Most students are familiar with the more common establishments located on State Street, where dreams come true as long as you pay a cover charge. When stumbling from bar to bar, most pass by a safe haven in a sea of madness. This haven is Uncle Tony’s.
Uncle Tony’s, located at 79 State St. (next to Dillingers), has been open since 1983, long before Dillingers and JT’s claimed college crowds. Walking in, the atmosphere was welcoming. There’s a bar in the middle, as well as seating in the back and front of the restaurant. Each section has televisions with different stations playing. Along the walls are different bar signs and a nice mural of New York City in the back.
For music, the restaurant uses the Rockbot app. Rockbot plays a constant stream of music while patrons who have the app on their phone are able to choose the music that comes on at the venue. Many people will recognize this as the app that controls music in the Marketplace.
For dinner, the $20 three-course menu was not what you’d expect from a State Street establishment — in a good way. The soup of the day, a creamy ham and potato soup, was a delicious way to start warming up from the Binghamton rain.
The three different entrées included a salmon filet, a grilled sirloin and a homemade cheese ravioli dish by the owner’s own mother. I went for mom’s cooking. The cheese ravioli with meatballs and garlic bread was delicious and a good size portion for a Restaurant Week entrée.
One of the most appealing parts of Uncle Tony’s $20 Restaurant Week deal is that they let you substitute one of the courses for a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. The soup and entrée were so filling that a beer would be a cost-effective substitute for the dessert.
Under new management, this is Uncle Tony’s first venture into Restaurant Week. So far, it seems to have been a success. Current owner Bryan Whiting had worked at Uncle Tony’s for 12 years before he, along with his brother Brent and sister Tracy, purchased the bar from the 70-year-old Tony at the time of his retirement. Although the cheese ravioli dish had been homemade by Bryan’s mother, he credits his head chef, who has worked there for 30 years, for the rest of the delicious courses.
The service was beyond satisfactory and the waitress and owner were very kind. You will definitely have a different feel here than at any of the other State Street establishments; like we said before, that’s the beauty of it. Whether it’s to catch a quick dinner before a Binghamton Senators game, grab drinks for happy hour or get a nice lunch on your break from work, Uncle Tony’s website says it best: It “the perfect place for friends to meet up.”
So while Tom and Marty deal with their hangover, leaving their doors closed until the nighttime, walk down the street to Uncle Tony’s and you won’t regret it.