Taste the World in Fenton Village

OK folks, save the date -- Sunday May 15, 2011. During the afternoon of the 15th (2-5pm), I hope you can make time to join the event.

As you probably know, SS has been well behind the curve on the "Taste of..." events in the area. Well the times are changing. Thanks to some of our hard-charging neighbors next month we will have our own event. It won't be for all of SS, our geographic area is way too big, so the focus will be on our own little Fenton Village. Sweet!

If you don't know, FV is generally considered to be the area between Wayne Ave, Fenton, Burlington Ave (to the south) and Georgia Ave (to the north). All restaurants in this area were invited to participate in the event. And from the list of those that have accepted, there will be quite a variety of food to sample. Here are some you can expect to see:

Bombay Gaylord
Fenton Cafe (new kid on the block -- crepes!)
Jackies
Original Big Greek Cafe (and the copycat too)
Thai Derm (one of my faves)
Pacci's Pizzeria
Piratz Tavern
Vicino
Lotus Cafe (AKA Kim Than for you old timers)
Odalis Cafe (who are they??)
Society (not open yet in the old Nicaro spot, so we'll see what to expect from them)

Here's the deal, each restaurant is encouraged to offer several apps or small plates. Event attendees will be encouraged to move from restaurant to restaurant (a movable feast!). As encouragement, each participant will obtain a 'passport' to be stamped at each restaurant.

From what I can tell (but need to find out for sure), these small plates may run from free to $5 a pop. There will also be street vendors, a concert at the end and other non food-related businesses in the 'hood participating.

The event is sponsored by the SS Citizens Advisory Board and Downtown SS.

So let's hope for good weather and a good crowd to sample and support our local restaurateurs. I for one am looking forward to the event.

Fenton Cafe, aka crepe central

OK, Fenton Cafe (8311 Fenton St) is now open. And fair warning, if you are not a fan of crepes, stay away. Because all they do are crepes!

But if you do like crepes, please head over -- because they are good. If you are not familiar with crepes, they are very popular across the pond in France. It's essentially a very thin pancake made from wheat flour and it can be filled with either something savory or sweet. They have both of these types at Fenton Cafe.

Now another fair warning, they have just opened and are going through some growing pains. The service was quite slow this morning. Even though they opened at 8:00am, when we went a bit past 9:00am the crepe makers were still not warmed up. So we had to sit a bit until the crepe makers were ready to do.

And I'm not sure why, but even though they have 2 crepe makers, only one was used for our crepes. So my wife was served hers first and then they did mine. So she was already finished by the time mine arrived.

But I am happy to say both crepes were tasty. She had the ricotta and jam crepe for $4.95 and I tried a savory one -- cheese, avocado and tomato -- for $5.95. We were very happy with both of them and I will say mine was very filling. This could definitely do for a lunch. It was really too much for a weekday breakfast, but I did wolf it all down.

The crepes run in prices from just under $4 to $8.50, with most in the $5-$6 range. The savory crepes include chicken, turkey, cheese, ham, feta/spinach, eggplant/veggies, spinach, tuna and several combinations in between. There are 31 varieties of the sweet with several nutella choices, jam, lemon, maple syrup, and a few fruit types.

The cafe serves coffee, espresso, bottled water, soft drinks and Red Bull. If you want real milk/cream for your coffee you'll probably need to request it since the only stuff out is of the non-dairy variety.

There are 3 tables and 5 bar stools for eating in and it is a decent and cozy setting. We will definitely be back and since they're the only place that I know of in the 'hood doing crepes, I'm guessing as long as the service improves, they'll do OK.

I'll see you there!