An exclamation point at the end of a meal, a pick-me-up in the middle of a meeting-filled day (or night) or the next-best thing to champagne for celebrating success on the job, dessert is an indulgence every hard-working business traveler deserves. Here are ten memorable sweet treats in cities around the country.

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

The “Chocolate Espresso Twinkie” at Bette’s To Go, the bakery that adjoins Bette’s Oceanview Diner, is devil’s food. It is filled with whipped cream that has been infused with a full measure of espresso. Hugging the surface is a sheath of dark semisweet chocolate. The ultimate snack cake is no bigger than a regular Twinkie, but its flavor is huge. Bette’s To Go: 1807 4th St., Berkeley, CA. 510-548-9494. www.worldpantry.com/bettes

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Among New York City’s culinary assets is excellent pizza - thin, thick, by the slice or whole pie … and for dessert! Max Brenner, one of Manhattan’s best-loved chocolatiers, is famous for fondues, cakes and ice cream, as well as for Chocolate Chunks Pizza, topped with your choice of bananas, peanut butter or toasted marshmallows. Max Brenner: 841 Broadway, New York, NY. 212-388-0030. www.maxbrenner.com

DENVER, COLORADO

Sure, there are perfectly nice salads and sandwiches if you must have something beforehand, but Bar D is all about dessert: cold milk with baked-to-order cookies; a chocolate caramel tart with sautéed baby bananas, rum cream and caramel ice cream; or the Cake and Shake - triple-layer chocolate cake with silky manjari chocolate frosting accompanied by a vanilla or chocolate milk shake. Bar D: 1475 E. 17th Ave., Denver, CO. 303-861-4710. www.dbardesserts.com

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

The go-to dessert at Jack’s is the simple and un-improvable Door County Cherry pie à la mode, of course, with white chocolate ice cream. Once you’ve had that, you can move on to Jack’s superb Molten Chocolate Cake or classic Bananas Foster. Jack’s: 3201 N. Halsted, Chicago, IL. 773-244-9191. www.jacksonhalsted.com

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

You say you hit the jackpot? Money is burning a hole in your pocket? We suggest a visit to Serendipity 3 at Caesar’s Palace on the Strip for a Golden Opulence Sundae. It is made with Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream, rare chocolate and fruits from around the world, and 23-karat edible gold leaf, topped with dessert caviar and served in Baccarat crystal. The price? $1000, and there is no decimal point among those zeros. Slightly less profligate and firmly in the low two-figure range are such Serendipity 3 glories as its patented Frrrozen Hot Chocolate and deep-fried Oreos. Serendipity 3: 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, NV. 877-346-4642.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

As its name suggests, Finale is all about dessert, including such “shareables” for two as The Whole Nine Yards, which is a sampler of eight different desserts, and the ultimate Boston Cream pie with vanilla Bavarian cream. In this case, it also includes miniature chocolate whoopie pies, a vanilla gelato sandwich and cherry almond Florentines! The menu also features recommendations for port and dessert wines that go especially well with each item. Finale: One Columbus Ave., Boston, MA. 617-423-3184. www.finaledesserts.com

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

You could call Syrup a coffee house. The coffee drinks are swell and the ambience upstairs is stay-all-day casual, but it is the real Belgian waffles, crepes, tres leches cakes and muenster cheese sandwiches loaded with fresh blackberries and walnuts that have made it a beacon for Los Angeles sweet tooths. 611 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA. 213-488-5136

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

We don’t know which to recommend more highly at the Hominy Grill: banana black walnut cake with caramel icing, pure and perfect buttermilk pie, or chocolate pudding that is to any other pudding what the sun is to a candle - devastatingly bigger, and inexpressively profound. It is such a favorite that the wait staff often offers it as dessert for one of Hominy Grill’s four-star breakfasts. Hominy Grill: 207 Rutledge Ave., Charleston, SC. 843-937-0930. www.hominygrill.com

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Frog Hollow Farm sells gorgeous pears, peaches, apples, nectarines, plums and grapes at the Frog Hollow Market in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. Tables are set out where you can eat pastries made from the good fruit. Turnovers, galettes, creamed scones and even peach popsicles are to-die-for; but the real killer is the rhubarb tartlet. A sheath of buttery pastry hugs fruit that is extremely sweet and extremely tart, the antipodes generating unspeakable excitement among taste buds coaxed to do their damnedest. Frog Hollow Farm: Ferry Building #46, San Francisco, CA. 415-445-0990. www.froghollow.com

BUFFALO, NEW YORK

Buffalo is best known for chicken wings, but it also happens to be America’s No.1 sundae city, featuring several confectioneries that have elevated the ice cream-syrup combo to Olympian heights. At the very peak is a turtle sundae at Condrell’s, arriving in a long silver boat and fully blanketed with thick, just-whipped cream that is plastered with countless pecan halves. The brittle nuts glisten with enough salt to exponentially enhance all of the sundae’s creamy-sweet components. Each spoonful requires care to yield full turtle ecstasy: You must gather only one pecan half in order to have ample spoon space for whipped cream, hot fudge, caramel sauce and ice cream. Condrell’s: 2805 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, NY. 716-877-4485