Here’s a little tip if you plan on opening a place that serves breakfast items: When you hire someone for the early shift, you might want to consider whether or not he or she is a morning person.
Apparently the fellow who opened Deja Vu Creperie on the morning I visited is not.
My first encounter with Mr. Sunshine was over the phone. I had called to find out where the restaurant was located -- the address placed it at Winter Park Village, but I was unfamiliar with it. So I called and asked, “Where are you located, please?” “Winter Park Village,” was the terse reply. I knew that, but it’s a big place. “And you are open for breakfast?” I asked. “At 9 o’clock,” he grumped.
I drove around looking for Deja Vu. So that you don’t have to do the same -- or put up with an unfriendly voice on the phone -- I’ll tell you that it is across the road from Mitchell’s Fish Market and on the same side as Taps.
The less than warm greeting when I walked in was certainly no surprise. The fellow stood unsmiling as I looked over the menu, which didn’t seem to have any breakfast crepes listed. Then I spotted a separate menu list on the counter with the morning items.
I selected a ham, cheese and scrambled egg crepe, and the fellow got immediately to work in creating it. He thinly spread the pancake batter over the convex cooking surface, smoothing out the bubbles and producing a large sheet that would be folded into a sort of cone filled with the various ingredients.
The filled crepe was much larger than the ones you might find in Paris, but there they’re considered street foods and are made to enjoy using only one hand while walking down the rue.
This one would have required two hands, so it was just as well that I had ordered it to eat in where I could use a fork.
And it was good. The crepe had a bit of a sponginess to it that was not really classic but also not unpleasant. (I think part of that was that it had been folded so many times that the multi layers created the springiness.) But there were plenty of the ingredients, and I especially liked the gooey cheese.
The crepe was so large that I saved half of it to enjoy later.
Need I say that I was not thanked or wished a good day when I left?
Deja Vu Creperie is in the Winter Park Village at 480 N. Orlando Ave. It opens at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday. The website is not currently functional. My crepe came to $8.08 with tax. The phone number is 407-260-1252.