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Meh Cheesecake Factory is worth missing (or worth going to once and realizing it's worth missing).
Central New Yorkers (if one believes the Post-Standard, at least) are flat-out obsessed with the place.
I've been two or three times over the years and wouldn't return. It has an enormous TGI-McFunster's sort of menu; portions are enormous; quality is the same as one would find at Friendly's. A notch better than Chili's and that crap, but that's not saying much.
My take: if you find yourself in a town where Cheesecake Factory is the best option, you're in the wrong town. There's a time and a place for fast food (Sonic, Chick-Fil-A, etc. are nice fuel on long road trips). But life is too short to spend an instant in one of those chain sit-down places.
MIt has an enormous TGI-McFunster's sort of menu; portions are enormous; quality is the same as one would find at Friendly's. A notch better than Chili's and that crap, but that's not saying much.
Totally disagree. I would put it in the P.F. Changs level. Friendly's, Denny's, and Chili's are all bottom of the barrel.
I drive to Rochester to go to Cheesecake Factory. Their food has a West Coast vibe to it that gives me a taste of home. I won't eat guacamole out here except for at Cheesecake Factory. After tasting what places around here call guacamole, it is no wonder so many East Coasters don't care for it. Same with cilantro. Most of what you find here is hydro which has a completely different taste to it.
Here in CNY is McDonalds/BK/Subway rinse and repeat. Albany and Rochester add afew places (BOSTON MARKETS FTW!!!) and Buffalo adds even more (I got to try this CheeseCake Factory).
But all the chains we don't get like BM, Chick-Fil-A and Sonic plus Golden Corral (please kill me if I ever darken there door again) and Bob Evans (still one in Watertown but I don't like it that much) and the awful Krispy Kreme<insert puking icon>
Boston Market is in Henrietta. There was a Golden Corral in Fulton, but it closed about 5 years ago. There is a Sonic just north of Binghamton. Bob Evans used to be on 7th North Street in Liverpool, but is a Chinese Buffet now.
As far as going Down South, places like Shoney's, Quincy's, Hardee's, Bojangle's, Dairy Queen, Checkers and Waffle House would be places my family and/or I would go to when we were down there. Can't forget Popeye's and Church's Chicken too. There is a Popeye's in Irondequoit, btw.
Cheesecake Factory looks good, but if I want cheesecake, I go to either Big Mama's in Mattydale: Big Mama's Cheesecakes - Home (http://www.bigmamascheesecakes.com/ordereze/Page.aspx?PageID=1000 - broken link) or to Manny's in Utica: Google Maps
Totally disagree. I would put it in the P.F. Changs level. Friendly's, Denny's, and Chili's are all bottom of the barrel.
I drive to Rochester to go to Cheesecake Factory. Their food has a West Coast vibe to it that gives me a taste of home. I won't eat guacamole out here except for at Cheesecake Factory. After tasting what places around here call guacamole, it is no wonder so many East Coasters don't care for it. Same with cilantro. Most of what you find here is hydro which has a completely different taste to it.
Really? I've never had their guac, but it'd surprise me to learn it doesn't come frozen from the back of a Sysco truck.
Have you been to Alto Cinco? I think their guacamole sets the standard around these parts.
I don't like the bizarro cilantro, either, and don't know how to avoid the weird stuff.
Totally disagree. I would put it in the P.F. Changs level. Friendly's, Denny's, and Chili's are all bottom of the barrel.
Going to have to agree with Toejam on this one - Cheesecake Factory is definitely on a higher level than Chili's and company. I've been to the one in Albany once or twice as well - typically just for cheesecake though.
And in regards to the Alto Cinco guac and such - my dad is SUPER picky. Like so ridiculously picky it makes you angry (I have to deal with it all the time lol). He RAVED about the Alto Cinco chips/salsa/guac. I was literally in shock! But I know each person has their own preferences with guac. I also really liked the Alto Cinco guac - I make my own from time to time so I love guac that tastes as pure as can be! That stuff was awesome!
I don't like Mex food but my former MIL traveled to Texas alot on bussiness and she used to take us to a place that she said was as close to real as you could get in NY, I bet it was this place you guys like.
Rochester does have a Boston Market, its right near a woodworking store I like to go to. Used to be able to get a hot Krispy Kreme, shop for wood and have lunch at BM, good times.
Shoney's, Quincy's, Hardee's I have nothing against just don't generally eat at them.
Bojangles I just can't get my self into. When I visit family in NC my little cousin loves that place. I don't hate it but won't cry if I never go again.
Speaking of NC, Smithfeilds!!! I do eat Yankee style ketchup based BBQ but vinegar is better and Smithfeilds nails it.
Popeyes has a place in Troy. Real crappy area. I think Troy has the honor of being the only city in NY to have a episode of Gangland filmed there. I just get the hell outta Troy quick, no chicken.
Churchs were all over growing up in the South but I never liked it. But my Father did. They opened a store in Herkimer about 30 years ago but it didn't last long.
Waffle Houses have a bad rep and much of it is true, LOTTA rednecks, but I kinda like the place and its cheap and everywhere so when I'm on the road I do eat there.
Actually thinking of headed to Albany today for this Cheesecake Factory. I loves me some cheese cake. Manny's burnt down this Summer. Not sure if they opened somewhere else.
I meant to say "nicer looking than average strip mall" but hoping the point got across. What I mean by strip mall is quite literal. it's a long building in which all the stores share the same frontage, it is or has the appearance of just being one big rectangular building, has a huge parking lot between the building and the road, is dead flat, and is parallel to the road. The Marshall's Plaza in Dewitt is classic, albeit nicely upgraded strip mall.
Some folks reserve the strip mall designation for smaller shopping plazas and call places like Towne Center a "power plaza." I think that's a fair designation but to me it still just feels like a big upscale strip mall.
Towne Center did seem to replicate the original Fayetteville Mall footprint. It's more of a plaza of three strips and a few standalone buildings (medical offices, Carrabba's and Bonefish Grill/Red Robin) that a single fortress though, thankfully. I do agree with you... the main strip should have been separate but, that may have been a requirement for the "big boxes" to agree with moving into that space. ?? More financial sense to share walls (share heat and the network of gas and electric lines), maybe?
I'm not old enough to remember a meadow there but I remember going Christmas and school shopping there, at Sears and Burlington, and the carousel they had. (And the double-decker carousel at Shoppingtown. And when the movie theater was separate, about where Chili's is now. And when Shoppingtown Mall had burnt orange/brown carpet in the slanted halls, a brick-faced entry to a basement bar and people smoked in the stores... ashtrays on the cashiers' counters and receptacles in the main corridors.) I also remember my mom driving on the unused areas of what is now the 690E/481 exchange. And when the Centro station was where Time Warner's station is... and Amtrak was based by the Aldi's in E. Syracuse, although I can't quite remember where it was before that.
Time. Just... wow. I've just started feeling old... when I can say that so-and-so has been a friend for 23 years! lol
I don't like Mex food but my former MIL traveled to Texas alot on bussiness and she used to take us to a place that she said was as close to real as you could get in NY, I bet it was this place you guys like.
Rochester does have a Boston Market, its right near a woodworking store I like to go to. Used to be able to get a hot Krispy Kreme, shop for wood and have lunch at BM, good times.
Shoney's, Quincy's, Hardee's I have nothing against just don't generally eat at them.
Bojangles I just can't get my self into. When I visit family in NC my little cousin loves that place. I don't hate it but won't cry if I never go again.
Speaking of NC, Smithfeilds!!! I do eat Yankee style ketchup based BBQ but vinegar is better and Smithfeilds nails it.
Popeyes has a place in Troy. Real crappy area. I think Troy has the honor of being the only city in NY to have a episode of Gangland filmed there. I just get the hell outta Troy quick, no chicken.
Churchs were all over growing up in the South but I never liked it. But my Father did. They opened a store in Herkimer about 30 years ago but it didn't last long.
Waffle Houses have a bad rep and much of it is true, LOTTA rednecks, but I kinda like the place and its cheap and everywhere so when I'm on the road I do eat there.
Actually thinking of headed to Albany today for this Cheesecake Factory. I loves me some cheese cake. Manny's burnt down this Summer. Not sure if they opened somewhere
else.
Manny's is suppose to open up again some time soon. Big Mama's is in the Northern Lights Plaza. You can get small individual cheesecakes for a couple of dollars.
I may have to try that place out. Hard to get to though, I hate driving in the Northern suburbs and the only reason I go to Syracuse is Nedrow. We'll see.
My Dad worked for Manny's for awhile when his job left NY late 80'sish. Those cookies, man oh man. Now my kid live right up the street and the place burns, WTF??
For those of us who are passionate about CNY and get frustrated by the pace of development, take heart you are NOT alone! A friend of mine sent me the following link from the Sun-Sentinal (Fort Lauderdale/Broward Co.) that I think you will find interesting (note the first project mentioned). The grass is not greener!!
To be fair, I think the pace of development in Syracuse (and CNY in general) has increased markedly since the sorry days of Mayor Driscoll or Bernardi for that matter. If there are delays, I think it is related to financial markets than government inaction. I commend Mayor Miner and other local leaders (elected and othewise) for their stewardship.
I hope I have not jinxed anything.
Last edited by urbanplanner; 12-04-2011 at 10:54 AM..
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