Crepe Update

Well, it's happened. Flip Happy made it into the Statesman (Kelso's column, of all things), and now they'll be mobbed. Full article below (I give my email to spammers so you don't have to)

Two gals are cooking and selling crepes out of a trailer in South Austin; What's next? Space aliens landing on Capitol lawn?

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Your first inclination when you see the food trailer in the parking lot on South Lamar will be to walk up to the window and ask for salsa.

Don't bother. Even though Flip Happy Crepes looks like one of those taco carts you see all over town, it isn't.

What it is is two women selling French crepes out of a used silver '66 Avion trailer, parked in the lot behind Floribunda, a plant business at 2041 S. Lamar Blvd.

Crepes, just a couple of doors down from Martinez Brothers Taxidermists? What's in those crepes, anyway?

"My dad suggested we call it Euro Tacos," said Nessa Higgins, one of the partners in Flip Happy Crepes. "My husband suggested we should call it Full of Crepe," added Andrea Day Boykin, the other half of the team.

Andrea describes the venture as "Paris in a trailer."

This business is about as French as you can get when you're selling crepes out of a trailer in a Bubbaland parking lot not far from Mom's Tattoos. The business, which opened in April, even sells bottled Perrier, or what James White, owner of the Broken Spoke honky-tonk a few blocks south, refers to as "Pierre water."

The two ladies have even invested about $1,000 in a couple of fancy Krampouz crepe griddles that they use in their cramped trailer kitchen.

"And we play French music," Nessa said. "We have a variety of French CDs we do, especially on Friday night." There is dining al fresco, made possible by some colorful mix-and-match tables with a couple of big umbrellas set up in front of the trailer. Decorations include an old red wooden Coke cooler.

Not that everybody around here knows a crepe from a Chevy. This being Bubba-

land, some people walk up and ask for pancakes. And other things.

"They always come up and asked for the slushy ice — what's that called? — the shaved ice," Nessa said. The place doesn't have that, either. But they do have pesto, goat cheese, spinach and sun-dried tomato crepes, ham and Gruyére cheese and green onion crepes, smoked salmon crepes and some sweet crepes, too, including caramelized bananas drizzled with dark chocolate sauce.

But there is no chorizo in sight. Nessa thought about adding cole slaw. But that didn't fly. "Andrea said we're not doing cole slaw even though we're in Texas," Nessa said. I think they should do a smoked brisket crepe to fit the territory.

This all started eight years ago when Andrea was at an open-air market in Ireland, standing in a long line for crepes being sold by a couple out of a trailer. It occurred to Andrea that if that many people were lining up for something, that something must be good.

"I never got over it," she said. "So for eight years, I've been talking about selling crepes out of a trailer in South Austin."

The two gals didn't want to risk making a big investment on a restaurant. So, they decided to find an old trailer instead. Nessa did the legwork and drove all over the countryside to hunt one down. When she found one parked out in the boonies near Lockhart that looked promising, she left a note on the door. Later, she got a call back from a guy she calls Cowboy Dan, who sold the gals his old trailer for $2,500.

"You know, Cowboy Dan has yet to have a crepe," Nessa said. "He's an older gentleman, and he doesn't come into the city much at all. We need to take one out to him."

Shoot, take him a burrito. He won't know the difference.

John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445-3606 or jkelso@statesman.com.