Villabate-Alba
Bensonhurst
7001 18th Avenue
at 70th Street
P: 718.331.8430
Pasticceria and bakery with elaborate cakes, cookies and other sweets. Specialists in traditional Italian desserts and baked goods, especially holiday pastries and Sicilian favorites including cassata cake and San Martino cookies.
What's great:
Their marzipan selection is huge and comes in such unexpected shapes as artichokes, fennel, snails, and other fruits, vegetables and animals. Excellent gelati.
What to know:
This is the kind of bakery where you buy sweets. For bread and other savories it's best to go to another neighborhood bakery that specializes in bread, of which there are several in Bensonhurst.