Sweet Dreams

Strap on your sugar tooth for a tour of the country’s oldie-but-goodie bakeries.

By Maureen Sullivan for MSN City Guides

Everyone loves cookies. And everyone knows that the best-tasting cookies are made by their own grandmother. But Grandma usually isn’t around when your 3 p.m. snack alarm goes off. The next best thing is a bakery that is as old-fashioned as Grandma herself.

In an age of gourmet cupcake crazes and pastry as fine art, it can be harder to find those old-school bakery gems, but no less worth the effort. Here’s a look around the country at several bakeries that have stood the test of time and retained their old-world charm and—most important—their flavor.

Veniero’s Pasticceria and Caffé - New York

Think you need to head to Manhattan’s Little Italy for Italian pastries? Not necessarily. Some of the best can be found in the East Village, where Veniero’s Pasticceria and Caffé has been dishing up its delicacies since 1894. Started by Neapolitan immigrant Antonio Veniero, the landmark pastry shop is still family-run, carried on by Veniero’s great-nephew. Known for its cannoli in true Italian fashion, Veniero’s also makes a mean Italian-style cheesecake for its version of the quintessential New York dessert, among many other varieties, as well as biscotti and its crunchier almond-cookie cousin, quarsmali. Goods are baked on the premises, which, in addition to a 40-foot case from which to choose pastries and two dining rooms, boast original details of what was once a pool hall, including hand-stamped metal ceilings and marble floors.

Furin’s of Georgetown – Washington, D.C.

Though this tiny M Street eaterie serves breakfast and lunch to the hungry in D.C.’s tony Georgetown neighborhood, its desserts are just as heavenly as its famed chicken salad. The most charming touch besides the quaint café atmosphere might be the owner, Bernie Furin, who has been in the catering business since 1960 and who will personally consult with you on anything from wedding cakes to your niece’s birthday cake. And the cakes are out of this world: carrot cake with fresh carrots and real cream cheese icing, yellow cake with orange marmalade and Grand Marnier and, for all the chocoholics out there, a chocolate mousse cake of chocolate cake layered with white chocolate mousse filling, topped with chocolate buttercream frosting with poured chocolate over it all. Furin’s doesn’t just do cakes, though. “We do a lot of cupcakes. We do all sorts of iced cookies for all the different holidays,” says Furin. And what’s more cause for celebration in D.C. than something political? “We just finished doing the primary,” Furin says of the specialized iced cookies they made for each candidate, the order tallies of which they posted in the shop. “Every time people came in to order them, we’d keep track—how many Hillary, how many of this or that.”