Many locals were saddened by the closing of Someday Café, a popular coffee shop and neighborhood hangout in Davis Square. But the brunch-time line out the door of Mr. Crepe, the restaurant filling Someday's prime real estate, proves that locals cheered up pretty fast.
When Someday Café lost its lease, Ingrid M. Heyrman and Richard S. Adkins, a husband and wife team who owned the original Mr. Crepe, decided to seize the opportunity to reopen their creperie.
The tables at Mr. Crepe are filled with Tufts students and 30-somethings. Tables are all two and four tops, so sitting together in big groups is not always easy. Unlike the cozy, mismatched couch-filled Someday Café, the décor at Mr. Crepe is modern and somewhat stark. The restaurant is very bright though, as its front wall is made up entirely of huge windows.
There is no table service at Mr. Crepe so food is ordered at the front counter and then delivered to the tables. However, if people-watching is not entertaining enough to fill the time while waiting, customers can watch their crepes being made, as the kitchen is open and part of the main area of the restaurant. Just like at your average Parisian crepe stand, the chefs pour the batter with a ladle onto a round, flat crepe pan and spread it with a squeegee-like tool into a perfectly round and evenly flat pancake.
The menu at Mr. Crepe (shockingly) consists almost entirely of crepes. The crepe pancake itself is soft, slightly chewy and thick enough to hold plenty of fillings. It is served piping hot right off the pan. The sweet crepes options include fillings such as Nutella, Belgian dark chocolate, jam, honey, nuts and various fruits.
Chicken, cheese, turkey, ham, salmon, lamb sausage and many types of vegetables are the options for the savory variety. In addition to the crepes on the printed menu, there are chalkboard menus that present additions such as homemade soups and baked goods. Mr. Crepe also offers Richardson's ice cream, a large variety of coffee drinks made with Rao's coffee and Mem Tea.
Two eggs, spinach, scallions, cilantro, cured black olives, tomatoes and Monterey jack cheese are the fillings in the number four on the "Supercrepes" section of the menu. While there are many fillings in this one, the vegetables are not overcooked and the cheese is perfectly melted so each flavor is identifiable and the contents of the crepe are not blended together. The amount of olives in the number four is lacking a bit, but with the strong taste of the cilantro and scallions, there is no lack of flavor.
Another one of the Supercrepes, number three, is filled with smoked chicken, caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, basil and herbed feta goat cheese. This crepe is so chock full of ingredients that it is about two inches thick. The combination of ingredients leaves an explosion of Greek flavor in your mouth. If strong spicy flavors are not your thing this one's not for you.
One of the vegetarian crepe options includes avocado with fresh tomatoes, arugula, cilantro and Monterey jack cheese. This mixture provides a tasty Mexican treat, and with fewer fillings than some of the other savory crepes, each flavor stands out. As with all of the other crepes, the ingredients are extremely fresh, and the avocado in particular is perfectly ripe.
Mr. Crepe does a relatively good job with a classic banana-and-Nutella-filled crepe. They use authentic Nutella and plenty of bananas. While the crepes themselves are delicious, they are thick and, in this crepe, the taste of the crepe itself was more powerful than the Nutella. Of course, however, it's hard to go too far astray with Nutella and bananas, so the crepe was still quite enjoyable.
The tagline Mr. Crepe boasts on its window and menu, "A Fresh Twist on Tradition," perfectly describes it. It is by no means an authentic French creperie, but the ingredients are fresh and there are many unique and inspired creations so everyone can find something to that will suit his or her taste buds.
