On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I had Christin Ortiz from Joe Bean Coffee and Phil Bianchi from Headwater Food Hub to discuss the new food program at Joe Bean. There is a lot of collaboration between the two and we also discussed a fair bit about farm to table cooking in the Rochester environment. We talked through how to cook farm to table in Rochester and how the Headwater Food Hub allows restaurants to source food without the hassle of dealing with each farm individually. I wan...
Apr 19, 2016•1 hr 22 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I had Tony Colon from Fuego Coffee Roasters and Adam Solomon from Joe Bean Coffee Roasters over to the studio to discuss their recent experience at the US Barista Championships Regional event held in Kansas City. I wanted to hear about the entire experience of the competition for both of these Rochester based baristas and find out out how it was different for each of them. Tony had been to two regional events before and this was Adam’s first chance ...
Mar 07, 2016•1 hr
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast Chelsea Flint ( @akachela on Twitter ) came over to record a wide ranging discussion all centered around some cocktails. We started off talking about where you can find Chelsea online. She is one of the more active Twitter personalities in the ROC, both in volume and creativity and is a must follow. Beyond the typical social media platforms, Chelsea is also a part of the Exxilista podcast and is a writer on the Rochester Live show found on the YouTu...
Feb 01, 2016•1 hr 49 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast Michael Warren Thomas ( savorlife.com ) came over to the Food About Town Studio for an extended talk. In Part 2, we did a wine tasting and discussed some of the political issues going on in the Finger Lakes right now. We tasted a Cabernet Franc wine from the Finger Lakes ( Dr Konstantin Frank ) and one from the Niagara region ( Leonard Oakes ). Even though they are only a couple hours apart, they had some interesting differences and I know I enjoyed...
Jan 25, 2016•1 hr 4 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast Michael Warren Thomas ( savorlife.com ) came over to the Food About Town Studio for an extended talk through his background in radio, the Finger Lakes wine scene, competitions and a bunch of random asides. Michael really knows how to talk so we ended up recording for around 2 hours meandering between a lot of topics. Part 2 will cover a small wine tasting and a long discussion of the Finger Lakes gas storage situation. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed ...
Jan 08, 2016•59 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast Michelle Faust ( @michereports ) came over to the Food About Town Studio to talk about our trip out to Canandaigua to try out Rio Tomatlan , a highly regarded Mexican restaurant. This podcast functioned as a review of the food we had and our overall experience including the enjoyable artwork all around the walls of the restaurant. We also covered Mexican food in general, the topic of authenticity, mezcal and made our fair share of tangents. Subscrib...
Jan 01, 2016•48 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast both Chris Clemens from Exploring Upstate and Ben Woelk from Slow Road came over to the Food About Town studio to talk about restaurants on the slow roads around upstate NY. As part of that discussion, we talked about seasonality, how to find interesting stops when you’re on the road and even went into a discussion about the Naples Grape Festival . Spoiler: I’m not a fan. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast I have spent so much time talking to...
Dec 21, 2015•1 hr
Credit to Chris Clemens from ExploringUpstate.com for the picture of Dave hard at work in his shop! On this episode of the Food About Town podcast is part two of my talk with David Lane from David Lane Design that includes even more tangents than ever! We touched on First Friday activities at the Hungerford Building where Dave’s shop is located (highly recommended), Montréal, chicken wings, did a bourbon and Rock and Rye tasting and talked through some more local restaurants. The wife chimed in ...
Nov 21, 2015•1 hr 42 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Luc Thiers who is a Brand Ambassador for Fee Brothers . Fee Brothers is a local Rochester company that is best known around the country for their bitters and is a staple behind many bars both professional and at home. Luc is located out of Boston currently, but he worked in Rochester during the formative years of our cocktail scene. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast I learned a lot about the history of Fee Broth...
Nov 02, 2015•1 hr 17 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Tom Fulton from the Korean Seoul Food BBQ Truck to talk about the food truck life in the ROC. Tom and his partner launched their food truck earlier this year at the Food Truck Rodeo which is a bit crazy, but a great way to get instant recognition and figure out how to make things work. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast It was a pleasure getting to know Tom and learn about his experience working in the restaurant...
Oct 19, 2015•50 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with James Lake from Joe Bean Coffee to do some beer tasting and have a good excuse to hang out away from the coffee shop. Joe Bean is basically my home away from home and I’ve had countless hours of conversation with Jim so this was a natural transition. Jim and I taste tested three different beers including two barrel aged Jack’s Abbey Framinghammer beers I brought back from Vermont a few months back. By the end we were fe...
Oct 09, 2015•1 hr 28 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Chris Clemens from ExploringUpstate.com to talk about the controversy that popped up this weekend about the usage of the “Flour City” moniker. What I am referring to is the cease and desist notice from Flour City Pasta that Flour City Bread posted in their store and described on their IndieGoGo page on Saturday. Chris wrote a fantastic post on the history of the usage of the term Flour City on his blog and you should de...
Oct 05, 2015•58 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with James Black from Nox Cocktail Lounge in the Village Gate to discuss my recent review of the restaurant in the City Newspaper. James and I also covered his past in the industry, some of his favorite places and tackled a touch of music and a bonus if you’re TV nerds like us. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast You should definitely make it a point to check out Nox and their interesting takes on both cocktails and co...
Sep 25, 2015•1 hr 7 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Michelle Faust from WXXI to talk about some gluten free topics and taste test some gluten free fried chicken from BC’s Chicken Coop and baked goods from Livingston County Pizza and Bakery . This was recorded the day after the shooting on Genesee Street so we did touch on that for a few minutes as it was fresh at the time. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast Check out Michelle’s reporting on WXXI or you can find he...
Sep 10, 2015•1 hr 17 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Matty Miller, the head chef from the Owl House over on Marshall Street. We got the chance to hang out for a while discussing his past working in Rochester restaurants, why he ended up working in the kitchen and hit up some of his favorite places. Of course we ended up going on plenty of tangents, but that makes things more interesting! Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast Make sure to check out the Owl House if you...
Aug 21, 2015•1 hr 6 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Ben MacDonald, the man behind Brew Mechanics . Ben and I made a trip to the Food Truck Rodeo prior to our podcast recording so we talked about that before we dove into beer. On that front, we discussed the local beer scene, what Ben is trying to do with his business and tasted a fantastic beer I brought back from Vermont. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast Ben also hosts Beer Otaku , his own podcast where he inte...
Aug 01, 2015•1 hr 6 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Sean O’Donnell, the chef de cuisine at Aunt Rosie’s , following his pop up dim sum event. I’ll be discussing the event in more detail in a post coming soon, but I wanted to spend some quality time with Sean talking about the Flour City Food Core event, his path as a chef and some about our mutual interest in Buffalo and Toronto food. Subscribe on iTunes! RSS Feed for Podcast Sean is also working on a video project as pa...
Jul 25, 2015•1 hr 3 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Kevin McCann from McCann’s Local Meats to talk about his new butcher shop at the Edge of the Wedge complex. We hit a number of different topics including culinary school, different cuts of meats, whole animal butchery and how to start a new business in a new city. Kevin had a lot to say and was very insightful throughout our conversation. We ended our talk touching on Korean food and how he learned about the cuisine thr...
Jul 17, 2015•1 hr 6 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with Chris Clemens from Exploring Upstate and Veronica Volk from WXXI and we talked about condiments! This has been a few months in the making after Chris and I touched on condiments in Episode 16 of the F.A.T. podcast and he explained his distaste for mayonnaise. Twitter came in to the situation a few days ago and Veronica jumped into the fray to add the positive mayo counterpoint to the discussion. The table was set (so to...
Jul 10, 2015•1 hr 18 min
On this episode of the Food About Town podcast I sat down in the studio with John Vito, the former owner of O’Bagelo’s and Baked and Carved and the man behind the Food and Stories website. John is a colorful character and one I’ve been excited to talk to for a while now. His site features recipes, features on local businesses and stories from his time as a restaurant owner that are truly captivating. His stories touch on friends he made, business practices, the neighborhood and some of his deali...
Jul 03, 2015•1 hr
