A fresh scoop
Michael and Marie Carducci had no plans to start a business.
Michael, a Rochester native, works full time in IT, and his wife, Marie, who grew up in Zambia, is a senior accountant. The couple shares four kids.
But when the two saw a sign in the window at 1245 Park Avenue at the corner of Colby Street in Rochester around the corner from Montgomery court, Marie says something “just clicked.”
“We happened to have a great space available and thought an ice cream shop would be a perfect fit for the neighborhood,” she says. “It felt like something lighthearted and positive that would bring people together.”
Frost & Foundry was born, and the shop opened in September. The menu includes hand-scooped Perry’s ice cream (including dairy-free options), shakes, floats, and novelties like ice cream nachos and ice cream plates. Soup from Nathan’s Soup & Salad is also on the menu and so is fresh-squeezed lemonade and more.
The shop will be open seven days a week from noon to 9 p.m. As a seasonal business, the doors will open sometime in late April (exact date will be weather dependent) and stay open until late October.
“Opening Frost & Foundry has been a spontaneous but rewarding adventure,” says Marie. “We’d love to establish [it] as a lasting part of the Rochester dessert scene—known for quality, creativity, and great service. In the future, we could see expanding into catering or seasonal events but always keeping that small, family-run feel.”
FLX West Food Fest
After the hospitality industry was hit hard during the pandemic, the Livingston County Area Chamber of Commerce became strategic about helping with its recovery.
As a result, the FLX West Food Fest was born four years ago, and the inaugural event drew a crowd of 300 attendees. Since then, it has grown exponentially, with 700 in attendance last year.
The festival has hosted Food Network stars like Anne Burrell and Marc Murphy, chefs like Tim Minefee and Lorenzo Boni from Barilla, and local talent like Chef RJ Younger, culinary instructor at New York Kitchen.
This year’s FLX West Food Fest will be held at Genesee Country Village & Museum on April 19. General admission tickets will include master chef and sommelier demonstrations, hands-on educational workshops, and an opportunity to meet chefs and brewers, listen to live music, an shop for specialty food items. Tasting packages can be purchased to enjoy samples at each of the participating food and beverage vendors.
All tasting proceeds go back to the participating restaurants and brewers. Melissa Savino of the Livingston County Chamber of Commerce says the most rewarding aspect of organizing the event “is that ‘lightbulb moment’ when a visitor tries a sample from an out-of-the-way restaurant they’ve never heard of and immediately asks for the address to book a full dinner reservation.
“Seeing our local business owners leave the event with a stack of proceeds and a long list of new fans makes every hour of planning worth it.”
Preserving the past
The residents of Livingston County contact the historian’s office for a variety of reasons: to research family history, to look at old maps, or even to remember long-lost loves.
“They say a picture is worth a thousand words,” says Madeline Friedler, Livingston County deputy historian. “One time, we had a call from an elderly woman who was interested in any information the office had about a young man she was once engaged to who had been killed in action during military service. Because of our searchable catalog, we were able to send her a photo of him.”
Last year, the historian’s office worked hard to make their online catalog available to the public. Holly Watson, county historian, says the monthslong process of standardizing data to make terms searchable included overhauling spreadsheet headings, categorizing record types, creating lists of subject terms, and much more.
In September, the new online catalog, featuring 50,000 items from the 1700s to now, became available (bit.ly/historiancatalog). Previously, interested individuals could search the original platform for names to find records of individuals. Now, users can search titles and keywords for resources on a particular topic (for example, entering “Civil War” to see what the archives include on that topic).
Originally text-only, the catalog should include digital items—like directories, naturalization records, maps, photographs, and postcards—by the end of April.
“The study of history, especially working with primary-source documents, helps build critical thinking skills for people of all ages, and it promotes transparency and justice,” says Watson.
“Engaging with images and stories of our communities helps teach us the parallels, patterns, wins, and hardships that make us who we are, building local pride as well as a personal sense of belonging and identity.”
Brewing clean, organic teas
People found themselves with a lot of time on their hands in 2020 once the pandemic hit. There was suddenly time to learn new skills, brainstorm about the future, and even start businesses.
Liam Jones used that time (with the help of his mother, Heather Jones) to experiment with different tea blends, which eventually became his own brand of artisanal teas.
“Botany Bilt is a passion project, to share peace, love, and positivity through thoughtfully grounded products, connecting us with the earth around us,” says Jones during a recent interview.
Jones, an entrepreneur and “drink enthusiast,” runs the company, focusing on tasks like brand and product development. His mother assists with recipe development as the brand’s herbalist.
The most important aspect for the pair when developing their products is a focus on sourcing non-GMO and certified-organic ingredients and ensuring the tea is sugar-free (it’s sweetened with stevia leaf) and contains no chemical flavors or fillers.
Botany Bilt’s current line of hot and cold chakra teas are developed with the whole body in mind. “Chakras are the major energy centers within the body, as defined by Eastern medicine and healing practices,” says Jones. “The chakra line of teas includes functional herbs that focus on supporting specific energy points within the body.”
While the entrepreneur says it’s been a challenge to gain momentum while operating out of a small town, the brand did recently receive assistance from Grow LivCo’s Small Business — ▸ Big Boost program.
Botany Bilt was one of about a dozen selected applicants for the program, which provided entrepreneurial training and came with $5,000 in grant funding for the tea company.
With the funds from Small Business — ▸ Big Boost, Jones plans to purchase a freeze dryer to introduce superfood powders for beverages and healthy fruit and vegetable freeze-dried snacks. The funds will also allow him to purchase a particle packer, which will weigh and pack twelve to fifteen tea bags per minute. Currently, each bag is hand weighed and tied.
As of this writing, new equipment will be in place by the first quarter of this year. Acquiring this additional machinery to improve efficiencies will leave time for product development, opening different revenue streams while providing more variety for customers. The goal is to have new products available by the second quarter two of 2026. botanybilt.com
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2026 issue of (585).
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