Can Ledo Restaurant be a bridge between students and everybody else?

Ledo Restaurant is a classy place!  I'm pleasantly surprised — seldom do you find a place without plastic silverware settle so close to campus. Which is going to be the big test, I think — Ledo's (not technically the name, but that's what everyone calls is) has a great reputation among a bunch of different crowds, the trouble being that those crowds don't typically get along all that well.

I went last week with a few friends — the place was packed. They were originally a big-time College Park destination, but the Italian joint moved to Adelphi a while ago, and they're definitely pulling customers over from that recently-closed location.

But the students are pouring in too, to see what their parents have been raving about from back in the day when it sounds like every Terp in town was obsessed with square pizza.

There was, por ejemplo, a table of students in tank tops and plastic sunglasses sitting across the aisle from a table of elderly people. Like, REALLY elderly. These people owned tins of shoe polish older than the people that go to the Thirsty Turtle. How long will this dichotomy remain stable? How long will it be before Lawrence the Accountant and his four young daughters decide they don't want to go to Ledo because Big Joey and his bros started drinking at 10 a.m. and decided they could go for a pie?

I'm not saying students can't coexist with legitimate human beings — but it's hard to do in a place where everyone is expected to act appropriately. If you wander into a Five Guys and two guys are acting like idiots, or you go to Bagel Place and can't use the bathroom because some poor hungover soul is praying to the porcelain god, you expect that, and at least take it in stride. No biggie. But I can understand people being mad about going to a sit-down restaurant and having the atmosphere blown.

But the other places within walking distance of campus — Noodles & Co., Chipotle and the like — haven't transformed into horrifying bastions of vomit and cheap beer, so maybe I'm way off base on this whole thing.

Also, while I'm on this restaurant kick, I'd like to take the tome to note that the Subway across from campus is the sketchiest place I've ever eaten a sandwich. I'm pretty sure I overheard two employees comparing stories of stabbings they've been involved in.

And now, for what seems like the millionth time already, what do you think? Can the area around campus sustain a respectable restaurant without prices high enough to scare students off? Also, I'm really interested in the stories from when Ledo's was originally in town — anybody have any good ones?