Mr. Crepe redux

by Neil W. Mc Cabe

The purveyor of French crepes and Belgium sugar waffles absent from Davis Square for two years returned Jan. 6 now at the corner of Holland and Dover streets.

In May, when it became clear the Someday Café would not continue at that location, the owner of the building, which also houses the Somerville Theatre, called the owners of Mr. Crepe to see if they would be interested in taking over the space, said Ingrid M. Heyrman, who with her husband Richard S. Adkins run the new Mr. Crepe.

Heyrman said after she lost the lease on her old location, she never gave up on coming back to Davis Square. The current shop is owned by Peter E. Creyf, with Heyrman and her husband as managers. The couple will have equity participation in future locations.

The three are partners in another business called the Waffle haus, she said. The Waffle haus has 18 locations on ski slopes in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. “The skiers pull right up to the window on their way to the lift--they call it 'mountain crack.'"

In addition to the full crepe menu, the restaurant offers the haus’ signature item, the Belgium sugar waffle, she said.

The yeast-based batter for the waffle is made with pearl sugar, a specially refined beet sugar that caramelizes outside the waffle, so it produces its own topping, she said. “We import 10 tons of pearl sugar from Belgium every year.”

The shop’s menu is not all about treats, she said. “We offer heathly alternatives. We use fresh vegetables and fruits—everything healthy,” she said.

Adkins said before he met his wife, he did not appreciate the full variety of the crepe.

His first supper crepe was lamb and feta cheese, a version of which is on the Mr. Crepe menu, he said.

The lamb crepe is now one of the early favorites with customers, said Fabio A. Desouza, one of the shop’s crepe chefs. “You can do a lot with a crepe. It can be an appetizer, a main course or a dessert.”

Desouza said he worked at the original Mr. Crepe for 18 months before it closed, and that Heyrman tracked him down to join the new location to train new employees.

The training of new employees went so well they started serving crepes a few days early, Heyrman said.

One unforeseen problem came up during the training. As Desouza was demonstrating how to sauté onions the entire store filled with steam that fogged up all of the windows—revealing the imprints from the old Someday Café stickers.

Heyrman said she understands people are upset about the end of the Someday Café. “But, the same thing happened to us.”

Adkins said if he did not understand the situation from the inside, he might be upset at seeing a Mr. Crepe move in.

Those who are upset about Someday closing should not blame Mr. Crepe. They merely took the opportunity to re-start a business they love in a place they love, he said.

The Mr. Crepe team moved into location Sept. 1 to begin their work, Heyrman said. The workers from Someday Café took away all the chairs, tables and couches, but there was a lot of cleaning up to do.

A former art student and a licensed antiques appraiser, Heyrman said she designed the space herself to be more open and with more light.

When they knocked down the wall that had been the back of the service counter, they found a cool steel beam that they painted and left exposed in the meeting of the dining area, Adkins said.

In the bathrooms the graffiti was so heavy that even after five layers of paint, it still comes through, he said.

The total renovations cost roughly $350,000, including $40,000 for new wiring, Heyrman said. The space is completely re-wired and has new plumbing.

“A few of the Someday regulars will open the door, look in and say, ‘It looks cleaner,’ then they walk off,” said Elizabeth L. Hilt, who works at the Mr. Crepe counter and a former Someday Café customer.

Hilt said she also works at the Somerville Theatre, which is how she met Heyrman and Adkins. “We shared some common storage space and I had to open some doors for them. They seemed pretty cool.”

Hilt, a native of Richmond, Va., said she had never had crepes before starting her new job, but she already has a favorite. “”I like the strawberry, lemon juice and sugar crepe. It is sweet, but not too sweet.”

Comments

[PersonDavis]

No biggy Neil but it's Holland STREET. Or maybe you meant HIGHLAND Ave. where the cold wind is blowing the hat off my head today and bringing tears to my eyes and fogging my specs when I step out on The Avenue. Seriously, good luck to the Crepe place. Anything's better than that other dive.

[Ron Newman]

The crepe place is yummy, and I've become a regular customer. However, I still miss the Someday, and hope it can successfully relocate inside Sacco's. I look forward to the promised News story on that.

[The Someday Is Dead for A Reason.]

someday was an abomination. the coolness ended when ranciatore bought it as a tax dodge (well he did not actually pay for it so it's not like he bought it at all.) fistfights with beligerent racist winter hill junkies, buying nothing and harrassing paying regulars, and the bathrooms had worse problems with used syringes than they did with graffiti. several armed robberies were a threat to public safety, and were preventable. owner mel fischer wanted them out, but lied to reporters about it. the eviction was planned for 2 years. they were violating a dozen health codes, from toxic mold to rodent control, to non-refrigerated meat products and mishandling of dairy products.
(very sickening considering ranciatore is an ice cream peddler in cambridge d/b/a/ Toscanini's)

i realize this board is about "mr crepe", but if you don't dispose of the matter of that nasty cafe once and for all,
we' can't move on to the crepes. mmmmm! crepes!

[Ron Newman]

The building's onwer is Mel Fraiman, not Fischer. Also, I don't remember the Someday Cafe ever selling any food with meat? Just coffee, tea, Italian sodas, and bakery goods (muffins, scones, etc.)

Davis Square's big enough for both Mr. Crepe and Someday.

[someday is gone. part 2]

mels' name? i stand corrected.

despite numerous WRITTEN warnings from the city, someday sold meat sandwiches for years. the citations are all public record available at city hall.

they were there at the register for the last couple of years of operations. if you missed them, you simply WERE NOT THERE.

my comments are based on physical inspection of internal documents. yes, RN, i worked for both regimes,
and was one of the many people who quit. others were fired for opposing such things.

how about not commenting on something you know nothing about?

it's pretty bizzare that people defend this place. mostly out-of towners who only casually visit the neighborhood. 95% of the original customers bailed, and even the employees are openly horrified by this stuff, they were simply trying to keep a paycheck coming in during the soft post-2001 service ecomomy.

the place is gutted now. couches loaded up with mouse feces that weren't vacuumed out for months at a time (while blatantly violating codes on rodent control), a carpet instead of a washable floor as required by law (numerous warnings on that too) are all gone; and professionals are in there.

the best service location in davis sq is no longer being wasted.

it's physically impossible to lose money at the perfect location
when a cup of joe costs about 20 cents including the cup, but diesel , with their worse location and atmosphere bordering on unfriendly to non-homosexuals, has managed to prosper and expand due to great service and a clean, welll -maintained space. it's also telling that their staff never turns over, and the ranciatore someday'a always does.

(GR claimed to be losing money for 3 or 4 years. and only a few steps from the red line.... HMMMM?)

diesel's coffee is not as good as B&B but the pots are clean, so it tastes better.

i kinda miss batdorf & bronson coffee, but after ranciatore moved in employees refused to clean the coffee dispensers regularly and the stuff tasted bitter as hell.

mmmmm! crepes!!! and gotta love those belgian sugar beets!

[davis]

I have to agree that the obsession with the old cafe is incomprehensible, and at the expense of the current vendor. Someday was great while the founders' management lasted; but I am one of those who left after the place went downhill.

The druggie bar-room crowd was so bad I ended up taking a side street home in the summer. I bought a home here in 1993. I'm not leaving!

The food is awesome and I welcome a new business. (They need to work on their coffee though.