Chasing Breakfast

The idea of a Parisian breakfast sure is nice. Most of us are able to get our Parisian breakfast fix at home. I visited Mon Amie Morning Café in Hub City just days before traveling to Paris and anxiously await the opening of Crêpe du Jour in Downtown Greenville.

I am a huge fan of breakfast–in fact, I could eat breakfast three times a day if I had to, especially if my options are of the French variety. As you can imagine, I was very excited for my first breakfast in Paris. Cue in trip mistake number 2 (number 1 is too silly to publish): waking up at 12:00 pm! Yes, I know, this was just my body reacting to its natural clock (it was 6:00 am back home, my normal wake-up time) but I was so, so disappointed that I missed breakfast.

By the time I got ready, stopped by the Paris Tourism office to pick up my museum pass, river cruise, bus tour and Eiffel Tower tickets (more on that later), I ended up having my first full meal of the day a little after 3:30 pm. That, however, did not stop me from having what I had been craving for the past 48 hours: a crêpe.

I went to trusty TripAdvisor and searched for a couple of places. I have a rule of trying top-100 restaurants in new places but in a city this big and with more than 14,000 restaurants, I extended my “to-try” list to the top 500 (I know, I know… bear with me here). Coming in at 472 was Mardi Crêpe Club and I loved the place so much I want to go back!

Upon arriving I met Max, one of the owners, who allowed me to step into the kitchen to witness how crêpes are prepared at Mardi Crêpe Club and what makes them different. When I asked what inspired him and his business partner to open a crêperie, Max explained they wanted to find a way to have people eat more crêpes for lunch. See, while crêpes are super popular in France, they are less consumed during lunchtime because of preparation time and carry-out difficulties (have you ever tried boxing up a traditional crêpe? I have, it’s never clean or pretty). That is where Mardi Crêpe Club saves the day.

At Mardi Crêpe Club they are all about innovation, thanks to a special tool (sorry, no cool technical name to display here–I was too busy imagining how delicious my crêpe was going to be) their crêpes are prepared faster and in a shape that is more convenient for carry-out (Max shared that, while they are the only crêperie in Paris to use this tool, it is more common in the US). Max folds the crêpe into a rectangular shape, boxes it up et voila, you can now have a crêpe to-go during your busy lunch hour and it takes no more space than the average baguette. The multiple folds, according to Max, also help keep the crêpe warm, which is a must if you are carrying out. I appreciate the concept and the fact that it tasted just as good as I imagined made the wait (and getting lost trying to find them) worth it!

My crêpe was accompanied by organic apple juice infused with roses–best apple juice I have had in my life! Here is a little video of Max preparing my apple-caramel crêpe:

Mardi Crêpe Club is located at Rue de Montmartre in the 2nd arrondissement and opened in  2016.