My Biz: Crepes De Luxe offers several sweet, savory options

IOWA CITY - Hicham Chehouani never thought he one day would own a creperie in downtown Iowa City.

Hoping to land a gig in modeling or acting, he first traveled to California, Chicago and Wisconsin. He ended up in Iowa City, whipping up crepes at a food cart on the Ped Mall.

Chehouani now provides Moroccan and French flavors to customers at his restaurant Crepes de Luxe, tucked into a building along College Street.

The restaurant, which opened in 2009, offers 15 sweet and 11 savory options, as well as one special that changes throughout the year.

'In the beginning it was my crowd, my customers from the (Ped Mall),” he said. 'It grew big time from the first year to the second year to the third year.”

Chehouani grew up eating crepes and the menu reflects that. One crepe includes an orange liqueur popular in Europe. But Chehouani also uses ingredients from local farmers market and other local vendors.

'A lot of customers, especially in Iowa ... they know their food,” Chehouani said. 'When you give them something good, that's what they expect next time, or better.”

Chehouani constantly updates the menu, hours, and atmosphere at the restaurant.

'When I studied my business at the beginning, I was looking for something unique,” he said, adding he believes people tire of having the same options.

'Everybody wants to open the same thing. I would love to see different cultures (that are) more unique,” Chehouani said. 'Definitely I will welcome more international food ... something from Asia, somewhere in Africa, (just) different cultures and different international food.”

Most of Chehouani's employees are not from the United States. His wife, who also works in the restaurant, is from Morocco; another employee is from Sudan, and one is French-German. Another employee is American but studied in France.

'If you open something like this and you grow up in a French family ... you attract a lot of French speakers,” Chehouani said, adding the hiring of international employees wasn't intentional.

He said he would love to open another location, but that's hard and requires a lot of time and money.

'The small place is good and bad in some ways,” Chehouani said. The restaurant can accommodate only about 35 people, limiting what it can offer in terms of hosting events.

'I'd love to open a big restaurant but everything is super expensive,” he said.

Montasir Mohamed, who originally is from Sudan and works alongside Chehouani making crepes, said he also hopes to see the business expand.

'That would help to keep things interesting,” he said. 'The ultimate thing I want to see for this place is more business or maybe expanding things on the back end so we can serve larger crowds.”