Food cart chef moves creperie inside grocery
A pioneering Montrose food cart chef has moved indoors.
“We just opened a stand in the Montrose H-E-B, near the freezer section,” said “Buffalo” Sean Carroll, a Lindale Park resident whose Melange Creperie made a big splash at the corner of Westheimer and Taft.
“Sean will be in our store at 1701 W. Alabama on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.,” said Lacey Dalcour Salas, an H-E-B Public Affairs Houston spokesperson.
“I will miss the traffic, people honking and waving, walking their dogs, pushing baby carriages, the bus stop,” said Carroll, a 34-year-old native of Buffalo, New York.
At H-E-B, the stand’s firstday menu featured crepes with ham, egg and cheddar for $8 (add $1 for tomato); Indian eggplant (Baingan Bharta), $6 with tomato and cucumber; peaches and blueberry yogurt, $6; and banana Nutella, $5.
Carroll launched the Parisienne-style creperie in August 2010, and it soared in popularity through its last weekend in March.
Carroll also racked up a huge following by catering special events and serving customers at farmers’ markets.
Jose Farach, who recalled waiting in line outside for one of Carroll’s crepes, was happy to find that Melange Creperie has moved indoors.
“This is better in the sense that you don’t wait in inclement weather, like today,” the River Oaks resident said as it rained outside on the afternoon of July 1.
“This is also a cleaner environment than outside, with cars and buses going by,” said Farach.
“I was driving by one day and I saw his stand in Montrose,” said Farach. “I stopped. There was a big line waiting to have these crepes. He has a lot of clientele. He is well-known.”
“I love their crepes,” said Janet Benton, a Montrose resident who recalled stopping and getting out of her car when she saw the crowd that Melange Creperie drew on Westheimer at Taft.
“I was driving by and I said, ‘Damn!’ There were all these people out there,” said Benton, who also was happy to discover Carroll cooking inside H-E-B.
Carroll met his wife, Tish Ochoa, when they were students at the University of Houston. He got the idea of opening a creperie when they were on their honeymoon to Paris in 2008.
“There were amazing crepes on every corner, and they put on quite a performance,” said Carroll, who learned how to make crepes by watching videos that tourists to Paris posted on YouTube.
Mango’s, a live-music hangout at 403 Westheimer, provided what seemed like an ideal place in its parking lot.
“My cart could fit in the building and the club was closed during the day,” said Carroll.
Mango’s began by charging him $100 a month and increased the rent as his business grew.
“In the beginning, I was happy if I made 20 crepes,” he said. Later, “I was making a hundred on a busy day.”
When Mango’s announced in January that it was closing, Carroll launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant, with a “push goal” of an additional $50,000 to stay in Montrose.
Fans, welcoming the chance to grab a crepe rain or shine, and sit in a chair rather than perch on a parking-lot barrier, contributed more than $50,000, while other investors “gave us the capability to stay in Montrose,” said Carroll.
However, plans to open an indoor restaurant at 4100 Montrose, when Eatsie Boys Cafe vacated that space in April, fell through, said Carroll, so he accepted an offer from H-E-B’s “innovation department” to work as an independent contractor, beginning July 1, in the store at 1701 W. Alabama.
“The food truck movement came up at the same time I did,” said Carroll, who was voted “trendiest guy” in high school, he laughed.
“In 2010, it was starting to get hip. Then the real rush came when Alison Cook wrote about us in the Houston Chronicle,” he added. “By the end of 2010, there were 20 (food trucks) out there.
“We’ve done over 450 specials and I’m trying to get to every culture in town,” said Carroll.
In addition to its stand at H-E-B, Melange Creperie can be found 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays outside of City Hall, 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays at the East Side Farmers Market and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays at the East End Farmers Market.
Details For further information, call 832-724-9464 or visit Melange Creperie on Facebook or Twitter.