Sprinkles Cupcakes   

As people of all shapes and sizes stream in through the frosted glass door for 20 newfangled varieties on this classic dessert fare, you start wondering fast if Sprinkles isn't putting addictive substances into their fat cupcakes. Opened by two reformed investment bankers with tangible sweet teeth for success, Charles Nelson and his wife Candace (who came up with all of the recipes during a stint in pastry school), Sprinkles diverges from the old cookie-cutter model of cupcake cloning, using only high-end ingredients such as Belgian chocolate, Nielsen-Massey pure Madagascar vanilla, real lemon juice and sweet cream butter -- never shortening. The strawberries are real, and pureed. And who in their right mind has ever heard of a chai latte or vanilla milk chocolate cupcake -- two "Flavors of the Day" on Friday? Sprinkles even has cupcakes for dogs (made out of yogurt and carob) -- and they sell a lot of them. The place itself has only four chairs, one small bar area and overall, is small enough to barely house the people who may really expand at their expense. Krispy Kremers, alas, you have a little company.