Bakery in East

When looking for more than "a good loaf," you'll definitely find it at Au Bon Pain (pronounced ah-bahn-pahn). The high-end bakery-cafe chain with an outpost on every other corner in Manhattan has established its first local site in tourist territory in the Club Hotel at DoubleTree.

The polished, Art Deco-styled bakery is stocked with its fresh-baked loaves including the famous tomato-basil variety, as well as consistently delicious roast-beef and brie sandwiches, soups in bread bowls, croissants stuffed with chocolate and raspberries, and a killer Boston clam chowder. Vegetarian, low-fat and low-sodium versions are available, too.

The polished, Art Deco-styled bakery is stocked with its fresh-baked loaves including the famous tomato-basil variety, as well as consistently delicious roast-beef and brie sandwiches, soups in bread bowls, croissants stuffed with chocolate and raspberries, and a killer Boston clam chowder. Vegetarian, low-fat and low-sodium versions are available, too.

Prices are high – 99 cents for a focaccia bagel, for instance. But there are plush sofas, laptop ports, televisions and plenty of reading material. Other sites in central locations are a strong possibility.

After maneuvering through the labyrinthine roadways inside the Waterford Lakes Town Center, then downing some quaggy shepherd's pie for dinner, I was looking forward to a superlatively sugary finale at Sweet!, a colorful joint specializing in the city's latest dessert trend ' cupcakes. The fact that it happened to be the eve of National Cupcake Day further glazed my confectionery anticipation of a post-meal chocopalooza, and so into the queue I went.

If sweet was what my raging sweet tooth wanted, sweet! was what I got. In both the custard-filled, ganache-dipped Boston cream cupcake ($3) and the vertically decadent high-hat chocolate cupcake ($3), chef-owner Hollis Wilder certainly didn't skimp on the sugar. That's not to say the cupcakes weren't good ' they were properly moist and cakey, not dry in the least ' but when I thought I felt craters forming in the enamel of my teeth, I had to admit these treats were too cloying for me to fully enjoy. Milk is sold by the glass ($1), but it would take a quart to neutralize the candied effects of a single cupcake.

With roughly two dozen flavors on offer on a rotating basis, maybe the overpowering sugariness was just the luck of the draw. Regardless, sugarphiliac teenyboppers and college kids seem to get a kick out of the cutesy café's fare.