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A Slate.com business columnist thinks the rise of cupcakes is a bubble heading for a crash. I say who cares when we all profit from the irrational exuberance! Here's a round-up of tasty cupcake options near Starwood hotels around the country.

Your first order of business in LA, after checking into the Westin Los Angeles Airport, should be to head to Cupcakes Couture in Manhattan Beach. The shop creates some of the fanciest cupcakes I've seen, including such treats as the "Sunday Mimosa," (pictured) a champagne sponge cake filled with orange curd and topped with citrus frosting and blood orange "caviar," and the "Little Miss Sunshine," a strawberry cake with strawberry jam, vanilla frosting and topped with a vanilla macaroon.

Sweet Revenge, a few blocks north of the Four Points by Sheraton SoHo-Village, knows its customers aren't kids: it offers wine and beer pairing suggestions for its cupcakes. Try pairing the decadent "Dirty" with a Peroni or another pale lager.

Up in Seattle, you can order online from Cupcake Royale and have a dozen delivered to the W Seattle, or have them waiting for you when you swing by the Capitol Hill location. Sadly, it's too late to get the "Deathcake Royale," but the chocolate mint gets high marks and is available all year 'round.

[image via Cupcakes Couture]

October through April is the time for oysters, and you'll be able to get your fill - of plump and mellow Apalachicola oysters, named some of the finest in the world--with a stay at Four Points by Sheraton Destin-Walton Beach. They're collected nearby in Apalachicola Bay, where 30 miles of oyster heaven produce 90% of Florida's oysters, and served up fresh in at three hotspots whose names say it all.

A staple of Destin's historic inner harbor for 25 years, AJ's Seafood and Oyster Bar brings the outdoors in, with deck seating on two levels that give you a close-up view of the action: watching the town's fishing fleet haul in the day's fresh catch. But there's plenty of action happening at the oyster bar, where gems from the Apalachicola waters are shucked right before your eyes and served with homemade cocktail sauce. If raw is a little too adventurous for you, give the Oysters AJ a try - six jalapeno, bacon, and Monterey Jack-topped oysters, baked on the half shell.

Literally located steps from the hotel on the boardwalk on Okaloosa Island, the Fort Walton Beach location of the Crab Trap Seafood & Oyster Bar offers spectacular views of the sunset, assuming you can take your eyes off of what's on your plate. Start with oysters on the half shell and a rum-filled CrabTrap Punch before moving on to Bourbon Street Shrimp cooked in a spicy butter sauce.

Finally, serving only the best Apalachicola oysters, the Boathouse Oyster Bar is an award-winning local favorite. Oysters come raw, steamed, or for the very brave, as shooters. You can also try two baked versions: the Baked Action, topped with butter, bacon, onions, and mozzarella; or the SOB, a spicy mix of cocktail sauce, nacho chips, cheddar cheese, and jalapenos.

[image via AJ's Seafood and Oyster Bar]

Planning a meeting while you're on the road? Don't forget to order coffee and donuts — or maybe some bagels — to keep the attendees alert and on-task. Here's a list of some of the better options to supply each around the country.

In New York, the clear leader is Doughnut Plant. Made from scratch (even the jelly fillings) fresh daily in decadent flavors such as dulce de leche and crème brulée, a second location will be opening this spring a couple blocks from the Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Chelsea. If bagels are more your thing, Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company has you covered.

San Francisco's Dynamo Donuts has flavors that'll really help groggy colleagues wake up: varieties include a chocolate donut dredged in chipotle sugar and a lemon-filled dusted with Sichuan spices. Ask the concierge at the St. Regis San Francisco to send someone to pick up from this Mission storefront. Closer to the hotel, Blue Bottle's French press coffee service will help make sure the jolt from the spicy donuts sticks.

Keep their eyes from glazing over in Chicago with an order of Glazed Donuts, available by catering or subscription(!) only. The flavors change weekly, and range from classic apple cider to bing cherry balsamic and maple-bacon-chocolate (pictured). Pair them with coffee from the Intelligentsia near Millennium Park, and you'll be the hippest meeting runner the Westin Michigan Avenue has ever seen.

When it comes to vegetarian meccas, Asheville, North Carolina, probably isn't the first place to come to mind, or even the last. But in this dreamy mountain town, that label is well-deserved: You'll be hard-pressed to find to find a restaurant that doesn't place tofu alongside buttermilk-fried pork chops on its menu.

Indeed, Asheville was actually named the No. 1 vegetarian-friendly small city in America by PETA's GoVeg.com, and offers something unique for veggie-seekers--mouth-watering options with a Southern twist. With the Four Points by Sheraton Asheville Downtown as your base, you can spend the weekend hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains and balancing out the calorie burn with some serious eating:

For a meat-free dinner that'll stick to your bones, head to Rosetta's Kitchen, which dishes farm-fresh vegan soul food like the Family Favorite, a smorgasbord of its famed baked tofu smothered in a smoky peanut butter BBQ sauce, smashed potatoes and gravy, and sautéed kale. Side it was a cornbread or corn-n-tater fritters for a belly-busting serving of comfort-food heaven.

Any Southern town worth its salt is sure to have an endless number of bacon-laden brunch places: Early Girl Eatery is no exception. Serving eggs and grits with local sausage or baked tempeh, the restaurant goes both ways--but all diners should try the Early Girl Benny, grit cakes topped with tomato, spinach, poached eggs, tomato gravy, and avocado. Be sure to order a serving of pumpkin ginger bread for the table.

And whatever your culinary predilection, a trip to Asheville isn't complete without a stop at the globally-minded, award-winning Laughing Seed Café: Go sweet and satisfying with an order of Caribbean Empanadas, a whole-wheat tortilla filled with curried butternut squash, spinach, and fire-roasted tomato mojo topped with organic black beans and vegan cilantro sour cream.

[image via Early Girl Eatery]

Pretzels are a ubiquitous sight on the streets of midtown Manhattan, but Sigmund Pretzelshop (29 Avenue B) is breathing new life into old dough over in the East Village. Lina Kulchinsky, a lawyer by trade, opened up shop late last year to raves from the New York Times on down for her imaginative ideas. Yes, Virginia, you can get plain, salted soft pretzels, but why would you when you can have flavors like sesame, poppy, caraway, caramel pecan, cinnamon raisin, seven chili and dunk them in free dips such as nutella, beet-horseradish mayo, and herb goat cheese?

If the mood for more than a snack strikes, well, a pretzel sandwich might be in order; Sigmund will set you up with choices including roast turkey with gouda and apple, roast beef with horseradish and red onion, smoked salmon with cream cheese, and mozzarella with tomato and pesto. There's also sweets, Boylan's sodas, Mighty Leaf tea and La Colombe coffee. Walk or take a short ride from Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan SoHo Village to explore this twisty goodness. Have you ever had a truly memorable pretzel? If not, this might be your first.

[Image via Sigmund Pretzelshop]