Want cheap Mexican food but don’t feel like paying more than $6 for a burrito on Vestal Parkway? On Friday nights from 5 p.m. until midnight, Tom & Marty’s has got your back. Located at 89 State Street, the restaurant and bar recently started its two for $2 Taco Night.

Here’s how it works: diners are instructed to fill out a small card with their name and then check off boxes with their personal taco preferences. The minimum number of tacos for the special is two, with a choice of chicken or beef as well as hard or soft shell. After selecting the major taco components, you also get a choice of toppings, including cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, salsa, olives and jalapenos. And if you’re looking to go all out, adding guacamole is only 50 cents extra. The bartender on duty collects the cards and within a couple minutes, voila — fresh tacos emerge from the kitchen and appear right before your very eyes.

While most of you Downtown-goers are familiar with Tom & Marty’s for the bar’s shot wheel, being extremely crowded on Fridays and Saturdays from approximately 1 to 3 a.m. and always seeming to have “Chicken Fried” playing on repeat, Taco Night offers a nice change of pace. Speedy service and a quiet atmosphere set the mood for being able to enjoy quality time with a couple of friends over a classic Mexican dish. For those of you who are feeling adventurous, Tom & Marty’s is stocked with board games that you can play while you eat, or you can simply kick back and watch whatever sports event is happening on one of the bar’s many flat-screen televisions.

“Taco Night at Tom & Marty’s showcases a lighter, more sophisticated side of Binghamton’s favorite bar while still conveying the idea of good times with friends, and they have mad good tacos,” said Matt Gochan, a first-year graduate student studying physics.

In addition to the two for $2 taco special, the bar also offers deals on drinks such as $3.75 margaritas and $3 Coronas, keeping up with the Mexican theme. But remember, only if you’re 21 and over. The quality is above what one would expect from an inexpensive diner and is surprisingly filling, but of course you don’t have to stop at the two-taco minimum. The current record for taco consumption is a whopping 30 tacos set on Feb. 8, Taco Night’s debut.

Taco Night is the newest of Tom & Marty’s promotions. We’ll have to wait and see what else the bar has in store for this semester, but until then we can just keep eating our tacos.