For the typical broke college student, Restaurant Week is a gift from the Southern Tier spirits. Sept. 16 to 25 is a period of exploration and a journey of self-discovery, in which the owners of fine dining establishments offer us tailored menus at affordable prices. They gift us with the chance to experience a lifestyle usually reserved for parent visits and graduation.
If you’re trying to ball out on a budget, Number 5’s Restaurant Week deal is arguably the best one on the list. The swanky steakhouse offers three courses for $25. Compared to its usual expensive prices, it’s clear that this opportunity to eat its Southern-Tier-famous USDA prime meat is unbeatable.
Located in a historic firehouse, Number 5’s location has been standing since the 1800s, when the fire wagons were still being pulled by horses. The remarkable building was transformed into an upscale classic American steakhouse in 1978, destined to become the holy grail of Binghamton dining and a mecca for upstate steak-lovers.
The rich history of the building is obvious the moment you walk in. Dark wood creates an aged comfort, while black and white pictures, heavily-filled bookshelves and an ostentatious painting of naked women adorn the walls. It gives the impression that you’re in the scene where Jack paints Rose in “Titanic,” only without the early 1900s structural oppression of women, the looming danger of a sinking ship and with the addition of steak.
Number 5’s Restaurant Week menu is pretty much exactly what you would expect from an upscale steakhouse. Appetizer options include a delectable and aesthetically pleasing french onion soup, a mixed greens salad or Greek mushrooms stuffed with spinach and feta. For the main course, you’re probably blowing it if you don’t order the prime-top sirloin steak, a quality chair-broiled cut, topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions, cooked tenderly to perfection and swimming in its own deep red juices.
But if dark meat isn’t your thing, the menu also features a seared chicken breast in a pan sauce with roasted shallots, gorgonzola and herbs, as well as a linguine soaked in white wine with clams and shrimp. For a vegetarian option, Number 5 serves a wild mushroom risotto. For dessert, try the chocolate decadence, a flourless cake (gluten-free!) whose overwhelming richness is the perfect counterpart for your savory steak.
Number 5 is the kind of restaurant where you put your napkin on your lap, you’re confused about which spoon to use, your waiter cleans the crumbs off the table from course-to-course and your meal ends with towels and a mint. Brush up on your table manners before going, or take Spongebob’s timeless advice and clear your mind of everything except “fine dining, and breathing.”