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In a neighborhood glutted with franchise coffee shops and pastry outlets is a little café with a festive sign out front: Dessert Delivery. The place is small—no more than a storefront with a pleasant, parlor-like seating area. But when it comes to palate-pleasing treats, owners Joann and Sam Cohen deliver the goods. Start with the staples: the scones are delicately textured and flavorful, rather than the particle-board pucks served elsewhere, and even the humble black-and-white cookie gets a new, succulent lease on life. The Linzer tarts, walnut stars, apple turnovers, delicate mousse cakes, Rice Krispie treats, lemon tarts, and petit fours are all superb. The bakery also does a roaring business in whole cakes and pies that range in size from intimate to crowd-pleasing. The strawberry shortcake, floral bouquet cake with buttercream icing, and flourless chocolate truffle cake are established—and handsome—favorites. In autumn, the fruit-packed Hudson Valley pie flies off the shelves. Dessert Delivery’s pitch-perfect approach to sweets has built up a cadre of regulars and reeled in quite a few celebrities. You might have to flip a coin for that last lemon square with the likes of Bette Midler, Matt Damon, or Paul McCartney, but that’s a small price to pay for your dessert. — Nina Mehta

Apple turnover, $2.50; walnut star $2.50; strawberry shortcake, $27; eight-inch floral bouquet cake, $60