Directory/Food & Drink
Abbott's Downtown is the Downtown Rochester location of Abbott's Frozen Custard. It is in the H.H. Warner Building in the St. Paul Quarter. This location includes a table-service restaurant called the Kitchen Keg that serves home made soups, hand crafted burgers, haddock fish fry, an all-day breakfast menu, and a selection of beer and cocktails. Delivery available.
Remington's was an upscale restaurant located on the northeast side of Rochester. Dinner entrees ranged from $16 to $29 and their wine list was reasonably priced. Their signature dish would more than likely been their seafood bisque. The atmosphere was classy and laid back at the same time.
Moonlight Creamery is an ice cream shop located on West Avenue in Fairport, offering a sweet treat destination in this charming canal town suburb. The creamery is wheelchair accessible and maintains generous hours, staying open until 9:30 PM most nights and even later on weekends.
King and I serves Thai cuisine in Rochester, offering locals a taste of authentic Thai flavors in the community.
Palmer's Direct to You Market is a very popular specialty grocer that has been in business in Rochester since 1850. This retail operation is a spin-off from their larger restaurant supply business. Because of that you can get either individual portions of meat and fish, or large quantities. The quality is generally quite good as it is the same food supplied to fine-dining restaurants. They also sell a variety of prepared items as take-out food, and operate an on-site cafe. " Since 1850 Palmer Foods has been serving customers and clients in Rochester and Western New York, distributing fresh seafood, meat, poultry and groceries to the finest dining establishments in the area. We are immensely proud to be the oldest family owned and operated business in Rochester." 1
Old closed Princess view from Dewey Ave Side, Ridge Road Location April 2010 Princess Restaurants are History Princess Restaurant - They were known for being 24 hour diners, having a variety of foods including some Greek. The last one closed a few years ago, on Lake Avenue, first cutting back hours, then gone, but the building is still there. Previously Princess Restaurant II at 440 Ridge Road West Closed - building still there (other restaurants tried opening there, but with Kodak diminished, there was not enough business in the area, across the street from the Peppermill Restaurant) Before that, in 1999, the original one in Brighton at Twelve Corners closed - demolished to be replaced by a chain Drug Store. (Prior to it being a Brighton Princess, there was a Howard Johnson's Restaurant at that location.) References can still be found on the internet: (and Why not to believe certain websites:) 833 Lake Ave location on MyRochester.com, listed separately too. MyRochester.com - Restaurants still listed with errors (April 2010) Princess Restaurant 440 Ridge Rd E Rochester, NY 14615 585-621-3335 - Casual family dining. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night. and Princess Restaurant 833 Lake Ave Rochester, NY 14613-2006 585-458-4889 RocWiki Writer's (JG) NOTE: 1. They closed years ago 2. Ridge Rd W not E. 3. Name on Ridge Rd. was Princess Restaurant 2 (or II) and Restaurant still listed on AllMenus.com and the old menu is available for comparisons! on RestaurantDB.net for AllMenus (April 2010) and - on Yahoo Local, They show the restaurant as probably closed, and a list of the foods that were on the menu (price ranges no specifics) and a map and finally Old List of what George Ferguson liked in Rochester, c.1994-2002 Some places are still open, many closed, many short reviews, including Princess in Brighton. (as of April 2010)
Logo Constantino's Market is a Cleveland-based micro chain of urban neighborhood grocery stores that had a location at College Town. It was a full-service operation and offered a bakery, salad bar, restaurant-quality prepared foods, catering, a large beer selection, a cafe area, and regular tastings and demos. Their managers were previously the owners of R's Market and are familiar with the local food culture. Their sushi was from Shema. There was a Sunday brunch from 10:00AM to 2:00PM. Opened April 9, 2015. They closed in February 2016, citing lack of profitability. Links Constantino's says it was a victim of poor vision - Democrat and Chronicle (2016-02-12) Statement from UR President Joel Seligman re: the closure r/Rochester thread about the closing College Town grocer Constantino's to close - Democrat and Chronicle (2016-02-02) Constantino's Market to open April 9 at College Town - Rochester Business Journal (2015-03-26) Constantino's Market to open store in Rochester, N.Y. - Crain's Cleveland Business (2015-03-27)
Fresco was a restaurant serving Italian cuisine. It was located on Empire Boulevard in Penfield. The lunch and dinner menus are available on their website. Available for private parties and off-site catering. Live music featured at times; call for the schedule. From the website: Fresco was opened in 1998 by John Oliveri. This is John’s second venture in the restaurant business. His first restaurant, Alexis Gourmet Pizza & Pasta, opened in 1988. Alexis was the first restaurant in Rochester to serve gourmet pizza and pasta dishes. Ten years later, John expanded and carried this theme to Fresco, broadening the menu to offer a full selection of contemporary Italian cuisine at both lunch and dinner.
Acme Pizza Sausage with Black Olives Acme Bar & Pizza was a Bar and restaurant in the Monroe Village neighborhood, near the corner of Monroe & Goodman. Acme featured constantly rotating microbrew, import and domestic drafts, a large selection of bottles, and a large selection of liquor. Acme also featured NY style thin crust pizza and a full bar menu. For entertainment Acme had pool, electronic darts, pinball, internet jukebox, Big Buck Hunter Safari, and satellite sports. Acme closed on August 31st, 2024.
Pair A Dice Games, Dec 2011 Where your Adventure begins! Pair a Dice Games was RocWiki's Business Spotlight of the Month for February 2013! Pair a Dice Games was a toy, hobby, and gaming store conveniently located in the Village Gate. You could find it by going in the “B” entrance which is off the back parking lot. They were down the hall from Gate House Cafe and across the courtyard from Salena's. Other neighbors were California Rollin', Comics Etc., and Yankee Peddler Bookshop, etc. They focused on friendly service, and offered a loyalty discount program. They were able to do special orders and were often able to order hard to get items from overseas. They had free gaming tables that are available during store hours, and often accommodated league play and gaming groups. Amputheatre, created by a Rochesterian, was one of the many games available. Closed in March 2016.
Lucca's Northside Kitchen is an Italian restaurant in East Rochester. Previously the Northside Inn which recently sold to the owners of Lucca Kitchen & Cocktails and Lucca Wood Fired Pizza. Opened July 12, 2022 after some remodeling. The owners will keep some existing menu items and sauces from the previous owners.
Located in North Chili (and now Southtown Plaza), almost on the corner of routes 259 and 33, Jitters is a nice local coffee shop. They roast their own coffee in house, and there have been times the smell of roasting coffee has filled the place. They have over 30 coffee flavors, and Cafe Caramel is my usual. Typically when one stops in, they have House, House Decaf, and 2 other roasts brewed and ready to go. Their House roast is closer to a mild roast, and one of the other roasts is always a darker/heavier roast, and always tasty. And they usually have a flavored roast coffee brewed as well. Jitters also has over 50 Milkshake flavors, and 30 flavored lattes. For those that don't care for coffee, or tea, or chi, or latte, they also have sodas, and just water. They also serve wraps such as BBQ Chicken, Turkey BLT, Italian, Salsalito, Egg Salad, just to name a few. The bread options are wrap, croissant, pita, all grain bread, wheat, and ciabata. There is also a small selection of muffins, bagels, cake, pie, and cookies. There is also a Soup du jour. It's one stop shop for your sustenance needs. Call for the days specials. The Southtown Plaza location now features a proper bar with wine, liquor and bottled beer. One of the two TV's in the place is back there, along with a pool table, ATM and dart board.
This Wendy's location in Victor serves the familiar fast-food burger menu with both dine-in and drive-through options. Located on Victor-Pittsford Road, it's a convenient stop for residents in the eastern suburbs, with drive-through hours extending later than the dining room.
Druk Spices Grocery Store is a Nepalese shop in Brown Square. Its name derives from a popular Bhutanese brand. Items for sale include noodles, flour, beans, spices, snacks, and hard-to-find Asian foods. They stock little produce, as most of their Nepalese clientele have their own gardens. At present, the back of the store is being converted to a small cafe offering Himalayan cuisine. Owner Suk Subba arrived in the United States in 2009. He is one of 2,000 ethnic Nepalese who fled Bhutan and now live in Rochester. During his time in the Nepalese refugee camps he ran a small grocery stall but was unable to obtain a license due to his non-citizen status. References Danielle Priess, "Little Himalaya: Bhutanese refugees set up shop downtown" - (585) magazine (Jan-Feb 2014)
Northside Inn is an Italian restaurant in East Rochester. Following sale to the owners of Lucca Kitchen & Cocktails closed June 26 2022, to reopen July 12 as Lucca's Northside Kitchen. There are quite a few pictures of golfers on the walls, from the events played at the nearby Oak Hill Country Club, if you like golf, you might appreciate them.
Deli Sandros was RocWiki's Business Spotlight of the Month for February 2014! Deli Sandros was a deli in Plymouth-Exchange that offered subs, sandwiches, and salads to order, along with a selection of Finger Lakes coffee, ice cream, and a Garbage Plate Dogwich. They were one of only two delis in Rochester that offer cold cuts from Thurmann's. They were primarily a take-out place, although there was limited seating, along with free WiFi, USB surge protected outlets, and phone charging stations. They also did catering. During the academic year Deli Sandros did late-night delivery to the UR River Campus, Upper Mount Hope, Brooks Landing, the South Wedge and throughout Plymouth-Exchange and nearby areas. They purchased a limousine from a nearby funeral home for this purpose. Deli Sandros was located almost right across the street from UR's Riverview dorms. They accepted Flex/UROS account payment from UR student ID cards. They opened for business on September 7, 2012. Owner was Anthony D'Alessandro. He is open to suggestions on the Location19.org discussion thread. The owner of both buildings is D'Alessandro House Buyers, run by Anthony's brother Joe. Links Deli Sandro’s opens delicious future for PLEX - UR Campus Times (2012-09-27) Location19.org discussion New deli finding fans in UR, RIT students - Democrat and Chronicle (2012-11-02)
Tournados is a restaurant associated with the Inn on Broadway, based on its website connection to that historic downtown establishment.
Mill Creek is a semi-private golf complex located on the SouthWest side of Rochester near Churchville. They have both an 18-hole championship course and an executive-length course called the "Short Course". There is also a tavern and restaurant on the site. The restaurant serves only Friday evenings and does catered events.
Former Building Overhead View (by Flickr user RocPX license info) John's Tex Mex Eatery (formerly known as Taco John's) was a cheap Tex-Mex joint in the South Wedge, originally on the corner of South and Alexander. They had a laid-back atmosphere with bright red walls. The menu was very vegetarian/vegan friendly. The seating area was limited but adequate for most of their traffic. Additional seating is available on their patio outside during warmer months. John's Tex-Mex opened in June 2006 in the former Ly Lou's location. The owner was a local resident who graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology. On April 29, 2019 they moved up the street to a bigger building. Closed June 8, 2024. Please see the Talk page to read old comments, add new comments, or discuss the contents of this page.
Gruttadauria Bakery was a bakery that was founded in 1914. Originally located at 19 Jay St in the city of Rochester, in 2004 the business was relocated to Greece. The bakery specializes in Italian cookies, deserts as well as wedding cakes. The family moved to California.
Bully Hill Vineyards is a Finger Lakes winery located in Hammondsport, NY and is on the Keuka Lake Wine Trail1 Offerings On-site restaurant: Tasty. A lunch for two with wine will run $35 plus tip. The french fries are, for some odd reason, extremely good. Probably the goats. The New York State Wine Museum of Greyton H. Taylor : A jaunt through the history of wine making in this region, and the vineyard in specific. Learn about how the Taylor Winery got around prohibition, why the Coca-Cola Company didn't get Walter's goat, and how the winery's labels are rife with sexual innuendo. Play count-the-phalluses in the art gallery. Tour and Tasting: Free 30-minute tour, followed by a $1 30-minute tasting of 5 select wines. Rest assured that this winery realizes that you're drinking their product to get drunk. Free grape juice for the kids and designated drivers. Store: $1 tastings of almost any wine they have, plus $7.50 bottles of most wines. Gift shops: There's three of them.
Climbing Vines Cafe & Play was a family oriented clean, imaginative play area for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, as well as a barista-staffed gourmet coffee , tea, and espresso cafe for adults. Their space was large enough for the children to run & play, yet intimate enough for adults and caregivers to relax, have a conversation, catch-up on work or in on the fun and play along! The space was used for birthday parties, classes and camps. The Victor location opened in February 2016 but closed on March 2, 2020 saying they outgrew their space and owners may be moving to Buffalo. The location in Chili opened March 16, 2019 at Chili Paul Plaza. Each location was independently owned and operated.
High Fidelity, 6-2008 High Fidelity closed on 1/17/2009. High Fidelity is a bar featuring live music, both local and national acts. There's a light bar menu and the occasional open mic night. Also, every second and fourth Wednesday of the month, High Fidelity features the Comedy Block Party. Until the early 1990s Milestones was a block east on East Avenue, but its original location was torn down to build the courthouse on the corner of East and Chestnut Street. At the old location it had originally been called "Jazzberry's", but the present owner, Michael O'Leary, changed the name shortly before moving to the present location at East and Scio Street. The decor inside is basic black with remnants of its previous use as a diner/grill still in evidence, such as the greenhouse tacked onto the front of the building. The live music at Milestones is an eclectic mixture of good-time rock and roll (including cover bands), jam bands, singer-songwriters, Celtic, and roots music, with a smattering of blues and jazz. Because the listening audience in Rochester tends to be conservative and a little blinkered in its musical taste, this venue may be the smallest place you ever see some quite famous people. And you may even get to sit down and have a decent beer while you do it. The City News recently reported on the sale of Milestones to local musician and club manager Joe Gizzie (http://www.rochester-citynews.com/gyrobase/Content? oid=oid%3A5082). According to The City's article, Gizzie intends to maintain the original live music format, but will be changing the club's name to High Fidelity following renovations.
Great Northern Pizza Kitchen was a local pizzeria in Upper Mount Hope. They had an interesting selection of pies, leaning towards more offbeat items like Baked Eggplant & Roasted Red Peppers or Black Bean Taco. Catering also available. Great Northern used to be a local chain. Brothers Rob and Chris Desino opened their first shop at 1918 Monroe Avenue in Brighton in 1999 under the name Rocky Mountain Pizza Kitchen, with additional locations on Ridge Road in Greece and in the Pittsford Village opening a short time later. Trade mark concerns, which would prevent expansion of the chain, led to the name change. In 2005 the Desino's sold the business to the local franchisee Bruegger's. Several additional rochester area shops would open and the chain would eventually expand to the Buffalo and Syracuse areas, as well. In 2008, they opened a Marketplace Square store in Henrietta, which closed in late 2014. In March 2010 the Pittsford store closed. In December 2013 the Bushnell's Basin store closed. The original location at on Monroe Avenue closed in September 2015. Their remaining location, across the street from College Town and inside Bruegger's, opened on October 13, 2014. This location closed in June 2016, ending the chain for good.