::: happy suprise

my friend sandhya and i often go on adventures. we don't always plan for our outings to become this. but they do. it goes without saying that we'll get lost. or our destination will be closed. or we'll change our minds about halfway through the evening and end up somewhere entirely different. she always refers to these situations as "happy surprises" (as long as we have an excellent time).

last week, we went to royal oak for breakfast after work one morning. she was leading the way down the street, swearing she knew exactly where the restaurant was. when she stopped at a very unassuming little storefront with a red canopy- she sighed. her cafe was gone. and in it's place was a little french bistro called 'what crepe?'. we were absolved to give it a whirl, but it didn't open for 3 more hours. a little wandering led us right to our original breakfast location- which had simply changed buildings. we enjoyed our awesome meal, but made a mental note to return to the mysterious crepe cafe. and soon.

in the past five days, we've been to "crepes"--as we have affectionately deemed it--twice, with budding plans for a third visit this weekend. it's amazing. the little red canopy i mentioned hovers over a few mismatched tables and chairs that are arranged for outdoor seating. when you enter the heavy red front door, you cross into a long, narrow room- laden with eclectic french inspired design. i loved that each table had different chairs around it. that the menu covers were made from old french record sleeves. that the coffee came in a french press. and that everyone in the place was drinking it out of a different mug. i loved that you could order about half the crepes as 'vegan' or' vegetarian'. that they were broken into two categories:: sweet or savory. that pretty much every staffer stopped by your table to say hi. i was enamored with the paris decorations. the fresh flowers on the table.



all this before i ever even tasted a crepe. that's a whole story in itself.

the menu is pouring with options. one hardly knows where to begin. once you've settled on which category of crepe you're hungry for- you then have to decide if you're in the mood for chocolate and bananas. or crushed wild berries. or cheesecake filling. or apple pie. perhaps you chose savory, and you're left to decided between smoked salmon. or monte cristo. or italian. or veggie. or. or. or. the options are endless.
on our first visit, i went sweet- and ended up ordering the apple pie crepe. it arrived to me on a zebra striped plate- topped with homemade ice cream, crushed graham cracker crust, and drizzled caramel. it was heavenly. and tasted even better than it looked.


we went back to "crepes" last night, about an hour before they closed. we settled into a table by the window overlooking the street, and ordered something savory. we talked. and laughed. and ate. and then- because we figured: why not?!- we ordered an additional sweet crepe to share as desert. we sat looking around our beloved "what crepe?" and felt a little sad for the day it might become a huge restaurant. with laminated menus. matching chairs. a huge waitstaff. we want our little place to succeed. but we are madly in love with it's charm. we can only hope that the love, passion and creativity that created this awesome place, will see it through all it's greatness.

as we walked through the warm summer night back to our car, sandhya declared::

"now that was a happy surprise"

i totally agree.