The Crêpe Revolutionary War (in which we all win)

Photo via CrepeRevolution.com

My ole pal Chris proposed a lovely trade-off: In exchange for dinner, I would pick him up and drive him to Crêpe Revolution in good ole Smyrna, GA.  Of course I accepted. If you buy me food, I'll drive you anywhere.

Crêpe Revolution is a California Pizza Kitchen-ish type place which serves interesting and delightful dishes wrapped in a crêpe instead of atop a pizza. Although the old standby ham and cheese crêpe is perfection,  Crêpe Revolution offers unique dishes that you've likely never had in crêpe form, par example: ratatouille, chicken curry, crab cakes, duck confit with portobella mushrooms, thai chicken, and the kinda-weird-but-probably-delicious pot roast-in-a-crêpe.  Revolution also does build-your-own-crêpes and offers a gluten-free batter for the rich and special.

With an open kitchen for viewing, you can watch your crêpe being made by the chef, who uses one of these to spread the batter on the round griddle:
That scene in Amélie when the narrator says little Amélie thinks records are made like crêpes suddenly made sense to me.  In my high school French club, crêpe-making involved dipping an upside-down rounded electric crêpe griddle into batter and then turning it right-side up. Oui, je sais, très chic.  Thankfully, crêpe-making is authentic French-style at Crêpe Revolution.

Wine bar, Photo via CrepeRevolution.com

The owner, Neel Sedngupta, greeted us as we entered and was visibly present the entire time, though not intrusively so.   Actually we weren't just greeted; Chris got a "Welcome back!" because apparently he's been a patron for some time.  Sedngupta was friendly and eager to be accommodating as necessary. In his words, Revolution sees the crêpe as the ideal canvas on which to create unique dishes.  At CR, the crêpe is not an afterthought--they are light and airy, yet spongy and absorbent in all the right ways a carbohydrate should be.

For our main course, I ordered the special, which I basically decided on after hearing the word "cumin," and Chris ordered the Chipotle Pork, which the server said was one of the most popular dishes. The special I ordered was comprised of cumin-spiced lamb, baba ghanoush, kalamata olives, and a yummy sauce, kind of a light-red spiced tzatziki--kind of a dressed-up gyro.  The lamb was high-quality, flavorful, flank-like slices with not a gristle in sight. The baba ghanoush was delicious, a generous spread of eggplant, lemon juice, garlic, onions, spices, good olive oil, and tahini. The kalamata olives were juicy and imparted a complimentary tang, and I was glad there were enough to see me through the whole dish.  The cumin flavor was perfectly noticable without being overpowering.  Overall it was a delicious.

Chris's Chipotle Pork was super tasty, and just enough on the sweet side, which I loved. The pulled pork was tender and smokey.  I never would have thought to put barbecue with a crepe, but I'm sure glad Revolution did.

For my side, I ordered the salad, which did have a few creative choices of dressing to make up for the lack of anything atop the fresh spring mix--a few grape tomatoes and some red onion and I'd call that a much appreciated addition. The dressings available include granny smith vinaigrette and curry rice wine vinaigrette; I partook of the latter and it went great with my cumin crêpe. Chris had the fresh fruit and he liked it.

Our waitress was very sweet. I drink a lot of water and she was right there to refill it the whole time. I spoke to Neel Sedngupta again when he came around to politely check on the tables. The young woman next to us was dining alone, and I overheard her tell Neel she was a teacher and correcting homework.  It was good to see that Crêpe Revolution is a friendly spot for the solo diner, the twosome, or the family of 10, all of whom were there that night. It was nicely, but not overly, busy. On a side note, the bathrooms were very nice and clean and cute. I notice these things.

We felt good and satiated after dinner, but not overly full, even after the delicious Nutella and sweet, ripe strawberry crêpe we shared for dessert--in retrospect, I wish we had ordered one for each of us.

Prices are pretty reasonable for those on a budget like myself (many options for dinner from $9-$16).  My dish was one of the nightly specials, prices at $16.  Chris had a coupon app on his iPhone that gave him 60% off--that's a lot. We got about $45 of food for $20, and Chris left a $10 tip because he's nice like that (don't forget to base the tip on the original bill when you use a coupon.) 

All in all, if you were wondering, no, we weren't crêped-out after dinner and dessert--we were planning our next visit.  Crêpe Revolution has one of those menus that makes you want come back night after night until you've tried everything on it.

Photo Via CrepeRevolution.com

Crêpe Revolution
4600 West Village Place
Smyrna, GA 30080
770-485-7440