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    Drifters

    3.6 (67 reviews)
    ModerateNew American, Pubs, Salad
    Closed 3:00 pm - 9:00 PM
    Updated over 3 months ago

    Drifters Photos

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    Ruth C.

    We had family from out of town staying at the Hilton Garden Inn downtown, so we decided to chill at Drifters on a Sunday night. The bartender was great! Attentive and funny. Decor is nice! Food.. delicious. We ordered wings, potstickers. Then more wings. And yes a 3rd order lol. The food coming out for other customers looked amazing too. Full bar and fairly resonable I'll definitely visit here again!

    Buffalo chicken Mac and cheese
    Savannah B.

    We came here to celebrate a friend's birthday dinner. It is located inside the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown. Parking here is horrendous. We had to pay $6 to park in the garage as all street parking was not plowed and full of snow. Once inside the staff told us where to find the restaurant as it is quite big inside. We were seated right away as it was not very busy with only a few tables filled. Our waitress was clearly sick and smelled very strongly of cigarettes. If I was not there for a birthday dinner, I would have left right away. She was not super friendly but was very helpful with the menu. I ordered the buffalo chicken mac and cheese, along with another member of our party. It came to the table covered in blue cheese crumbles even though nowhere on the menu stated it came with that. I tried to pick as much of it off as I could as I do not like blue cheese. The meal itself was not very good. The chicken was extremely dry, and the mac and cheese were pretty basic for a $16 price tag. Out of the six of us, no one enjoyed their meal. I do not recommend Drifters. It is possibly one of my least favorite restaurants in Rochester.

    menu
    Melissa M.

    This is the bar and restaurant located in the hotel where my boyfriend and I stayed when we were in town recently for a wedding. They were solid. The charcuterie platter we ordered to tide us over between the ceremony and the reception was abundant and had some nice local selections. The drinks were not spectacular but similarly featured some local spirits, which I'm always game for trying. I am always disappointed when a bar uses the fluorescent pink maraschino cherries muddled with orange in their Old Fashioneds, so I tend to drop points in my rating of those places. But both of the bartenders we met otherwise seemed knowledgeable and friendly.

    Look. Listen. This here is a Old Fashion. Makers Mark to be exact.
    Donald L.

    Look. Listen. They have an Old Fashion here that is literally one of the best I've ever had. Makers Mark to be exact. Please note this is a review and rate on solely the bar, but I think they are well worth trying the food based on that. Really good customer service at this place and gave me a ton of suggestions for dinner. Great guy behind the bar, ask for Ed.

    Dining area
    Hope C.

    I want to give this place 3.5 stars but on the basis of it being the first passable bar to open on this side of Main Street in god knows how many years, it'll have to be 4. The name. Eh. For providing a view of bus stations and the somewhat depressing storefronts on Main Street, the word "Drifters" is darkly ironic. I wanted to laugh when I asked the bartender what it was supposed to mean and he replied, "Well, a drifter is a traveler who wanders from place to place." I looked outside at the snow, the bundled up people with backpacks stumbling down Main Street and felt...eh. You know. Not inspired. The bar is attached to the brand new Hilton Garden Inn, which is beautiful inside. Drifters is similarly gorgeous with a wrought iron bar and a restored industrial design style. There's a black and white photograph just next to the bar of this very location and street corner closer to the turn of the 20th Century. It's super cool and applauds the beauty of this city during its prime time; a heyday that I sometimes dream of: when the robber barons ran rampant, the muckrakers ruled the press, and the philanthropists, including George Eastman, were contributing to the infrastructure of a mighty booming town. There is history in this Drifters bar, which endears it a bit to this community. The draft list draws from local favorites CB and Fairport Brewing. The menu is standard but flirts with the South, boasting of a shrimp po'boy and chicken & waffles appetizer. We didn't try anything to eat on this visit, but enjoyed a few beers at the bar -- fully decked out with a couple of nice flat screen TVs. Not enough to give it a sports bar feel, but enough to make it a place where you could comfortably watch a game or match. The big (and it's big) downside is that the beers are easily $1 more expensive than competitors around town. Figure that this a function of its attachment to the hotel. It will be hard to draw a crowd that is independent of the hotel clientele if the menu is casual but the alcohol prices are a bit dear. At any rate, it's exciting to see a place this nice popping up on Main Street. Definitely go see for yourself!

    Side of Mac & Cheese

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    11 years ago

    Great food! They have a really nice decor and the food was incredible. Try the prosciutto and mozzarella sandwhich. Can't wait to come back!

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    Page 2 of 2

    Ask the Community - Drifters

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    Where the magic happens

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    Where the magic happens

    Drifters - newamerican - Updated June 2026

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