Samuel's Sweet Shop

Since 1994, Samuel's Sweet Shop has sweetened Rhinebeck, a small upstate New York village that punches well above its weight in celebrity residents. The Sweet Team behind the counter has included Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Hilarie Burton and Paul Rudd, and the shop's national television run — the Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning — suggests the candy holds up to the attention.

The signature pieces earn it. "Over the Tops" pack peanut butter cups between double-stuffed Oreos and drop the whole thing in milk chocolate; Almond Buttercrunch dips its toffee in milk chocolate and rolls it in almonds; and a Signature Bark works dark chocolate with cherries, almonds and sea salt into something closer to a confection than a candy-bar knockoff. A peanut butter cup blondie recently drew a feature in People Magazine, and the shop has picked up Best Candy Store honors from the Hudson Valley and Best Dessert at the local Taste of Rhinebeck.

Coffee — from Partners, a New York roaster — rounds out the counter alongside baked goods, but the chocolate is what built the shop's thirty-year run at 42 East Market Street, one handmade batch at a time in a village where everyone seems to know everyone, famous or not.