A former hookah bar in downtown Binghamton is being transformed into what's being described as a "small, cozy tavern."

The new establishment will be called The Black Sheep Tavern. It will be located at 142 Washington Street, which had been home to Café Oasis.

Chris Kehoe has been working for more than a year to prepare the place. He said the goal is to provide a "fun, relaxing atmosphere." He said the tavern will cater to locate residents and to college students.

Kehoe said he's focusing his attention on the "final touches and logistics" with a goal to opening The Black Sheep Tavern by next weekend.

A view of the soon-to-open Black Sheep Tavern on Washington Street. Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News
A view of the soon-to-open Black Sheep Tavern on Washington Street. (Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News)
loading...

Kehoe is partnering with Mark Yonaty. They opened the nearby Courtside Bar & Grill on Court Street last October.

When Yonaty announced revealed plans for The Black Sheep last January, he said it would be "a fun bar with a very limited menu."

Kehoe said this has been "a passion project" for him spurred by a desire to help revitalize downtown Binghamton.

The Black Sheep Tavern is next door to Stadium 138, a beer garden and sports bar that has been in operation since last December.

KISS 104.1 logo
Enter your number to get our free mobile app

Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood

What Are the Signature Drinks From Every State?

LOOK: Here are the best lake towns to live in

Many of the included towns jump out at the casual observer as popular summer-rental spots--the Ozarks' Branson, Missouri, or Arizona's Lake Havasu--it might surprise you to dive deeper into some quality-of-life offerings beyond the beach and vacation homes. You'll likely pick up some knowledge from a wide range of Americana: one of the last remaining 1950s-style drive-ins in the Midwest; a Florida town that started as a Civil War veteran retirement area; an island boasting some of the country's top public schools and wealth-earners right in the middle of a lake between Seattle and Bellevue; and even a California town containing much more than Johnny Cash's prison blues.

Gallery Credit: Peter Richman