Interview by Emily Hessney Lynch.

Published August 2, 2018.

Where are you originally from?

I’m from Penfield. I went to college on Long Island, and lived in New York City for ten years. I came back to Rochester just two years ago. There was a way of life that my wife and I wanted, and that’s what brought us back. We both knew we wanted to have a house and a yard someday. It would’ve been much harder to attain if we had stayed in New York City. The timing worked out well--I applied for and started a job at Partners + Napier in Rochester right as our lease was ending in Brooklyn. Here, we’ve found an easier way of life and of obtaining our goals.

What is your favorite part of living in Rochester?

I love the access to nature and hiking. There are so many easy trails we love to visit--Cobbs Hill, Durand Eastman, Grimes Glen, and day trips to Ithaca. The ease of getting outside is great. We’re still in the phase where Rochester feels new to us and we feel like we’re discovering something new each weekend.

What are some of your favorite/secret Rochester spots? 

One of our favorites is Tap and Mallet; it’s always great. That’s where we take our out-of-town friends whenever they visit. We also always go to Penfield Hots when we’re taking people out for plates. I love Fifth Frame and Tapas 177, as well as Sak’s Thai out in Perinton.

What's the most unique event you've attended in Rochester? 

We love the Food Truck Rodeo. My wife, Shannon, loves Roc City Roller Derby; we’ve only been once but would love to go more. We’re also big festival people, so we love Corn Hill Festival and the Lilac Fest. Pride this year was pretty awesome too.

What are some of your favorite local nonprofits to support? 

There are a lot of them. My wife is especially active in that space. We are both supportive of the Rochester Black Lives Matter chapter. We participated in their recent protest, and you start to realize that what you see around you is real, those discriminations and microaggressions are what people of color deal with every day, and you start to get it.

We also like to support RESTORE--a subset of Planned Parenthood that is a crisis hotline for sexual assault victims.

If you had $100 and had to spend it all in one day in Rochester, what would you do? 

I would probably go eat. First, at a new breakfast place that we haven’t tried before. Then we’d ride bikes all day, and end at Good Luck for dinner.

What's your favorite neighborhood in the city? 

Downtown--I like when there’s stuff happening nearby and we can walk to it. We’re tall building people and like to be surrounded by them. We love our apartment, so it’s really easy to feel comfortable downtown.

Favorite coffee shop? 

Joe Bean--they usually have a really good Guatemalan coffee. We traveled to Guatemala last summer and now it’s the only coffee I care about. I also love Fifth Frame, which is right in my neighborhood.

What is your personal coping mechanism for cold/gray weather? 

We travel. We’re working on improving our timing so we can break up the long winter with a vacation right in the middle rather than ¾ of the way through. We’ll bundle up and go for a short walk when it’s not too frigid. We’ve also come to appreciate Eastview Mall so we can walk around and get our steps in.

What is your favorite Rochester memory?

Anytime our friends come in from out of town it becomes a new favorite Rochester memory. Last Memorial Day, we had friends visiting and we took them to the Genesee Country Village & Museum, and then to Genny Brew House. We still feel like tourists in our own city. I love seeing friends start to get it--they have this moment of clarity, like “Oh, I get why you live here now.” I took a friend to Wegmans for the first time and she was so impressed by it. It’s kinda cool to have friends be impressed by where you live when it’s a place they wouldn’t have come otherwise.

What makes Rochester unique?

For us, it’s the accessibility of everything. It’s 15 minutes to the suburbs or a beach or a hike from the heart of downtown. The city is growing and bustling, but there’s still lots of opportunity too. You can enjoy all it has to offer. It’s nice to see young people owning things. Before moving back to Rochester I don’t think I’d ever met a 24 year old with a mortgage.

What do you think could be improved?

I want to see more in our neighborhood--more quick serve restaurants and more shopping, specifically. Just longer hours for hospitality businesses in general would be awesome. All we want to do is eat outside in the summertime, but so many places are closed on Sundays. We just need a little bit more stuff.

If Rochester was a season, what would it be? 

It would be winter. There’s a lot of beauty to Rochester. You forget how beautiful the first good snow was once winter has gone on a little too long. You get caught up. But it was still a thing of beauty.

What advice would you give to boomerangs who are  returning to Rochester?

Get ready to jam on the brakes when you get here. But at the same time, don’t just come back to buy a house and settle in. If you’re used to exploring and trying new things, keep doing that! There’s so much stuff that’s so easy to access--and so many opportunities. Enjoy the slower pace.