Villabate Alba

Angelo Alaimo and his son Emanuele baked bread in Villabate, a town just outside Palermo, before bringing their trade to 18th Avenue in 1979. The family still runs it, and stepping inside is like walking into a Sicilian sweet shop at full volume: towering cakes, hand-painted marzipan fruit, cassate, and cases of cookies stretching out of sight.

Cannoli are the reason most people come, piped with sheep's milk ricotta from Palermo. Try a cartoccio, a fried spiral of dough filled with sweet ricotta, the vivid green pistachio cookie, and — in warm weather — gelato stuffed into a brioche the Sicilian way. On the savory side there's arancini and sfincione. Each August, the Feast of Santa Rosalia holds its cannoli-eating contest right outside.