Genessee Ave
From Literepetition
The college's immediate surroundings are typical of any university. Genessee Avenue is the expected main drag, its businesses composed of several bars, two rival coffeeshops, an Indian restaurant, a takeout Chinese restaurant, no less than three vintage clothing/antique stores, a convenience store at either end, and a used bookstore that specialises in purchasing student textbooks and reselling them to the next class at exorbitant prices. The Hart and Hind is one of the favoured watering holes, being a bar in the English pub style. Its claim to fame is a broad selection of imported, little-known beers on tap, and a seasonal venison appetiser. Andy Black's is the other college favourite, being a sports bar in the most typical sense, famous for its nuclear hot wings, dollar draft nights during popular sports games, and annual wet t-shirt contest, for which it offers a grand prize of five hundred dollars and a chance to pour a keg of beer over Randy Andy Black, the bar's owner/operator. It's a highly popular event.
The coffee shops stand opposite each other, locked in a stiff but relatively good-natured battle for prominence. Belly Beans is a business in two parts, its downstairs coffee shop selling not only the usual coffee and espresso beverages but health-conscious smoothies and energy drinks in small bottles with strange names. The decor is airy and eclectic, and its walls serve as a gallery for university artists. The upstairs hosts bellydancing and yoga classes, its middle aged proprietress teaching them all. Across the street from Belly Beans, Ink Noir Espresso caters to the more classical coffee shop crowd, offering with its coffee a steady diet of poetry readings and jazz jams. Several writers' groups meet there, with their schedules posted on the message board just inside the door. It's decorated with postcards from Ink Noir customers, sent from around the world, and vintage advertisement posters for anything from automobiles to absinthe.
Other fun hangouts include the Palace Cinema, which shows art-flicks, foreign movies and independent films. They get a new one every week, and rival the Neptune 12, which shows more popular movies. It's known that the popcorn at the Palace is far superior to the Neptune, but the Neptune serves better nachos.
Bartleby holds two large, chain grocery stores, (Tops for the more cost conscious and Wegmans for those more interested in choice,) and any number of smaller, local shops. There are a few specialty foodstuff shops as well. Included in these are the Silver Steer butcher, a shop that specializes in gourmet foodstuffs, and The Country Teapot tea shop. This last is a shop that sells loose-leaf teas, tea bags, cups and pots and other accessories. It's also a small restaurant that serves high tea, any time. It's popular with the campus faculty and visiting parents.
A small sushi joint, which has a name that no one can ever read, and Ye Olde Ice Cream Shoppe, a place of excellent ice cream with mix-ins and a pretentious name that matches the pretentious decor are across the street from The Country Teapot and the Five Elements is the spa/massage therapy/acupuncture clinic, which is located on the second story of a building that also houses the Crystal Garden, a store that sells New Age accoutrements and jewelry. Next door is Unravelry, the local craft store that specializes in fiber arts. Down the street is a small diner called Lulu's Pies. Their pies are unrivaled in the state, but they do well with regular food as well, and the prices are low.
Ophelia's Books is a used bookstore that deals with anything /but/ textbooks, and has a number of cats that freely roam the store and take up the chairs within. It's a two-story shop with a small seating area next to the cashier's register.
The Tops grocery is in a strip mall near campus along with a Sports Authority, a couple of fast food places, the local Pizza Hut delivery store, and a Dollar General store.
