Turning Japanese

Love Via Crepes fills its crepes with love (and wasabi mayo).

COOKIES AND CREPES: Oreo-topped sweetness.

Crepes are not something one associates with Japan, but, as a placard on the wall at Love Via Crepes compendiously informs us, it is a street food that traveled the oceans a century back. And like most things co-opted by the Japanese, it came back cute as the dickens—their statement of purpose proclaims them not only a tasty treat but "a symbol of one's love for another" and invites customers to "share a love-filled crepe." This last phrase, somehow, is not creepily suspicious but charming.

The crepes themselves are delicately thin, and more firm than eggy; the dessert and to-go orders come folded into a bright pink paper cone that can be conveniently peeled back as you eat. The entire tiny bistro, as it goes, is every bit as pinkwashed as a Susan G. Komen fundraiser.

A number of savory crepes are on offer with mushroom sauce, teriyaki or a variety of mayos, but the texture of the crepes lends itself much better to the sweet offerings—a round reversal of my usual crepe predilections. The natural chewiness of a nonetheless well-spiced Korean-style bulgogi beef cone ($5.95) made it difficult to eat on the run; a spicy salmon eaten in-house ($5.95) fared much better—it came in a folded square unlikely in its precision, and yielded easily to the fork—but tasted a bit canned. The ham and eggs ($5.95), though, were great, and lent a needed softness to the affair.

But the real show-stoppers are the overstuffed sweet crepes ($5.45), with a scoop of Tillamook ice cream nestled amid your choice of Nutella, Reese's peanut butter, almonds, anko, custard, Oreo, fresh fruit or lord knows what else: It is a cornucopian vision of sweetness that surprisingly never cloys. If it is love, it is the love felt in curious childhood, when everything is new.

  1. Order this: Green tea ice cream and strawberries (who knew?) are wonderful together. So get the Harajuku Sweet ($5.45) with green tea.
  2. Best deal: Free! Mondays and Wednesdays or at the owner’s friendly volition, each order nets you a token for a little machine-poured cup of hyperactively sweet-sour citron tea, milk coffee, or—my favorite—a sweet-bitter Job’s Tears tea.
  3. I’ll pass: Just don’t get the spicy tuna or spicy salmon with wasabi mayo; regular mayo will do, and your sinuses will thank you by functioning. 

EAT: Love Via Crepes, 1019 SW 23rd Ave., 688-5570, loveviacrepes.com. 11 am–9 pm Monday-Saturday. $.

WWeek 2015

Matthew Korfhage

Matthew Korfhage has lived in St. Louis, Chicago, Munich and Bordeaux, but comes from Portland, where he makes guides to the city and writes about food, booze and books. He likes the Oxford comma but can't use it in the newspaper.

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