Shuls & Shpayz: Un Petit Voyage En France

I have got to say this place would have a lot more reviews on Yelp if it were located somewhere like the Lower East Side or Williamsburg (<100 reviews as of Memorial Day 2013). Probably one of the best secrets of Queens and probably the best secret of my under the radar neighborhood of Woodside. Another place visited with the precedential guidance of Alisa. It's always there 2 blocks away, near the Stop Inn, the Duane Reade, the supermarket, and Subway as well as sitting below the actual subway 7 train. It's one of the few hipster-looking places around with a bright lavender paint job with fun little lettering that says "fresca la crepe since 2010". And I've always wanted to go. So why not save it for a special occasion. Dan was in town from California the weekend before Passover and that Saturday night we all went to Manhattan to someone's birthday at a new beer bar. The next day after everyone crashed on our floor we started off with brunch at Saints & Sinners. This is one of a number of similar Irish bars in the once Irish-centric neighborhood and like most in the area offers a Sunday brunch consisting of various egg and pork-based meat dishes. My favorite in the area is undoubtedly Donovans which offers great soda bread with its brunch dishes. And the catch in the area is that it's usually just about $10.00. Anyway, unfortunately while Saints & Sinners is a pretty good bar with pretty good bar food it just doesn't cut it for breakfast/brunch. The place doesn't have hash browns or home fries. I ordered an omelette and they gave me French fries! In fact, everyone got French fries, from the chicken sandwich ordered to the "Irish breakfast" with bacon and sausage ordered. Now maybe this was a hint of what would come later on in the day but I just don't associate French fries with my morning meal. Afterwards, 4 of us decided to walk all the way to Astoria to check out the Museum Of The Moving Image, at Dan's suggestion. I was glad everyone was down to walk there because it was nice out, one of those few days in early Spring that is somewhat warm, about 1.5 miles each way. So after the museum we were trying to figure out what to do and I suggested we try the crepe place so we called Alisa and she found out they close at 4:00 on Sundays. The museum was great and I particularly enjoyed the retro video games they had on exhibit, including my beloved Sega Genesis. So we left the museum around 3:00 and made it to the crepe place around 3:30, and glad we did so. It ended up on my international cuisines destination map for France because French restaurants can be so hit-or-miss and how is a crepe not a staple of Paris street food, if excessively consumed by tourists. Fresca La Crepe has no website and its NYMag.com restaurant listing page lists out-of-date hours, but it seems strong as ever. The place is very tiny with a takeout window that I think acts more like a ventilation since the crepes are cooked in the front by the window. If someone is ordering at the counter, it is hard to get by them in or out of the door. In the back you'd expect there to be seats and there are a few but they are not set up in a way which is conducive to eating with a group and it somewhat appears to be an extension of the kitchen itself so you know off the bat it's a takeaway place. The menu is also very small and simple, but one of the best parts is that there is a sort of secret menu, a handful of specialty crepes while always available are unlisted. After sifting through some reviews on my phone while my friends ordered theirs off the menu (either Sweet or Savory) Nutella Banana, S'mores, I went ahead and ordered "The Bomb": Nutella, white chocolate, bananas, strawberries, toasted almonds, and mascarpone. We brought these back home and nom nom nom. I woofed mine down and like others have probably said in the past it was THE BOMB. The story goes that the chef, who I believe is Chinese, was inspired during a trip to Paris some years ago and upon returning to New York City, decided to open up a crepe shop in Woodside in Queens and if you believe the awning outside, it's been there now for 3 years and the one-woman operation looks to be doing well. This is the kind of place that is just waiting to be discovered, lauded, and perhaps expanded. Examples in the area I can think of include Zabb Elee, down Roosevelt a bit near 72nd Street which opened up an East Village location within the last year and Sri Pra Phai a Thai powerhouse that has gained celebrity status after being featured in the NY Times a couple years ago.