Coffee & Treats in Stamford

Pastry traditionalists may question the cannoli nacho. But consider this: the triangular pastry shells can be dunked into an edible chocolate bowl of sweet-cream filling, forever circumventing the soggy fate that so often befalls cannoli shells. This deconstructed cannoli is just one of DiMare Pastry Shop’s many inventive spins on traditional Italian desserts.

Founded in 1976 by Italian-born Ugo DiMare, the pastry shop is now helmed by his two daughters, who have updated the menu with award-winning European and American creations. In addition to scratch-made pastries, the confectioners frost nearly 30 kinds of cakes, ideal for special events such as weddings, company picnics, and Take Your Cake to Work Day.

Consuming between 9 and 13 servings of vegetables and fruits each day can seem like a daunting task. But Robeks turns what could be a chore into a delicious pastime with blended smoothies that incorporate bananas, blueberries, strawberries, mangos, and other fresh fruits. Elsewhere on the menu, fresh salads, tasty muffins and cookies, and gourmet sandwiches help customers adhere to a healthy lifestyle without hiring an apple tree as a personal trainer.

Pearl Yogurt invites visitors to treat themselves to six delicious soft-serve yogurt flavors, capped off with a panoply of fruits, candies, and sprinklings. In addition to boasting kosher certification, the cups of sweet, creamy dessert infuse bodies with calcium to strengthen bones and live and active cultures to boost immune systems and force fields. A clean, crisp, modern motif greets visitors to the yogurt shrine, soothing eyeballs with walls of cool light green, and housing guests upon streamlined cream-colored couches and chairs. Diners wash down their dessert with sips of teas and exotic bubble teas.

What began in Brooklyn as a personal affection for italian ice eventually bloomed into a multistate confection empire on the strength of frosty family recipes. Uncle Louie G's Italian Ices & Ice Cream crafts its treats from the same recipes founder Louie G used growing up in New York City, before the invention of robot-run ice creameries. The expansive menu now includes more than 40 flavors of italian ices, two dozen ice creams, and two-flavor ice-cream cakes filled with a layer of crushed treats or pound cake. Fresh maraschino cherries, Dole pineapple, and a variety of other candies imbue the shop's italian ice with a dazzling array of flavors and textures.

Inside Dulce Delights’ sleek, red-accented yogurt bar, guests serve themselves frosty cups of freshly swirled frozen yogurt before sliding into red plush stools to enjoy them. Thirty rotating flavors flow from the store’s 12 self-serving stations, allowing guests to create their own icy masterpieces from flavors such as strawberry banana, thin-mint cookie, and peanut butter. After piling yogurt high in the bright pink cups, guests can fill up with more than 50 toppings, crafting edible recreations of great art works using cake crumbs, mini marshmallows, and gummy bears.

There's chocolate in Lee Perrotta's blood. It's easy to see how it got there; in 1928, her great uncle was the chief formulator for Rockwood Chocolate in Brooklyn, and her great aunt Lena was a prolific candy maker who left behind a trove of candy-making supplies stored in hatboxes. Following suit, Lee has made her own footprint in the confectionary world by approaching chocolate making as an art—literally. In 2007, the Walt Whitman Museum displayed 36 edible sculptures and portraits that she crafted from chocolate. In 2008, the New York Food Festival named her the overall best chocolatier of the year, also awarding her prizes for fudge, truffles, and chocolate sculpting.

Several of Perrotta's chocolate sculptures serve as decor inside The Chocolate Lady in Oyster Bay. Visitors can peruse more than 180 types of seasonal confections made with freshly ground cocoa, fresh-fruit purees, and fresh butter from a cow whose udders squirt chocolate milk. Organic rose-cream cordials, citrus-tinged blood-orange bites, and dark-chocolate espresso truffles are just a few of the treats available in her store.