Lux is the Phoenix all-day cafe that locals point to first when out-of-towners ask where the coffee is good. The roastery and bar sprawl across a multi-room industrial space on Central Avenue and stay open from early morning until late at night. By day it is a serious coffee bar serving espresso from beans roasted on site; by evening it shifts toward cocktails and small plates.
The food is more ambitious than typical cafe fare — rotating breakfast menus, a strong charcuterie programme, decent flatbreads. Bring a laptop in the morning and you'll be among dozens of others; bring a date in the evening and the atmosphere shifts to candlelit. The light rail stops a block away.