Stories, tips, and local perspectives from across the Finger Lakes.
Three Brothers is not a single winery — it is a small empire. The Mansfield family's sprawling estate on Lerch Road south of Geneva houses three separate wineries (Bagg Dare Wine Company, Stony Lonesome Estate, and the main Three Brothers label), War Horse Brewing Company, and a cidery, all spread across lakeside grounds that feel […]
The Rusty Pig sits on Seneca Street in downtown Geneva, and it announces itself honestly: Real Smoke, Real Flavor. The meats are smoked in-house over real hickory and applewood, and you can taste the difference from the first bite. This is not barbecue that apologizes for itself or tries to be something fancier — it […]
The Landing sits at 85 Glasgow Street in Clyde, a small Wayne County village that most Finger Lakes visitors would never think to stop in. But the 2024 FLX Finest Silver for Best Bagels suggests they should reconsider. Clyde is a quiet, unpretentious town on the Erie Canal corridor, and The Landing operates with the […]
The Hog Wallow Tavern sits at 10 Linden Street in downtown Geneva, and its award resume reads like a clerical error. FLX Finest Gold for Best Specialty Cocktails four years straight (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025). Gold for Best Margaritas three of the last four years. Gold for Best Happy Hour two years running. Gold for […]
The Gould Hotel occupies a restored 1920s building on Fall Street in Seneca Falls, the town where the women's rights movement was born and where the phrase "it's a wonderful life" carries local weight. The hotel blends nearly a century of architectural character with modern boutique sensibility across 48 guest rooms and suites featuring hardwood […]
The Deluxe Grill has been serving Geneva from the corner of North Genesee Street and Gates Avenue since 1933, when Italian immigrants Nicholas Aquilano and his wife Carrie Raphael built the place on two-foot-thick poured concrete footers and 12-inch beams. That sense of permanence extends to everything about the restaurant: the warm, dimly lit dining […]
The Artist's Lounge on Fall Street in Seneca Falls is the kind of place that defies easy categorization — and that is exactly why locals keep voting for it across multiple FLX Finest categories. In 2025, it swept Gold in three separate categories: Best Art Gallery, Best Summer Camp, and Best Children's Birthday Party Venue. […]
Thai Elephants occupies a modest storefront on East Fourth Street in Watkins Glen, about a five-minute walk from the entrance to the state park gorge. The location is no accident — this has become the post-hike dinner spot for the million-plus visitors who come through Watkins Glen annually, and it has earned Gold for best […]
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 Indulgence Pastries operates out of a small shop on West Main Street in Wolcott, a quiet town between the Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario that you would not expect to harbor a Silver-winning bakery. But pastry chef Eva, who spent more than two decades perfecting her craft before opening this spot alongside her partner […]