WORCESTER – Suzette Crêperie & Café brings a taste of France to Worcester’s Canal District with its unique display of cute roosters and specializing in traditional French crepes with sweet and savory fillings.
Jean-Luc Wittner is the mastermind behind Suzette Crêperie & Café located on Water Street near Kelley Square.
“My wife, Evelyn (Darling), and I started planning our business several years ago when we lived in Boston. We studied two successful creperies in the Boston area, developed the menu and held a couple of very successful pop-up events,” Wittner said. “We chose the rooster for our logo because the rooster is a national symbol of France.”
After looking for a location for more than a year in the Boston area, Wittner and Darling decided to look in Worcester.
“When we heard that the (Pawtucket Red Sox) were moving here, we decided to come. Evelyn had lived in Worcester before and knew the city. We saw all the development happening in the Canal District and felt this would be the ideal location,” Wittner said. “When we learned that Weintraub’s was for rent, we jumped on it.”
Suzette Crêperie & Café has a variety of crepes and macarons that are creative, massive, and mouthwatering.
Wittner said while Suzette’s sells more savory crepes than sweet crepes, their most popular crepe is the Meli Melo. “It’s a sweet-lover’s dream with bananas, strawberries, Nutella, toasted almonds and whipped cream.” Wittner said.
“Our most popular savory crepe is My Grandma’s Favorite, which was my grandmother’s favorite crepe recipe—chicken in a béchamel sauce with thyme and sautéed mushrooms. It’s a simple yet delicious recipe—you can think of it as French comfort food,” Wittner added.
Wittner says Suzette’s vegan and gluten free crepes are becoming increasingly popular as well. They are made with chickpea flour and buckwheat flour.
Besides making crepes by scratch, Wittner bakes his French macarons by hand in his café’s kitchen.
“We rotate the flavors we sell, which include salted butter caramel, raspberry, peanut butter banana, pistachio, fig, chocolate ganache, lemon, almond, espresso and our newest flavor, green tea violet,” Wittner said. “The macarons have real fruit or nuts inside and take several hours to make. It’s a real labor of love, which you can taste with every bite. And they are naturally gluten free.”
On Aug. 15, Suzette Crêperie celebrated its first anniversary.
Wittner and Darling have a list of future plans for Suzette Crêperie & Café, including serving beer and wine sometime in the next year, launching a catering business, and increasing hours of operation.
Further down the road, they would like to open a second Suzette Crêperie location.
Lead image: Suzette Crêperie & Café/Patrick Sargent for ThisWeekinWorcester.com
