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Rochester, NY experts chime in!

blackangst1

blackangst1

Lifer
Ill be visiting a friend in September and will have some free time while there. Any "must-sees" there? Ill be staying in the Greece area (west side I believe). Love good food, interesting things, music. Any must-go-to bars?

School me!
 
Eastview Mall is great. Letchworth State Park is a scenic place to visit. They also have China Buffet, the best Chinese buffet I have been to.

Also, if you have never been, visit a Wegmans and be amazed.
 
Go see the Wegmans. (This is only a tiny bit of a joke... it's the best grocery store ever.) If you have some time and are willing to drive, go see wine country. Order a garbage plate.
 
Plenty of Wineries and now a bunch of good craft breweries.
Hiking trails and parks like Letchworth and Taughannock Falls.
Wegmans in Pittsford if you want to see a real Grocery store 🙂
Garbage plates are a must for visitors to try.
Tons of local restaurants around. Try the Park Ave area or Good Luck off of North Goodman St.
Visit the Erie Canal, walk along it in Fairport or Pittsford and shop and eat at some nice places.
 
If you google it, you can easily find a schedule of events for whichever week you're in Rochester. They have quite a few enjoyable festivals throughout the year. And, if you like hiking and Niagara Falls, you'll love Letchworth. I'd much rather spend a day at Letchworth than at Niagara Falls - a lot more peaceful. (Though, a lack of casinos and gaudy shops.) It's probably close to an hour's drive from Webster though.
 
Dinosaur BBQ is a must-see. There may be a line. Its worth the wait. Get the ribs.

Jeremiah's is consistently voted best wings in town. But go to the Monroe Avenue location. Warning - hot is HOT. This is Western New York, and we take our wings seriously.

The Distillery also has great wings. But go to the Mt. Hope Avenue location or the Eastview Mall/Victor location. Nice outside patio at the Eastview Mall one.

I would generally avoid Greece, not because its not a nice place (it is), but the traffic is just unbearable. In 20 minutes you can drive from one side of Monroe County to the other, or drive 2 miles down Ridge Road in Greece. Ugh.

Visit Nick Tahou's in downtown and get a garbage plate, loaded. You'll have to go for lunch , because its no longer open late nights due to douche-bags.

http://www.freetime.com/
 
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Letchworth is okay, but it's not in Rochester. It's pretty-ish especially in the fall. September should be okay.

If you want to see stuff close to Rochester without too much of a hike out of town you'l have:
The Eastman House
Hamlin Beach (State Park)
Rochester Museum & Science Center
Strasenburgh Planetarium
Seabreeze (Amusement Park)
There's several nice golf courses in Rochester if you're into golf (Oak Hill Country Club is notable)
Tons of fishing
Eastman Park
Canal Park
Speaking of the Canal - I don't know if they still do canal boat tours or not (The Erie Canal that is... it's kinda cool)
Wegman's was mention - it's a grocery store, but I make abso-fucking-lutely sure to get myself a sub whenever I make it up there.
Speaking of subs - not sure if Dibella's is still kicking, but they're what Wegman's subs are inspired from.
The Garbage Plate was mentioned - that's Nick Tahoes.
Shopping - there's tons of it, nothing notable. But the Mall at Greece Ridge was pretty huge when I used to live up there. I preferred Marketplace in Henrietta though, and there's Eastview Mall on the other side of the city in Victor.

Unfortunately, September means you'll be between both the Red Wings (AAA baseball, just ends) and Amerks (AHL hockey, hasn't started yet) seasons.

That's some of the stuff to do in Rochester itself.

If you're willing to venture out of the greater Rochester area and drive within a couple hours in any given direction, then yes, you've got:
Letchworth State Park
Niagara Falls
Catch a Buffalo Bills (Football) game
Hit the Finger Lakes Wine Trail
Syracuse (Basketball?)
Darien Lake (Big Amusement Park)
Visit the Attica Prison and make a new friend
Go visit DrPizza and meet his goats
 
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Oh, and OP... take a stroll down Genesee Street. :biggrin:

(No, seriously, don't)

But on a side note, you can go to the Genesee Brew House downtown and do a tour there. I completely forgot about that.

And as far as food goes, my wife and I used to go to a sports pub called Tully's Good Times (There's one in Henrietta). It's nothing super fancy - it's a small chain up in NY. But the food was good, service was decent, prices were pretty good and the portions were decent sized. Their loaded fries were pretty awesome IIRC, and I liked "The Tully".
 
Jumpem said:
Also, if you have never been, visit a Wegmans and be amazed.
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If not a joke you need to get out more. OP, Rochester is a very nice area. I consider it my second home. If I were visiting I would spend all of my time with my relatives in/around Greece.
 
skimple said:
Dinosaur BBQ is a must-see. There may be a line. Its worth the wait. Get the ribs.
http://www.freetime.com/
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Or Sticky Lips. Both are excellent; and to me, worth the 1 1/2 hour drive for dinner, though I found their chicken to be meh, everything else is outstanding. When you're standing in line, you'll notice that everyone leaving has a doggy bag. The food is so good you'll want the leftovers; and the meals are plentiful.
 
Oh, and if you're into a bit of (sad) history, there's a ton of small towns surrounding Rochester. In those small towns, there's cemeteries. In those cemeteries you'll find graves dating all the way back to the late 1700's and early 1800's.

Speaking of history like that, there's a bunch of cool cemeteries in Batavia (about 45 minutes away from Greece), but notably there's also the Holland Land Office Museum there too. It's not anything major or terribly exciting, but if you want to learn about some of the early history of how the colonial and pre-colonial settlement of Western NY happened, that's a pretty good place to start.

The aforementioned cemeteries in Batavia would be on Harvester Avenue by the way. I used to spend a lot of time playing in them growing up. But you wouldn't have to go to Batavia to find cemeteries like that though.
 
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SunnyD said:
Oh, and if you're into a bit of (sad) history, there's a ton of small towns surrounding Rochester. In those small towns, there's cemeteries. In those cemeteries you'll find graves dating all the way back to the late 1700's and early 1800's.

Speaking of history like that, there's a bunch of cool cemeteries in Batavia (about 45 minutes away from Greece), but notably there's also the Holland Land Office Museum there too. It's not anything major or terribly exciting, but if you want to learn about some of the early history of how the colonial and pre-colonial settlement of Western NY happened, that's a pretty good place to start.

The aforementioned cemeteries in Batavia would be on Harvester Avenue by the way. I used to spend a lot of time playing in them growing up. But you wouldn't have to go to Batavia to find cemeteries like that though.
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:\

Seriously, cemeteries?
 
SunnyD said:
Letchworth is okay, but it's not in Rochester. It's pretty-ish especially in the fall. September should be okay.

If you want to see stuff close to Rochester without too much of a hike out of town you'l have:
The Eastman House - Yes.
Hamlin Beach (State Park) - Meh, I grew up in Hamlin so it isn't that great to me, but it is definitely one of the better beaches in the area.
Rochester Museum & Science Center - Yes.
Strasenburgh Planetarium - Yes.
Seabreeze (Amusement Park) - No... It is overrun with trash and not a good park anymore. Sadly, once the buses started stopping there, the place took a turn for the worse. They didn't even open on Memorial Day this year because of fights in the past
There's several nice golf courses in Rochester if you're into golf (Oak Hill Country Club is notable) - Golfing is good, but I don't think Oak Hill is open to the public. There are plenty of courses around though.
Tons of fishing - Definitely. One of the main things I do in the summer around here, but unless you know someone with a boat you'll probably be stuck fishing from shore.
Eastman Park - If you mean Durand Eastman Park, yes. Awesome trails and views, plenty of wildlife to see. My dog sometimes gets ticks on these trails though, just a forewarning. The golf course isn't bad either.
Canal Park - Eh, its just another park to me. The bike path on the canal is nice though.
Speaking of the Canal - I don't know if they still do canal boat tours or not (The Erie Canal that is... it's kinda cool) - Pretty sure they still have boat tours, that could be fun.
Wegman's was mention - it's a grocery store, but I make abso-fucking-lutely sure to get myself a sub whenever I make it up there. - Can't beat Wegmans.
Speaking of subs - not sure if Dibella's is still kicking, but they're what Wegman's subs are inspired from. - Don't eat subs, and didn't even know DiBella's was only in this area.
The Garbage Plate was mentioned - that's Nick Tahoes. - I don't eat them, but whenever friends come back from being away for a while they always want one.
Shopping - there's tons of it, nothing notable. But the Mall at Greece Ridge was pretty huge when I used to live up there. I preferred Marketplace in Henrietta though, and there's Eastview Mall on the other side of the city in Victor. - Eastview is the only decent mall nowadays. Greece went to shit a while ago, and Marketplace followed soon after. They did some renovations at Greece Ridge, but it didn't help.

Unfortunately, September means you'll be between both the Red Wings (AAA baseball, just ends) and Amerks (AHL hockey, hasn't started yet) seasons.

That's some of the stuff to do in Rochester itself.

If you're willing to venture out of the greater Rochester area and drive within a couple hours in any given direction, then yes, you've got:
Letchworth State Park - Love visiting Letchworth.
Niagara Falls - Not really fond of Niagara Falls, unless I'm going to gamble. The US side is pretty run-down.
Catch a Buffalo Bills (Football) game - Tailgating is fun.
Hit the Finger Lakes Wine Trail - Definitely.
Syracuse (Basketball?) - Meh.
Darien Lake (Big Amusement Park) - I haven't been to the actual park in a long time, but go a couple times every summer for the concerts. See if there is anything worthwhile playing while you're in town.
Visit the Attica Prison and make a new friend - All my good friends live in Attica.
Go visit DrPizza and meet his goats - I'm not even sure where he lives, but I know it's south of here.
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My input to all of SunnyD's suggestions. When I get some time I'll add some of my own...
 
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Drako said:
:\

Seriously, cemeteries?
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Seriously. When you walk through some of the old cemeteries (which are rather nice in their own way, the old ones aren't really creepy at all) and start looking at some of the headstones seeing dates like 1796 and 1816 and whatnot and some of the things that are written on them, realizing that hey, this guy fought in this war or this guy did that.

For me growing up in the town I did it was a bit different because I could actually trace some of the town's roots all the way back to those dates, which what kind of cool. But yes, it's history in a way that nearly nobody every stops to even think about.
 
If you're into music, go see the Rochester Philharmonic at Eastman Theatre. The season starts in September, so check it out.
 
There aren't any "must-go-to" bars in Rochester, the nightlife actually kinda sucks. A lot of the bars are getting shut down because of shootings and fights, but they weren't good places to begin with. If you're looking for "high-class" type bars, check out Good Luck or The Revelry. My roommate works at Good Luck and I know some of the bartenders so I don't pay the ridiculous prices, but be prepared to pay quite a bit for a drink. If you're a beer snob, check out Tap and Mallet. Like someone else suggested, the Genesee Brew House gives tours of the facility. A friend of mine is the bar manager up on the second floor, it is a good place to get bar food and sit outside along the river.
 
Wow thanks guys for all the suggestions! The river tour looks kinda neat too. I'll be staying HERE.

Ill consolidate alot of these suggestions into something I can take with me. Appreciate the ideas!
 
blackangst1 said:
Wow thanks guys for all the suggestions! The river tour looks kinda neat too. I'll be staying HERE.

Ill consolidate alot of these suggestions into something I can take with me. Appreciate the ideas!
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Oh hell, that's not Greece. That's downtown. You're going to be within walking distance to Strong Museum and whatnot.
 
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