Binghamton Bar Makes ’30 Best Bars in Upstate NY’ List

In June of this year, The Village Diner in Johnson City was named one of the very best diners in the entire United States (the diner came in at #21). In July, Nathaniel Cole Park in Harpursville was named one of the best beaches in Upstate New York and now, Broome County's recognition streak continues in August.

New York Upstate put together a list of the 30 best bars in Upstate New York, based on Yelp reviews, and taking the number 29 spot is The Shop which is located at 219 Washington Street in downtown Binghamton.  Deborah K reviewed the bar on Yelp and said,

Oh, my goodness, I love this place. My husband and I moved to town last week, and were delighted to discover that it was restaurant week in Binghamton. We went for lunch with a friend of ours who helped us move from IL to NY, and a friend of hers who came up from the city for the day. We all started with the lentil soup, which was gorgeous. After that, three of us had a crepe with havarti and some sort of eggplant/red pepper whip. Amazing. The meat eater in the group had a chicken sandwhich, which he said was very good. We finished up with some tea and a fantastic dessert crepe. We will definitely be back....

 

I have to share with you my own experience at The Shop. You see, my family travels together like a wolf pack, including our son in everything we do so that he'll grow up with an amazing array of experiences. However, we never know how others will react to a toddler, especially in a restaurant so we were a little hesitant to take John for lunch at The Shop because we didn't know if we'd be given the nasty side eye for bringing our toddler into the downtown eatery or if people would be okay with it. I mean, in my opinion, The Shop is more of a cafe than a bar and so we didn't think it would be inappropriate to take our son in during the daytime hours. We were about to find out.

As soon as he spotted us walk through the door, our server kindly brought out a high chair for my wiggly little toddler and even played a game of peek-a-boo with him. John enjoyed the way the sound of his voice echoed off the walls inside the restaurant and got a little loud. When my husband and I told him that he needed to lower his voice, our server assured us that John was just fine and giggled along with him. The staff at The Shop and their customers were exceptionally welcoming of my boy and I fell in love with the place. There's a beautiful sense of friendship and warmth at The Shop that not many eateries have anymore and it makes perfect sense to me why it made the list of the 30 Best Bars in Upstate New York!

[via New York Upstate/Yelp]