Coffee & Treats in Williamsburg

As spotlighted in the Daily Press, the confectionary skills of Bella Cakes' owner, Anna Lilly, bloomed in time to pull her family from the brink of bankruptcy. Now, with a booming business, Lily leads a crew of bakers that swathes a weekly rotating cast of fluffy cakes in homemade buttercream icing and stuffs their cores with 12 creamy fillings, contributing a portion of weekly cupcake proceeds to charitable causes. The boutique bakery specializes in wedding cakes whose dazzlingly detailed fondant exteriors and towering tiers provide ample cover for bouquet-hunting bridesmaids. Lilly also happily works with clients to design custom cakes and can even invent new flavors to suit particular palates.

Whipping up tasty iced concoctions with a heaping side of friendly service, Norfolk Ice Cream Company soothes fiery flavortites like a milkshake-spewing fire truck. Fresh off its one-year anniversary, this scoop-slinging abode offers a bevy of tantalizing menu items while making smile-inducing service a top priority. More than 100 possible ice-cream flavors are available, as well as soft-serve, non-fat frozen yogurt, smoothies, blended iced coffees, and cryogenically frozen gingermen. Opt for a satisfying scoop of Kahlua-almond fudge, cotton candy, bubble gum, or elephant ears ($2.69 for a single scoop, $3.69 for a double). Or, sample a banana split ($4.79), a chocolate milkshake ($3.99 for a regular size), or a towering chocolate and vanilla non-fat frozen-yogurt soft serve ($1.99 for a regular).

Founded by ice-cream enthusiasts Donald and Susan Sutherland in 1988, Cold Stone Creamery has grown to more than 1,400 locations across North America. Each day, the shop's scoopers mix up fresh batches of ice cream and sorbet, which are served by the scoop, piled high in sundaes, and blended into shakes. After customers choose their desired flavor, the staff toss the chilly sustenance upon a slab of frozen granite, and fold in a smorgasbord of candy and nuts to achieve the ideal ice-cream-to-add-in ratio. Customers can dream up their own creations or opt for a signature masterpiece, sampling one of more than 11.5 million possible flavor combinations, which still await a brave conqueror to unlock them all. To accommodate sweets cravings at celebrations, the staff also dish out premade treats, such as ice-cream cakes and baked goods.

At Love In A Cup, frozen yogurt isn't just a dessert—it's a way of showing your body that you care. The shop's natural yogurt boosts bodies’ live, active cultures, which have been shown to bolster the immune system and protect the intestinal tract from the harmful bacteria that steals its lunch money. Eight frozen flavors swirl from self-serve machines, presenting taste buds with a continuum of sweet and tart tastes to explore. The toppings bar rolls out a smorgasbord of fresh fruit and candy to add crisp and crunchy textures to the mix, preventing diners from needing to head to the wilderness to forage for berries and discarded cookie crumbs.

Outside of swimming laps in chocolate syrup, smoothies at Smoothie King are the tastiest way to improve your health. Smoothie King smoothies combine fresh fruit, natural juices, and special nutritional enhancers into more than 90 flavors (you can customize, add, and subtract the extras), all of which focus on achieving one of seven nutritional goals. Try an antioxidant-rich Pomegranate Punch with pomegranate, bananas, blueberries, apple juice, soy protein, and Turbinado sweetener to stay healthy. Weight-conscious en-smuthiasts can trim down and float away with the Celestial Cherry High, packed with bananas, black cherry, papaya, Turbinado, and honey, and unpacked with fat. You can also customize any smoothie by adding enhancers or “make it skinny” by cutting out the honey and Turbinado.

Demolition Coffee’s menu of gourmet ground coffee, freshly baked pastries, and specialty sandwiches delights patrons and has caught the attention of reporters from the Progress-Index and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The acclaim is due to expertly brewed espresso beverages, sandwiches featuring freshly baked bread, and salads accented with original toppings, such as caribbean chicken. Additionally, Progress-Index reporter F.M. Wiggins lauds the spacious café’s interior as “unique,” with recycled materials “that carry over the 'demolition' theme and the community atmosphere.” Beneath high wooden ceilings and surrounded by refurbished brick walls, wooden tabletops are scattered about the WiFi–saturated seating area to invite leisurely sipping, and regular live music provides entertainment for workaday-coffee cups.