Coffee & Treats in Wilkinsburg

With an arsenal of fresh ingredients and rich recipes, Kretchmar's creative chefs conjure up spot-hitting sweet treats and oven offerings. Cookie options ($0.44–$0.47 each) include soft butter cookies with sprinkles, powdered-sugar butterballs, classic chocolate-chip bites, and drop cookies. Contemplate the cyclical circle of life with a doughnut ($0.69–$0.84 each), or scale a stack of sky-high scones ($0.58–$1.77 each) to climb beyond city limits and escape rampaging city councilors. Kretchmar's torte cakes have won the hearts of Beaver's bakery buffs. Sample the sweet splendor with the tres leches torte ($16.70), containing three different milks, and the toasted-almond torte ($15.40), the bakery's most popular torte.

Though its sweet shoppe is a new addition, Charlie's has been serving ice cream for over 30 years, long enough to witness both I Love the '80s and its original source material. Try your tongue on one of Charlie's time-honored soft-serve treats in chocolate ($2/medium), vanilla ($2/medium), yogurt ($2.35/medium), or Dole ($2.35/medium) in a cake cone. Charlie's can also add any of 36 flavors, including butterscotch, espresso, cheesecake, mango, and many more into any of its soft-serve flavors. Or opt to sharpen your teeth on two scoops of classically flavored hard-serve in a cake cone ($2.25). Sugar-free options in butter pecan and fudge ripple help keep discerning diets in tact. Ice cream is also skillfully injected into cakes, pies, and cookie sandwiches, bridging the gap between Charlie's old and Charlie's new with a filling more satisfying than caulk. Swing by the sweet shoppe portion of the dessertery to pick up some home-style baked goods, such as cookies, brownies, crème horns, muffins, tarts, apple dumplings, cakes, savory pepperoni rolls, and more. Pie, cake, and other large orders must be placed 24–48 hours in advance.