French street (and fast) food
By Mike Mitchelson

Sure, the French invented fine dining. But La Belle Crepe puts forth evidence to suggest they were among the first in the fast food department, too.

Consider: 1. A restaurant can thrive in a space roughly the size of a college dorm room, 2. Fast food can be very healthy.

Don’t believe it? Wander down Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, just north of Ninth Street, and find La Belle Crepe for breakfast, lunch or dinner. There are larger walk-in closets within unsold McMansions in Eden Prairie. Six stools line a narrow counter against one wall. The “kitchen” is against the other wall behind a counter. Two crepes griddles are wedged into the small bay window in front out of necessity.

The restaurant, owned and operated by Alain Lenne, a gregarious native of Lille, France, might seem unusual at first blush—and it is, given that creperies aren’t a common site. But, after some thought, it’s so absolutely logical.

Sure, one might fit another gourmet sub shop in that space, but how novel would that be? That’s the thought Lenne had when he heard the space, a former deli on the ground floor of the Medical Arts Building, became available last year.

The idea came to Lenne last May as many great ideas do: during a night of serious imbibing. “It was three o’clock in the morning,” Lenne recalled. “And I tell people, I really need come up with a concept for that place, and if I come up with an average concept, I’m not going to get it.”

The subject of crepes came up—an everyday street food in France. “And ‘bling,’ the light went on,” Lenne said. He pitched the idea to the building managers, and beat out five others who had ideas for the tiny space. He opened in mid-October.

“It’s a great spot, location-wise,” he added. Surrounded by offices—including the downtown Target store and corporate on an adjacent block—and those above him in the Medical Arts Building, “this is the busiest corner in (downtown) Minneapolis.”

The location is dependent on street-level foot traffic, which is, obviously, less in winter, but when the cold weather hit, Lenne said he managed 40 to 50 covers a day. Not bad, but he’s eager for the warm weather. The mild October allowed him to have tables outside for a while, and he did 150 to 200 covers per day. (He’s generated ridiculous repeat business in the short time he’s been open—spend a half hour in the tiny restaurant and see the constant flow of conversations with people strolling in for lunch. Lenne greets each warmly. “That guy,” he remarked after a customer left, “is in here three, four times per week.”)

It’s not just the crepe that’s the attraction, of course, but what fills it. The menu consists of “Savory” crepes, such as smoked salmon with goat cheese, capers, fennel and lemon vinaigrette; the classic ham and gruyere and an array of specials, each served with serving of balsamic basil coleslaw. “It’s healthy for you,” Lenne said. “That’s what I was trying to find: something cheap, healthy, tasty and fast. And with the recession going on right now, customers don’t mind spending six bucks. They mind spending 15 bucks.”

(There’s the slightly less healthy—decadent, really—“sweet” crepes, filled with chocolate mousse, berries and crème fraiche or specials such as pineapple with almond paste and crème fraiche.)

“I don’t Americanize my crepes,” Lenne said. “I use gruyer. I make my own crème fraiche. I don’t use cheddar in a can or creamy spinach that comes in a can from Restaurant Depot. If I want creamy spinach, I make my own creamy spinach.”

And the “fast food” label? Order the smoked salmon, one of the more intricate on the menu, and it’s cooked fresh and on a plate (or in your hand) in about three minutes.

It’s the grab-and-go food that the French are very familiar with; creperies populate Paris as Starbucks does an American metropolis. Which is why it’s a bit remarkable no one has stuck one in a busy downtown thoroughfare surrounded by a huge lunch crowd. “That’s what I thought,” Lenne said.

The marriage of the location and Lenne’s idea might have been neatly coincidental (even the griddles in the window work as a masterful attention-grabber for passersby), but a considerable restaurant background is also at work. Lenne is well known in the industry, having worked as a server at fine dining restaurants for 20 years, including Café Un Deux Trois, The 510, A Rebours and Meritage. He has many industry friends, and has dabbled in real estate. As others managed their business to success or failure, Lenne observed.


Opportunity knocks

One lesson is not to move too fast, but be quick to take obvious opportunities. Lenne will open in April a second creperie in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood with a unique arrangement: renting the Aura Restaurant & Bar in Calhoun Square during its off hours, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. He’ll serve breakfast and lunch and take advantage of its full kitchen to prep food for the space-impaired downtown La Belle Crepe. “It will be good because there’s not a lot of breakfast (restaurants in the area)—you have the Uptown Bar across the street,” he said, adding that there is a population of young-ish professionals that want an inexpensive and healthy option.

He will start with the crepes-only menu in Uptown, but will begin exploring other menu possibilities. “If I have a full kitchen, why not take advantage of it?” he said. “But I don’t want to jump in too fast, I want to do the transition smoothly.”

In the 20 years since he’s been in the Midwest, Lenne has seen substantial transformation in dining habits. “People (here) used to drink white zinfandel thinking that was wine,” he joked. There are many great restaurants—Lenne counts Alma, Saffron and 112 Eatery among his favorites—and a change of attitude to allow for a myriad of world’s street foods (French crepes included) become integrated into the American diet.

But one thing that hasn’t changed—Minnesotans, Lenne has observed, like to sit when they eat. “At first I didn’t have any stools (at the counter), I wanted to do brasserie type, stand up and eat, or New York style,” he said, laughing. “But it doesn’t work in Minnesota, so I set up the stools.”