Rochester NY, Favorite Wine Shop and Wine Restaurants?

Briceland is in the process of getting distribution in NY State.

My wife’s family is in Rochester and Fairport. She will be back and I am hoping she can visit a couple of shops and restaurants on her visit.

Suggestions?

TIA!

Best shoppe I can think of is Pinnacle on Monroe in Brighton. Great place and right up the alley for strange Californians.

Then there is always Century down the road in Pittsford, owned by Wegmans (indirectly).

Thanks, Markus. I will give Pinnacle a call.

Any restaurants you know of or a decent source for a list?

Pittsford Wine and Spirits is a nice shop. Tell your wife it’s the Ski Loft building (where I used to work) on Schoen Place. Great folks.

I was told that Char is considered one of the best restaurants in town – it’s fancy and expensive. Nosh is lower key, less fancy, but still great.

Sorry. No idea of current restaurants, but I’m sure you can still get a Garbarge Plate at Nick Tahou’s along with Texas Hots elsewhere in the city

Make sure you’re trashed if you get the garbage plate.

Wine stores:

Century wines in Pittsford—wide selection with lots of older Bordeaux and burgs
Market view in Henrietta—fairly wide selection
Pinnacle (mentioned above) in Brighton—smaller inventory, but very well chosen

Restaurants:

If you’re coming from somewhere like Boston or nyc with a booming high end dining scene, you need to adjust expectations a bit. On the plus side, corkage is an option pretty much everywhere, usually for 15 or 20 dollars. Take advantage of this and you’ll have a good time. With that in mind, I’d recommend:

Good Luck—pretty straightforward, but usually well done; often annoyingly loud, unfortunately
Branca Midtown—solid
The Kitchen—higher aspirations, but a bit hit or miss (tho I haven’t been in a while)

Elliot

PS avoid the garbage plate at all costs.

Hi Elliot,

Thanks for taking time to write.

I am looking for places that we might sell wine. Ideally in places that I’d eat,but that’s not an absolute.

Is there any place that has a wine list where some off the beaten path, modestly priced small batch wines might be of interest?

Thanks

Apologies–I obviously read through too quickly.

I don’t order off of lists very often, but in addition to the places mentioned above, maybe take a look at these to see if any seem like a good fit.

I still recommend staying away from the garbage plate!

Elliot

Thanks, Elliot.

I will see if any of those look like a fit. It seems like selling off the beaten path wines out there might be a stretch, at least in restaurants. Do you tend to agree?

I’m thinking Finger Lakes wines would have the home field advantage being local and all, as is the trend in restaurants, but hey, you never know.

Andrew,

I’m hesitant to say anything that sounds remotely definitive because I don’t know much about the local wine scene outside of the little corner I play in. FWIW, I think that there is a market for stuff that’s off the beaten path, but it’s fairly small. Additionally, my sense is that restaurant lists tend to be relatively short and basic, and as Markus points out, it’s pretty much obligatory for them to devote a chunk of their space to local production (especially for whites).

But again, please don’t take anything I say as definitive. Maybe check out some menus and make a few calls? Best of luck!

Elliot

This place (Redd) is getting a lot of buzz. Opens in April, and assume they’re building their list.

Andrew:
Not sure if you are into Burgundy. Kodak had their European factory in Chalon so their engineers, chemists and executives visited frequently. Before Century was sold to Wegmans they were across the street from Kodak. Back in the day Sherwood was very welcome in Beaune because he purchased in distributor quantities instead of that of a retailer.

Thanks for this. I hadn’t heard about it.

Elliot

Parkway wine and liquor. In Greece, NY. Not affiliated but what a gem of a wine shop. Matt the buyer finds gems from all over the world. Total wine geek and will talk for an hour with you about any of the wines in his shop. Highly recommend