Reconstructing The Reputation of the Crepe and the Galette

NEW YORK - May 26, 2015 - PRLog -- Contact: Christopher Caron (212) 243-7200, team@delice-sarrasin.com
Denise Marsa, dmarsa@keymediapublicrelations.com

(Wednesday, May 27, 2015 – New York, New York) – Leaving Toulouse, France (the brick city) for New York City (concrete jungle) was a dream that Christophe Caron had since he was a young man studying economics at Madrid’s UNED. Now 24, he runs Delice & Sarrasin with his mother Yvette and father Patrick. Delice & Sarrasin (translation delicious and Sarrasin, the name of the buckwheat flour used in preparing the savory galette crepe,  is a new café at 20 Christopher Street that specializes in authentic French cooking and specifically crepes and galette’s. Yvette, a former cancer surgeon in France is the head chef and garnered her cooking prowess at Le Garenne, a well-known restaurant and hotel in the South of France. Patrick, a former engineer for France’s biggest telecommunications company France Telecom, is handling the business and accounting. Christophe who is the face of Delice & Sarrasin, the Maitre d' and marketing manager and who looks like he could be on the cover of GQ, is filled with personality and enthusiasm as he describes the dishes on the menu. He even boasts they have the best almond croissants in the city now, baked especially for them by a private baker. The Caron family is inviting everyone to enjoy both the experience of eating authentic French crepes and galette’s and the feel of a genuine French café’. The neighborhood is excited as well and welcoming the boutique café’ with open arms and anonymous gifts left at the door. Christophe shared, “We are so very happy with how the neighborhood is treating us and there is a true synergy between us, we the French transplants and the long time West Village residents. I feel so lucky to have found this magical and special spot for our family’s restaurant. It is so perfect!”

The café boasts 15 tables (with a counter and two stools) and seats 30 and it has a contemporary yet classic feel. The space is small, quaint, and fresh and it feels very French in part due to the lovely photos of the Caron family in France, the Eiffel Tower images placed strategically and a playlist featuring only French artists and music. Every ingredient is carefully designed to be a culinary experience around the relationship between the crepe or galette (the latter constructed with buckwheat flour imported from Brittany which happens to also be gluten free as are the sweet crepes) and the ingredients inside whether sweet or savory. Christophe explains that the ingredients are meant to complement the flavor of the crepe and the galette, not the other way around. The Caron’s have designed each dish to entice and introduce tourists and New York City residents to an authentic experience of eating crepes and galettes.

In addition to cooking daily at Delice & Sarrasin, on May 17, Yvette cooked for Brittany Day at the Fête de la Bretagne. She prepared sweet crepes for thousands of attendees. It is New York’s largest and most prestigious French event and she is honored to have been asked to cook her special crepes. Yvette is also hosting crepe cooking classes for the French Institute of Cooking twice a month at Delice & Sarrasin. She is also planning on opening, within the restaurant, a pastry bar. Yvette has created a unique small pastry: a crepe macaroon.

But there’s another part to this story. It involves Celeste Martin, the Caron’s landlady who is somewhat of a heroine in the West Village and probably one of the most famous landladies in NYC. Martin owns 20 Christopher Street and a half dozen landmark buildings in the West Village. She is an institution; her tenants adore her (every Christmas she gives all her tenants a bag of goodies). In 2003 Martin was instrumental in stopping the Port Authority’s request for $26 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds for a planned Path Train entrance and exit on Christopher St. between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.  The Path train would have potentially destroyed Martin’s buildings on what is now one of the most cherished and relevant blocks in the West Village today boasting boutiques and restaurants all within yards of one another today. Along with the late David Ryan, a former tenant, Ms Martin protested, testified at hearings and lobbied to keep the path train from across her block. She knew the trains would destroy the aging architectural structures of her homes both on Christopher and Gay Street. Her father Edward Martin came from France when he started investing in real estate in the early 1900’s. He came to the city to make a better life for his family.

Christophe explains, “After studying the market in the US and particularly in NYC, we started looking for spaces and we saw a lot of them, very attractive ones in good locations however none of them actually made us feel like home or had the charm or personality which we were looking for in a café’. Then we stumbled across a sign on 20 Christopher Street and it said café’ for rent, and we knew we had found our home.” And until the Caron’s came to town, Martin’s building at 20 Christopher, commercially zoned sat empty for 25 years. If you ask Ms Martin why she let it sit empty for 25 years she will tell you, “I was waiting for the Caron family.”

About KeyMedia Public Relations: KMPR is a New York City Based Public Relations and Production Company with a Focus on the Performing Arts, Health & Wellness and Non-Profits. Its founder, Denise Marsa, is an award winning international recording artist, producer and songwriter.