Wish List
Online grocery shopping
Just visit FreshDirect.com and imagine sitting in bed with a laptop ordering groceries. Now imagine never having to move your cart out of someone’s way every two seconds. Online shopping combine with buying local produce from a farm stand or the Public Market and we would have the perfect grocery shopping experience. I can only dream of never having to schlep around 24 rolls of paper towels or cans of bean again.
Urban Outfitters
Affordable and trendy men’s, women’s and home products for teens and 20-somethings. With a large college population in Rochester, its tough to imagine this store wouldn’t be successful. I might not be 20, but both MHG and I have a bit of a t-shirt obsession.
Anthropologie
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Anthropologie is Urban Outfitter’s big sister. A grown-up, French-inspired eclectic mix of women’s, children’s and home wares. They order in a small numbers, so you won’t see your new shirt or skirt standing on every street corner (um, GAP). Every time the catalog arrives or I visit a store in another city, I just want to move in.
Crate & Barrel
Eastview has a nice big Pottery Barn, now we just need a Crate & Barrel. With a slightly more modern aesthetic, it’s a combination of William Sonoma and PB. Well-made furniture with clean lines and kitchen gear to match, make this store VERY dangerous and highly desired.
Room & Board
This newer player in the furniture business has begun to expand across the country. An even more modern aesthetic that C&B (with some mid-century modern classics), I also want to live in this catalog (while wearing all of my Anthropologie clothes).
Authentic French Restaurant (Fine Dining)
2Vine is great, but not French. I’m talking complicated sauces that take all day to make, foi gras, cassoulet, duck confit, pastries that are both fluffy and crispy at the same time, wild meats, I want it all in a room lit only by candles that makes me feel I’m having an elicit affair with MHG.
Restaurant with downtown view
This is a no-brainer. SKY has already written lovingly about the old Revolving Restaurant, but come on. We have a river, we have beautiful falls in the center of the city. Let’s find a place where we can sit and enjoy an excellent meal or smart cocktail while enjoying the view. Put some events together to keep it going during slower times. If the food it good enough, the foodies will come. If you ad some music, the Jazz-heads will come. With a view, the business folks will come. And everyone has a birthday, anniversary or prom. (Make a nice bar with $8 cocktails and the bar will help sustain the cocktails.)
A real shopping and dining neighborhood along Monroe Avenue
In all fairness, I live off Monroe Avenue so this one is a little selfish. It also might get me in hot water with my neighbors who are concerned with traffic. But every time I drive down Monroe Avenue, I imagine how GREAT the street could be as a Shopping District — all the way from downtown to Pittsford. It would be a lot of work to pull it together with a cohesive aesthetic and make it more pedestrian and parking friendly. But think about it divided into zones and connected with specialty bus service (buses that look like trolleys or something). With local independent shops and restaurants and major chain retailers that go into store fronts, this could be a destination shopping district that would also be sustained by the local population within walking distance. Think about all the gas we waste driving out to Eastview. If we camouflage and distribute the parking and make it a great experience meant for people not cars, great things will happen!
