Best Mobile Late-Night Fried
Food: All Good truck
Walking out of a bar close to last call and purchasing fast
food items from a street vendor is often a desperate act. It’s easy to lower
your standards when you know that you and your insides are going to pay a heavy
price in the morning. But you don’t have to with All Good, a mobile food truck
that’s parked outside the Bug Jar on Monday nights. All Good’s food is tasty —
damned tasty. The tender, delicious ground beef used in these burgers rivals
the patties at those “gourmet” joints, and the fries are deep fried to perfect
crispness in All Good’s distinctly flavorful oil and sprinkled with the truck’s
special seasoning powder. Pick up a tray and you’re guaranteed to make a bunch
of friends real quick. — BY SABY REYES-KULKARNI
Best Affordable Snack Selection: Abundance Co-Op bulk
section
While Abundance has its share of high-end products for
discriminating health- and eco-conscious tastes, its bulk section contains
several items that make you feel rich even if you’ve only got $2 to spend.
Banana chips and wild rice sticks, for example, are really cheap ($1.59/lb and
$2.69/lb respectively) and weigh practically nothing, so you can go to town
spending as little as 50 cents on each. The price tags on soy energy chunks and
coconut date rolls may look more imposing ($6.19 and $6.49 respectively), but
these are rich, delicious items where a little goes a long way. And you can’t
beat the friendliness of the Abundance staff or the casual, inviting
atmosphere. — BY SABY REYES-KULKARNI
Best Italian Cookie: Savoia
Pastry Shoppe
Savoia is one of the last Italian
bakeries of its kind in the Rochester
area. There’s nothing fancy or slick about it; cakes, pies, bread, and rolls
are baked fresh every morning. But it’s the cookies that bring back memories
for many of us. We’re talking about the kind of cookies usually found in New
York’s Little Italy. Chocolate and citrus meatball
cookies — those little round beasts with a crusty sugar frosting — are a must.
The sfogliatelle, layers of crispy pastry with a ricotta cheese filling, are
also impossible to resist.
Leave it to
the Italians to come up with a designer fig cookie. It’s a traditional holiday
favorite, and many families have recipes that are five and six generations old.
To make them is a labor of love. But fuhggedaboutit! Savoia makes a fig cookie
Mama will approve.
Michael
Petrantoni and his wife, Theresa, opened Savoia in 1929. Theresa passed away
quite a few years ago, and two years ago the business was
sold. Savioa’s new owners, Kathy and George Privitera, carry on the tradition
at the store’s Clifford Avenue
location.
Savioa, we
salute you.– BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO
Best Donut: Ridge Donut Café
Tom and Josephine Marcello know a thing or two about donuts.
They’ve been in the business for nearly 40 years. Located on Portland
Avenue across from Rochester
GeneralHospital,
Ridge Donuts is the all-American roadside coffee shop with fry cakes and donuts
that are in a class by themselves. Glazed, filled, powdered or plain — they
make them all. Forget about the Pearly Gates. A plate full of Josephine’s
hand-cut creations, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, should be
waiting for all of us when we reach the other side. We’ll know we’re in the
right place.– BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO
Best Spirit: Tournedos’ Fruit-Infused Vodka
The first time I tasted it, I felt duped. Sure, its flavor
was the chaste essence of fruit: liquid alchemy worthy of an OWL from Hogwarts.
But at $10 a glass I was looking for some essential bang for my bucks. There
wasn’t any alcohol in it! Or so I thought. Served in a chilled martini glass
with a slice of fresh orange, this delicious liquid is shaken with ice,
creating a canopy of soft foam that can become a telltale sign on the tip of
your nose if you’re not careful.
Tournedos
Executive Chef Tom Polizzi brings this spirit to life. About every two weeks,
he layers the vase with artfully sliced pineapples and oranges (blood oranges
when in season, and sometimes some grapefruit) and fills it to the brim with
Absolut Vodka. Usually done at closing time on Saturday nights, by Monday it
has soaked up the flavors. Hence, no revealing tastes of alcohol. So even
though it tastes like heaven, contact this spirit with respectful caution. — BY
DALE A. EVANS
Best Excuse for Road Rage: 490 Gateway project
Stuck at the 390 split in the morning.
Backed up beyond the new Freddy-Sue bridge on the way
home. Ah, bliss. Late mergers compound the agony of the State Department of
Transportation’s 490 Gateway (to Hell) project, slated to last — yikes! — until winter 2009. Close to 100,000 motorists gas-brake this
section of Interstate every day, including the poodle-perm who cut in so close
I didn’t need to shave for a week. And then she had the nerve to wave a mock
howdoyado! (Still looking for you, lady.) Drivers
pinball from lane to lane to avoid closures and curse the one hard hat out
there, forever digging, digging, digging at the same spot. Alas, I am addicted
to my paycheck, and my son to his “Caillou” DVDs, so it’s back in the Chevy for
the 45-minute, 10-mile commute. — BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN
BestBuilding
to Give You Wings: Dancing WingsButterflyGarden at NationalMuseum of Play
This strange — and strangely beautiful — building on Monroe
Avenue looks like a cross between a manta ray and
an accordion, and is home to hundreds of tropical butterflies and moths. Though
geared for children, the butterfly garden offers people of all ages an
opportunity to do and see something really cool that you just wouldn’t expect
to find in this area. So many butterflies live and flutter about the garden
that you have to be careful not to step on them, and it’s common to have one
land on you. (“Butterflies taste with their feet, and want to know if you are
sweet!” exclaims a voice on a video monitor at the entry to the exhibit.) Some
of the specimens look, on first glance, to be as big as birds, and the concrete
path that winds through the lush, jungle-like vegetation feels so surreal and
incongruous to Rochester that
images from the famous Ray Bradbury story “A Sound of Thunder” spring to mind.
Watch your step — and bear in mind that it’s humid in there, but also that the
heat only adds to the charm of the experience. — BY SABY REYES-KULKARNI
Best Blatant Example of Nepotism: Riga’s
Pamela Moore
Politicians like to give their buddies and relatives jobs.
It’s one of the time-honored spoils of political victory. We know it’s true,
but the more egregious examples still shock us.
And this
year we only had to look to Riga
for an excuse to be outraged. Town Supervisor Pamela Moore hit a nerve with her
constituents (and anyone who advocates for open and responsible government)
when, in May, she stripped Town Board member Kenneth Kuter of his deputy
supervisor title, then appointed her husband, Gilbert Budd, to the position.
Before this
happened, Riga Republicans passed over Moore
and endorsed Kuter to run for her job in the November elections. So a lot of
people were convinced that Moore’s
actions were petty politics. But she said Kuter’s demotion was based on her
concerns over his performance as deputy supervisor.
In towns
across the state, the supervisor is an elected official and the deputy
supervisor is typically a member of the town board — they are also elected
officials. The cries of nepotism could be heard across the county. — BY JEREMY
MOULE
Best Dramatic Exit: Webster’s Jack Judge
When Webster Mayor Jack Judge quit his post mid-meeting in
September, it was a stunning political exit. He stood up, said he was sick of
being criticized, and quit. And he hasn’t spoken publicly about it since. By
all accounts, nobody saw it coming. And even though Judge was the central
figure in a year-long scandal in the village, residents and other village
officials tried to keep him from officially resigning, which he did on October
1.
Here’s the
back story: Judge removed an employee’s files from Village Hall, which he
wasn’t supposed to do. And while those files were in his possession, some of
the employee’s paperwork went missing. When an unnamed employee lodged a
complaint about the matter, the Village Board hired an attorney to investigate.
He said Judge and Trustee Patricia Cataldi, who also was
involved, broke no laws. And then he charged the village $12,000.
That
resulted in a protracted dispute between village trustees over who should pay
the bill and whether the attorney’s findings were credible. According to media
reports, Judge tried to pay the legal bill, but his check was returned by the
firm, who said the money must come from the village. There were also questions
about who actually hired the attorney.
Judge was
clearly under pressure, though all anybody really wanted from him was an
admission of wrongdoing and an apology, which it appears they never got. And
probably never will.– BY JEREMY MOULE
Best Bus Stops: ARTWalk bus shelters
The new bus shelters on University
Avenue, completed late this summer, add another
dimension to the urban vision called ARTWalk. Functional but aesthetic and
engaging, the shelters are the work of local artists, designers, and architects
led by Nancy Gong, Ed Stringham, and John and Laurie Grieco.
Some are
more whimsical, such as the colorful umbrella stop at Elton and Goodman. Some
simply look sleek and chic, like the minimalist glass encasing posted on the
corner of University and Goodman. But all of them give an already
character-filled neighborhood some additional pizzazz.
Recognition
should also go ARTWalk’s Doug Rice and Paul Kramer. The two have helped
transform the University Avenue
corridor into something that is not only a commercial success, but an urban
housing and lifestyle success. — BY TIM MACALUSO
Best Cure for Cabin Fever: Highland
Park’s Lamberton Conservatory
The first thing that hits you is the brightness. Then the pretty colors.Then the smells.
And best of all, outside the wind chill may cut to the bone marrow, but inside
the Conservatory it’s a warm paradise. It’s like taking a mini vacation.
The seasonal
room changes throughout the year, but it’s always filled with brightly colored flowers.
Delicate orchids peek out of crevices in the exotic plantings area and the
sound of a waterfall gently trickles in the background. It is so green and
lush, but not as much as the tropical forest display under the main dome. The
banana tree, decorated with sprays of its fruit, shows evidence of nibbles from
the resident chipmunk. Above the goldfish pond is an observation deck. There
are benches and chairs throughout the building, but this perch is my favorite
place for a coffee break. I sip from my to-go cuppa and try to spy on the
turtle. I’ve only seen him twice. He lives a satisfyingly sheltered life
amongst the heavy foliage.
Don’t let
the snake scare you in the desert room. It’s fake. The “economic use” room has
things like a coffee tree, but I like the Venus Flytraps. I’m not sure how
they’re used economically, nor the house plants, some of
which are for sale. Believe it or not, by the time I’ve made it through
the whole place, I’m hot, and almost want a breath of cool air. — BY DALE A.
EVANS
Best Saturday Morning Hangout: the Public Market
The Public Market is everything wonderful Rochester
aspires to be, and is. The market is open Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it’s more
of a Saturday thing. Farmers and vendors from Western New York
to the Finger Lakes make the trip in the wee hours to
set up before dawn. It’s a state-fair-meets-urban-chic atmosphere, which makes
it the best shopping in Rochester.
Of course,
you’ll find all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Much of the produce is grown
locally by small farmers. There’s a whole cadre of specialty food vendors
offering cheese, baked goods, handmade sausages, and local wines. And if you’re
feeling like grabbing something quick to eat, you can have anything from Polish
pierogi to barbeque chicken to rice and beans. It’s all good Rochester
soul food.
But what
really makes the Public Market percolate is the people. It’s the best
people-watching hangout in Monroe County. It’s the great equalizer: everyone is
invited, from the newly arrived and the well established, the young and the
old, the urban singles and the minivans from the suburbs.
Yes, the
parking gets hairy in the summer months, but it’s worth the walk from a side
street. And sure, maybe the city could widen the lot and add a few more shops.
But if they spruced it up too much, it wouldn’t be the same. It would be, um,
Wegmans.– BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO
Best Free Movies: Monroe Avenue Public Library
They say you should never judge a book by its cover.
Thankfully, they don’t say that about movies. At the library I usually just
flip through the laminated DVD cards, picking out movies I’ve never heard of
but that look like they might be interesting. I’m willing to hedge my bets and
it almost always pays off.
After one
rental adventure yielded a man on a high stool silently observing another man’s
kitchen movements, a young man obsessed with stalking random strangers, and
East Indian go-go dancers on a giant typewriter, I asked the librarians how
they chose their films. Most of them come recommended by the neighborhood’s
patrons, and many of those patrons frequent The Little. And if you like the
British mysteries shown on PBS, they have them too, along with many of the
Brit-coms. And all of it is absolutely free for the borrowing. — BY DALE A.
EVANS
Best Movie Snuggle Buddy: Princess the Cinema Cat
The Cinema Theatre at the corner of Goodman and Clinton
offers many amenities: cheap tickets, low-cost concessions, and quality flicks.
And it’s also home to Princess the Cinema Cat. Princess is actually the second
Cinema cat that owner Jo Ann Morreale has had over the past 23 years; the first
one, Nadi, passed away several years ago. Princess has free reign of the
theater, and will often cuddle up with random patrons during the run of a film.
Morreale says that she has one couple that comes in every weekend with a pillow
so that Princess can sit between them, while others complain that Princess
passes them over for snuggle time. Princess is something of a film buff too,
Morreale says, and makes her opinions known if she doesn’t like a flick –
especially if a movie involves birds. “When we had ‘The Wild Parrots of
Telegraph Hill’ she went wild,” Morreale says. “And ‘March of the Penguins’ was
very disturbing to her.” You and me both, Princess.– BY ERIC REZSNYAK
Best Place to Shoot a Fake Deer: Acme Bar & Grill
Normally, booze and guns aren’t a good combination. Acme Bar
& Grill seems to have found the exception: Big Buck Hunter. It’s just a
video game, so you can drink beer and shoot at things, and nobody gets hurt.
The game’s
premise is simple: use the plastic shotgun to shoot the animals. I have no idea
why shooting at fake animals on a screen is fun, but it is. I do feel a little
guilty, and there’s definitely a moral conflict — I’ve been a vegetarian for
years and make a conscious effort (though sometimes half-assed) not to
contribute to animal suffering. But I’m only human. And humans are complex,
confusing creatures.
Acme isn’t
the only place where you’ll find the game. But it is a great neighborhood haunt
and has good beer on the cheap, so it’s the best place to play it. — BY JEREMY
MOULE
Best Acoustic Holler from a Blue Collar: Dave McGrath
Dave McGrath is one of the hardest-working men in showbiz
’round these parts. After slaving away all day, the man works all night as the
crowds in the bars he plays work it all off. Just dig his schedule at davemcgrath.com; the cat is playing out
just about every night. And where a musician could cop a world-weary tone under
these circumstances, McGrath shoulders his guitar in lieu of his burdens and
shares the joy with his big smile, and in his sweet tenor and puts it in
perspective the way only a classic singer/songwriter can. — BY FRANK DE BLASE
Best Local Band Website: The Isotopes
The Isotopes have it down; a surf instrumental extravaganza
with on-stage sci-fi effects, go-go girls, four dudes named after “Simpsons”
characters, and guitar playing so wild it’ll make your Dick Dale.
Here’s a
band that needs no pimping or preening or corporate rot to pitch what they got.
But it does get the smartass message out with its website. Just dig
theisotopes.com: public service announcements, commercials, video clips, and
girls, girls, girls. This is so much more than a “dig our band, buy our swag,
come to our shows, look how cool we are” website. This is a page on which you
can proudly waste hours of valuable work time. Warning: The Topes’ use of
nuclear puke green throughout the site may damage your retinas. — BY FRANK DE
BLASÉ
Best Jukebox: Marge’s Lakeside Inn
There’s great music to be had every night of the week in this
town. But duck into a bar without a band on stage and things can go downhill
fast. Top 40 blares at eardrum-destroying levels from the radio, the new
digital jukebox demands all your money, or it’s midnight at Lux and your Pixies
song is never gonna play because some dude just fed the box with bills to last
’til the chairs are on the tables.
There are a
few options at this point. You can drink until the music doesn’t matter, or
head home to your own records. But to get that juke joint fix, hop a cab toward
the lake and pay a visit to the real thing. At Marge’s the jukebox is waiting —
a real jukebox, from before the word
“digital” was invented — aglow with flashing lights and stocked with a coveted
collection of 45’s from the 50s and beyond. At five songs for a buck, the first
set could sound like this: Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline, the Everly Brothers,
Elvis, the Rolling Stones. Songs come crackling over the speakers and suddenly
the year’s up for debate. If you want to live dangerously, select one of the
mystery songs hand-labeled ‘yuck’ by past bar patrons and see if the current
clientele pushes the override button on you. — BY JEN GRANEY
Best Sound Institution: Roman Stecura
I’m not sure he’s the Roman referred to in The Bible, but
soundman Roman Stecura, 52, has been at the board mixing for a long, long time.
If you haven’t ever had Roman mix your band — even once — then you really
haven’t played in Rochester. Stecura’s been mixing since 1974 and has toured
with acts like Survivor, Bonnie Raitt, and Spyro Gyra. He’s an institution with
a salt ‘n’ pepper mop top, and he still gets a thrill hearing the diversity in
up-and-coming bands. “But the volume,” he says. “These kids gotta turn down.”
Check out Stecura at his regular gig at Water Street Music
Hall, plus at random outdoor shows during the summer. — BY FRANK DE BLASE
Best Pointless Crusade: The D&C’s “Unplug Gangsta
Rap”
For the past three years the Democrat and Chronicle has
pushed its “Unplug Gangsta Rap” project, an initiative spearheaded by Editorial
Page Editor James F. Lawrence, who decries the negative impacts of this “vile”
music on the African-American community. The sentiment is a good one, no doubt,
but…has anyone at the D&C actually listened to the radio in the past 10
years? Or been in a record store? Or perhaps heard of iTunes? “Gangsta” rap is
as outdated as the term “fo’shizzle.” The genre’s most notable progenitors are
either dead or Hollywood actors (Ice-T plays a cop on “Law & Order” and Snoop Dogg is about to get a reality
show in which he golfs, for pity heaven’s sake). The current rap sound is
melodic, fun, danceable and much more concerned about getting the girl than it
is with popping a cap in somebody’s ass. What’s next, a commitment to
eradicating polio? — BY ERIC REZSNYAK
Best Place to Find an Anonymous Hook-up: Craigslist
You can find almost anything on Craigslist: furniture, cars,
real estate, and, yes, sex. Good old, get down to it, humpty hump is what
Criagslist’s personals are all about.
There are
nine different categories of personals ads. The ones that seem to get the most
postings are Women Seeking Men, Men Seeking Men, Men Seeking Women, and Casual
Encounters. From reading the postings, it’s clear that the emphasis is on
“let’s do it on now,” and younger is better than older.
Craigslist
has its own quirky protocol. Endless emails are a no-no. And pictures are a big
deal. But if you don’t have photos, don’t worry — some one will probably take
photos of you. You might want to be careful with recognizable surroundings,
tattoos, and scars.
There’s the
occasional “Looking for Lasting Love” posting; walks on the beach, hiking in
the country, romantic movies and backrubs. Those ads are kind of like the
oldest dog at the pound.
You might
not find the love of your life on Craigslist, but you’ll have a good laugh
reading the postings. And, who knows?– BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2007.
