VIDEO: Columbus Baking Company in Syracuse, New York

Open since 1895 and using the same oven for over a hundred years, Syracuse's Columbus Baking Company produces what is arguably the best Italian bread in upstate New York. Owner Jimmy Retzos is the third generation of his family to run the bakery, which makes one dough, airy and chewy, formed into three different shapes: A sandwich loaf, a round, and the most popular, a classic long loaf that regulars know to refer to just as a "flat." Unlike some shops that get all the oven work done in the morning, Columbus keeps baking all day, meaning you can get a steaming-hot loaf—and a whiff of that sweet, yeasty, just-baked-bread smell—any time you like.