Stories, tips, and local perspectives from across the Finger Lakes.
Perfect Pair Hospitality operates out of a small storefront at 64 West Bayard Street in Seneca Falls, a town better known for its women's rights history and It's a Wonderful Life connections than for its food scene. But Perfect Pair is helping to change that conversation, one cookie at a time. The 2024 FLX Finest […]
In Sterling, a small Cayuga County town that sits closer to Lake Ontario than to any of the Finger Lakes, Sweets By Sarah Bakery has established itself as the region's top bakery by the only metric that matters: the people who live here voted it Gold for Best Bakery two years running, in 2024 and […]
Sweet Ki's has built a following in Geneva without ever opening a traditional storefront, which in 2025 might be the savviest business model a small-batch baker can adopt. Operating as an online order-based company through the Bakesy platform, Sweet Ki's specializes in stuffed cookies that are as visually striking as they are indulgent. The 2025 […]
Simple Sweets operates out of a small storefront on Castle Street in Geneva, and what it lacks in square footage it makes up for in butter. This is a cookies-first bakery, and the cookies are the reason people drive across town — buttery, generously sized, baked fresh daily in flavors that rotate with the seasons. […]
On Main Street in Willard, a tiny hamlet on the western shore of Seneca Lake, Rylee's Place has quietly become one of the most decorated cheap eats in the entire Finger Lakes. This family-owned diner punches absurdly above its weight class: Gold for Best Cheap Eats in both 2024 and 2025, Gold for Best Appetizers […]
Dave and Rita's sits on Route 96A in Romulus, in the narrow strip of farmland between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, and from the outside it looks like exactly what it is: a small roadside bakery that you might drive past if nobody told you to stop. Inside is a different story. The cookie case is […]