Barber's Grill & Tap Room

Barber's Grill and Tap Room is on Main Street in Brockport, which is the canal town west of Rochester on the Erie Canal corridor, and it earns five stars for operating at the level the category should reach but frequently doesn't in towns of this size. Brockport is a college town, which means the bar and restaurant market runs from the student dive end to the few establishments that are trying to be something more for the rest of the community. Barber's is in the second category.

I came through on a March circuit that also included Avicolli's in Seneca Falls and the Walburger's and JAX Service Center stops in the Cortland area, which is a spread that tells you this was a productive March day on the road. Barber's was the dinner stop on the western end of that circuit, which is an appropriate position: a proper bar-and-grill dinner that earns the drive without requiring you to treat it as a destination.

The tap room component earns its billing. The draft selection runs to local and regional craft with the right proportion of accessible options for the range of people who use a bar like this in a college town. The grill delivers competent food at the correct bar-dinner price point. Together they produce a five-star experience in the context of what the place is trying to be, which is the measure that matters.