Coffee & Treats in Wake Forest

From behind walk-up and drive-thru windows, staffers dip cones into chocolate and butterscotch, top turtle sundaes with nuts, and twirl twist cones with specialty flavors such as tiramisu and cheesecake. But the Dairy Depot's signature confection is the Train Wreck, a combination of soft serve and candy, fruit, pretzels, or other toppings. The eatery also features unsweet treats including The Pullman, a pulled-pork sandwich; The Steam Engine, a chili-topped coney; and The Conductor, a sloppy-joe sandwich. As guests ponder these and other menu items, they can draw inspiration from a sign outside. It pictures a black and white steam locomotive with a sugar cone smokestack that seems to be powered by soft serve, much like fuel-efficient vehicles on the North Pole.

Goodberry's is a locally owned-and-operated creamery that's been serving up frozen custard made from all-natural ingredients such as milk, cream, and honey to North Carolina residents for more than 20 years. Recoiling from Faustian deals with depraved chemical preservatives and artificial stabilizers, Goodberry's chooses to whip up new batches of its frozen custard hourly to ensure maximum flavor and freshness. Flavors are limited to three: vanilla made with real Madagascar beans, rich dark chocolate, and a rotating flavor of the day. Custard connoisseurs looking to bring some personality to their pudding cups can try a famous Goodberry's Carolina concrete ($4.49 for a regular), a custom treat made by mixing your selected flavor with any combination of mix-ins, served upside down as a testament to its titular thickness and factual hold over taste buds, unlike the mix-your-own treats full of G.I. Joe toys offered by actual concrete manufacturers.

Made fresh daily, Daylight Donuts bakes and shakes a bevy of baked goodies to satisfy hungry stomachs and coat throats with a spread of liquid energizers. Sate dough desires with a delicious assortment of bountiful sweets, including the light-textured, made-from-scratch donuts ($0.89+), taste-bud-tantalizing cupcakes ($2.50), or tongue-smothering cakes ($30+).

Yelpers give A La Mode Ice Cream Café a five-star average rating, and more than five hundred Facebookers are fans.

In 1937, Vernon Rudolph founded Krispy Kreme in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with the first location on South Main Street in Old Salem. Seventy-seven years later, his secret doughnut recipe lives on within hundreds of Krispy Kreme locations, serving premium sweet treats across the globe.

The entire doughnut-making process, which customers can view up close and personal at many of Krispy Kreme?s outposts, begins with fresh ingredients and ends with the click of a fluorescent sign bearing the words, "Hot Doughnuts Now." From the original, mold-breaking glazed doughnut to newer doughnut varieties, such as Chocolate Iced with Kreme Filling, Glazed Raspberry Filled, and Glazed Chocolate Cake, each round dainty pairs with piping-hot coffee for a compact snack.

In life, there are people who follow the rules, and then there are those who decide to blaze their own path. Tyler Adkins, owner and baker-in-chief at Cups Cookies, is one of the latter, having quit his career in law to pursue something more fulfilling: baking. But he knew he didn’t want to offer humdrum cookies you could get anywhere. Instead, he broke away from the traditional flat-cookie shape and molded his dough into cupcake pans, creating a new line of hybrid treats with delicious fillings.

Not only does Adkins do the baking, he can often be found delivering cookies to happy customers around New York City. Each dozen contains six flavors, ensuring sweet teeth are satisfied enough to take an early retirement.