Try the lush ricotta cheesecake and you'll know why people have been lining up here for 100 years.

Choose from 40 feet of sweets at the takeout counter, or get a table inside one of two dining rooms. Marble floors and stamped metal ceilings do nothing to soften the caffeine- and sugar-charged chatter, but Veniero's is a popular stop for the dating crowd.
Expect to find Italian pastry of the sponge-cake variety, soaked in rum or liqueur and filled with custard, whipped cream or sweet ricotta cheese. Tiramisu, the ubiquitous lady finger and mascarpone dessert, is still better here than most anywhere else. Wash it down with the very good espresso; do likewise with the cannolis. The baba rum comes in three flavors--sweet, sweeter and sweetest--and there are a half dozen styles of cheesecake.