No Ordinary Joe

"Nobody was that smart," responds Mac Klein of Mac's Club Deuce when asked if he foresaw the recent turnaround in South Beach's fortunes. "If I could've, I'd have bought every building I could get my hands on." As it is, Klein will have to content himself with owning the bar that was such an essential part of Miami Vice that the crew held their series-ending wrap party there. Deuce may flirt with overexposure now that the international set has discovered it, but Mac Klein is still the same guy he was when he bought the place 29 years ago, a genuine character whose vivacious barmaid Dot compares him to George Burns and who still occasionally feels impelled to, in Dot's words, "throw people out bodily."

When they tell you business is going to the dogs at Lulu's, the popular South Beach eatery with the Elvis motif, it's not necessarily a bad thing. You see, Lulu herself is a real dog. As in canine. She's owner Gabi Hakman's mutt.

The King is a palpable presence at Lulu's. "One couple were married in the Elvis loft [the second floor] with two cardboard cutouts of Elvis flanking the justice of the peace. The wedding cake was two loaves of uncut cornbread," says Bill Keen, Hakman's partner. "We've had several couples married there. Lots of hardcore Elvis fans come by. One guy had so much Elvis memorabilia that his wife couldn't take it any more; he gave it to us so he could come by and visit it."

As for Lulu's favorite Elvis song, don't ask.