Miami Art Cafe A Parisian-style cafe downtown

You never know what's gonna happen on vacation: if you believe Hollywood you could lose a wife (Along Came Polly), lose your internal organs (Turistas), or if you're Chevy Chase, eventually lose your career. For a cafe from a couple who found inspiration while on vacation here, get to Miami Art Cafe.

Run by two French lovebirds who also fell for Miami while visiting, MAC rocks a sleek black and woodgrain interior, lounge-y booths and banquettes, and all manner of art: big canvases of Parisian scenes, what might just be a print of the Mona Lisa, and a portrait of a courtly young lady from the French Revolution era with two faces and three breasts, which is pretty damn revolutionary indeed. Food's Paris-cafe style, with smaller dishes like croque monsieur and madame, and crepes galore: they use different flours for savory and sweet, with the latter repped by the Creole (banana, coconut, chocolate, whipped cream), while savory standouts include the Nordique (smoked salmon, Swiss, creme fouettee, fine herbs), and the Rustique, with turkey, goat cheese, sour cream, and grilled almonds -- which despite intense interrogation, proved to be tough nuts to crack. There're also entrees like reasonably-priced house-made pastas (gnocchi with ricotta and Parm; tagliatelle with carbonara or salmon), and plates such as Shrimp Papillotte with a white butter sauce; skirt steak with either pepper or blue cheese sauce; and chicken escalope, which sees a cream & 'shroom Normande sauce over pounded chicken, a far more satisfying experience than attempting to pound little-guy-who-apparently-knows.

They're also pretty serious about desserts, dishing stuff like tiramisu, mille feuilles (layers of puff pastry and cream), eclairs, macaroons, fruit tarts, and fraisiers: sponge cakes brushed with liqueur -- the very condition you must be in to appreciate Vegas Vacation.