The La Provence in South Beach doesn’t particularly stand out among the various storefronts it finds itself shouldered between along Collins Avenue.  In fact, one could overlook this restaurant altogether, as I almost did, if it weren’t for Jen. We stopped into the sparsely decorated restaurant for breakfast on a sunny Miami morning, eagerly ready for our first meal of the day.

The front half the restaurant is filled with small tables for dining, while the other half holds a long display case of fresh baked goods and samples of the dishes offered.  The line forms just to the left of the display case with the register at the very back, giving you plenty of time to ogle and salivate over croissants, brioches, quiches, and fruit pastries.  I was intent on staying focused with my diet for this meal, so I quickly eyed the omelets on the menu.  They also offer to cook your eggs any way you want, but they omelets here are huge.  Coupled with the fact that prices are very reasonable, and gratuity is completely optional rather than automatically ratcheting up your bill an additional 17%, it’s hard not to declare this one of the better options for a daily zone or paleo breakfast.

All breakfast and brunch options come with a small salad and a chunk of house made french bread, but  tossing the bread and adding a generously portioned fruit salad to your order will have you good to go for hours until lunchtime.  The omelets here aren’t as unique or exotic as some places in Miami, but realistically, sometimes you just want a simple breakfast that is still well prepared and served to your table post haste.  La Provence accomplishes just that.

The salads here great, too.  I had the Chef Salad with no dressing and a side of oil & vinegar for lunch on a separate occasion, and was equally satisfied with my choice.  Not award winning, but still, easily a good value and something for those who are trying to keep their diet on the rails.

If you’re in South Beach looking for an alternative to the hundreds of pizza parlors and sandwich shoppes, this is it.

See La Provence on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Vegetarians
• Vegans
• Paleo heads
• Zone Dieters
• Frugalistas
• Cheese Eatin’ Surrender Monkeys

Not Recommended For:

• First Dates
• Screaming Children
• Screaming Adults

As a disclaimer, I’ve covered this place before, but I felt it deserved it’s own writeup.

Baked & Wired is a little shop just off M St., the main road that cuts through Georgetown in DC. It doesn’t particularly stand out with its storefront sign, mostly discernible with the bright ass neon Barbie pink Huffy parked out front. How the hell can you miss that thing? If aliens decided to attach Earth starting with Georgetown (if aliens attacked Earth the should start with Georgetown), they’d probably see how bright this bike is and get scurred off from the intensity.

Baked & Wired's storefront. Check for cryptic Masonic writings in chalk on the brick outside.

Once you’re inside, you’ll notice that the place is split into the coffee bar on the right, and the baked goods extravaganza on the left. The coffee bar offers every sort of caffeinated drink you could want, and a host of quiches as well.

The real draw of this place, though, are the cupcakes. Pharaohs have traveled halfway across the world for these cupcakes. Michael Jackson gave up the other white rhinestone glove for the last Pretty Bitchin’ Cupcake before his passing. Axl Rose was given a charity cupcake if he promised to never to release another Guns’N'Roses album after Chinese Democracy.

True stories. That’s how good these things are.

Cupcakes make a better display that severed heads. Happy Halloween!

Jen and I popped in for our Sunday morning cupcakes. We split two between us, the Spice cupcake, which had hints of Chai, and the Pumpkin cupcake, both of which are seasonal cupcakes that aren’t in the regular rotation.

Spice Cupcake

Both of the cupcakes were phenomenal, although the Pumpkin cupcake had a better serving of frosting on top, and a much moister cake base. The Spice cupcake held it’s own, although was slightly less satisfying of the two.

If you’re ever in Georgetown or are looking for a good cupcake, I would say you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a better one that the ones at Baked and Wired. You can view them on a map here.

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