Gourmet & Healthy in Scarsdale

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.

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.

Prime Time Butcher still wraps cuts of fresh meat in charming paper parcels. Owned by the same family for more than 30 years, the shop ages cuts of Prime beef, from chopped sirloin to london broil, in Prime Time's dry coolers alongside USDA Choice cuts such as standing rib roast. The shop's Bliss Burger patties are conjured from a blend of ground brisket and short ribs.

Prime Time Butcher also stocks a cornucopia of prepared foods, such as beef lasagna and beef-stuffed cabbage, or classic sandwich fillings such as genoa salami and Boar's Head bologna. Customers can custom-order catering and party packages to feed hungry partiers with entrees such as chicken marsala and eggplant parmesan, sides of teriyaki rice and house-made potato chips, and platters of cookies that disguise Cookie Monster's jury summons.

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]]

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.