Best place to buy lychees
OceanGarden
What the hell is a lychee? It’s a drupe, man, botanically speaking. What it isn’t is a nut, though people often call them “lychee nuts.” They come in cans and jars in Asian stores
and Asian sections of stores. When you get them that way, you get just the edible part of the fruit, which seems like a sweet version of a ring of squid.
And I mean that in the best possible way.
My friend Karin
introduced me to the fresh fruits that come in a thin shell and surround a big
pit. They’re unbelievably fantabulous. They also cost about eight bucks a pound when you can get them at Wegmans. When OceanGarden
has ’em (not all the time), they’re $1.98 a pound.
I’ve been told by a Chinese friend that it’s considered unhealthy or unsavory
to eat more than a few, but c’mon! A buck ninety-eight a friggin’
pound!
While you’re there,
squeeze through the tiny isles searching for treasures like ultra-spicy, unknown brands of ramen, or pickled lemon, or… what is that, anyway? 971
South Clinton Avenue, 271-3705. (Adam Wilcox)
Best place to drink Xinomavro
The Olive Tree
The Olive Tree restaurant has an exceptional selection of 17 Greek wines. Joanne and Peter Gekas, and their son, Alexis, don’t expect patrons to be able to pronounce Xinomavro, Agiorgitiko, Moschofilero or Assyrtiko. Like many regions of the world, the Greek wine industry has embraced quality wine-making, using both vinifera and even more interesting native varieties that are challenging to pronounce and pair beautifully with Greek food. Why have another Merlot or Chardonnay, when there are special Greek varieties that have evolved with the cuisine over many centuries?
Finger Lakes wines should be highlighted on local wine lists, but exceptions can be made when an ethnic restaurant like The Olive Tree features wines from its region of the world. In
the era when Chianti came in bottles wrapped in woven baskets, and Matteus was popular, retsina was the wine associated with Greece. This wine was aged in pine barrels, imparting the tree’s unmistakable aromas and flavors. It is definitely an acquired taste, and in the past 10 to 20 years, the Greek wine industry has modernized techniques and styles, while emphasizing their unique grapes. The bottles are full of Greek sunshine! 165 Monroe Avenue,
454-3510. (Michael Warren Thomas)
Best chocolate fix
Sips’ Coffee Shop brownie
Rich, dark,sweet, smooth, and sensual. Sounds dirty, but it’s not. It’s a brownie from Sips Coffee Shop on Pattonwood Drive
in Irondequoit. And, for we chocolate fiends always looking for our next fix, our fudgie delicious high, it’s the best drug around.
There they sit on the counter. Just $1.95 stands between me and satiation. There are three scrumptious flavors: peanut butter, peppermint patty, and fudge. For the true cocoa connoisseur, the fudge brownie is the pinnacle of perfection. Allow me to titillate: a moist chocolate brick sprinkled with dark chips and drizzled in creamy milk chocolate. Heat it up in the microwave, and do it a la mode with vanilla ice cream. Do it! That’s an order. 149 Pattonwood Drive, Irondequoit,
323-9360. (Erin Morrison-Fortunato)
Best choke-it-down beverage
Open Face’s matcha tea
“It doesn’t even look like you’re enjoying it,” he observed as I took a swig. “But… it’s… so… good…for… me,” I sputtered, confident that I would soon get used to the grassy
flavor. That’s the way it usually goes with matcha, the antioxidant-crammed ground tea found at Open Face Sandwich Eatery. The emerald-hued matcha is Japanese in origin, its
preparation beginning just before harvest when the tea bushes are covered to slow down their growth, which results in the intense color and flavor. The fine folks over at Open Face prepare the matcha using a traditional bamboo whisk to combine the tea with hot (not boiling) water and a little honey, so once the sweet notes kick in and mask the taste of freshly mowed lawn, you can unwind and take pleasure in the fact that you’re doing something totally beneficial for your body. Open Face also offers flavored matchas, though hardcore purists will no doubt stick with that old-world zest. But I have to admit that for me those initial gulps of matcha have always been — with apologies to the Misfits
— green hell. 651 South Avenue,
232-3050. (DaynaPapaleo)
Best local snack craze
Kettle corn
I have lived in many cities and have attended many fairs. But never have I seen a populace so firmly in the grasp of one festival food: kettle corn. Yes, fried dough/funnel cakes and cotton candy get some love. But it just doesn’t seem like a festival in Rochester if you don’t have one of those two-foot tubes stuffed with the puffs, which you nibble on while perusing bird sculptures made out of coat hangers or something. Take a
stroll through the summer’s Corn Hill or Park Ave fests and you’ll see kettle corn booths set barely 10 feet apart from one another. You’ll be able to find them by the unwieldy lines spilling out onto the street, stacked with people desperate to get their hands and mouths on some of that salty-sweet goodness.
If we’re going by snack food alone, Rochester, you have great taste. (Eric Rezsnyak)
Best winter workout
Rock Ventures
Over the years I’ve played most sports, from lacrosse to golf, baseball to cross-country. I’ve played the ones that make no sense for a short, spindly guy, like volleyball
and football. And now, as I approach my athletic dotage and all my peers turn
toward golf or tai chi, I have returned to an adolescent love. Yep, that’s
right, I find stuff to climb and, well, I climb it. The reaction of pretty much
everyone that doesn’t climb is: “You’re going to kill yourself.” Truth be told,
that’s part of the fun. But I’m not off my gourd. You see, Rochester offers one of the best environments
for learning to climb and learning to climb safely: Rock Ventures. I had scoped
out the place a few times, but was always hesitant because it sounded like the
training process would take forever. I showed up with a companion and we were
climbing a half hour later. Even without the crest of a mountain from which to
yell, the rush of hitting the top on the wall routes is heady indeed. Rock
Ventures is the place to discover your inner gym rat. 1044 University Avenue, 442-5462. (Craig Brownlie)
Best place to leave the Earth behind
Rochester astronomy club
Conventional wisdom
dictates that we keep our feet planted on the ground and stay “down to earth,”
but some of us know that getting carried away is a much better deal. While
daydreams and clouds certainly offer their rewards, there’s nothing quite like
taking in the shimmer of distant celestial bodies to restore a sense of wonder,
freedom, and peace with your surroundings all at once. On clear Saturday nights
between April and early December, the Astronomy Section of the Rochester
Academy of Science (a.k.a. Rochester’s astronomy
club) presents free nighttime viewings at the RochesterMuseum &
ScienceCenter’s
Strasenburgh Planetarium telescope. Once you’ve
climbed the 60 steps to the observation deck, which is located at the top of a
turret-like tower on the Planetarium’s roof, you get to look through the
telescope while an astronomy club member explains what you’re looking at. Keep
in mind that dying stars and Saturn’s rings make great dating fodder when beer,
music, and movies wear thin. And there’s a warm social aspect to craning your
neck among strangers to spot a passing man-made satellite. If you prefer
naked-eye viewing away from the city’s high light level, the astronomy club
folks also host what they call “star parties” at various area locations, such
as MendonPondsPark.
Visit www.rochesterastronomy.org for a viewing schedule. (Saby
Reyes-Kulkarni)
Best family tree
ZelkovaSerrata, Highland Park
It’s in our
neighborhood, but it was a Penfield friend who told us about it. His kids call
it “The Octopus Tree.” It’s a Japanese sycamore of some sort, but it is just so
unbelievably cool. If you go up Mt.Vernon to where it elbows
to become Alpine, and then walk straight into the park, it’s right there
immediately on your right.
The base of The
Octopus Tree is about 20′ in circumference, and it has a bunch of main trunks
that split right at the bottom and then climb straight up. Between the trunks
is a kind of room with a floor about 3′ from the ground, and then there are
several places to sit within easy climbing distance. All three of our kids can
sit in it and once, and do. For us, no trip to the park is complete without a
stop to visit, as Iris calls her, “my friend, Zelkova.”
(Adam Wilcox)
Best young local musician named Teddy, non-Geiger category
Teddy Nicolosi
All smaller towns do
it. You know, cling to any type of celebrity that has an impact outside city
limits and drive it into the ground. It’s an affection that goes way past
hometown pride and into a kind of desperate search for validation.
There’s no denying
the talent or hard work Teddy Geiger has done to get to where he is, but
Christ, enough already. We all love young, good-looking, and talented, but
Teddy ain’t the only one. There’s a new Teddy in
town: Teddy Nicolosi. At 14 this younger half of the
father/son guitar duo Shared Genes is nothing short of amazing. And it’s not
just the sensation of his youth that drops jaws; this young man’s
fleet-fingered fretwork will only improve as he gets older, hits the road, and
makes the big time. He’s not on the cover of Seventeen yet but when he is we’ll
all cling to him like we cling to Geiger now. And though I admire both
immensely, you’ll probably hear me bitchin’ about
them again at some point in the future. (Frank De Blase)
Best band name you didn’t pick
The Shitty Faggots
We’re loathe to correct our readers’ picks, mostly because you
guys do such a great job. But there was one omission we simply could not let go
by. When we first heard of the local band called The Shitty Faggots, we were
agog. Are they being ironic? Could they be thinking of the British use of the
word (a.k.a., cigarette)? Are they begging for a fight?
No on the first two,
maybe yes on the last. The Shitty Faggots — guitarist DiggyPoo, bassist White Trash Willie, drummer E-Log, and
vocalist Teddy4Real4President — formed about a year ago, brought together by
a lifelong dream to form a punk rock band. These “Hilton folk,” as described by
DiggyPoo, picked the name
basically to get attention, but also to call attention to people’s hypocrisy.
“We say everything you think, but don’t want to say,” says Poo.
The band admits that
the nom de guerre has gotten them
into a bit of trouble, including one spring show at Montage that erupted into a
fight when several women reportedly attacked the band after taking offense at
the name. After the Faggots dropped off the radar for several months we
wondered if perhaps they’d been beaten to death by an angry mob. But no, the
band is back, with shows scheduled at the Penny Arcade (November 18) and the
Bug Jar (December 19). (Eric Rezsnyak)
Best guitar face
The Grinders’ Todd Dentico
He squints, he
grimaces, his tongue wags, his eyes roll back. Yup,
it’s the guitar face, and The Grinders’ Todd Dentico’s
is the best.
You see, the guitar
face is a window to the musician’s soul…or libido, anyway. It’s been theorized
that the facial contortions six-string slingers paste across their mugs on
stage are not unlike those worn while in flagrantedelicto. While this
may be unsettling to some of you more gentile music fans, I’ve always thought
that the bops — both horizontal and vertical — are one and the same; one
you do with your guitar, one you do with your lady. And though there are no
pilfered Pam and Tommy-type tapes circulating the scene to support this, it’s
safe to say the faces of ecstasy, joy, concentration, and drunken glee that
play across Todd Dentico’s face while on stage
bashing his Les Paul are the same as when he…well, you know. (Frank De Blase)
Best jazz club impresario
Pete McCrossen
It happened slowly
over the last several years, but gradually jazz fans began to realize something
very special was happening out at the Lodge at Woodcliff. Horizons Lounge, the
restaurant/bar at the hotel/conference center had slowly been transformed into
a premier jazz club. Gap Mangione’s groups could be
found there on the weekends. And the guest artists
mid-week just got better and better. The great piano protégé Eldar, wonderful Chilean singer Claudia Acuna,
powerhouse saxophonist LewTabackin,
breezy chanteuse Tierney Sutton, top jazz baritone Kevin Mahogany — the list
goes on and on. The man behind all of these bookings was Pete McCrossen. He didn’t just stick to the tried and true. He
took chances on new talent, bringing in future jazz guitar star Sheryl Bailey.
He booked local legend Joe Romano for one of his last Rochester gigs before he moved away. McCrossen is no longer presiding over Horizons Lounge.
Things are going to swing a little less up on that hill in Fairport. (Ron Netsky)
Best innovative band
Lobster Quadrille
It’s tough to harness
rock music’s electricity without electricity. But through a blend of Southern
gothic pathos, old-time religion, and madness, The Lobster Quadrille positively
sizzles. The band is essentially plugged into an acoustic sound. Washboards,
kazoos, tambourines, and buckets permeate the haunting soundscape
recklessly teetering on the brink of sinister. And when frontman
Solomon Blaylock gets to preaching and ranting, it’s hard to tell just whose
side he’s on. Good? Evil? Who cares? This is this
town’s most innovative, interesting band that, by avoiding conventional rock
music, comes off infinitely more crushing. Hell, it’s almost biblical. (Frank
De Blase)
Best free tunes
College music department concerts
Want to hear some
glorious singing, a powerful orchestra, or a hot jazz band? Check the websites
of area colleges; there’s an embarrassment of riches awaiting you. The Eastman
School of Music, RobertsWesleyanCollege,
SUNY Geneseo, NazarethCollege — any school
that has a large music program is guaranteed to have some serious talent on
display. In recent years I’ve heard concerts that leave me wondering if top
professionals could possibly be any better. If it’s been a while since you’ve
heard the magnificent force of a symphony orchestra, you can hear some of the
major orchestra musicians of the future at the acoustically marvelous Eastman
Theatre. Chamber groups regularly fill Kilbourn Hall
with performances of otherworldly beauty. And if you’ve forgotten how powerful
the human voice can be when raised in gorgeous harmony, get yourself down to
SUNY Geneseo to hear one of the college’s choirs. You’ll discover the true
meaning of an overused word: awesome. (Ron Netsky)
Best evening out west of the Genesee
“Ladies of Illusion” Dinner Show
Drag shows in Greece.
It’s a little bit of Vegas, right here on Long Pond Road.
Aggy Dune and Kasha Davis brought their “Cher
and Friends” show to Golden Ponds in May and August. The shows are big fun,
with exquisite costumes, witty repartee, and dead-on impersonations. That Cher, she’s a popular girl.
Her friends include Bette, Liza, Marilyn, Diana Ross, and even Sonny.
Back in May, I got to
dance on stage with Tina Turner, as portrayed by Kasha. For a few shining
moments, I felt truly fabulous. Not bad for someone who regularly gets accused
of dancing like a character from A
Charlie Brown Christmas.
The dinner buffet was
good, too. I expected some sort of pasta, and was pleasantly surprised by
chicken French.
Here are some helpful
hints. The best seats — long tables center stage — go to the biggest
parties, so round up all your buddies. And tip the ladies generously, especially
if you’re trying to pass for an eastsider.
Aggy and Kasha are back at Golden Ponds with the Big Wigs
Holiday Show on December 9. Go to www.stargramsandmore.comor
call 723-1344. (Linda Kostin)
Best store mascots
Cockatiels at Mercury Posters
How do I define
impersonal? Let me see — the help line for my DSL service; most high-rise
architecture; and chain stores. How would I add some personality? I know —
vocal inflection; granite gargoyles on the second floor; and in-store pets.
Just a few suggestions: black cats at Barnes & Noble, Black Angus cows at
McDonalds, peacocks at Abercrombie & Fitch. I could go on, but we are here
today to honor those establishments that already have a mascot. With nods to
golden retriever Kobe
at Rock Ventures and the Cinema cat, we select Gordon (R.I.P.), Lucy, and Rocky
as our 2006 Best Store Mascots. Gordon moved on to that great birdcage in the
sky last December, but Lucy and Rocky continue to greet customers in a way that
inspires return visits. Truly, you have never perused posters until you’ve done
so with a cockatiel perched upon your shoulder, shaking its head in disapproval
over that cheesecake poster you’re selecting instead of the Vermeer
reproduction. (Let me tell Lucy just one thing — that girl with the pearl
earring was the Pam Anderson of her day.) On the other hand, Lucy did save me
from papering our house with wall-to-wall Thomas Kinkade.
1 Sumner Park, 271-3119. (Craig Brownlie)
Best space-age fluff ‘n’ fold
The Laundry Room
Doing your laundry isn’t supposed to be exciting
in either a positive or negative way, so we dismiss losing money at the
Laundromat as a matter of course, just to keep our pulse down. Surely there are
better things to worry about. But if you’re someone who can’t stand the thought
of even a small rip-off and have zero tolerance for inefficiency and poor
service, then you’ll be in heaven at The Laundry Room on Monroe Avenue, where
the chances of losing quarters to a broken machine are close to nil. The
Laundry Room features sturdy Wascomat units with
shiny metal exterior plating that, frankly, is a little intimidating. (And
that’s before you even get to the instruction sticker that practically requires
aeronautical training to decipher.) Some of the washers accommodate a whopping four loads, and each dryer has a sign
that screams (in red print, no less): “WARNING! ULTRA-EFFICIENT
DRYERS.” The place is always spic-and-span, has WiFi
access and good parking, and you get to watch cable instead of an infuriating RNews loop. Obviously, the management of this joint gives a
damn, which is nice to see. Inefficiency be damned!
— Saby Reyes-Kulkarni
Best way to assuage middle-class guilt
Donate your old kitchen to ReStore
I probably shouldn’t
have spent a crapload of money getting my kitchen
redone last spring, but like lots of women my age, I
went and did it anyway. (What is it about peri-menopausal
women that makes us want to redo our kitchens? There’s
got to be a doctoral thesis in there somewhere.) If you succumb to your base
urges and rip the innards out of your kitchen just because you can, call ReStore to see if they can use your old cabinets,
countertop, sink and appliances. They might even be able to pick up your
donation.
Located in the Public
Market and run by Flower City Habitat for Humanity, ReStore
sells quality used and surplus building materials to the public at a fraction
of regular retail prices. Proceeds are used to fund new Habitat houses.
Not only does your
donation help people out, it keeps perfectly serviceable stuff out of
landfills. I bet you feel better about yourself already. But wait, there’s
more: donations are tax-deductible, too. Just remember to donate to ReStore again when you squander
your tax refund on a new bathroom. For more info check www.rochesterhabitat.org or call 697-2012. (Linda
Kostin)
Best (albeit most nefarious) use of the airwaves
Billy Fuccillo
We all have various
commercials that we hate yet can’t help but watch, though I think we’re all in
agreement about the ad campaign of Billy Fuccillo,
the Central New York car dealer who, along
with henchman Tom Park, has recently turned commercial breaks into Must Leave
TV. You know who I’m talking about. Sometimes he’s clutching an oversized phone
number, sometimes he’s riding a Segway (and nothing
screams “I’m in touch with the people” quite like a useless luxury item), but Fuccillo always ends his commercials with a promise that
things are going to be huge — uh, I mean “heeeuuuuwww-jah.”
I don’t know whether these irritating and ubiquitous ads have translated into
actual sales, but if saturation and name recognition count for anything, then
the guy’s doing something right. But I pray nightly that his catchphrase
doesn’t seep into our lexicon and bastardize the rest of it: the last thing I
want to hear is someone bellow, “Hey, Dayna, that dress is so keeeuuuwww-tah!”
(DaynaPapaleo)
Best local political blog
Rochesterturning.com
This year’s
elections, particularly the congressional midterms, have launched the most
impressive crop of political bloggers we’ve yet seen
in the Rochester
area. But there’s one that stands out above the rest: Rochesterturning.com is a
progressive blog that’s group-written, which may
explain why it’s the most frequently updated blog
around. And not only do the bloggers keep their
content fresh, they often scoop the big mainstream media outlets. It’s a sign
of their presence in the local races that the bloggers’
e-mails show up on official media blast lists of some of the campaigns from
time to time. Plus, they do it all with a clean, eye-catching design.
So if you’re
listening Rochesterturning, we like you. Even when
you think we’re “losers” and our analysis is “idiotic.” (KrestiaDeGeorge)
Best pyrrhic political victory
Bob Colby and Ciaran Hanna
If you’re a Democrat
in this town it can be a little tough to tow the party line sometimes.
Loyalties and power are always shifting among the different players.
Republicans, meanwhile, have the opposite problem. The last time a Republican
broke ranks and criticized another in public was… well… we can’t remember the
last time. That’s why it was so surprising when GOP County Legislators Bob
Colby and Ciaran Hanna crossed the metaphorical aisle
to vote with their Democratic colleagues against a bill to move the budget
submission date until after elections. The vote still passed — barely. For
their troubles, the pair was stripped of committee assignments a few days
later. (KrestiaDeGeorge)
Best local hero
Delaine Cook-Greene, Coalition of Northeast Association, Inc.
Police officers go to
her for suggestions. NET officers rely on her, too. Whether she’s walking door
to door listening to her neighbors’ concerns, in her office helping someone
find housing, or making sure a young person has shoes and socks, Delaine Cook-Greene
has earned the respect of so many people in the community that she is often
referred to as the “mother of the northeast.” She says she moved here from New York City about 40 years ago, and fell in love with Rochester.
“It was so beautiful,
serene and comfortable, I had never seen anything like it before,” says
Cook-Greene. “We used to sit on our front porches, we looked out for one
another, and we were neighbors back then. It was so safe and friendly, no one
even thought of locking their doors.”
Cook-Greene has been
involved in CONEA for more than 10 years. Last year, the organization helped more
than 100 people with housing, referred more than 300 to the appropriate agency
for assistance, and worked with more than 200 children on everything from
clothing to homework to field trips to Albany.
She says her biggest
concern is the high school dropout rate, and finding ways to keep young people
in school.
“We must do
everything in our power to help our young people stay in school and prepare for
college,” she says. “They need to inherit the values that place priority on
education because without an education they are not going to survive.” (Tim
Louis Macaluso)
Best urban de-tarping
The new roof at Nick Tahou’s
You don’t have to be
an old-train lover or an ardent preservationist to applaud Nick Tahou’s for its impressive new roof. The job can’t have
been cheap, and it’s doing far more than providing shelter. The building’s the
oldest surviving passenger depot in Rochester,
and it’s a beautiful landmark, highly visible to people coming into the city
from the west. (Mary Anna Towler)
Best example of political backscratching
John Stanwix’s big pay raise
Yagotta love the way Monroe County
Republican leaders take care of their own. Former
Republican Party Chair John Stanwix got a sweet deal
heading the Monroe County Water Authority: raises amounting to nearly 45
percent in his last three years on the job. And two buddies on the Water
Authority board — big Republican donor Peter Formicola
and former Chamber of Commerce exec Tom Mooney — capped it off with a nice
going-away present when Stanwix retired four years
ago, at the age of 60. Unearned vacation pay, unearned sick leave, a nice
lump-sum payment: it was enough, according to a state audit, to ramp up his
state pension by 25 percent. (Mary Anna Towler)
Best ballot stuffer
You know who you are
We had a couple of
notable ballot stuffers this year — a diner, a spa, a hair salon — but we
were especially taken aback by the hardcore campaigning by the folks at one
health-minded business. Not only did the ownership send out e-mails encouraging
people to vote in multiple categories, but it also encouraged them to vote
multiple times and under multiple names. Ain’t
democracy grand?
To be fair, this
isn’t entirely the ballot-stuffing businesses’ fault. A competitor timed its
pale imitation of Best Of (Best Bus Route! Best Driveway Pavement
Company! Wow!) to coincide almost simultaneously with
our polling, and encouraged local businesses to campaign as hard as they
wanted.
We don’t play that.
You want to win Best Of, play fair. You can encourage people to vote for your
business, sure. But when you send dozens of ballots in for them, when you
encourage them to vote only for your business and not bother to fill out any
other categories, and when you encourage them to create fake aliases on your
behalf, well, that’s not cool. And it’s pretty easy to spot. And those votes
won’t be counted at all.
Better luck next
year! (Eric Rezsnyak)
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2006.
