Griddle Me This

Clifton cafe carves out a niche for itself with crowd-sourced crepes

By Warren Rojas / Photography by Kate Bohler

It doesn’t take much of a “rush” to gum up the works at Clifton Café, a charmingly informal eatery typically overseen by two people and attended by perhaps double that.

But rather than get all huffy if/when the aspiring creperie does get backed up, its equally accommodating guests seem to take most everything in stride—embracing the unexpected downtime as an opportunity to chat among themselves, play blocks/board games with their curious young charges, eyeball the local artwork featured on the walls or simply thumb through the daily paper.

Café founder and Clifton native Erin Tengesdal earned her stripes in the hospitality field working as a trainer for a corporate restaurant group, but even then knew that she eventually wanted to branch out on her own.

She pounced on the opportunity to follow her dream after discovering that a shop owner—smack dab in the center of her hometown, no less—was ready to retire. Tengesdal took the leap into entrepreneurship in March 2009, starting with as a coffee spot—though she suspected that model would ultimately prove unsustainable.

“There weren’t enough people to just sell coffee too,” she suggests.

When her husband’s job summoned him to Paris in August 2009, Tengesdal seized the opportunity to sample every crepe she could get her hands on—“He went for work, and I went for market research,” she says—and returned more determined than ever to bring the fashionable flapjack into vogue in Fairfax County.

Tengesdal acquired her first Uniworld crepe griddle in November 2009 and added a second griddle just this past spring.

And while she’s just as likely to be the one prepping any order—for non-Clifton residents: Tengesdal will be the preternaturally perky brunette beaming smiles across the room at you as you enter the cozily arranged shop, her wavy brown hair swept up into a bun to keep it out of her eyes as she bounces between the coffee grinders (packed with specialty blends provided by Kansas-based PT’s Coffee Roasting Co.) to the twin crepe griddles and the cash register—Tengesdal has cross-trained her skeleton crew in the ways of expert crepe-making.

“Everyone is trained to make the batter, serve as a barista and make a crepe properly,” she says of the 30-hour training regiment all employees must undergo before they’re allowed to field customer requests.

In addition to producing said crepes in-house, the development process has been totally organic as well. Tengesdal estimates that she’s probably updated the menu four times in the past year, noting that the most successful specials—including flavor combinations cobbled together by herself, staff and/or creative regulars, and then publicly vetted during a two-week trial run—are routinely added to the crepe canon based on popular demand.

Core offerings include evergreen options like the Hungry Canadian (bacon, egg, cheddar), Sausage Supreme (egg, sausage, cheddar, onion, tomato), Denver (ham, onions, mushrooms, peppers, cheddar, tomato), Kosher (ham, cheddar; onions, tomatoes, peppers— optional), Alaskan (smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, tomatoes) and spicy chicken-guacamole (“It’s almost like a big burrito … wrapped in a crepe,” Tengesdal says of the south-of-the-border-style, personal favorite). The remaining carte is rounded out by approaching two dozen sweet and savory crepes predicated upon everything from the basics (Nutella, powdered sugar, maple syrup) to full-on gourmet fare (homemade ricotta-style cheeses, pesto aiolis and olive spreads), a handful of custom sandwiches, the aforementioned rotating specials and assorted pastries (supplied by neighboring Firehook Bakery).

Tengesdal suggests that the stuffed French toast has quickly developed a cult following, and I’m inclined to join the fold. The carefully folded crepe—its naturally fluffy dough stretched thin (but not taut) and neatly browned in several places—surrounds juicy strawberries swimming in a sea of sour-creamy homemade cheese invaded by streams of sprinkled cinnamon and maple syrup.

Staff must have let their imaginations run wild, been absolutely famished—or, quite conceivably, both—when they decided to heap grilled chicken, macaroni and cheese, and multiple slices of Canadian-style bacon into a heartier-than-thou crepe absolutely brimming with savory proteins and corkscrew noodles bound by sticky melted cheddar.

Creativity must have been in no short supply when the kitchen constructed an intercontinental arrangement featuring a crepe embedded with chicken, vegetables and cheese, all smothered with a mouthwatering ginger reduction. The well distributed bird, packed end-to-end within the crepe rather than being pooled in the center, combines with sautéed red peppers and spinach to form the savory heart of the dish, while the alluring ginger-onion sauce generously spooned over top seals each bite with a zesty-sweet kiss.

Sandwiches prove less creative, but not entirely unfulfilling.

Shaved turkey and a lone slice of Havarti (inherent creaminess stretches quite a long way) engage in culinary congress beneath the cover of multigrain wheat swabbed in basil-y pesto (good olive oil, fairly well Parmesan-ed, not much nuttiness though), plus lettuce and tomato. Top off with the corresponding toasted pita chips for auxiliary crunch.

Chevre, chicken and dates comingle tastily in another Mediterranean-style medley, the tangy-sweet and extra-chewy fruit well complemented by slices of ripe tomato that gush juice (and much-needed flavor) onto the bordering-on-dry chicken breast.

The more breakfast-y items, however, appear to be the key selling points.

Tengesdal estimates that 90 percent of her customers come in search of coffee and/or crepes. Java hounds certainly seem to abound during my morning visits, some settling in at the roughly half-dozen tables or sinking into the scattered sofas, their hands firmly clutching the still-steaming cups of fresh brewed coffee, while their on-the-run counterparts stroll in, order up—perhaps consider adding a Horizon organic milk or fruit-sprinkled muffin to their order to sate the little bundle of energy doing circle eights between their legs—and breeze out just as quickly as they arrived.

Might folks hang back a little while longer if she had more space?

Tengesdal would certainly love to find out. “There is space in the current building … [and] I am definitely looking to expand,” she states.

Clifton Cafe
7144 Main St., Clifton; 703-830-2424; www.cliftoncafe.com

Hours: Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.
Prices: Average entree: under $12 ($).

(January 2011)

Tags: Clifton Cafe, crepes, Erin Tengesdal, savory crepes, sweet crepes, Warren Rojas