Wayne Cole behind the bar at Mike’s Ridge Terrace Pub & Grill The year is 1978. There’s disco glam, Grease playing at the drive-in, Jimmy Carter in the White House, Sony Walkmans blasting “Stayin’ Alive,” and nineteen-year-old Wayne Coyle serving drinks at the Ontario Center Hotel. “I drove my ten-speed to work,” Coyle says. Now sixty-seven, Coyle’s been a friendly…
Black skinny jeans with home-cut holes in the knees, my mom’s vintage Levi’s jean jacket, and a pair of tattered Vans stomped me up the cement steps of Dicky’s Corner Pub on the night of my twenty-first birthday. It had to be the first stop—my best friend loved going there, and she was on a mission to make sure we…
Asking your boss out for drinks is risky. Inviting them to a speakeasy with a secret bookshelf entrance? Now that’s just good career strategy. At least, that was my gamble visiting Vanni’s, the new jazz lounge inside the Inn on Broadway. With two kids, visiting a bar that’s open only three days a week requires intense planning. So when researching…
I’ve been painting wooden bunnies for so long that I can’t feel my fingertips. My little sister is right beside me at the kids’ table, running sandpaper across wood in a frenzy; beads of sweat hang off her nose. At the big table behind me, my aunt uses a miniature paint brush to dot the irises of the bunnies’ eyes.…
In 1990, Monroe County’s daytime television viewing habits were disrupted by a TV first: the live broadcast of The People v. Arthur J. Shawcross. Never before had home viewers anywhere been given access to gavel-to-gavel coverage of a sordid murder trial. The show lasted eleven weeks, September to December. Viewers who normally followed daytime dramas or game shows were instead…
When the Rochester Broadway Theatre League (RBTL) embarked on a multi-year revitalization of the West Herr Performing Arts Center, the goal was never a simple face-lift. Known as Project Restouration, the effort seeks to preserve one of Rochester’s most architecturally significant buildings while also reimagining how it serves performers, patrons, and the city’s arts community today. At the heart of…
History is preserved and passed down through generations in many ways, the most intimate of which is storytelling from one person to another. Those who dedicate themselves to researching and sharing Rochester’s history are true regional treasures because their passion and efforts keep the city’s stories alive and sparking interest in the next generation. But committing to honoring and accurately…
“I died five times.” There was a car accident, a bout with COVID-19, and a fall where she lay undiscovered for thirteen days in her Rochester apartment. But none of that stopped seventy-eight-year-old Almeta Whitis from fighting her way back to her sons, her family, her friends, and her community. Whitis wasn’t done with her work as a storyteller, poet,…
If you attended kindergarten after 1989, there is a strong chance that you learned your colors from three mischievous white mice who stumbled upon tiny pots of paint. Fairport resident Ellen Stoll Walsh is the beloved creator of the bestselling modern classic Mouse Paint along with more than a dozen other picture books that have been read by children around…
