The pace of restaurant turnover in Hoboken is quite the phenomenon. One day, a restaurant is a thriving pillar of the Duckbills community, the next it closes for renovations and never reopens. It affects bars, cafes, delis, and restaurants, sometimes without a moment’s notice. While this is a tragic occurrence, especially when a closure strikes the Stevens community particularly hard (a la Aroma), a silver lining is that new businesses often replace them, some with new, interesting, and dare I say bold platforms. One of these new popups along Washington Street is Crepe Guru, located in the small slice of building previously occupied by Maoz Vegetarian.
When thinking of crepes, the mind often goes to delicate little pastries served with a drizzle of chocolate or a couple of strawberries accenting a Parisian brunch. Going in, my thoughts were no different; thinking their menu would be almost exclusively dessert-themed, I actually stopped along the way to get dinner before dessert. What a mistake that was. While they do have a variety of dessert options, their menu was surprisingly diverse, complete with an assortment of chicken, steak, and vegetarian entrees.
Of our small group, two of us had an appetite for something along the lines of dinner; here’s where we found out about an excellent round-the-clock student special. If you show your Stevens ID and order a large-size dinner crepe (~$9-10, depending on meat/vegetable), they provide a complimentary Nutella crepe for dessert! Learning about this, we were more than glad to get a couple of dinner crepes. Their dinner crepes are prepared in a somewhat unorthodox manner to what I was expecting; while the mind leaps to a plate with fork and knife, they actually come in a fashion more similar to a falafel sandwich – portable and easy to eat by hand. The crepe “crust” was crispy (another unexpected development) and firm, but still tasted light and flaky. I ordered the pesto chicken crepe, complete with (obviously) a healthy helping of pesto, grilled vegetables, and mozzarella cheese, finished off with fresh tomatoes and vegetables. The other dinner crepe, the Dy-No-Mite chicken crepe, had chicken and vegetables, but instead of pesto, had their signature “Dy-No-Mite” sauce, which has some kick but not so much as to overwhelm the crepe.
Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the dessert crepes. They have an assortment of crepes complete with all different chocolates, Nutellas, caramels, and fruits. While the menu up on the board above the cashier was plenty tempting, their specials behind the crepe grills (in open view of the diners, especially those who want to watch their meal being made) caught our eye most of all. The specialty dessert crepes have just as crispy of a crust as the entree crepes, but their chocolate drizzle relegates them to a plate, fork, and knife. First, The Brownie Crepe, which was prepared with brownie on the inside and a chocolate drizzle on top. It’s been some time since I had tried something so absolutely decadent; word to the wise, with its density and richness, it might be best to split among friends. The other dessert crepe the Nutella Batter Crepe, is made with Nutella mixed into the batter, then stuffed with strawberries and finished off with the typical chocolate drizzle. While I had already been spoiled by the brownie crepe, it was plenty sweet without being too heavy.
In the end, the crepes I had been expecting to receive finally came as the complimentary Nutella crepes mentioned earlier. While not close in complexity to the specialty crepes, they were a perfect finish to our meal, not too large of a portion or too heavy of an endeavor; just right as a pair to the entree. All in all, our meal was excellent, reasonably priced, and while a bit cramped with regard to space and available seating (during a busy time, it might be best to get an order to go), their selection blew me away and showed me that crepes in the conventional (if not stereotypical) sense have their place in the world, but are only one of Crepe Guru’s many, many tricks.
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