Short version with lots of editng: Crystal Lake guy decides France needs an American bakery. Young Parisian chef figures turnabout's fair play and French couisine would be just the ticket in the collar counties. Pause for five years cooking hospital food in Barrington but with periodic shopping trips to Algonquin. Finally, voila, Creperie Normande in Algonquin Commons.
A creperie is, um, well, it's a place that sells crepes. Crepes are sort of like a French tortilla except not very much since they're a lot more delicate but, anyway, you wrap stuff, savory or sweet, hot or cold, in them. And you eat them, of course.
"We are not fast food," said chef Lionel Pilate-Jean. "We are quick food casual. French casual. Exactly as in Normandy."
Those of a certain age may remember crepes were a fad 30 or so years ago but proved to be only a flash in the pan. (Sorry.) Pilate-Jean isn't worried about that. "I was not here then," he laughed.
"It's very authentic," volunteered lunch patron Diane Black. "I was in France a few months ago."
The secret is in the flour, said Pilate-Jean, buckwheat flour. "That's the how they are made in south France."
In the pic: Chef Lionel Pilate-Jean cooks up a couple of lunch crepes with a chicken filling at Algonquin's Creperie Normande Monday.
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