bought the thing to make it spin and wood to make it out of," he said.

Asked if he's nervous or worried, Mike is honest.

"It's a little more stress than I'm used to," he said. "I've never been the head boss of anything before."

But he's ambitious and committed. After all, it's the family business.