Frankie
5:30pm on a Thursday
Equal Grounds Coffee House

Interview by Maria Gorre.

Published October 12, 2015.

What’s your favorite part about living in Rochester?

I guess all my friends were here (laughs). They’ve all since moved away. Well, most of them. I do like the fact that you can drive in and out of the city pretty quickly. It’s not like New York City where you’re just trapped. I drive 15 minutes that way and I’m back in the suburbs, or the country, or whatever. There’s still a good amount of space.

Do you have any favorite secret spots?

I guess this [Equal Grounds] would be one that people don’t really know about. But they have really good coffee.

What’s your favorite bar?

Lux, easily. They have stuff going on every night. Wednesday night they have movies. And they have pizza. There’s always something different going on.

What’s your favorite hungover eating spot?

I’d have to say Zonies [now Calio's]. If I was super hungover, that’s typically where I’d order from. Free delivery up until 4am, so it’s perfect.

What’s your personal coping mechanism for cold weather?

Swearing, I guess? Walking out and saying “Geez, it’s fucking cold!”

(laughs) That helps you get through the day?

I don’t like it anymore. I’m so over it. I don’t know why we allow it to happen every year.

Because look how nice it is right now!

Yeah, it’s so nice! We should just figure out this whole global warming thing and make the entire country 60 degrees.

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

I like the South Wedge a lot. There’s a bunch of stuff going on and you can basically walk to all the festival areas in Rochester. Otherwise, it’d be Brockport Crossings, but that’s because I’d just go there and burn shit all the time.

(laughs) You burn stuff?

Yeah, just lighting trash on fire maybe.

That actually sounds pretty fun.

For four years of college, that’s just where I wanted to be. Just somewhere where I could burn garbage anytime.

It’s funny how you can find places like that around here pretty easily.

Describe your dream Rochester day.

Probably go get John’s Tex Mex.

For breakfast?

Yeah, for breakfast.

I didn’t know they had breakfast!

They don’t, but I’m not usually up before 11 on the weekends. So that’s when I’d start my dream day (laughs). And then, I’d skate around. I like going to the RoCo. It’s small, so you don’t have to spend all day there. And then go to Havana Moe’s for a cigar, because it’s right next door. Then I’d get a Nick Tahoe’s garbage plate because they’re actually really good and not as big as other places so you can have them for lunch. Then I’d just chill out until later and then go to Lux, have some drinks, and then pass out around 2-3 in the morning.

But it could be so much better if we just gave it a bath!

Havana Moe’s is super cool. It’s kind of hidden.

I wish they had a bigger outdoor area. But it’s awesome! I don’t know if it’s dark and hidden on purpose. I feel like it’s a retirement gig for the owners and they just wanted to own a cigar bar. There are a bunch of regulars though. There’s this one old English guy that’s always there. The bartender is awesome. She’s always really nice and super helpful for people who have never been there. I’d definitely go there on my dream day. Smoke a cigar.

Do you have a favorite Rochester memory?

This is pretty recent, but me and [my friend] Nick took his jeep that he just got lifted and went off-roading in the Inner Loop. You can drive your car right down in there. It’s pretty bumpy, so you kind of need an off-road vehicle. Although, whoever decided to fucking close the Inner Loop? It makes it so much more complicated for people coming from the suburbs to get in the city.

Or going in the insane asylum. I guess they boarded that up, so you have to go when they’re not being too watchful of it. When I was in there, I didn’t get very many good shots because I couldn’t use my flash at all. A flash going off would have been a dead signal that someone was in there. There’s some really cool stuff that would be really dope to do a professional shoot of.

If Rochester were an animal, what would it be?

I’d say a sloth. Parts of it smell weird and are gross. There’s fungus all over it, but for some reason people really like it. There’s a small amount of people that really love sloths and there’s a small amount of people that really love Rochester. But everyone else is kind of like, “We need to clean this place up.” But then no one cleans it up. (laughs)

I actually had no idea sloths had fungus on them (laughs). I’m the person that’s like, “Aw, sloths!” You might insult some die-hard sloth fans.

Well, there are people who are dead set on Rochester being the greatest city in the world. But it could be so much better if we just gave it a bath!