Food & Drink EXPERIENCE
By Chuck Staton
Find Your Happy Place A Warren creperie plates unexpected masterpieces in sweet and savory varieties “A crepe is a blank slate,” says Aleksandar Janjic. He is preparing and serving me crepe after crepe after crepe. Before today, I liked crepes. I thought of them as being filled with nutella, strawberries, and whipped cream – an extremely basic take. But now, Janjic is opening my mind to what a crepe can be, one crispy fold at a time. “A crepe can be for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner… we treat our crepes like a composed dish, with the textures and colors of a complete meal.” Janjic is the owner of Happy Place Creperie on Main Street in Warren. He’s also a warm, Serbian gentle
giant who waxes poetic about crepes in a way that is immediately mesmerizing. Happy Place has 25 different options for crepes, split evenly between sweet and savory. I’m served the first savory crepe on the menu as soon as I sit down: avocado, ricotta, pesto, and roasted pumpkin seeds. In this case, the avocado and ricotta are slightly indulgent but light, the flavors pulling subtly towards autumn by the pesto and pumpkin seeds. My mind immediately goes to dessert when I think of crepes, but with the first bite of this vegetarian lunch variety, my eyes are opened by this soft
pancake-meets-burrito texture. Further expanding my horizons is the second crepe, filled with Egyptian artichoke, cheddar, spinach, and olive tapenade. After two leaf-filled bites, I truly can’t think of a better way to serve this salty, fresh, and gooey combination. I realize it then and there: the crepe is king. Switching things up, Happy Place puts
CUISINE: Carefully crafted crepes and luncheon fare PRICES: $6 - $13 ATMOSPHERE: Fun, quirky cafe
Photos courtesy of Happy Place Creperie
A savory avocado and ricotta crepe with pesto and pumpkin seeds
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The Bay • March 2022
