After five years of serving the Drexel community, Mikey’s American Grill and Sports Bar is now officially closed for business. According to Philly.com, the owners decided to close their doors after continued conflict with their landlord, Dranoff Properties. Mikey’s Bar didn’t look like much from the outside – just another college bar with tacky sports-themed decor – but to me and the other regular customers, it was much more than that. Mikey’s was the go-to spot for happy hour after class and the best place to watch a Phillies game or celebrate a job offer. During summer term, the patio was filled with co-op students spending their paychecks on Jager bombs and Fireball shots. For this year’s senior class, the five years that Mikey’s was in business was a big part of their Drexel experience, so here is my list of the reasons why Drexel will just not be the same without Mikey’s.
- Mikey’s gave us a good excuse to go out during the week, because who wants to wait until Friday anyway? Whether it was Tower Tuesday, Pint Wednesday or Quizzo Thursday, we no longer needed a special occasion to drink during the week.
- You could not beat the location! We’ve all had nights when we would just rather stay close to home. Whether it was cold outside or you just didn’t want to pay cab fare, Mikey’s was the perfect spot for lazy nights.
- The price was just right for poor college students: incredibly cheap. On Wednesdays, you could get a draft beer for $2 if you brought your Mikey’s glass with you. On Thursdays, you could get a beer tower AND a pizza for 12 bucks! Honestly, what more could a college student ask for?
- We all know there is some pressure to look cute when you go out. You never want to be the one wearing jeans when the rest of your friends are wearing their best heels! Mikey’s was a casual, no judgment environment, so you never had to worry about dressing up. If you were at the library all day and you’re wearing sweatpants, don’t worry! No one at Mikey’s was going to judge you.
- Quizzo Thursdays were the perfect chance to prove who was the smartest in your group of friends. Sure, your friends may get good grades in their engineering classes, but do they know how many Cheerios are in a box? How about the technical term for the little dot on the top of an ‘i’? These questions require real intelligence.
- You could have a drink in basically any container you wanted. Who wants to drink their Malibu BayBreeze out of a glass when you can have it a fishbowl? And why stop at a fishbowl when you could have a pitcher or a tower? The opportunities here were endless.
- They had a tater tot menu. Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like: an entire menu of different varieties of tater tots. To give you an idea of the awesome options here, you could get the Brunch Tater Tots which were topped with a fried egg, bacon and melted cheese.
Now that Mikey’s is gone, Drexel students are left with many unanswered questions: What will the last stop on my Erin Express bar crawl be this year? What should I do with myself on Tuesday nights? In a few years, Mikey’s will be join the ranks of the Drexel Shaft, Matheson Hall and Kelly Deli as forgotten pieces of Drexel’s history. Mikey’s, you will be missed!