Magnolia Bakery (Bleecker Street)

The original Magnolia Bakery opened in 1996 on the corner of Bleecker and West 11th Street, and a few years later Sex and the City sat Carrie and Miranda on the bench outside with cupcakes, which turned a small West Village bakery into a pilgrimage stop. It has since grown into a chain, but this corner shop is where it started, and it still feels like a neighborhood bakery.

Come for a cupcake or the famous banana pudding, eat it on the street the way the show did, and walk it off down Bleecker. Evenings and weekend afternoons draw a line, so a weekday morning is calmer.