Adil Chokairy, owner and chef of the new Crêpes Choupette restaurant, demonstrates the kind of bicycle, now outside his Westport restaurant, that he used to start his business, riding around New Haven and making crêpes for customers on the spot. 
The cornucopia of crêpes offered at Crêpes Choupette restaurant includes: above left, a simple crêpe topped with churned butter and sugar, chef Adil Chokairy’s favorite; above right, a crêpe with smoked salmon and asparagus, and below, crêpes are not only for dinner or dessert, but for breakfast, too.

By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Parisian native Adil Chokairy, owner and chef of the new Choupette crêperie restaurant downtown, has brought the flavors of France to Connecticut for more than a decade. 

On Wednesday, he opened his newest crêpes restaurant at 43 Church Lane. Chokairy’s two other crêperies are in New Haven and Darien.

For the uninitiated, crêpes are thin, delicate pancakes that can be either savory or sweet, and paired with different kinds of toppings. 

The Crêpes Choupette menu, for example, offers a fig, arugula, prosciutto and goat cheese crêpe; a Gruyere, organic egg and country ham crêpe, and the Norvégienne crêpe, with smoked salmon, crème fraiche and dill. A vegetarian crêpe is also available.

Many people are not aware that crêpes can be savory, Chokairy said, instead expecting they all have sweet toppings. 

Savory crêpes are made from buckwheat flour, “tasting a bit rustic and earthy,” he explained, while sweet crêpes are made with whole wheat flour.

For Choupette’s sweet crêpes, toppings include churned butter and sugar; raspberry and white chocolate; Nutella, banana and strawberry, and more.

A diner outside Crêpes Choupette on Wednesday, the first day of business for the restaurant at 43 Church Lane.

Chokairy started his business selling both the savory and sweet French treats on the streets of New Haven by bicycling around town, and stopping to make crêpes with a burner attached to his bike. He did not have experience in the culinary field, he said, but loved food and sampling delicacies at different restaurants. The idea of the bicycle crêperie “started over a glass of wine,” he said.

His crêperie á la bike proved to be popular, he said, and led to his dream of setting up restaurants — actually combination crêperies and wine bars — one by one.

Chokairy chose the picturesque Church Lane location for his newest restaurant, after falling “in love with the place like the first time I fell in love with a girl.”

He plans to open a wine bar in the crêperie with small plates on the menu in addition to crêpes, he said, but is waiting for a liquor license to be issued within a few weeks. 

But crêpes, fresh-squeezed juices and several hot drinks, including cappuccino and macchiato, are available now. The restaurant also has a catering service, with crêpes made on location.

Crêpes Choupette restaurant, 43 Church Lane, is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. until the wine bar opens, when the hours will be extended from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information or to place an order, call 203-293-4860 or email crepeschoupette@gmail.com.

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Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.

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