La Creperie

La Creperie
2608 Broadway - Map
Between West 98th and West 99th Streets
New York, NY
(212) 865-7334
French Creperie, OU Kosher

One thing I've found about the Upper West Side, is that it lacks Kosher breakfast-type cafes like their non-kosher counterparts (which, apparently, seem to flourish especially so on Broadway's wide sidewalks). While La Creperie isn't exactly a cafe, this small French Creperie comes very close.

Since I was with friends who required a Kosher restaurant, and we were looking for some kind of breakfast/brunchy food, this was the only thing we could think of. The place isn't large, but it had a friendly and inviting store-front, despite the somewhat drab awning. I was a little surprised that they didn't have any outdoor seating out on the sidewalk, but they may not have any control over that. At first impression, I thought the place was cute, but that was quickly amended when I took a better look around, after being seated by the very friendly, and professional wait-staff.

The place had one wall with exposed brick, decorated with hanging copper pots and pans. I found this to be an interesting choice of decoration, but it felt like there was still something missing. It definitely matched the copper-colored vents hanging over the crepe-stand decorated with a variety fresh fruit, which added to the sense of homey-ness - grapes, apples, bananas, pineapple. The wall behind the cooking and coffee stand was decorated with blue and white porcelain tea pots, cups, and jars - which almost seemed to clash with the adjacent exposed-brick wall. The rest of the restaurant had stark white walls, with one wall decorated with a large wooden frame filled with a collage of various French country-side scenes. The wall also had a wooden veneer that seemed to lack a richness in color, instead of a richer mahogany, it was of a blonder variety - which also matched the tables and chairs. While somewhat cliched, but warmly welcomed was the light sounds of French music playing in the background. I would have almost been disappointed if they didn't play any.

The menu had a nice selection of various crepes - both savory and sweet, except the sweet crepes were categorized as Dessert, and were placed on the back of the menu. I chose their Swiss cheese and mushroom, and asked them to add spinach to the crepe. My accompanying friends both ordered the Swiss cheese and creamed spinach crepe. We also ordered 2 regular coffees, and one iced-mocha (which judging by the sounds of it, was very good, but I cannot give you a first-hand description). The coffee was good, and they were out of skim milk since apparently their entire stock "went bad," so we had to resort to whole milk - could have been worse.

The crepes were served with a side of some mesclun greens and grape-tomatoes cut in half dressed lightly with a vinegar-based dressing. I found that the crepes were bland, completely lacking in their own flavor and didn't really have that "crepe aroma" often-times experienced upon being served freshly made crepes. I also was disappointed in that the crepe was too thin, and upon constructing the plate, wasn't folded enough to really allow you to taste the texture of the crepe at all. The filling was ok. I felt that it may have been overdone, and there was much more spinach than mushroom in it. The cheese was also overly used, as everything was oozing out in a way that made it difficult to control and eat. It did, however, hit the spot, and I'm willing to give this place another shot.

The three of us also decided that we'd split a dessert crepe - which upon much deliberation, we decided on fresh strawberries with whipped cream, since we discovered that our initial choice of peaches and whipped cream was canned peaches, and we wanted fresh fruit. I was much more satisfied with the sweet crepe than I was with the savory one. This was served with a healthy dollop of freshly prepared whipped cream (none of this out-of-a-can business), and liberal use of what tasted like freshly prepared strawberry sauce. So far, their points are running on their sweet crepes. One of our party had mentioned that the ricotta and strawberry crepe that she had previously tried was somewhat dry, which I find to be difficult to achieve since ricotta tends to retain a lot of liquid to begin with, and the strawberry also releases some of its juices when you apply heat.

As I understand it, this place is still relatively new, only in operation for about a year. Its value lies in it being Kosher, and it being a decent restaurant. The decor needs to be improved upon. I feel that since the French favor the richer and bolder colors and textures, they should build on that. Go with the exposed brick theme, and try to match that up. I still hope to try their Crepe Suzette - a personal favorite of mine, and I hope that some of their other savory options are better. If you're looking for Kosher, and something a little out of the ordinary, this is a nice place to go.