Coffee & Treats in Flowing Wells

Helmed by Marseilles-born chef Coralie Satta, Ghini's offers a bevy of made-to-order eats crafted from locally grown ingredients. The exhaustive menu ensures palate-pleasers for all tastes. Early-morning cereal swillers can branch out with an international breakfast, including a café au lait with croissant ($5.25), a three-egg omelette ($6.75) served with sliced hot-house tomatoes or sliced oranges and toast, or a duo of stuffed ham and Swiss crêpes ($8.25). For a more-decadent day-starter, try the hot, buttered apple rum and chocolate crêpes ($8.25). Lunch options include thick sandwiches, crisp salads, and Ghini's originals. Wrap lips around a quarter pound of oven-baked turkey breast, imported swiss, cranberries, lettuce, and mayo stacked on a French baguette ($6.55 for a half portion, $7.55 for a whole), or fork heaping bites of parmesan-sprinkled romaine, garlic croutons, and black olives ($5.95 for half portion, $7.95 for whole). On Tuesday, social eaters can take advantage of Ghini's tapas menu by passing small plates of freshly baked ciabatta bread ($6), French melted double-cream brie and grapes ($6), and house-made pâté with cornichons and hot-house tomatoes ($8) in between devising plots to wipe out the Superfriends.

With graduations, weddings, and whale-wrestling season fast approaching, a customized party cake serves as a tasty treat for groups of gathered revelers. A 10-inch party cake from Maribelle serves about 30 people, and the cakery's abundant bounty of flavors and fillings will please even the most picky cake connoisseur. Plump a lemon almond cake with red raspberry filling, or infuse a rich German chocolate cake with fresh sliced strawberries or Frangelico cream. Any combination of bakery beautifying extras—be they fresh-cut or frosting flowers, chocolate-dipped strawberries, chocolate curls and shavings, or curly ribbons—are included in the price, so pile on the ornamentation to construct a memorable masterpiece.

You don’t win accolades and awards just for having the best smoothie flavors. The ingredients matter as well. That’s why the blender-operating staff at Xoom eschew the use of high-fructose corn syrup, added sugars, and ice cream in favor of natural, organic ingredients that satiate nutrient levels as well as taste buds. The smoothie menu focuses on 100% fruit juice, blended with organic milk, nutrient boosters, and energizing shots of espresso to ready your body for a fast-paced day of activity or telling the Kool-Aid Man you’re changing the locks on his favorite wall entrance to your house.

Sweet Things Cupcake Shoppe was founded by two working moms who escaped the corporate grind by converting their part-time love of baking into a full-time career. Cupcakes are baked fresh each day in the duo's Foothills Mall storefront, where the rotating selection of flavors includes options such as lemon drop with creamy lemon frosting, pumpkin with cream-cheese frosting, and french vanilla with rich buttercream. Featured alongside the shop's selection of coffees and ice creams, each tiny cake boasts its own delicious design, as well as a sweet, unique name inspired by the owner's family members and favorite TV weathermen.

The scents of baked desserts and warm brews waft through the interior of Something Sweet, emanating from the kitchen's oven, which churns out everything from brownies to cheesecakes to the aptly named "Oh My God, You've Got to be Kidding" éclair. These confections pair with a cast of specialty beverages including 20 hot teas and sodas imported direct from the carbonated mountain springs of Italy. The shop also whips up light café fare including soups, salads, sandwiches, and melts.

But Something Sweet isn't just a place to eat and invent geometry theorems. The staff invites patrons to stick around and play board games, read, or participate in events such as book exchanges. They also foster good-spirited competition with the Sugar OD Challenge, which invites participants to devour a mountain of brownies, cheesecake, and ice cream in hopes of winning immortality on the eatery's wall of fame.

Positioned beneath the brick turrets of Buggs' Temple, Creation Cafe's doors open to unveil mural-cloaked walls dripping with kaleidoscopic colors and wood tables filled with the dinner menu’s plates of seafood, pasta, and rotating pastries made daily. Diners can comfortably disclose their most embarrassing middle name over an appetizing plate of pulled-pork nachos, which tasks homemade tortilla chips with scooping up mounds of braised pork shoulder, black-bean salsa, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and jalapeños.