La Creperie Redux

By Melissa Wiley in Food on Dec 30, 2013 7:15PM

There’s the kindness of strangers and then there’s the kindness of people you really don’t know but feel as if you do anyway. As often as we’ve visited La Creperie in recent years, we’ve never come to know Germain Roignant with any intimacy beyond that of another contented customer.

We know only that Roignant, 75, has outlived his wife, Sara, and their son, Jeremy, who each helped to manage the 41-year-old family restaurant with him. We also know that upon Jeremy’s sudden death at age 39, Roignant was preparing to close La Creperie when neighbors and Duke of Perth proprietors Jack and Pam Crombie and Colin Cameron purchased the property and invited him to stay on, working evenings in the restaurant and remaining in his home above it.

We know too much of Roignant's backstory not to feel some of his pain and joy on an otherwise ordinary Friday night. With that in mind, we confide how happy we were to see him when we reentered La Creperie’s doors and he stood up from dinner with his daughter-in-law and grandchildren to smile and say the hostess would seat us in just a moment.

After Roignant sat back down with his family, Pam Crombie escorted us to a table in the back room beneath a sprawling tableau of rural France. We perused the expanded wine list while facing the glass doors to the patio where hanging lights suggested the many late-night summer crepes still to come. We didn’t recognize the tables and chairs from before, which were freshly reconfigured to allow for easier passage between. But the plates were the very same—white and pink ceramic with scalloped edges. Most of the staff, including the chef, have also stayed on since the restaurant shuttered in August. Since none of the recipes have reportedly been recorded outside the chef’s memory, his continued presence accounts for the fact that the menu has likewise preserved its integrity. The prices had not changed a jot either.

Eating our share of both the boeuf bourguinon ($13.50) and the fruits de mer ($14.50), the crepes tasted crisper to us than they had before. But then it has been some months since we’ve had one, and some places and some people have the trick of staying fresh, of always presenting themselves a little bit better than you remember. We also ordered the escargot ($10) as an appetizer and the chocolate and Grand Marnier crepe ($10.50) for dessert. The escargot we might admittedly forgo the next time, but we’ll gladly take more of the latter to compensate.

That the menu divides equally between savory and sweet crepes has long struck us, incidentally, as the only menu on record to offer the two basic food groups in equal proportion. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you leave without taking an equally balanced approach. But even if you only allow room for one ratatouille without a Nutella or crÃ¨me caramel crepe besides, chances are high that you’ll still leave with a sweet taste in your mouth, sweet enough to return soon and greet the man you feel you know so well.

La Creperie is located at 2845 N. Clark St.