Bragg's Factory Diner, Phoenix

It had been a long time since a pie was seen inside the building that once housed Bragg's Pie Factory. That is, until Bragg’s Factory Diner took up residence within the edifice listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its chefs decided to revive the factory’s legacy by whipping up classic comfort food—using only vegetarian and vegan recipes. Pie lovers can now relive the heyday of the city's pastries with fresh, inventive desserts such as pear-mulberry cream tarts, plum tarts with a gingersnap crust, and rosemary-apple pies with crust cutouts shaped like cacti.

In addition to the diner's decadent desserts, the chefs serve up hearty yet healthy breakfast and lunch dishes. Their unique recipes put a modern spin on classic dishes, infusing waffles with a coconut-curry flavor, adding sweet corn to biscuits drizzled in poblano gravy, and remaking the reuben sandwich with portobello mushrooms. The chefs close up shop at 2 p.m., making the mint-colored, mod-meets-country-home diner the perfect spot for a lunch date or fitting in some practice before your evening pie-eating contest.