Discover the Region
The region around Canandaigua Lake and the Western Finger Lakes has an incredible variety of offerings to sample all through the year. While summer is our peak season, skiing can be enjoyed here all through the winter months and into early spring when our world class fishing stocks attract trout enthusiasts to the tributaries and lakes. The season that is perhaps the locals’ favorite, however, is fall, when the hills are clothed in every shade of gold, orange, red, and purple.
While we invite you to sample the unique, curated Experiences we have assembled here with our partners, our area has a wide variety of restaurants, craft beverage makers, music venues, specialty shops, parks, and historic sites that are all worth exploring. Our “More Than Just Food” section highlights some of our favorite spots here because they feature not only food but also music and homegrown beverages: specialties of the Naples Valley region.
more than just food
Here we praise some of the best that the Naples Valley has to offer: food, drink, music, and ambience, all wrapped up in these wonderful locales. In all likelihood, this is what you came to the area for: and here are the best you’ll find right in our back yard. Enjoy them all and say hello from Glen Hollow when you visit!
hollerhorn
This amazing spot is among our very favorite places to be in the region. Hollerhorn’s unique “tree spirits” are distilled from locally-created maple syrup, but have a range of flavors that vary from the warm and caramel-inflected Sapling to the bright and herbal Silver Leaf. A rotating menu features ingenious concoctions from owner-distiller-mixologist Karl Neubauer: Vote for Pedro is our favorite and you can tell Karl we said so. Both lunch and dinner are usually available (check hours), but the shining star here is their events calendar which has brought a truly special blend of local, regional, and national musical talent through its doors. No visit to the Naples Valley is complete without making the pilgrimage to its Spirit Room.
roots cafe and inspire moore
Although technically two separate establishments, we enthusiastically endorse making just a little advance planning to enjoy either lunch or dinner at Roots before or after a wine tasting at local favorite Inspire Moore. Check their calendar in advance, however, because if Roots is featuring a band, it’s worth the return trip. Famed for their burgers and other farm-to-table offerings, Roots has an eclectic menu with delightful vegetarian options. Inspire Moore has a broad range of wines that include some of our favorites: Lust is a velvety Pinot Noir, and Grace is their beautifully-rounded Blaufrankisch-sourced Rose. We rarely recommend anything not dry, but their semi-dry red blend Inspiration is a magnificently drinkable crowd-pleaser.
heron hill winery, canandaigua tasting room
We’re putting this here because in the summer the Canandaigua tasting room turns into a weekend hotspot with brick-oven fired pizzas and outdoor music. Heron Hill is one of the oldest and most successful wineries in the Finger Lakes, and while their Keuka Lake tasting room is their grandest location, we love the Canandaigua site for several reasons: it is set on the bucolic grounds of the Ingle Vineyards, which are the winery’s oldest vines (and our favorite single vineyard selections), it has a wonderful site manager in Courtney, and it is less than a five minute drive from Glen Hollow. Heron Hill’s wines are among the best in New York State and recently won best Dry Riesling and best Cab Franc! As these are commonly thought of as the preeminent varietals of New York’s wine industry, winning both was quite a coup. In addition to these, we are big fans of the Chosen Spot, a big, brooding red blend, and any of their Ingle Vineyard selections, but especially the Unoaked Chardonnay, and Cab Franc.
A Glen Hollow partner, Heron Hill offers 2-for-1 tastings: look for their card in your welcome packet!