Defending Downtown Rochester, NY: The First Part

I have spent the last three years living in Boston, and one thing that I was certain that I wouldn’t miss when I left was the Massachusetts food scene. That’s not to say that Boston doesn’t have its fair share of excellent, highly regarded restaurants. However, I was a graduate student on a budget at the time I lived in Boston, and I suspect that the highest echelon of Boston food may have been locked behind a paywall. I spent my degree seeking years in that city slowly coming to accept that all but my biggest splurge meals (I’ll never forget you, SRV restaurant in the South End) would not be anything to write home about. 

When I moved back to Rochester, NY this summer, it was not for the food. However, the last time I’d been trying to explore the city’s food offering with the backing of an actual paycheck, I was quickly shut down by a global pandemic. My return in 2023 feels a bit like a redemption tour- I have a compulsive need to explore every inch of what this city has to offer, be that a tiny taco stand at the public market, the fancy Italian restaurants of Park Ave, or even the damn Texas Roadhouse in Henrietta. I know that last one is a national chain and therefore irrelevant, but this particular location was the catalyst for some of the weirdest human interactions I had in college, so it deserves a revisit. That’s a story for another day. 

In this journey, I hope to document some of the highlights and lowlights of the city. In my first few reviews, I especially want to focus on the restaurants located downtown, where I currently live. Downtown Rochester has a terrible reputation partially caused by reports of shootings, car jackings, and rampant drug use, but mostly because of the devastating impacts of poverty and blatant, pervasive racism. I have so much appreciation for this area, and I know it deserves a lot more love and respect. 

For my first foray into Rochester restaurant reviewing, I chose a restaurant situated mere blocks from my apartment called Native Eatery and Bar. I’d been driving by the place what felt like every other day as I made my way home from various errands, and its well-lit, inviting brick facade had always caught my eye. As described on its Instagram page (@nativerochester), Native is “casual upscale dining in the heart of Rochester, NY”. I came in hungry but with no expectations at all, and I found the experience to be a pleasant piece of evidence validating my strong belief that people are really missing out on some cool things by writing off the downtown area. 

I went to this restaurant on whim with my sister and my editor. Given the lack of planning, we naturally did not have a reservation, but the hostess made no visible judgement despite it being a fairly well attended Saturday night. Without blinking an eye, she found us a table in the front portion of the spacious restaurant, and we quickly were served water in mason jars and greeted by our waiter for the evening. After a quick look through the short cocktail menu, we saw no basic, familiar options. I was impressed by the creative drinks on the regular menu, but my very specific taste was not moved. Our whole party ended up ordering cocktails from the specials menu, which contained six extra options, each more intriguing than the next. 

I ordered the ‘Honey and Sherry’, which was mild, herby, and extremely satisfying to me, a hater of many things, including overly sweet drinks, too much herb, and most fruits. My sister ordered the ‘Violet Armada’, but found it to be too cloyingly tea flavored. My editor ordered the ‘Spiced Apple Cello Spritz’ but found it to be too spiced. When they each took a sip of each others’ drinks out of curiosity, my sister thought the Apple Cello tasted delightfully like apple juice and my editor thought the Armada was an acceptable alternative to his own drink. They swapped, and everyone was able to proceed to the rest of the meal with a drink that ranged from highly enjoyable to decently potable. Given the ambitious drink menu, I was fairly impressed that we all ended up happy enough with our selections on our first try.

For a first course, we all shared a round of picadillo, butternut squash, and chimichurri empanadas. The chimichurri was a refreshing and bright addition to an empanada that managed to find the sweet spot between being too dry and too greasy. The butternut squash flavor could have been more present, but the addition of raisins- a controversial inclusion in many culinary endeavours- improved the appetizer greatly. 

For our main course, we decided to split two dishes between the three of us. Our first selection was the Chicken and Biscuits. The menu described the dish as a combination of chicken confit, carrot, pearl onion, peas, drop biscuits, and fried sage. I found this dish to be warm, comforting, well-cooked, and generous in portion. The drop biscuits were lovely, and perfectly salted. The only downsides were the fact that the pearl onions were not quite fully cooked, and the fried sage might as well have not been included for all that it was evident amongst the cream. 

Our second main course of the night was the Braised Boneless Short Rib with a plantain gnocchi in a sherry cream sauce. The beef was exactly what I’d been hoping for- tender, buttery, and flavorful. As a gnocchi enthusiast at my core and a lover of tostones, I was very excited to try the plantain gnocchi. However, I was dismayed to find that they used sweet, yellow plantains rather than their savory, green counterparts. This felt like an issue in advertising, as they made no indication that the flavor profile would lean on the sweet side. This may be a matter of taste, but I personally do not enjoy sweet flavors in a situation that I would normally expect to be savory. The rest of my group agreed with this sentiment, and we left the gnocchi mostly untouched while we absolutely devoured the meat. 

While not everything was a complete hit, I want to applaud Native for providing a menu that strayed from the typical, safe restaurant fare and was still appealing to a reasonably broad crowd. The atmosphere was relaxed, festive, and fun, and it encouraged me to stray out of my comfort zone. I can admit that, sometimes, leaving the safety of a basic pub menu leaves me yearning for a basic caesar salad and a cheeseburger. This restaurant encourages me to keep going out on random Saturday nights and ordering whatever seems like it might hit. You might find something that makes you want to leave the pub food bubble more often.