The Crepe House

I may be a Crêêp, but I ain't no Wêirdo!

http://www.thecrepehouse.com/

(Sure it's a Radiohead song originally, but I just like Chrissie Hynde better than Thom Yorke... it's so f*cking special this way.)


My breakfastary destination this morning was The Crepe[1] House (and like a lot of local crêperies, they spell "crêpe/crêpes" sans the little hat thingy ~ which, as I have pointed out before, is technically called an "e-circumflex", I just prefer "little hat thingy" better). The Crepe House is a mini-chain crêpe joint in San Francisco; they have three locations throughout the City: Nob Hill, Hayes Valley, and the Mission. I went to the one on Gough Street in Hayes Valley today; I have been here a few times in the past (as well as their Nob Hill spot), but this was my first visit back in a couple of years.

I found out today that they are closing/leasing this specific location. I am not sure if the entire chain is going out of business or just this one shop in Hayes Valley. There is a "FOR LEASE Restaurant" sign on the side of the building. Anyone want to start a new business venture with an existing location?

(June 26th, 2012 Update:
I was in Hayes Valley this afternoon for lunch and stopped by to see if they were still open. They were completely closed and looked like they had been for a few weeks now. They have a sign on the door stating that their other two locations ~ 1755 Polk Street/at Washington Street and 1132 Valencia Street/at 22nd Street ~ are still open for business.)

Tomorrow is the 101st running of San Francisco's very own elite and completely idiotic Bay-to-Beer! (officially known as Bay-to-Breakers, unofficially knows as Bay-to-Buffalo, and alternatively life-styled known as Gay-to-Breakers ~ see previous 'blog-entries from May 15th, 2011 and May 16th, 2010 for more information). I only mention this as it will pass by just a block away from this crêperie, up and over the infamous Hayes Street Hill.

Not only do they have a large and varied selection of savoury crêpes, but they also offer a decent selection of omelettes, Belgian waffles, Huevos Rancheros, and Eggs Benedict/Florentine (for breakfast); sandwiches, pastas, and salads (for lunch/dinner); and dessert crêpes (for anytime). Their ordering procedure is like most crêperies and coffee shops: you order at the counter, pay for the meal first, they give you a number to take back to your table, and then they bring the food out to you when it's done (which makes it very hard to "chêw-and-scrêw" at these places). I chose the Mediterranean ~ Cheddar cheese, onions, tomatoes, black olives, Feta, roasted red peppers, avocado, artichokes (hearts), & pesto sauce; served with rosemary potatoes and baby mixed greens; I also had a cuppa coffee with the meal (and it was pretty decent, just no freebie refills).

I liked it all well enough. It was chock full o' stuff. Pluses: there were lots of avocado, roasted red pepper strips, and most of the other ingredients in it. Minuses: the artichoke hearts were the marinated kind ~ I feel this would have been better with the brined style; and the black olives were just the standard sliced, canned variety ~ as always, this would have been so much better with real Kalamata olives. Now this was a decent enough crêpe (and I never even attempt to make pancakes, let alone crêpes); however, my main minor quibble here (une quibble mineure ici) was the amount (or lack thereof) of Feta inside; they were pretty stingy with this one ingredient, and it is one of my favourites.

The rosemary potatoes were excellent, Mr. Parsleysagethyme ~ nice and crispy/crunchy slices. I skipped the stupid "baby mixed greens", baby. I can make that myself ~ open up a bag of pre-washed, mixed lettuces/greens, put on plate… et violins! A fresh-made salad! Big deal.

The Crepe House only has condimentary supplementation of Tabasco®, two flavours: the standard red and green Jalapeño. So I used a little of my own Cherry Republic® KaBOB's Kick'en Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy!) on the potatoes and a little Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce ~ Original Medium (Thanks, Kerry! That now kills that bottle, too; the remaining two bottles of Off The Wall Triple Hot and Grand Slam XXXtra Hot! will last me a few years more, I am sure.) on the crêpe.

The Crepe House has an interesting collection of teapots over the counter and along the back wall. (Greg, don't worry, Cindy's collection outnumbers theirs by twofold at least.)

Glen Bacon Scale Rating:  Mediterranean Crêpe ~ 6.4[2]


[1] Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-epicurean pointer of the day, numéro un:
 
The French word "crêpe/crêpes" comes from Old French "crespe", which comes from Latin "crispa", the feminine of "crispus", meaning "curled, uneven, wrinkled".
 
As best as I can discern, this is the same word root used for the fabric made of silk, cotton, or other fiber. It is also the same word root for "crepe paper". (You can consider that an extra-added, at no charge, stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-haberdasherial pointer of the day.) 
 
However, the anglicized spelling of this word is just pure "crape".
 
[2] Now I am not being hypercritical (or hypocritical… or even Harpocritical) with my GBS Rating of today's meal. 6.4 is actually a very decent score.
 
Here is a quick GBS refresher:
 
6.5-7.0, worth a return trip ~ the equivalent in terms of females:  Marisa Tomei and Lindsay Lohan (back before she went crack-head, bat-shit crazy, of course);
7.1-7.5, definitely worth at least a few more return trips ~ think: Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johansson, and Natalie Portman;
7.6-8.5, please invite me along ~ think: Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, and Marilyn Monroe;
8.6-10.0, say "Hi!" to Saint Peter for me, 'cause you must be dead and in Heaven
 
It is all highly scientific, of course.