Gourmet & Healthy in Brooklyn

Ladybug Cake & Candy Supply, LLC's shelves are piled high with all manner of colorful supplies for baking, adorning, and displaying sweets. Customers can snag hard-to-find provisions such as flavored sea salts, cupcake stands, Guittard chocolate, and edible images to create homemade masterpieces, or enlist the store’s helpful staff members to host kids’ birthday parties where guests can decorate their own cupcakes or cookies. During regular classes, the shop's sugar artisans tutor students in everything from making hard candies to advanced cake-decorating skills, such as creating flowers, adding borders, and disguising mistakes with well-placed action figures.:m]]

Starting at two o'clock in the morning, trucks head out from Urban Organic's headquarters carrying boxes of organic, local produce to drop at doorsteps from the Bronx to Brooklyn and far-off lands such as Long Island and Connecticut. Each box holds a variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables, such as apples, chard, arugula, and bananas, each certified organic by the USDA. Since the selection rotates weekly, an included newsletter introduces the produce to families with handy tips on storage, cooking, and conversation starters.

The handy subscription service visits each of its delivery zones once a week so urbanites have easy access to organic, locally grown meals. Families can also take advantage of lower price tags than those at local grocery stores or black markets, since Urban Organic buys in bulk from organic farmers' cooperatives and distributors.

Since its humble south Philadelphia beginnings in the 1990s, PrimoHoagies has quickly expanded throughout the region and garnered several awards on the strength of its cold-cut sandwiches, made with Thumann's brand of gourmet meats and cheeses. The shop's robust menu features dozens of specialty hoagies, many of which were created in-house rather than underwater, as is the industry norm. Sharp Italian hoagies teem with prosciutto and genoa salami, and pork Diablo hoagies marry Thumann's homestyle roasted pork with a blend of piquant spices.