Collegiate Times

Image: 2012-10-02 19:59:01

Today is a sad day for breakfast lovers. The Fresh Crêpe, a beloved crêpe station at the Blacksburg Farmer’s Market, will no longer be serving their crispy egg pancakes. However, French food lovers should fear not! Between Turner Place at Lavery Hall, O-Pass Tea and Crêpe and Our Daily Bread, Blacksburg offers many local venues to accommodate your crêpe-desiring needs. But where, you ask, can you enjoy the most decadent, satisfying crêpe? Equipped with a keen sense of taste and a belief in the power of breakfast food, I have surveyed and rated each breakfast joint that offers this delicacy. Amusez-vous!

Turner Place at Lavery Hall

Capitalizing on the fact that it is Turner Place’s most popular menu item, I ordered the Nutella and banana crêpe. My selection could not have been better. The mushy, warm bananas tasted similar to fried plantains, and the crispy edges were perfect for shoveling extra whipped cream, which my server was generous with. Unfortunately, now that I have experienced Nutella in its melted form, I am not sure if I can appreciate it in a basic sandwich. However, delicious as this meal was, it was not terribly satisfying. If you long to order a crêpe from here, I suggest also getting some protein or fruit or you might starve within an hour or so.  

Price: $3.25

Wait time: 10 minutes

Level of deliciousness: JJJ

Our Daily Bread Bakery and Café

To ensure consistency in my crêpe assessments, I ordered the Nutella and banana crêpe once again, which was a menu item new to Our Daily Bread. When I received it, my first thought was how pretty its appearance was. Homemade whipped cream was on the side, ornamented with thin almond slices (the worker at Turner Place forgot the decorative bananas on my whipped cream, but no bother). Plump in the middle, the eggy-goodness takes up an entire side of the ten-inch plate.

Although it was soft, I think I would have left it on the stove a little longer. The crêpe did not taste that warm, nor did it achieve the desirable melty-Nutella affect. But with this aside, the whipped cream was easily the best part. Light, fluffy and oh so soft, it truly knocked Turner Place out of the water. The pancake part, however, was not quite crisp enough, almost a little chewy, but tasted considerably more like an egg than at Turner Place. I strongly suggest combining everything together; the almonds make up for lost ground, adding some needed crunch.

However, one nice aspect of Our Daily Bread is the way they use all natural, organic ingredients and that everything is homemade. Plus, inside the cafe, soft, classical music plays, creating a perfect environment for studying or reading a newspaper while sipping coffee and eating crêpes. Also, after eating, you get that, “Ahh, full” feeling. This is definitely satisfying.

Price: $4.95

Wait time: 4 minutes

Level of deliciousness: JJJ

O-Pass Tea and Crêpe

My experience with O-Pass did not have a lovely start. I immediately went for the banana and Nutella, a vital component of my crêpe-reviewing mission. You can imagine my discontent to find that they were out of bananas! Not only did this create a nasty skew to my results, but it also cut out the entire “sweet” section of the menu since every one of their items contains bananas. The manager, unfortunately, had a family emergency, making the dilemma unavoidable, but at least not a recurring problem. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I ordered their most popular dish: the grilled chicken; a savory crêpe option. The cashier — who happened to be the only staff member on duty — warned me saying, “It is going to take a little bit of time.” Not looking good, O-Pass.

So the wait, if nothing else, gave me a chance to soak in the environment. It greatly contrasted Our Daily Bread, which gave off the café-in-Paris vibe. O-Pass presented an Asian twist on a French concept with the menu offering rice and nong shim soup as well as crêpes. In addition to this, the open, modern-chic atmosphere emulated a Pho-restaurant feel. Gentle versions of pop music played in the background, fostering a social atmosphere.

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A version of this article appeared in the Oct 3 issue of the Collegiate Times.