What’s New, Utica: Care, Wonder, and New Businesses in the Utica Area
Celebrating new ideas, new businesses, and the people building them.
Cities don’t become interesting by accident.
They’re built one odd little decision at a time.
Somebody says, “You know what this town needs?”
Vietnamese pho. Fresh donuts. A coral reef. Or a company that helps care for family cemetery plots when time, distance, weather, and life get in the way.
Nobody in the history of urban planning has ever put those four things on one vision board.
And yet, here we are.
That’s what I love about the Utica area. Growth here doesn’t always arrive in the form of giant developments or sweeping announcements. Sometimes it shows up quietly, practically, and a little unexpectedly. A new business opens. A new idea takes shape. A familiar need finally meets the right person willing to do something about it.
This month’s What’s New, Utica highlights new businesses in Utica NY and nearby communities that are built around something simple, necessary, and surprisingly powerful: care.
New Businesses in Utica NY Built Around Care
Take Gina’s Affordable Cemetery Maintenance. Gina Carcone built a business around something deeply personal: helping families care for the resting places of people they love. Headstone cleaning. Flower planting. Custom wreath arrangements. Seasonal watering.
It’s not flashy work. It’s not loud. It probably won’t inspire anyone to say, “Let’s make a TikTok.”
And maybe that’s exactly why it matters.
There’s something quietly beautiful about a business built around remembrance. Around showing up for people in the places where memory lives. Around understanding that care doesn’t stop just because someone is gone.
Donuts, Pho, and the Comfort of Local Food
Then, because life is strange and this column refuses to stay emotionally tidy for more than four paragraphs, let’s talk donuts.
Daylight Donuts brings a little extra joy to the morning, which is useful because mornings, as a concept, remain deeply suspicious. After all, the company has been around since 1954, and there’s a reason donuts have survived every food trend humanity has thrown at us.
Kale had a moment. Donuts endured.
There’s comfort in that.
And if comfort is what you’re after, Pho Vietnam in New Hartford has entered the chat with steaming bowls of pho, Vietnamese dishes made with care, vegan options, boba, and a cozy place to sit down and remember that soup can, in fact, fix your entire personality for approximately 37 minutes.
Their tagline says every bowl of pho feels like home. Around here, we’ll take comfort wherever we can find it, especially if it comes with noodles.
That’s the thing about food. It doesn’t just feed people. It gives them somewhere to land. Somewhere to meet. Somewhere to sit across from another human being and say, “Try this,” which remains one of the most generous phrases in any language.
Local Innovation with Namnu
But we can’t live on noodles and donuts alone.
I’ve tried.
This month also comes with a little local innovation.
Utica University MBA student Pratiksha Bista created Namnu, a mobile app that makes tax preparation less painful. Businesses can upload invoices or receipts, categorize expenses, and generate reports for their accountant without handing over bank logins or sensitive information.
In other words, someone looked at tax season, saw people hauling around bags and shoeboxes full of receipts, and thought, “Maybe this doesn’t have to feel like a hostage situation with spreadsheets.”
That’s not flashy. But it’s smart. And around here, smart deserves its moment too.
Not every great idea needs to come from a glass office tower in Silicon Valley, where everyone is named Chase and drinks cold brew out of an insulated tumbler that says, “Let’s Circle Back After I’m Caffeinated” in Comic Sans. Sometimes it comes from right here, from someone who saw a problem up close and decided there had to be a better way through it.
Health, Wellness, and Long-Term Stewardship
Then there are businesses helping people feel better in their own bodies.
Arthritis Specialists Infusion & Wellness Center in New Hartford helps people dealing with arthritis, autoimmune conditions, inflammation, and chronic pain get the care and support they need. Dr. Martin Morrell and Ashley Lamonica, NP, provide personal, practical treatment for people trying to move through life with less pain and more support.
As someone who now frequently makes a noise when standing up from a chair, I am creakily grateful.
Greater Utica is also home to businesses thinking on a longer timeline. Much longer.
Not every business is built around speed. Some are built around stewardship. Around walking the land, understanding what it needs, and making decisions with patience instead of panic.
Murphy Forest Management, based in Oneida, has been helping people care for forests one tree at a time for more than a decade. From timber sales to forest management plans and professional guidance, their work is rooted in long-term stewardship. The results may outlive all of us, which is both humbling and mildly rude if you were hoping to feel young today.
Wonder at the Utica Zoo
The Utica Zoo likes to keep things fresh. They recently opened Bull Reef, a 2,000-gallon saltwater coral reef exhibit filled with color, movement, and marine life. Dr. Ronny Bull donated the exhibit, and incredibly, it is the second-largest coral reef exhibit in the Northeast. Even more impressive, Bull Reef Aquaculture in Schuyler grew the coral and marine life in-house rather than relying on wild-caught or outsourced specimens.
It’s the kind of addition that makes kids press their faces close to the glass and adults suddenly go quiet for a second.
That’s wonder.
And wonder is underrated, especially in a world where most of us spend too much time staring at emails written by people who use “circle back” without remorse.
I’m looking at you, Chase.
Care and Wonder Around Greater Utica
Maybe that’s what all of this has in common.
Care and wonder.
Care for memories. Care for mornings. Care for food, health, forests, innovation, and wide-eyed kids standing in front of a coral reef, nowhere near the ocean.
Maybe communities grow when people keep finding new ways to care for one another. Sometimes it looks like medical expertise. Sometimes it’s a forestry plan. Sometimes it’s a warm bowl of pho or a box of donuts. And sometimes it’s cleaning a headstone so a family knows someone remembered.
That kind of thing counts.
So this month, try something new.
Order the pho.
Bring the donuts.
Visit the reef.
Walk the land.
Book the appointment.
Download the app before next tax season turns your kitchen table into a crime scene of receipts.
And maybe take a minute to think about someone who helped shape the life you’re living now, even if the story was complicated. Especially then.
Sometimes care looks like clearing away what time, weather, and neglect have left behind, so the name underneath can be seen clearly again.
Consider this your invitation.
Sean Farrell is Special Projects Officer at the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce, where he works to support local businesses, build community connections, and spotlight what’s new and growing across the region. He also runs WhatsUpstateNY.com—more than a website, it’s your in-hand guide to discovering the people, places, and experiences that make Upstate New York special.
Original column appeared in the Daily Sentinel.
