The college bar can be a strange notion. How much can you expect students to pay for their PBR? Their fries? Are any of them interested in what region the featured Cabernet Sauvignon is from; do they even know how to read a wine list?  Are snack and drink specials what will bring in the young learners?

How about when the ‘rents come to visit? Maybe you have just over an hour together before they must head home to watch Law & Order and feed the dog, but you really, really want a steak? There should be a spot close by where you can milk them for all they’re worth. Hell, why not a spot on campus?

After years and years, Drexel finally has a restaurant on campus (not affiliated with Sodexo!) where you can consume nutrients, or just consume booze, in style.

It’s quite ironic that this swanky restaurant and watering hole is located directly under our gym. If you pause and look up towards the sky before walking through Landmark’s heavy doors, you can see classmates jogging or working their arms on the assisted pull-up machines. If anyone who works at the Daskalakis Athletic Center (the DAC, to us Drexelites) is reading this and has noticed a decrease, or maybe an increase (my crab cake sandwich won’t work itself off) in the number of daily exercisers since Landmark has opened, I’d love to hear about it.

In any event, Landmark surprised me, for I was expecting another Mikey’s, or perhaps a less authentic New Deck. I had been to the Landmark in West Chester (there’s also one in Glassboro, NJ) but it was at 1 AM and after many, many beers. I remember walking in to find that my friends had just polished off three beer towers, and thus had an image in my head of what our very own Landmark might be like. So, since my first visit was on St. Paddy’s day, I was ready to booze.

The first things I noticed were the decorative woodwork and the intricate floor. The hostess was dressed as though she herself was having a fine dining experience. I was anticipating sitting at a high-top with our own beer tower, pounding shots and maybe munching on fries. I followed close behind her, down the length of the Market Street-facing eatery. I love touching things, so I ran my fingers over each raised booth’s Lucite-like table as we passed. I touched a fancy upholstered bench as I passed the bathroom, and cozied up with some amigos in an oddly shaped booth with chairs. Silverware, heavy and sleek, was laid out in front of us. The menus were serious. Metal covers. A modern font. Paper inserts covered with cutout laminate. The wait staff paid attention to us, and not just our own server. If we have empty waters or finished dishes on our table, a place scores major bonus points if someone notices and fills and clears as needed. It seems like a no-brainer, but students don’t always get the best of service.

Then again, this wasn’t just a college bar: men in suits sat eating steak topped with crabmeat, sipping $9 red wine; a couple shared lobster ravioli on what seemed like a date. A few booths down my peers were doing Irish Car-Bombs. And after our table polished off an “Adult” grilled cheese with a cup of cream of tomato soup (order it – just order it), a P.R. (Prime rib) Cheese steak (not a Pat’s or Geno’s, and in a good way), Thai chicken salad and fries — we joined them.

During Happy Hour and their Late Night Happy Hour, (it gets crowded, fyi) snack-y type foods are up to half off, and a daily-rotating beer and cocktail are discounted. Five-dollar Long Islands on Friday nights? I’m curious to see if this will become the ultimate “let’s not travel far but get extremely f*ed up for pretty cheap” spot. Good news for some and bad news for others — they card. And scan.

So, you can go and spend $5 or $50, and you won’t feel pushed to adhere to either path. Come in your sweatpants; come in your tux. Come alone and sit at the bar or come with 50 people and rent out a room. There’s something for everyone, and unless you see familiar faces, you won’t even know you’re on campus, unless, of course, you notice that some of their backlit wall panels are abstract shots of Drexel athletes. And try not to think about the fact that they’re upstairs working out.

Emily Callaghan is managing editor of Table Matters and a graduate of Drexel University. Her work has appeared in Philadelpia Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer and TheSmartSet.com.

Article photograph from restaurant website, Eat Drink Philly" photograph from suvodeb, via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Philly" photograph from camardella, via Flickr (Creative Commons).