Fleur de Sel opens creperie in Spokane

The Champs-Élysées, it is not. But, for just over three months now, Spokane’s Grand Boulevard has been home to a little piece of Paris.

Nestled in the crook where Ninth Avenue meets the base of the boulevard, Fleur de Sel Artisan Creperie vends the ultimate French street food: sweet and savory crepes. Folded over an array of fillings, the thin and versatile, humble yet elegant French pancakes make for fast and filling breakfasts, lunches or snacks.

Look for a traditional ham-egg-cheese crepe along with influences from the American West. Columbia River salmon and Colorado bison fill a couple of the top-selling crepes.

Just don’t expect table linens.

“It’s more of a quick-serve type of restaurant,” said proprietor Patricia Zirotti, who owns the eatery with her husband, chef Laurent Zirotti. “We didn’t want to duplicate.”

Their latest establishment is a departure from its forerunner and namesake, Fleur de Sel, an upscale French restaurant in Post Falls with white tablecloths and classic cuisine. The cutlery at the creperie is compostable.

The fast-casual restaurant opened in November in a former pizza place next door to Press Public House. The Zirottis looked for a location for about a year and a half.

There’s a food renaissance taking place in Spokane, Laurent Zirotti said, and, “We want to be part of it.”

The Zirottis have owned Fleur de Sel since 2008. It seats 48. Reservations are recommended. “For a lot of people, it’s a special event,” Patricia Zirotti said.

At the creperie, it’s first-come, first-served. There are soft drinks, no alcohol, and seating for about 30 customers, who can build their own crepes or choose from a selection of combinations.

Originating in the regions of Normandy and Brittany, crepes evolved from the Neolithic practice of spreading thick cereal paste on hot stones. In northwest France, they’re made with buckwheat and called galettes, from the old French word for pebbles, and typically folded into squares or hexagons.

Fleur de Sel Artisan Creperie uses three kinds of batter. The “traditional” features both buckwheat and wheat flour. But, this hybrid approach isn’t the norm in France.

“Buckwheat is very strong,” Laurent Zirotti said. So he combines the flours to make the batter more pleasing to American palates.

For customers who want that buckwheat flavor, a gluten-free option is made with only buckwheat flour.

Garbanzo bean flour combined with olive oil and water makes socca, a gluten-free and vegan version from Nice, where the Zirottis met in 1983.

She was studying tourism. He was in culinary school. They’ve been together for 32 years, marrying after eight. They have two sons – Enzo, 24, and Lucas, 21 – who both live out of state.

“We still keep our culture, but we really feel we are part of this country,” said Laurent Zirotti, 51, who – along with his wife, 52 – are hoping to become U.S. citizens this year. “It is a big step.”

They arrived in Billings in 1998, spending 10 years there before moving to Idaho and opening Fleur de Sel in 2008.

“For us, it was exotic. It was the Wild West,” said Laurent Zirotti, who’s been spending his mornings at the creperie and his afternoons and evenings at the restaurant.

Watch him make crepes in the open kitchen atop a billig, or crepe griddle. “The way I cook has changed” since coming to America, he said. But, “I will always have the foundation, the technique.”

Eight people work at the creperie, managed by Harry Crase. “He was our No. 1 server in Post Falls,” Patricia Zirotti said.

The dining room is done in a mix of rustic, reclaimed wood and brightly colored metal chairs, which give the place a fun and lively feel.

Try the turkey-mushroom-truffle crepe, a twist on a dish Laurent Zirotti makes at Fleur de Sel in Post Falls. The fig jam on the Gorgonzola-ham crepe is house made.

The bison meatloaf crepe with horseradish is most popular, followed by the salmon with capers, dill, feta and arugula.

A couple of salads and a soup du jour round out the savory side of the menu.

A plain crepe costs a base price of $3.75. Adding on a choice of meat costs $3. Additional toppings – such as cheese, an egg, strawberries or banana – cost another dollar each.

For dessert, there’s the traditional sugar crepe with butter or lemon for $4 or strawberry jam for $4.95. The Nutella crepe is $4.50.

And, “Who does not like Nutella?” Laurent Zirotti asked.

“Personally,” Patricia Zirotti said, “I like the lemon curd and blueberry.”