Happy Anniversary, RWG

We’re celebrating our first anniversary here at Rochester Westside Grub, reflecting on our inaugural year which included climbing all the way to No. 2 on Urbanspoon Rochester’s blog rankings.

We’ve eaten a lot of good food in the last year, and look forward to what’s to come, but it’s going to be difficult to top one restaurant: General Hoock’s.

It was the first place we visited for the blog, and it’s yet to be surpassed. That’s why it’s our 2010 Restaurant of the Year.

We’ve made several return trips, bringing along different friends each time. We’ve also passed along word to others, who tell others and keep Hoock’s customer base growing.

Each return visit provides some new delicious twist as Shawn Hoock keeps unveiling – and letting customers create – new concoctions every day.

For instance, Waffleopolous – a breakfast sandwich in between waffles. (Yes, that’s bacon cooked into the waffle)

Or there’s the Roc Bomber, basically a giant garbage plate sandwich. (Image courtesy of Hoock’s Facebook page)
We could go on and on about Hoock’s creations, but we’ll leave it up to you to visit the restaurant on Buffalo Road in Gates and see for yourself.

Believe it or not we did go to, and enjoy, and number of other restaurants as well. In fact, we’ve come up with a list of our top five thus far:

1.) General Hoock’s (1308 Buffalo Road, Gates)- See the laud fest above.

2.) Hilton Family Restaurant (54 Hovey Street, Hilton)- Hoock’s has surpassed it as our favorite place in the last year, but our hometown HFR still brings the gang together for a delicious breakfast in an atmosphere that feels like home.

3.) Tully’s (1225 Jefferson Road, Henrietta)- Our favorite sports bar, with the best chicken tenders on Earth.

4.) Rohrbach Brewing Co. (3859 Buffalo Road, Gates)- Authentic German cuisine along with various other fantastic sandwiches and some fantastic white chili.

5.) DiBella’s (2450 Ridgeway Avenue, Greece)- Consistently voted best subs in Rochester, and very high on our list despite being (as Greg calls it) a niche restaurant.

Honorable Mentions: Taste of Texas (122 South Union Street, Spencerport), Martusciello Bread (2280 Lyell Avenue, Gates), Joe’s Brooklyn Pizza (1100 Jefferson Road, Henrietta)

Another restaurant, Yumbo’s, might have cracked the list, but we just found out it closed both its locations. However, Yumbo’s still does catering and is searching for a new location, according to its website. That’s some darn good barbecue, and I hope to eat it again soon. UPDATE (8/21/11): Yumbo's has since reopened at 1460 Lyell Avenue in the city, just west of Mt. Read Boulevard.

In other news, Hoock’s clear emergence as our unquestioned favorite restaurant has forced us to change some grades up, which will be further detailed in our next post.

Anyway, we’ve now added a Facebook fan page and opened a Twitter account in order to spread our name, so get involved and let others know – even if they don’t live on Greater Rochester’s west side.

We look forward to exploring visiting some new places soon and seeing if anything can touch General Hoock’s, which will be difficult. We may even make some trips farther west in to the Buffalo area, so stay tuned.

Well, thanks for a great first year, and hopefully the second will be even better.
-Rochester Westside Grub staff

A few notes...

After reflecting on all the places we have been to and consulting our grading standards, we decided our grades for a handful of restaurants needed to change slightly.

General Hoock's has blown away the rest of the competition and has even surpassed our beloved HFR, which we plan to revisit and re-evaluate soon.

DiBella's fell to an A-, simply because we haven't been back there nearly as many times as we've returned to Hoock's.

Yumbo's dropped from an A- to a B+ because it seemed closer to the category of our other B+ rated restaurants, not quite on the same level as places like Tully's and DiBella's.

In the same regard, the Arlington was changed to a B, not quite reaching the heights of our visits to places like Abe's and Krony's.

Recently a lot our reasoning behind the grades has been based on how often we would return to each place. With the updated grades, we are more comfortable with each assessment and feel they are now more consistent with our standards.

Yumbo’s Southern Style Grill

376 Elmridge Center Drive, Greece
Visited March 5, 2010
Written by Tyler

You often have to dig deep to find the buried treasure, which is just the case for Yumbo’s Southern Style Grill in Greece.

Elmridge Plaza is always fairly busy, but Yumbo’s often gets overlooked by neighboring giants like Walmart, Sam’s, Tops, Chili’s, etc., not to mention the rest of the commercial adventure land that is Greece.

But if your eyes are wandering around the signs at the plaza, they will eventually catch the small purple and yellow one for Yumbo’s.

I had noticed Yumbo’s before since its Greece location opened a few years ago, but I had never thought to stop there. Only after my friend Chad told me Yumbo’s had good food, and my recent burst of interest in southern/barbecue food, did I make my way around to dining there.

While running errands with my grandma, who offered to take me out to lunch, I suggested Yumbo’s, wanting to go to some place casual.

Not really sure what to expect, I was just hoping my grandma wouldn’t be disappointed. It was a risky choice, as my grandma doesn’t exactly shy away from sharing her opinions on restaurants.

(Image courtesy of yumbofood.com)

Upon our entry into the restaurant and subsequent wait, I grew a little skeptical. There was only one worker, owner Bernie LoBello, running the operation, trying to do seemingly everything at once. I had to wait 10-15 minutes before I could order at the counter, even though there were only a handful of people inside.

But if you read our review of General Hoock’s you know I can be very understanding and patient in such a situation.

It turns out one of the customers before us had six orders to go, so that was mainly the cause for the wait, but nobody was in a rush and seemed rather patient.

Our patience was rewarded, and the wait was well worth it.

For one, it gave us just enough time to dissect the menu, which was full of about any Southern comfort food you can imagine. I don’t know where to begin to describe these mouthwatering options, so take a look at the menu yourself.

Once we ordered it didn’t take long at all for the food to arrive. I went with the Smokey Chicken BBQ, a sandwich whose main feature was a rather interesting concoction I have only seen offered at a few places: pulled barbecue chicken (as opposed to pork).

Pulled chicken looks just like pulled pork, and this particular chicken was doused in deliciously sweet and smoky homemade “Twangin BBQ Sauce,” giving it a fairly similar taste to pulled pork, but obviously leaner.

The sandwich’s components – the chicken/sauce, lettuce and roll – blended together very well, none overwhelming another. It was delicious from start to finish, with a slice of cornbread a perfect complement. Toward the end of my “Smokey Chicken” experience, I realized another sauce applied toward the bottom of the sandwich. I hadn’t picked up on it until then, but whatever it was, it worked. I think it was Yumbo’s Buttermilk Ranch, which is their house dressing.

And thankfully, my grandma was very pleased with her meal as well. Her sandwich, the Sow Tower, was similar to mine, except pulled pork rather than chicken. I don’t believe it had anything else on it, but we both agreed that the sauce – which wasn’t exactly lagging in its presence on our sandwiches – added great flavor.

There are so many items I’d like to try, especially some interesting sides like the Cajun Homefries and Sweet Potato Mash. My dad and I are big fans of both home fries (see HFR review) and Cajun spices, so I really want to try the Cajun Homefries, which Yumbo’s was unfortunately out of during my first visit.

Our lunch at Yumbo’s was a success, and I was glad that we both enjoyed and were pleasantly surprised by it. The only things that could have used improvement were the wait time, the supply of menu items and the atmosphere.

LoBello was very friendly and apologetic about the wait, which we completely understood, given it was a one-man show. He even offered us free cookies (the oatmeal raisin wasn’t bad, by the way).

Some items were unavailable, including (strangely enough) ice. There also wasn’t much of a Southern or home-style atmosphere inside to speak of. But who cares about those two when the food hits the spot? I sure am willing to overlook those factors.

I’m not positive if LoBello has any helpers, but I would assume so, because there is a second location; downtown in the Monroe County Office Building (39 West Main Street), which I believe is only open for lunch (8-2:30) on weekdays. The Greece location is open 11-8 on weekdays and 11-5 Saturday (closed Sunday).

I also don’t know if the wait we had is typical, but nobody seemed to be bothered by it. The other customers inside when we were had nothing but praise for the restaurant, and I’ve only heard positive reviews from other sources.

I do know that I will dine at Yumbo’s again.

Ratings:
Service/Atmosphere: There was a bit of a wait, but we were served very quickly once we ordered. It doesn’t exactly feel like authentic Southern dining, but still a very friendly environment.
Food: Absolutely delicious and so much to choose from. The sauce adds great flavor to the meat.
Value: Prices were right around the same, if not better, than those of similar dishes elsewhere. Very satisfying “bang for the buck.”
Overall: A hidden gem, even if it is in a busy plaza. The food is as good, if not better, than any barbecue place around. Only reservations are the apparent lack of supplies and atmosphere. I’m willing to overlook the wait because it was well worth it and gave us time to look over the extensive, appetizing menu.

Grade: B+

Visit online: http://www.yumbofood.com/