This Tiny Shop Makes the Most Amazing Vegan (and Gluten-Free!) Crêpes

When it comes to breakfast, pancakes and waffles have always dominated the scene. They’re simple, you can order them at any diner, and you can buy them in the frozen aisle at your grocery store. But crêpes, on the other hand, are fancy and French; you imagine yourself eating them in a cozy bistro in Paris.

If you live in New York, however, there is one crêperie in Brooklyn that serves a variety of savory and sweet crêpes. The shop is called Little Choc Apothecary, and we are swooning over their gorgeous, innovative dishes. Not only is Little Choc New York’s first 100 percent vegan crêperie, but they are also gluten-free.

This Breakfast crêpe by Little Choc has tofu scramble, spinach, cuke, homemade coconut bacon, and a creamy helping of cashew cheese.

Owner Julia Kravets completed the Plant Based Nutrition Certificate program at eCornell. She then went on to take every dessert making class at the Natural Gourmet Institute in NYC.

“I stand by the idea that you should be the change you want to see in the world. I strongly believe that a mostly plant-based lifestyle will help solve a lot of health, environmental, and ethical problems we encounter in the U.S., and increasingly around the world. I hope to set an example for future entrepreneurs, and let them know that plant-based industry is where they want to invest their resources,” Kravets told One Green Planet.

One Green Planet’s co-founder, Preeta Sinha, agrees. “I’m inspired and encouraged by the new generation of small businesses that reflect a commitment to an underlying ethical mission,” Sinha says. “Having a strong sense of purpose is great for business.”

This Room For Mushroom crêpe, which is stuffed with herb-roasted mushrooms, spinach, walnuts, and tahini basil sauce, is comforting and delicious!

Crêpes, which are very thin, cooked pancakes, are traditionally made using eggs, milk, flour, and butter. Given that many people are lactose intolerant, Little Choc’s plant-based crêpes are a delightful and tasty alternative to the traditional option.

“Generally, carnivores are very judgemental of vegan and gluten-free crêpes before they actually try them,” Kravets told One Green Planet. “Once they have a bite, they are hooked. It’s hard to get around people’s preconceptions, so you just have to feed them before they realize it doesn’t have any dairy or eggs.”

In fact, Little Choc is extremely allergy-friendly!

“We recently went 100 percent gluten-free, and replaced our Khail Seitan crêpe with Jacked Up, which is smoky pulled jackfruit, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, kale, and homemade BBQ sauce,” says Kravetz. “It is absolutely amazing, and I’ve had it every day last week.”

Eating vegan doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality or taste. Little Choc’s Pizza crêpe, for example, is totally gluten-free and stuffed with flavorful homemade marinara sauce, cashew cheese, fresh basil, and chili pepper flakes.

If you’re not feeling one of the savory crêpes (although we don’t know how anybody could pass up their famed Burrito crêpe, which is made with avocado, coconut bacon, black beans, homemade chipotle sauce, and more of their homemade cashew cheese), Little Choc also serves a variety of açai bowls.

“We added acai bowls to the menu a few months after opening, because we were getting a lot of requests from our customers, for whom superfood-rich acai bowls made sense with the rest of our healthy menu,” Kravets explained to us in an e-mail.

The Bright Eyes açai bowl by Little Choc is filling and nutritious. Made with açai, blueberries, cherries, bananas, dates, lemon juice, maca, chia seeds, Anita’s yogurt, and homemade buckwheat granola, the bowl is bursting with antioxidants, omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, and lots of love.

“My favorite story is about one of our regulars,” says Kravets. “The first time he came in was just for coffee. He was so pissed that we didn’t have any whole milk to add to his coffee, that he stormed out. For some reason, he returned a few days later, got a coffee and a crêpe, and fell in love! Now he comes back a few times a week to try different things on the menu, and brings his small kids over the weekend.”

Make Your Own Vegan Crêpes!

If you wanted to take a page out of Little Choc’s book and start experimenting with plant-based treats, or even recreate some dishes inspired by their menu on your own, you could always make your own Vegan Cheesy Mushroom crêpes at home, or experiment further with Protein Packed Hemp crêpes or even these gluten-free Grilled Tempeh and Mushroom Crêpes.

You also can’t go wrong with the traditional sweet crêpe route. We were inspired by Little Choc’s inventive recipes, and suggest trying to make these vegan Matcha crêpes. They feature the superfood Matcha to help you relax.

Looking for more amazing vegan crêpe recipes? Then we highly suggest you check out the Food Monster App. For those who don’t know, it’s a brilliant Food app available for both Android and iPhone, and you can follow it on Instagram and Facebook. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to cut out or reduce allergens like meat, dairy, soy, gluten, eggs, grains, and more. Find more than 8000+ awesome recipes, cooking tips, articles, product recommendations and how-tos. The app shows you how having food preferences can be full of delicious abundance rather than restrictions! Check it out.

Lead image source: Little Choc Apothecary/Facebook