REVIEW: Flour City Diner

Love, fire, and passion at the breakfast table

By James Leach on Jan. 9th, 2008

Breakfast is really two meals in one. There's the meal that's little more than fuel to get your day started, and there's the meal you eat to celebrate (or recover from) the excesses of the night before. The food served by owner Jerry Manley at the Flower City Diner is emphatically in the latter category. In business since 2001, but in its new location in the Renaissance Apartment building on the corner of East Avenue and Penfield Road only since June 2007, the Flour City Diner is a shrine to American comfort food, and no meal typifies comfort food more than breakfast where an imaginative cook can transform mundane eggs and sausage, potatoes and bread into something surprising and even inspired.

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Updated on 09 Jan 2008

THE DINER MONTAGE can be seen on you tube (search flour city diner on the site to view). thanks guys we love it!

Updated on 28 Jun 2007

During the Rochester International Jazz Festival, June 8-16, 2007, the F.C.D. will be open every night for dinner.  The menu will include F.C.D. favorites such as Fish Tacos, Homemade Meatloaf, Lime and Soy marinated Flank Steak, Beef a la Swiss, Chicken Poppyseed and nightly chef specials!  The atmosphere is casual and some live music is already scheduled.  Don't forget to bring your own wine or beer and then head out to the festival right outside the door.  It's a must stop on the Jazz Festival tour!!! 

Updated on 30 May 2007

Special choices include: Jay's Diner, a large, recently remodeled diner in the southern suburb of Henrietta that is open 24 hours, boasts a large menu, and is popular with nearby college students; the Highland Park Diner, an authentic "railroad car" diner that has a menu of traditional brunch fare combined with some more upscale specials (i.e. the Highland Skillet or fruited french toast with their trademark sweet cheese frosting); and the Flour City Diner, a smaller diner owned by a gourmet restaurant veteran that is open just for breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunches, and that features a menu of American and German classics and weekend specials that are truly gourmet, including a rotating variation on eggs Benedict that has included Key West Benedict (fish cakes and a key-lime hollandaise) and Tuscan Benedict (italian sausage and toast and a sun-dried-tomato Hollandaise). Read More...

Updated on 29 Mar 2007

People always ask me what my culinary background is. My mom is a great "from-scratch" cook and my dad is a butcher. My parents bought a country restaurant in Branchport, NY when I was 15 years old (and they weren’t stupid; at 15 I was perfect cheap child labor!) Read More...

Updated on 26 Mar 2007

Why'd the diner cross the road? To get to a better location, of course. The Flour City Diner is moving to 35 Chestnut, re-opening on Thursday, January 4. It'll serve breakfast and lunch Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday, and three meals a day Thursday through Saturday. Don't skimp on the pie. Call (585) 546-6607 for info.

Updated on 01 Jan 2007

April 16, 2006 7:52 PM PST

This little diner is a nice place for breakfast. I have never had lunch there before. The prices are better or comparable to other diners in the area, like Charlie Brown's, but the menu is a bit smaller and unfortunately they do not accept credit cards. The sausage gravy is supposedly "homemade," and is pretty good. It is located in a much larger building, and does not have a restroom of its own; instead it shares a restroom with the Garth Fagan Dance Company, and you have to go three floors up on the elevator to get there.

judysbook

Updated on 16 Apr 2006

(I shall attempt to recreate the Tuscan Eggs Benedict that we love so much from Flour City Diner. Since I have never made eggs benedict style, OR HOLLAINDAISE SAUCE, let alone playing with sun dried tomatoes…this shall be a yummy experiment. I have backup just in case.)

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Updated on 29 Mar 2006

Best of Greater Rochester
Critics' Picks
Published on Nov 09, 2005
Brats and pie

Flour City Diner

So maybe the Flour City Diner is the only place for homemade bratwurst and homemade pies. But even if it weren't, it would be the best. Owner Jerry Manley bought the bratwurst recipe along with the restaurant from longtime owner Rainer Dralle, and executes the loveably fatty German sausages with aplomb. Oh, and don't skimp on the homemade kraut and potatoes! The pies are all Manley's own, and brought me back with cravings (and I'm not a dessert guy). Coconut cream, apple, and a bunch of others, all great, with a true, flaky crust. A $2.50 slice is plenty for two normal folks, but you'll want to bogart it yourself. Trust me. 50 Chestnut Street, 546-6607 (Adam Wilcox)

Updated on 09 Nov 2005

It's just coconut cream pie, and besides, I'm awfully full, having just eaten. I'm interviewing Flour City Diner owner Jerry Manley, and he's insisting that I try his pie, a type of which I am not especially fond and at a time when, as I said, I'm stuffed to the gills. A bite to be polite, and a passing compliment, then move on. Oh, god, the piece is enormous.
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Updated on 29 Dec 2004