Je t'aime, Le Café Crepe

Le Café Crepe on 200 2nd Street is truly tres merveilleux, especially because I only accidentally visited!

While roaming together around downtown, my friend Michelle got an unexpected job interview at one of those ritzy restaurants on Second Street. While I waited on her, I saw this dude:

And being a francophile decided to pop in for a cappuccino. I was pleased to find that they offered a super affordable and easily deciphered coffee menu, ranging from only $1.50 to $3. The café was small and homey, with beautiful glass picture windows on both sides that showed off the downtown views. The room glowed with a warm amber tint, and copper pots and pans hung from the ceiling. There’s even a glass wall so you can watch your homemade crépes as they’re born into handmade existence in a twee yellow kitchen that looks like its straight out of a Hyde Park apartment.

I talked to the crepe maker of the moment, Julienne, for a few minutes about the store. She told me that the store is owned and operated by two French immigrants who opened the store about a year ago; right before SXSW last year. They also own an antique shop on Lamar (that one with the giant iron Eiffel Tower in front of it, of course!) Julienne’s been working at Le Crepe Café since August and her favorite part about the store is that it provides customers with an authentic french experience.

"The owners haven't compromised crepes to make them more Texan. They are tasty and still appeal to the customer but are authentically French."

Julienne recommends the Greek crepe with spinach, feta, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and pine nuts if you’re craving something savory and the cinnamon sugar crepe (“Because I love when the smell fills the whole store!”) if you’re craving something sweet. The crepe menu runs around $7 or $8 for each crepe and the cafe also has a variety of cold drinks and soups as well.

Cute, inexpensive, homey, and French! The store reminded me of all the great crepe parties we’d have during high school french class, creatively stuffing them with blueberries, strawberries, banana, butter, cinnamon, powdered sugar, chocolate syrup, peanut butter, jelly, and especially NUTELLA. Le Cafe Crepe offered all of these ingredients and even more. Nom nom nom … Oh Le Cafe Crepe, je t’aime.