Historic German House

315 Gregory St #1, Rochester, NY 14620, USA

Address:	315 Gregory St #1, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
Phone:	+1 585-563-6241
Site:	historicgermanhouse.com
Rating:	4.2

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 14

Paul Cicotta

The Historic German House is such a great venue for a variety of events. From the outside, the house itself does not look so expansive. That is till you walk in there where passageways, and sub levels will stretch for miles. That day I happened to be a part of the BSides Roc Event that the German House was hosting. This was an event where techies, hackers, computer nerds, and nerds in general came together. My agenda for the day was jammed packed with lectures, presentations, group projects, and demos. From the starting door we were all equipped with all our tech gear. Thanks to Bsides Roc for the clip protector with lock, and Siege Technologies for the cool Mission Impossible Pen. You walk into this giant auditorium that looks like an old school German House Restaurant. You can picture the long rows of tables with people eating food, and drinking beer. The first activity was laid out for us at the center table which was building a Kinnex Roller Coaster. Building this roller coaster required a lot of team work, and concentration. The one 10 year-old kid in our group smoked us in putting all the pieces together, but thanks to him we won (way to go buddy!). The food portion was completely catered by BUTA PUB. The breakfast sandwich I had was HUGE, and it tasted delicious with sizzling apple-wood smoked bacon, melted cheese, egg, and juicy caramelized onions. It was topped with this sweet-tangy Koren styled Buta Pub sauce. Originally I ordered two of these sandwiches, but was so satisfied with the first one I gave the other to the kid who helped our Kinnex team win. Buta Pub is located on the lower level of the German House-BONUS ( I will get more into Buta Pub with my review of the place). Before setting off to my official agenda, I made sure to pick up a BSides Roc VIP shirt at the gift shop. Upstairs in the German House was Lock-Picking Village. This was a chance to practice with TOOOL Roc to unlock gadgets and gizmos. Google! tip- Lock-picking is NOT like TV, where they do it in 2 seconds. The instructor said on average it could take up to an hour to lock-pick a door/locker. It was so time consuming digging around in that little hole to level pins, eventually I just gave up. More power to the people who were up there for hours. There are many things I would like to unlock, a keyhole is not one of them. Behind the GIANT Theater Stage where doors that lead through many passageways. All which were connected to the lecture classrooms. The rooms in the German House reminded you more of the vintage 1920s era with the white beaded paneling along the walls. It was also hot and balmy in the rooms, similar to attending school in the 1920s as well. Coming into these lectures I totally thought I was going to be a fish out of water. To my surprise, I actually knew what they were talking about. I am sure that it also helped that this will be my 4th year working with computer software companies. Ronny Bull hosted a dynamic lecture in Exploring Layer 2 Network Security in Virtualized Environments. This really established a need at creating better security networks within Virtual Machines. The discussions and debates where so intense it was like "holy freaken Star Wars!". I had to stand up in the middle of the class at one point and be like, "Its ok, Luke really did get his hand chopped off". Another amazing lecture was by Silas Cutler in Internet Scan Data and You. I learned the details about meta-data to the 10th level with this lecture, ironic because that was the one thing I missed last week on my certification test. Overall: 1920s Vintage, Huge Theater/Stage, Ample Auditorium Seating, ButaPub, BSides Roc, Lock-Picking Village, Kinnex, Lectures, Nerds, and Star Wars!....of course I will be back.

A Private User

A family member was there last night and was treated rather poorly. Parking was not sufficient and seemed unorganized. His party was asked to move their vehicle to a location down the street, and then other vehicles were allowed to park in their spot. He was with a band, and security was pressuring them to speed up the loading of their equipment, even though they were playing for free. His car was triple blocked in. He approached someone which he thinks may have been the owner, but he was not sure, and this individual became aggressive, put their hand on my son, and talked down to him. I am sure there are two sides to every story, but my son is a college student, does volunteer work for the disabled, is on the deans list, and has won special recognition from coaches in high school athletics for providing assistance above and beyond to the coaches. Possibly the individual that threatened my son was overwhelmed with the situation at hand. Either way, it was disappointing to hear this news and we will likely never be customers of this establishment.

kurt schulwitz

I saw 2 shows in the last few years there: Renaissance & Acoustic Hot Tuna. I would have to say that this is one of the BEST SOUNDING rooms Ive ever been in. Ive literally seen well over 1000 live shows over the last 40 years. My only complaint, and its not a small one, is the loud cackling female bartender whose endless laughing and loud talking during the Hot Tuna show was beyond annoying. I will be attending the Bromberg show on 10-10-15. I hope that I will not have to politely ask her to quiet herself, because I will definitely do so if necessary. Thank You to the management.

Andrew Woodard

This is a great event space and from the prices Ive heard, a very reasonable to rent one. The German house has a great atmosphere for a party, plenty of parking and can fit a couple hundred people. Ive been to 3 events there all of which were a lot of fun.

jeffrey owens

If you are African American dont come here. I sat at the bar for almost 20 min before I was asked if I needed anything that was after countless people came in and were served immediately. Unless you want to be treated second class choose another place

Lenny Stubbe

Not a big fan. Parking is lousy and the staff is not friendly. Seating is uncomfortable chairs, and the stage is very cavernous. More a room than a theatre. Dont expect the owner to be friendly.

Stef C

I love this venue for live music. It is so authentic and comfy. Sound works well in this room. Very nice place to catch a live show, then continue around back to have a great meal.

Aaron Rape

Really neat layout, and arguably the best food in Rochester. The menu was very inventive and executed well. Only visited once, but will be sure to go back frequently.

Quan da bomb Def Town Boss

parking is horrible it is a nice venue and the staff was definitely unfriendly in the downstairs part the few times I did go there

diane thompson

Great people, Great food, Great time just come before the show at the Historic German house

David Heid

Great place for swing dancing! Loved dancing here when I lived in Rochester.

Jeff Collins

Such fun dancing with groove juice east coast swing on Wednesday nights

Jacob Publicover

Awesome venue for music. Big open floor with optional balcony seating

Dawn Van Zile

Had the best time watching trail park boys there! great set up