If you need a towering wedding cake, Oak Mill has you covered. Ditto for a nudie-cake to cut into at the bachelor party three days earlier. Cakes are king at this Euro-style bakery, and though kitschy designs are available, you're much more likely to be wowed by creativity than cleavage. Among the gorgeous tortes and tarts, the pear cake, a dainty yellow cake with pear and chocolate mousses topped with halved pears and ringed in ladyfingers, rules supreme.

Lest you put off a trip to the bakery because you don't have a 200-person-strong event to host, know that all those cakes share their pull with a pretty worthy queen. The walls of the shop are papered with articles about the bakery's famed paczki, a traditional Polish donut filled with anything from teeny blueberries to rose flavoring. Don't be so blasphemous as to write them off as a jelly donut imitator; they tend to be richer, a little rounder and not as flimsy.

While you're mentally duking it out between a cake order (smaller, dinner-party-worthy sizes are available) and a mess of pastries, know that the decision can get even tougher: The bakery also sells fresh bread, fruit-filled cream puffs, slices of carrot cake and more. Whatever your sweet indulgence, order a cup of coffee to go with it and take a load off at one of the three green tables—it'll be less embarrassing than digging into your goodies as you walk down the street.

Average cost: <$10

Centerstage Reviewer: Kate Schwartz