The Pastry Box

On our list of the best dessert spots in New York.

Tiara Bennett trained at the International Culinary Center and worked in Michelin-starred kitchens before she started selling pastries from a table outside her apartment in June 2020; the Alphabet City bakery she opened three years later sits on a quiet stretch of East 12th Street, often marked by a small tent out front. Its chocolate chip cookie comes in two sizes, standard and an oversized quarter-pound version, with a wispy, thin texture that still holds enough resistance for a good chew at the center.