Rochester is OK!

Cross posted from Greenovation

As more and more people become technologically savvy, they eventually acquire more and more computer equipment. That old 386, 486 and early Pentium may still be sitting in your basement or your garage.  You know you can’t throw it out, but what can you do with it? It’s too old for anyone to find a reasonable use for it, or perhaps one of the components is burned out and it’s just not worth it to fix. You can’t throw it out. PC’s, especially older ones, are filled with all sorts of unfriendly metals and components with  mercury being one of the more poisonous. Odds are there’s also quite a bit of metal components in the machine, and metals are some of things more easily recyclable. The question that remains is where and how?

The good news is that if you live in a major metropolitan area there are probably several organizations that will take that old stuff off your hands. Most of them for free (they sell it for scrap), and some will charge you for certain items (older tube TV’s). If a machine is still viable, check with your local school board to see if they accept donations. A lot of inner city schools would love to add more computers to their classrooms.

Here in Rochester, we have our own recycling giant. They’re called Regional Computer Recycling and Recovery (RCR&R for short). They have drops all over the area, and most local computer retailers will accept your junk on their behalf. Anything under 5 lbs is free, and for anything over there are reasonable fees. If security is your concern regarding you old hard drives, most are either destroyed or sanitized. They can guarantee your drive has been sanitized in writing for an additional fee as well, which should help you sleep better at night knowing that any residual personal data won’t fall into inappropriate hands.

I work in the financial services industry (in IT), and once or twice a year we offer our customers a unique experience. We team up with RCR&R and our local shredding company to provide recycling of our clients old hardware (and shredding of their old documents). An RCR&R truck and a shred truck (unrelated to RCR&R) will be parked outside and our clients will filter in throughout the afternoon dropping off old stuff to be recycled. We foot the bill for this, and it allows us to put our clients at ease by offering this unique service and making sure their old hardware doesn’t end up in the wrong hands or in a landfill.

If you want to learn more about the corporate and residential services that RCR&R offers for the Greater Rochester region, check out their website at eWaste.com.

If you want to check out other options for recycling in your area, check out your local municipal web pages for information. If you’re a Monroe County resident, you can find a list of possible alternatives here.

A restaurant I’m eagerly awaiting to eat at should be opening in the next week or so, according to my inside sources… and their Twitter feed (@theowlhouse). I’ve followed The Owl House’s progress on Twitter and Facebook for several months now, and mentioned it several times. I’m really excited, and their menu looks great. You can check it out at http://www.owlhouserochester.com/. I will definitely share my experience with everyone after I’ve had a chance to visit.

I’ve been out of town a lot this summer. Been to a lot of big cities and all over America. I’m still happy to come home to Rochester though.

Anyways, I just wanted to get in a quick update so people don’t think I’ve given up or died. I’m here. I’m just REALLY busy.

I also want to plug another web project I’ll be part of. Greenovation at http://imagecitygreen.com/ is a new project started by my good friend Jason Rowe. While the site’s idea is globally focused, all the talent is local (so far). This is also a business venture for Jay, as he does consulting work to bring green concepts and technology to the homes and businesses of his clients. The site will also be selling a lot of great items to help you lower your environmental foot print and save money on your utility bills. The site is still in its infancy, but I have a good feeling about it.

Stop on over and let your presence be known in the comments section.

Have a good night, and stay cool. Although I’m really psyched that we’ve had an actual hot summer after the a few duds in a row.

Hey everybody. It’s been awhile, and I’m still entirely too busy. I’ll be getting back to more frequent restaurant visits at the end of July, but July is already shaping up to be a pretty crazy month.

I want to give a quick shout out though, because I feel things like this are important. I bought my car from Van Bortel Subaru in 2004. I’ve haven’t  had any of problems with it, other than basic maintenance stuff,  most of which I can do myself. However, I do have my limitations, whether they be lack of experience or just a plain lack of equipment, sometimes I need to take my car some place. I take mine to the dealer. Now, I’m sure there are a lot of great auto shops in Rochester, and honestly, I’ve always considered dealerships to be “stealerships”, but Van Bortel has really come through for me. Last night I had the genius idea of rotating my own tires. Something that’s not terribly difficult, but I ended up with a problem on my way to work this morning. Apparently my front tires were now horribly out of balance and the car was shaking pretty violently at 65. I got to work, called Van Bortel, and the always pleasant and knowledgeable people in the service department that take my call  were able to get me in that afternoon. Cool. Good deal. I bring my car in, and I wait, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from a bill. Generally tire balancing averages at around 12 dollars per tire, but Van Bortel’s pricing has always been fair in the past, so I was unsure of what to expect. After about 40 minutes I paid my bill. 20 bucks. Not bad. My car has been fine since, and I’m a happy customer.

Van Bortel’s service staff has always been super professional, and all the people that work at the desk are well trained, and familiar with their products and services. In the event you have to leave your car for the day, they offer a loaner service… for 5 bucks. I pay 5 bucks to drive around a relatively new Subaru for the day. Pretty cool on that front too.

I can’t speak highly enough about Subaru as a brand in itself (love my car), and it’s great to know that they have a great dealership. While not Rochester, Van Bortel Subaru in Victor is definitely A-OK.

Tonight is the first of many of the the East End Festival in the city. Lots of live music and plenty to drink. Check out the details at the official website. The chief sponsor is also The Downtown Fitness Club, which I’ve talked about and recommended in the past.

In other site news, I was out of town last week. Specifically I was deep in the heart of Southern Kansas, just north of Oklahoma. If you’ve ever questioned your choice of living in Rochester, I’d have to say you haven’t seen enough of the rest of the world. Not to knock the mid west, as it definitely has its own special small town charm, but I was certainly glad to be back home in my mid size Rochester.

I’ll be heading out to to explore the Big Apple next weekend, which will offer a totally different contrasting situation to my last outing. The more I see of America, the more I appreciate where I call home. Not that anywhere else is “worse” or “better”, but it is different, and hell, I’m comfortable here. If I found a place I liked better, I’ll move there, until then I’ll keep exploring, but Rochester will always be OK in my book.

The rest of June should slow down, and there’s still some new restaurants I’m dying to try. I’m still looking for help too. Until later, enjoy the weather!

The Tap and Mallet rolled out their spring menu this past week. A lot of old favorites return, but there’s plenty of new to sample.  For an appetizer, I had the Crab, Corn, and Red Pepper dip, which is a thick flavorful dip with pita bread. It was fantastic. I almost filled up on, but left enough room to try out their new Reuben sandwich, which is served open face. I’m a big fan of Reubens and I try to eat them wherever they’re served, and the Tap and Mallet’s is excellent.

I’ll probably be back in the next week or so to keep trying new stuff.

Also note that they will be closed this Saturday for a wedding (congratulations to Jeana and John).

You can check out their new menu on the web, or if you have an Android phone or an iPhone, you can get the menu app for either, which will allow you to keep tabs of their ever revolving beer taps from anywhere.

I hope everyone has had a chance to make it up there this week. I haven’t had a chance yet, but I live in the neighborhood and traffic was pretty consistent all weekend. The weather looks like it will continue to hold out this week, so attendance should be pretty high. Hopefully there are still some flowers left, but there’s plenty of other things going on as well.

I should be getting back to posting more regularly. I’ve been pretty busy lately with my other two sites and life in general, so it’s been tougher to check out new places to eat.

I’m looking forward to The Owl House opening up on Marshall street, off Monroe Ave.  Check out their Twitter and Facebook feeds for more information. I’m pretty excited. They have a good crew on board and have been pretty transparent about what they’re doing to the place, and what they will be doing when the place opens. They casually mention some of the food they’ll be serving, and my interest is definitely piqued.

Also in the next few weeks is the Roc City Rib Fest! It’ll be up at Ontario Beach Park again and there are even more people competing this year, including a couple of good friends of mine (Go GCI!). There will be plenty of vendors, plenty of smoked food, and a lot of folks competing for a multitude of titles. It’s sure to be a blast.

I’m still looking for other people who want to help with the site’s momentum. It’s not a paying gig, but if you’re a foodie or a festival head with a positive attitude, I would love to have you write for the site.

I could write for awhile, but I believe the gallery will speak louder.

And today it’s supposed to reach 87 degrees. See, Rochester, it’s ok. Everything is in bloom. That’s a highlight from my own front yard. Hope everyone is enjoying the day today. If you can, seriously, make it to Highland Park. The Lilacs are in full bloom.

I’d also like to take a second to give a personal shout out to my friends Jason and Terri who are getting married today. Congratulations!

Just a heads up for any of the folks out there who attend the festival solely to see the blooming lilacs, they’re almost there. The festival itself is scheduled for May 15th, but from the look of things, the flowers might be gone by then. The festival has a lot of great food and music, but if you want to see flowers, a trip to the park this week might be warranted.

The Gate House in the Village Gate opened last year and has become one of my favorite local burger joints. They offer a full menu of personal pizzas and gourmet burgers, all with a local flair. The burger selection is named after some of Rochester’s more prominent public figures and folks who have struck it big who are from our fair city, where as the pizza selection takes their names from some of our areas more popular areas.

I’ve only been a small handful of times, but I’m slowly working away through their burger selection, and nothing has left me disappointed so far.  My favorites so far are a battle between The Duffy and The Wease, but it’s still too early to pick a favorite. They have a pretty robust drink menu, as  they’ve just recently gotten approval for serving liquor. They also have a very respectable beer selection as well, with the local Rohrbach’s Sotch Ale being one of my personal favorites. In the picture above is their white sangria which was one of the specials of my last visit.

The atmosphere is nice, and I especially like the booth seats. I spent a lot of time looking at the construction of the bar and the booths, and the wood slats that hang from the ceiling. It gives the place a homey, warm feeling, and is a good contrast to the more industrial look of the village gate as a whole. We got there relatively late on a Saturday evening, and while the place was pretty full, our wait for a table was less than 10 minutes. There was a relatively steady stream of people in and out while we were there, but none of the waits seemed any longer than ours. I have walked past the place during peak dinner hours, and there were a lot more people waiting, so your experience may vary.

They have a pretty decent website as well, http://www.thegatehousecafe.com/, with their full menu and it’s mobile friendly with no annoying Flash.

The Gate House is located in the Village Gate mall at 274 North Goodman Street. They’re open for lunch and dinner, and have brunch on the weekend. Check them out and tell them we sent you!