The idea for The Mountain Creperie and Candy Shop came from a place where most good ideas find their origins: pizza.
“I happened to be in New York for the Super Bowl and one of my favorite pizzerias was close to the hotel I was staying in,” explained Don Riccardi, general manager of The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif., for Ovations Food Services. On his way from the hotel to the pizzeria, Riccardi saw people walking around with crepes that had been rolled in a cone. “I basically followed the people to this store, and that’s where I saw the chefs making them … rolling them and putting them in a cone, so people can walk around with them—which is always an issue with food service at venues. You’re looking for food items that are portable.”
(Caricature by Greg Dohlen)
After returning home, Riccardi got to work finding out everything he could about these crepes.
“Some people thought I went crazy,” he said. “I went crepe crazy.” The temporary insanity served Riccardi well: His implementation of The Mountain Creperie and Candy Shop earned him the 2014 Venues Today Hall of Headlines award for Concessions.
Riccardi and his team, including Executive Chef David Sidoti and Executive Sous Chef Joseph Quicke, used the concept to fill a space in the venue’s Grand Hall. Riccardi’s new vision included an action station for crepes, a self-serve candy shop and a gelato vendor. “Ovations has a very strong commitment to everything being fresh,” Riccardi said. “So as often as we can, we try to produce the food directly in front of the customer, which fits perfectly with this concept.”
He purchased three crepe griddles, two of which were put to use and one of which was stored as a backup. “[They were] about $500 apiece, very reasonable,” he recalled. Then, the team got to work.
Riccardi continued, “Over the course of the summer, probably 10 people passed the ‘crepe school,’ sitting in my office, looking at videos, taking it to the location and practicing, trying to figure out the exact fold technique. … We finally perfected it. It wasn’t as simple as putting batter on the griddle. It’s a fine art.”
Riccardi also had to find the right cones—paper cones that guests could peel away as they were eating their treats. He found them in Hong Kong. “We ordered them special delivery from China. They arrived a day or two before our opening concert.”
The cones gave guests the option of taking the crepes back to their seats, but tables were available nearby for those who chose to take theirs on plates. Riccardi and Sidoti recalled that about half of the customers took their crepes in cones and half stayed to eat at the tables, which helped alleviate wait times. “The average time to make a crepe was three to four minutes,” said Sidoti. The creperie sold about 80 to 100 crepes per night and the eatery as a whole experienced $18 per caps.
Crepe varieties came in both savory and sweet, and ranged from smoked salmon to Asian chicken salad. Savory flavors sold for $12; dessert crepes went for $10. Riccardi explained that profit margins were high, food cost was about 20 percent of the price. “You use very little of the crepe batter,” he said.
On top of this, the team utilized unused food from the venue’s other restaurants, which enabled them to cut down on waste and also offer interesting crepe options. “One day it would be a bacon, lettuce and tomato crepe; the next day it was a short rib crepe,” Riccardi said.
Dessert varieties included cheesecake with mixed berries, candied pecans, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Nutella was king when it came to sweet ingredients. “Whatever we made with Nutella was a smashing hit,” said Sidoti. “That seems to be the stuff, the liquid gold.”
For an added cost, customers could add gelato to their crepes from the gelato station. Candy was also available at $13 per pound, a treat inspired by movie theater popcorn.
The team is already throwing around ideas for next season, which have included lobster rolls, gyros and wood-fired pizza. “We’re smashing our brains together and coming up with some ideas, so it should be interesting,” Sidoti said. “Under Don, I think we’re going to be all right, because he’s pretty creative. He’s a
go-getter.”