There is no shortage of students who consistently scoff at Binghamton for its lack of cool, cultured places to eat, hang out or study. These students have obviously never heard of The Shop.

Located at 219 Washington St., just down the street from the Forum Theatre, The Shop is in many ways a cafe by day and a bar by night.

If you pop in during the afternoon, you will see students working diligently on their laptops and sipping one of many coffee drinks, which generally cost less than your typical Starbucks drink and taste much better. At night, the atmosphere is more akin to a dimly-lit bar, where a mostly older-than-student-aged crowd sits, drinks and talks. If your only experiences with bars in Binghamton have involved the fine establishments on State Street, you’ll feel like you’ve fallen into the Twilight Zone at The Shop — or maybe just Ithaca.

This season, The Shop is again participating in Restaurant Week, making its cool vibes that much more accessible price-wise. The Restaurant Week menu consists of a three-course lunch, or a three-course $25 dinner.

For the first course, the three listed options were roasted butternut soup, hummus with chips and a salad. Being an self-proclaimed salt aficionado, I naturally went for the chips and hummus, while my dining partner snagged a salad. The salad, for the most part, was garden variety, but the honey red-wine vinaigrette served with it did make it appetizing. The hummus came as an ice cream scoop-like clump in a bowl surrounded by chips and topped a small amount of chili sambal, which had good flavor and the right amount of spice.

The entree options were more varied, featuring several pizzettas, quinoa salad and a few sandwiches. I opted for the roasted porchetta — boneless pork roast — sandwich, which was served with a side of salt chips and cornichon (tiny, tart) pickles. The sandwich was very good, and made even better by the crunchy, yet warm roll it was served on. While I do love salt, I could see how some might find this meal too salty. Despite that, I would order this meal again any day. The meat was perfect and the flavors from the balsamic onions in addition to the havarti and swiss combo put it over the top.

My dining partner, who is gluten-free and vegetarian, called ahead to confirm that they could make her gluten-free crepes. They were very accommodating with this request, and the crepes she ordered may have been the best thing we ate. The crepe was stuffed with roasted red pepper-eggplant whip and havarti and swiss cheeses — which normally comes with smoked pork. If you took a bite without knowing, you would have no idea it was gluten-free.

The third course was where The Shop really managed to stand out. We ordered a black cherry dessert crepe (one of many flavor options), and a spiked coffee drink. The coffee was a warm house brew with whipped cream and a shot of Grind espresso rum. It was smooth and relaxing after the big meal and tasted great, probably due to the fact that their house brew coffee is great on its own. In its own way, this dessert crepe was just as good as the savory one we had earlier.

The Shop is a great place to bring a date on a weekend night if you want to seem cultured and in tune with the local scene, whether you’re an alcohol and coffee drinker or not. If more places like The Shop keep popping up in the city of Binghamton, we’re bound to see more students spending more time Downtown — and not just on State Street.