Monsieur Crêpe

À cette heure

—:—

Sierra Madre time.

Aurélien — Tony to the regulars — grew up in Paris, where a café was not a destination but a fact of daily life: coffee at seven, a crêpe at noon, a glass of something at five. In 2013 he found Sierra Madre and stopped looking. "It reminds me of the south of France," he says. "The atmosphere is cozy. It feels like home."

He opened Monsieur Crêpe that October, in a small room on the boulevard, with a billig imported from Brittany and a buckwheat galette recipe four centuries old. Nearly everything is made from scratch: the caramel, the whipped cream, the quiches, the vinaigrettes, the bread pudding. The crêpes are folded the Breton way.

Every February the café keeps La Chandeleur — the winter feast day when, since the fifth century, the French eat crêpes for luck. A gold coin in the left hand, a pan in the right, and a good flip means a good year. It is the oldest reason to make the thinnest food.

The Los Angeles Times called it "a crêpe above." The PCC Courier called the hype "in-Crêpe-ible." The locals just call it theirs.

— Tony Mosconi, Sierra Madre, depuis 2013

Chef Guilbert Balmaceda.

Guilbert joined the café in 2015, cooking beside Tony on the boulevard. He stayed. In December 2022 — one month before the tenth anniversary — Xavier Sosa and Karla Zelaya bought the room, remodeled the kitchen, and kept Guilbert at the pan. That's three owners' worth of trust, one billig, and a menu that grows a little each year.

"Food is not a museum. It's an alive thing."

— Chef Guilbert

He cooks French with Italian in the margins — the ratatouille gets polenta smoothed with Greek yogurt; the beef bourguignon swaps bacon for pancetta so the smoke doesn't drown the wine. Once a week he drives to a San Pedro fishmonger he's worked with for a decade. Whatever is best in the crate becomes Friday's bouillabaisse: Venus clams, manila clams, mussels, crab claws. Saffron where it counts. Pernod in the escargot.

"Never cook with wine you wouldn't drink."

He knows the regulars by name and visits every table. It is a 750-square-foot room with not quite enough cold storage, and sometimes the quiche runs out — which is how fresh food works, and how it has always worked.

Les heures

When we're open

• Lundi — Jeudi 9 am – 2 pm
• Vendredi 9 am – 8 pm
• Samedi 8 am – 8 pm
• Dimanche 8 am – 2 pm

Dinner service Friday & Saturday only. Happy hour Friday & Saturday, 3 – 6 pm. Call us to confirm.

L'adresse

54 W. Sierra Madre Blvd
Sierra Madre, California