Gourmet & Healthy in Nanuet

A&A Fine Foods, which first opened its doors in 1992, helps customers line their pantry shelves or banquet tables with gourmet comestibles the likes of meat, bread, cookies, olive oil, cheese, and pasta. Behind gleaming display cases of hormone-free chicken and Boar's Head meats, A&A's butchers prepare homemade italian sausage and slice marbled cuts of grass-fed beef with the steady hands of a brain surgeon playing Jenga. The deli's staff can accommodate lunchtime cravings or catering requests by ladling bowls of house-made soups out of its percolating cauldrons and crafting hearty sandwiches or wraps with such ingredients as grilled eggplant and imported provolone.

Edible Arrangements’ creative staff fashions tasty gifts from fresh fruit—such as cantaloupe, honeydew, and grapes—picked at its peak ripeness. Chocolate-dipped strawberries, keepsake teddy-bear containers, and “happy birthday” balloons may be added on request to enhance arrangements. But no additives, preservatives, or temptation-inducing serpents find their way into bouquets, ensuring a healthy snack for recipients.

Italian-born Isi Albanese tops Neapolitan and Brooklyn-style extra thin pizzas with homemade and 100% Grande mozzarella cheese inside his Zagat-rated eatery. Families can twirl spaghetti noodles on their forks or fingers and spoon house-made gelato during live, tableside magic shows and trips to the arcade room.

Bruno Cavalli left Italy in 1888 with big dreams of providing for his family. He could only initially find work busing and waiting tables, but he made an important discovery. Customers from the old country were craving fresh ravioli but couldn't find it in New York, so fresh ravioli is what he gave them—even though at first he had to pack his handmade pasta in shoeboxes and deliver it by bicycle. By 1905 he opened his first shop, which he fittingly called Bruno's Ravioli. His wife worked at the counter, and his sons slept in the back, within earshot of the youngest raviolis' nighttime cries for marinara sauce.

Four generations later, the King of Ravioli's legacy lives on through his family's gourmet market, which has expanded to include Italian delicacies and sandwiches. Shoppers there can still snap up traditional ravioli made with Bruno's old recipes, as well as newfangled varieties with fillings such as tofu or shiitake mushrooms.

Guests could dine at Park Avenue Bar & Grill multiple times, and yet leave each visit feeling as though they'd never been there before. Behind the restaurant's historic façade of red brick and arched windows await six distinct areas, each welcoming diners into a different experience. Downstairs, bartenders mix drinks at a traditional wooden bar, and upstairs, a modern lounge fills glasses amid tomato-red walls and zebra-patterned tile. After they dine on white tablecloths in the refined second-floor dining room, patrons can wander out to the private courtyard for drinks, or head up to the rooftop to watch New York's mayor give the skyline its nightly spit shine.

To match the atmosphere of each space, chef Todd Villani prepares fusion cuisine that combines Latin and New American traditions. Meticulously prepared entrees cater to guests seeking evenings of fine dining, and lighter fare, such as tapas and empanadas, facilitates socializing.

The glowing embers in a rustic brick hearth reach temperature heights of 700 degrees Fahrenheit as they bake pizzas. Once they’ve been adequately roasted, pizzas emerge from brick ovens bubbling and topped with now crisp leaves of basil, soft tomato slices, arugula, and tender chicken. Chefs prepare 15 specialty varietals of pizza using traditional maple- and oak-fired methods that date back to the time when the Ancient Romans invented fire and imparts a toasty crispness to each disc. Pasta noodles mingle with creamy pesto sauce or skirt steak, while slices of foccocia bread ensnare morsels of roasted eggplant, meatballs, or lightly breaded chicken.

Diners can customize pies with à la carte ingredients such as sausage, fresh pineapple, and arugula or opt for the prearranged flavors, which include a ricotta-bedecked bianca pizza and an entree-combining chicken-parmigiana pizza. Four fountain drinks keep bellies happily hydrated, although a diplomatic BYOB policy allows guests to supplement dinners with fermented beverages. Diners can nosh in an all-season garden room, where a vaulted-glass ceiling maintains a pleasant climate through summer, winter, and impending ice ages.