When the French guests who set next to me asked me how I had found it, I answered: "magnifiques!" But they corrected me: "délicieux!" This way or the other, it was one of the sweetest dishes I have ever had
Sarah Aouate, founder and owner of Creperie Café on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv, came to Israel 3 years ago from Paris, after having worked for over a decade in serious restaurants ("Some Michelin starred", she said with a smile), and feeling she needed her own place. Other than her, the café employs only women, and at the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I have to say that it seems that this place that was decorated by a woman and is maintained by women, gives off a nice feeling, like a hug with someone you like.
Like with anything else, this feeling starts with the eyes: Craperie looks like a cool shop on Sheinkin Street, and even I, as unstylish as I am, picked up on that. The place is loaded with beautiful artifacts, the kind I wish I had at home, with a dominant red color that makes everything feel like a French movie, or as if a small piece was cut off from the city of lights and brought to Tel Aviv's Ben Yehuda Street.
So what is this name, Creperie? Well, this is a place that serves French crepes almost exclusively. Crepe is a kind of pastry that originates from Brittany in France. You might have had a chance to taste crepes before, but this one is completely different.
Creperie's crepes are divided into 2 categories – sweet and savory – but more than the add-ons, what differentiates them from one another is the flour they are made of: while savory crepes are made of sweet whole wheat flour, sweet crepes are made of white flour. Furthermore, Sarah named the savory crepes with female names, and the sweet ones with manly names. And so it turned out that I had a Sabrina and then I enjoyed Lionel.
Sabrina? Lionel? I'm glad you asked. Sabrina is served with cream cheese, mushrooms and parmesan, all folded inside the thin crepe. Sarah said that when new customers see the crepe for the first time, there is this uncertainty as to how to eat it. And so I asked: "How do you eat it?" and she answered with a heavy French accent:
"With a knife and fork."
At this point I could feel my face blushing with embarrassment, so I preferred to just sit silently and eat. And eat. And then eat some more. And more. Should I tell you how wonderful it was? No, I shouldn't, really. Let me just say that it was really delicate, and that the filling combined with the crepe very accurately. Sarah, who enjoyed watching me eat, told me about the custom of having crepes with alcoholic cider. I had 2 options: 4% alcohol concentration or 6. The sweet bitterness of the apple drink completed the wonderful savory taste of the crepe.
Ok, on to Lionel: this is a gentle crepe covered with white almost-melting chocolate circles, with berry sorbet placed at its center, and sugar powder sprinkled over the entire thing. This is one hell of a dessert. When the French guests who set next to me asked me how I had found it, I answered: "magnifiques!" But they corrected me: "délicieux!" This way or the other, it was one of the sweetest dishes I have ever had.
You should know that Creperie is closed on the weekends, and that it is open for business on Sunday - Thursday from 8:00am to 10pm. It also has a large back room for private events of up to 40 guests.
