(Photo: Davies + Starr)

• Il Laboratorio del Gelato

  95 Orchard St., 212-343-9922

  If you make the lushest, creamiest, out-and-out lip-smackingest gelato in town, as does this Lower East Side shop, you’ve already got a leg up in this category. The Lab comes through with a little-known customized ice-cream-cake service. A multilayered concoction of, say, vanilla, dark chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio, and maple-walnut gelati about the size of an extra-large gold brick could make even the awkward embarrassment of a surprise office birthday party worth it.

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine