The red velvet cake melts in your mouth, its rich, creamy frosting contrasting silkily with the ruby-hued fluff. Seasonal specialties include strawberry rhubarb pie in the summer and pumpkin pie in the fall. The menu features concoctions of all your favorite sweets--chocolate, caramel, fruit, creams, pastries--in inventive combinations, and the presentation is a treat for the eyes, too. Decorative puddles of sweet sauces are striped and zigzagged in fantasy colors. What really sets this place apart, though, is its conduciveness to lingering over coffee with friends. Vintage board games line the bookshelves to encourage you and yours to make an afternoon or an evening of it. There's free wireless Internet access, too.
Runners up:
2. Beyond Bread, 6260 E. Speedway Blvd., 747-7477; 3026 N. Campbell Ave., 322-9965; www.beyondbread.com
3. The B Line, 621 N. Fourth Ave., 882-7575, blinerestaurant.com