This city mouse eats freshly-baked humble pie

Okay so I re-read my post about Rochester and I may have done it a disservice. Jems is correct that Rochester's rural environment does indeed give the City clean, fresh air. [Likewise its population of bears and coyotes give Rochester residents the sparkle in their eye and the spring in their step!]. And I'm prepared to stand corrected on these outskirt examples. But I stand firm on yesterday's rant that proved that Downtown Rochester is the pits, and I'm sure I'm quoting Lonely Planet when I say that.

But before we completely strike Rochester from the tourism records, let me talk up one place I saw while I was away.

The New York Wine & Culinary Center is absolutely beautiful and is (like all good things), literally 25 minutes drive from Rochester in a charming place called Canadaigua. As a guest of Constellation Brands, I visited the Center that easily boasts the most elegant tasting room and full-service class kitchen I've ever seen.

The Center offers corporate classes (like team building exercises) where you go into the kitchens and actually cook together. Sure beats those lame trust exercises where you have to fall back on each other and attempt to catch the other person. Or god forbid those dreaded games where you are each given a farm animal and you have to go around the room clucking like a chicken until you and all your fellow chickens are safely corralled into a corner. Oh yes friends, I've played them all.

The NYCC has a mezzanine level restaurant where you can then go and devour the meals that you and your team have cooked. And in the room just next door, wine experts will help you make sense of what wines will pair beautifully with the masterpiece you have prepared in the kitchen.

If you don't believe me that such a treasure does indeed exist within a stone's throw of Rochester, go online and check it out. It's all true.