Whisk Crepes. (Photo by Kathy Tran)
Julien Eelsen grew up on crepes.
They made them at home. They bought them from street vendors.
That’s the way it is in Paris.
“I probably ate a crepe three or four times a week,” he says.
Eelsen opened Whisk Crepes at Sylvan Thirty in October, and it is his first restaurant venture. In fact, he has little previous experience in the restaurant business, although he has lots of experience in business.
Eelsen came to the United States in 2008 for his business-consulting job, which previously had taken him to Nigeria and Peru. He moved to Miami a couple of years ago for a logistics job, but he missed Dallas.
“The people here are very nice, very curious. It’s very easy to make friends here,” he says. “Miami, of course, is beautiful and the beach is right there. It’s a nice place to visit.”
His brother owns a hotel and restaurant in Normandy, and Eelsen always wanted to own a restaurant too. He had a few ideas — a café, a quiche restaurant. He settled on crepes because they can be breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert. There is no shortage of options.
And Whisk does a lot.
The regular menu includes build-your-own savory or sweet crepes, plus specialties including one with goat cheese, arugula, honey and walnuts. Even more adventurous: Smoked salmon, cream, lemon, fish roe, potato chips and chervil. The sweet specialties include one with granola, bananas, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, whipped cream and coconut. It’s basically breakfast in a crepe.
“We’ve done a brisket barbecue crepe,” Eelsen says. “We’ve done wild deer. So it’s been very interesting.”
Whisk Crepes
1888 Sylvan
469.353.9718
whiskdallas.com
Ambiance: café
Price Range: $5-$12
Hours: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, closed Monday
