Max of Eastman Place gets bold makeover in downtown Rochester

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He has been preparing exquisite meals and curating the very finest menus for four decades, so Tony Gullace certainly understands Rochester’s restaurant industry.

“I have a passion for food; I have a love for food,” he said.

Which is why, at age 68, instead of stepping back, he has invested in a restaurant remake.

With Max of Eastman Place operating within the heart of Rochester’s cultural district for nearly a quarter century, Gullace has completed a makeover that he believes aligns perfectly with consumer dining desires.

“I want to make a statement that we still believe in downtown,” Gullace said. “We believe what in what downtown still has to offer.”

That’s why he unveiled the reimagined Max of Eastman Place this week. He has torn out a wall and transformed what was wasted storage space into the bar they didn’t have previously.

He has completely redone the interior and the décor; only the tables are the same. And he has plans to capitalize on a perk of his location — the Miller Center courtyard — with pop-up clambakes and impromptu concerts.

What isn’t changing: his dedication to serving a memorable meal, though it now will be in a less formal setting than when he christened Max of Eastman Place in the fall of 2001.

“We’ve evolved from this very fine dining environment to something that is a neighborhood-driven bistro environment with a French or Mediterranean-inspired cuisine,” Gullace said.

The new look was necessary, he said. Well, so did his employees. “They kept saying, ‘We really need a bar.’ ” The old bar was dismantled shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Gullace also owns Max Chophouse on Monroe Avenue in Brighton, where a trend has developed.

“The bar there has become this huge dining scene,” he said. “A lot of people ask to eat at the bar, not a table, so that intrigued me.

“We were missing the casual, ‘Let’s meet at the bar’ crowd.”

But Gullace decided that if he was going to take out a wall and create a bar at Max of Eastman Place, then the entire restaurant should undergo a refresh.

“We had 25-year-old light fixtures in the ceiling,” he said.

So now the lights are new, the lamps are new, the wallpaper is new, the carpet is new, the chairs are new. He installed a sound system and had Grant Holcomb, retired director of the Memorial Art Gallery, help out with the artwork on the walls.

The location along Gibbs Street across from the Eastman Theatre mean it’s often dinner-and-a-night-with-the-Rochester-Philharmonic-Orchestra for his customers.

“Pre-theater, post-theater and certainly during Jazz Fest I can image the seats at the bar being the most popular seats in the city,” Gullace said.

Of course, the RPO and other performances across the street have made Max of Eastman Place a staple of an evening out.

“We have a lot of dinner business driven by the neighborhood, the RPO and the U of R,” he said. “Being next door to the Eastman Theatre, we’ll have kids come over and just jam out. They’ll sit in the courtyard and just play, and people pull up a chair and it becomes a party.”

Which got Gullace to thinking: Why not make sure such impromptu concerts happens more often. Thus, he’s planning pop-up clambakes, lobster bakes and perhaps even a pizza bake, accompanied by live music.

“We’re going to focus on more outdoor dining after the Jazz Fest (the Rochester International Jazz Festival runs June 20-28),” he said. “I want to have students playing on weekends and the Friday pop-ups.”

Times certainly have changed. When Gullace operated Water Street Grill in the early 1990s, corporate executives from Rochester’s Big Three (Eastman Kodak Co., Bausch & Lomb and Xerox Corp.) were expensing lunches and dinner with clients and co-workers.

“Those days in Rochester are gone,” Gullace said.

There are still business dinners, but more along the lines of law firms interviewing prospective associates and partners, he said.

They obviously appreciate the mission at Max of Eastman Place: to serve great food in an elegant manner.

Gullace still imports his pasta from Italy, buys fresh produce at the Public Market and orders his fish from the same supplier in Boston that he has used since the restaurant opened.

It’s the meal today that people remember, not the one they were served last month.

“It’s like being on stage,” Gullace said. “You open the doors and you’re performing for people.”

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