If you've driven Route 21 south from Canandaigua toward Naples or Bristol Mountain, you've passed The Company Store in the hamlet of Cheshire — and if you didn't stop, you missed one of the region's best-kept deli secrets. From the outside, this looks like a standard rural convenience store: gas pumps, lottery tickets, maybe a dusty rack of beef jerky. Inside, though, there's a full deli counter turning out sandwiches that have won consecutive FLX Finest awards and earned a following that extends well beyond the Cheshire zip code.

The deli subs and sandwiches are generously stacked with quality meats on fresh bread, and the homemade pizza has its own loyal constituency. They bake goods in-house, stock a reasonable selection of groceries and beer, and generally function as the kind of all-purpose country store that used to exist in every small town before the dollar stores moved in. The Company Store has been serving this community for over forty years, and that kind of longevity in the convenience store business doesn't happen without doing something right.

For Finger Lakes visitors, the positioning is strategic: it sits right on the scenic corridor between Canandaigua Lake and the Bristol Hills, making it an ideal fuel-and-food stop before a hike at Grimes Glen, a day of skiing at Bristol Mountain, or a wine-tasting loop through the western lakes. Order the deli sandwich, grab a bag of chips, and eat it at whatever overlook you find next. That's peak Finger Lakes energy.