Dining out

In the search for treats that seems to be an annual summer hobby of mine, I've run across a couple of appealing places recently.

The first is Roxberry Juice Co. While most smoothie joints have either a GNC-protein powder-build your body ambience or a "we love the Earth" environmental vibe, Roxberry is strongly, purposefully retro, from its curly-lettered front sign to the fresh-faced, white-toothed smiles of the hearty-and-healthy people in the old-fashioned advertising art in its stores.

But perhaps the best indicator of Roxberry's vibe is the rolls. Besides a menu of smoothies, nutritional shots and orange and carrot juice, Roxberry sells white and wheat cloverleaf rolls. Somehow, adding a roll to a smoothie makes it more a meal, even if it's packed with fruit and has vitamin, protein and energy "shots" in it.

When we visited for smoothies on a recent weekday, I got a half-dozen mixed rolls, firm-textured and chewy with my choice of jams. I liked the strawberry, raspberry and apricot jams and the honey butter, but I found the seedless blackberry weirdly grainy; hopefully it was just that batch.

Then there were the smoothies, decent combinations that tasted fresh and interesting. I had the Passion Paradise, a best-seller at Roxberry that's a blend of passion fruit-mango juice, strawberries, peaches and orange sherbet.

We also had the kid-friendly Strawberry Fields, a mix of orange juice, strawberries, bananas and nonfat frozen yogurt; and the Mango Mango, with a blend of mangos, mango-mango juice and pineapple sherbet showing off its namesake ingredient.

We also had, and enjoyed, the 100 percent fruit Simply Peach, with peach juice, peaches, mangos and strawberries — a fruit salad in a cup.

Speaking of cups, my recent visit to So Cupcake was a total delight. We were greeted upon entering this unpretentious bakery with the sight and sound of a half-dozen pink-clad little girls squealing over their birthday-party cupcakes — pink, of course.

This joyful melee instantly gave me a kindly feeling toward So Cupcake, because I've visited other cupcake bakeries that treat their product with haughty snobbishness, a posture so ridiculous — these are cupcakes, people! — it makes me laugh.

But I'll be back to So Cupcake, not just because it seems to grasp that kids like cupcakes and that's OK, but also because of its fabulous cupcakes and the little touches that show this business is owned and run by people who care about other people.

There are tables at which you can enjoy a cupcake if you just can't wait until you get home, as well as armchairs by the window. There's a pitcher of ice water near the counter. And there are the beautiful, delicious cupcakes.