Coffee & Treats in Framingham

Armed with current techniques for properly maintaining noggin lawns, Regis Salon’s network of stores keeps clients’ hair in order as dictated by the latest trends. Within this caravan of hair bazaars, customers’ wild manes are tamed by skillful stylists. Use your Groupon toward a shampoo, cut, and style ($31–$38) and lean back and dream of break-dancing Stay Puft Marshmallow Men as a stylist carefully cleanses hair with shampoo and conditioner and then clips it into stylish head-hedges that beautifully complement scalp-garden pathways. Afterward, the hair that’s left behind will receive a loving condition for a style that gleams and glitters like a ruby-encrusted bowling ball. During the treatment, stylists offer helpful tips and tricks to help clients care for hair at home. If a shampoo and cut isn't your cup of sports drink, put your Groupon toward the cost of another service, such as hair coloring ($60–$70), highlights ($80–$90), or a perm ($75–$85). Prices vary by location.

Steeped in centuries of rich tradition, Italian cuisine relies on quality ingredients and simple preparations to yield beautifully bold flavors. Since 1983, the chefs of Nello’s Cafe have drawn on such traditions to fill their extensive menu with Old-World staples such as lasagna and seafood diavolo, which they serve alongside burgers and other American fare.

Dorset Café caters to tea-lovers and coffee connoisseurs alike with a plethora of warm, caffeine-laced beverages, as well as flaky pastries and gourmet sandwiches. Replenish the energy zapped by rapid eye movement and sleepwaltzing with a hearty choice from the breakfast menu, such as whole-wheat waffles ($8.95) or a hot pizzette with chevre goat cheese, bartlett pear, and maple ($8.95). Sippers can soothe their mouths from the stress of early-morning chewing with a steamy beverage, such as a large cup of special-reserve, single-origin coffee ($2.35) or a personal pot of loose-leaf black tea ($3.50). The stomach’s midday grumblings turn into afternoon applause thanks to selections from Dorset's lunch menu, which includes vegetarian quiche ($8.95) and gourmet sandwiches (starting at $6.95) that allow diners to choose their bread, fillings, and toppings, creating a lunch as unique as the snowflake fingerprints snowmen leave at their icy crime scenes.

Named Best Cupcake by Boston magazine in 2010, Five Bites Cupcakes sates voracious sweet teeth with a creative selection of petite pastries prepared with fresh ingredients. Simultaneously appease finicky uncles ravenous for red velvet and picky preschoolers pining for pumpkin with a customized assortment of delectable treats, each one sporting a thick tam-o'-shanter of luscious and ornate frosting. Mouths homesick for native Massachusetts will find comfort in the boston-cream cupcake, a hand-sized dessert filled with sweet cream custard and basted with dark-chocolate ganache, and candy connoisseurs hungry enough to lick the wellington boots of a Candy Land cropper can sample the lemon-drop cupcake. Those with an irresolute palate can stay perched atop the fence with a marble cupcake, a treat that brings together the polarizing flavors of white and chocolate cake for a therapeutic hug before undergoing a healing session of delicious mastication.

J.P. Licks

Fresh out of college, Vince Petryk took a job as a dishwasher at an ice cream shop. It was just a temporary gig…or, so he thought. As Petryk climbed through the shop’s ranks—he rose from dishwasher, to scooper, to ice-cream maker, to manager—he was awe-struck by the way ice cream seemed to make people feel happy. From that point on, he knew that he wanted to continue to share that joy with others and that the best way to do it, was to own his own ice cream shop. He perfected his from-scratch ice cream recipe before opening J.P. Licks, named for Jamaica Plain, the neighborhood where he opened his first location. The flavors were immediately a hit and continue to win loyal fans for their intensity and ingenuity––at any given time, guests might find cake batter and chocolate peanut butter ripple on the menu, alongside unusual flavors like tomato basil or beer and pretzels. Since those early days, Vince has also added from-scratch hard and soft frozen yogurts, sherberts, and sorbets. He has even been known to develop flavors to suit the tastes of the area's different ethnic groups, and dairy-free ice creams to provide relief to the area's overworked cows. Beyond serving traditional cones, Petryk and his staff also pack chilly scoops into house-made cakes and pies, blend them into shakes, and transform them into decadent sundaes topped with homemade hot fudge or butterscotch. The icy treats have proved so popular, J.P. Licks now has 10 area stores, leaving them ample wall space for awards: readers of The Phoenix voted it the city’s best ice cream parlor in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

You can grab a slice of quiche and a glass of wine at Susu Bakery Boutique, but the real specialty here is dessert. Coffee complements flaky croissants, frosting-heaped cupcakes, and decorated butter cookies cut into fun shapes. Lemon tea cakes pair well with the bakery's tea list, and brownies make for delicious follow ups to sandwiches. Bakers will even aim their talents toward custom cakes for parties, And customers wanting to learn how to decorate desserts themselves need only enroll in one of the bakery's cupcake classes.

Over at the boutique, colorful candy buttons and penny candy share shelf space with rock candy. Sea salt glitters atop caramels, and truffles blend chocolate and raspberry flavors. You can even pick up a bag of granola.