Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go! My dad knows the way to fix the sleigh, when the radiator decides to blow, OH! When I was a kid, my favorite part of the holiday season was the road trips. We have family all over northern New York and Canada, and my parents were adamant about…
3.11.2026
’Tis the season! The holidays are stressful—wholesome, but stressful. And one of the easiest ways to break the ice with Mom’s second cousin once removed whom you last saw when you were six, is to have a great cocktail in hand. Ryan Dooling runs The Classic alongside owners Drew and Marie Nye and has been in the hospitality business for…
3.11.2026
The Long Island with warm garlic butter The shores of Lake Ontario might not be brimming with lobster, but it’s not hard to find a top-tier, fresh, juicy roll right in the (585). I like a lot of foods, but seafood is my favorite, and I don’t think that will ever change. East Coast and West Coast, I’ve had it…
3.11.2026
Pasta Bolognese The cheese tray at the brewery was built for four people, not the crowd of us circling it like vultures fifteen minutes into a two-hour panel discussion. We stood there staring at what looked like a Polly Pocket accessory, doing the math on how a roomful of thirty adults were supposed to split eleven cubes of pepper jack. …
3.11.2026
Lynne Hooker It was 1967, and Monroe County was still gun shy, especially in my neck of the woods in the northeastern corner of Chili. Just six months earlier, my friends George-Ann Formicola and Kathy Bernhard had disappeared. They remained missing for a month and were found brutally murdered. So there was an immediate shudder of horror when word came…
2.11.2026
Six mornings a week, long before the lunch line begins to form, the staff and volunteers at St. Peter’s Kitchen tie on their aprons and get to work preparing lunch for the 300-plus guests who will walk through its doors midday. Outside, the aroma drifting from the kitchen evokes Thanksgiving dinner. Inside, it’s even more inviting as team members move…
2.11.2026
Growing up in Webster, Bill Polito heard all about the town’s annual Turkey Trot, a running event held each Thanksgiving morning. In 1988, he moved to a house on Holt Road, a mile from the starting line, and decided to join in the fun. “I ran in high school and decided to give the Turkey Trot a try,” he says.…
2.11.2026
Ashley Cross is a third-generation foster parent who has devoted her life to her community, providing free programs and services to Rochester youth and families through HOPE585, a relationship-centered community where marginalized youth and their families can hope, heal, and thrive. While living in Oklahoma, Cross started the first professional foster home for young ladies preparing to age out of…
2.11.2026
You may have had pie from Special Touch Bakery without even knowing it. “When you go to Wegmans and see the pies that have the hearts on them? We help make those for them,” says Jillian Nalivyko, marketing and public relations manager at the School of the Holy Childhood. Special Touch Bakery has an integrated workforce. Its mission is “Purpose…
2.11.2026
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Dates & nuts: Pride, prejudice, and pursuit

Several years ago, I was working alongside lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people on the regular as a marketing director for a local nonprofit serving these communities. Like many coworkers, we would occasionally swap stories and commiserate about our wacky dating lives. In fact, the first time I was shown a profile in the …

The adventurous gardener

Terri Sauerhafer didn’t plan to go into the business of growing plants—she was just trying to find interesting varieties for her own vegetable garden. She’s an avid cook and had little interest in the standard selections available in the nurseries, so she started scoping out seed catalogs and quickly decided that growing her own was …

Pierogies and so much more, including great greens

Slaskie are delicate potato dumplings. EuroCafé serves them as a composed salad with smoked pork, grilled onions, and three combinations of fruits and vegetables.   EuroCafé 116 Main Street, Geneseo 585-447-9252 euro-cafe.us ​ Downtown Geneseo is a mini Ithaca overlooking a gorgeous river valley. A stately four-block procession of pizza parlors, coffee shops, and pubs …

The Batavia Ramble Music & Arts Fest

Find your way through back alleys to Jackson Square in Batavia on July 2, and you’ll feel like you’ve stepped onto a movie set for a film about grassroots Americana. A gentle breeze flaps sunlit red, white, and blue flags; people of all ages dance in front of a portable stage, and musicians play tirelessly …

Culinary memories

Think they’ll end up testing the best recipes for a garbage plate?  Rochester native Julia Collin Davison is set to take over cohosting duties on the popular Boston-based public broadcasting show America’s Test Kitchen early next year. She’s been on the show since its beginning in 2001 and looks forward to filling the role left …

Baby shoes that get the lead out

  When Katerina Buscemi took her daughter Olivia for her one-year check-up, the tests revealed a high amount of lead in her blood. Thankfully, it turned out to be a false positive—but by then Buscemi was already reeling and had begun examining her environment to find the culprit. “One thing I discovered was how abundant …

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