Today we’d like to introduce you to Denise Mehl.
Hi Denise, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The Crêpe Factory opened in 2016 after renovating a well-known and loved building in downtown Spartanburg. Initially, I had a business partner, and we started the business together. After a few years, she retired to spend more time with her family, and I continued to run the business by myself. In 2021, I relocated the business to another well-known building in downtown Inman. While we were confined to a smaller, open kitchen at our first location, the new building allowed us to design a commercial kitchen to help expand our menu. We offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner and execute three menus each week with a very small and extremely hardworking staff.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As any small business owner can attest, the past few years have been difficult. Mandatory Covid closures, supply chain shortages, inflation, rising food costs, and labor issues hit our industry hard. We continue to battle some of these still today. When the building was renovated, we constantly faced setbacks due to Covid and escalating costs for supplies and materials. We opened our doors three months later than initially projected and completed some final touches ourselves.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a neighborhood bistro, we serve sweet and savory crêpes, salads, soups, sandwiches, and weekly chef’s specials. While crêpes are the main focus of our menu, one of the best-selling items from both restaurant locations has been our Brussels sprouts hash browns. They feature flavors from white truffle oil, fresh rosemary, and blueberries that achieve a delicious balance. Our creamy stone ground grits are also a customer favorite and are often the focus of restaurant reviews. We offer a full bar along with wine and beer selections. Embracing our home in Inman, the crêpes on the menu are named after streets in downtown, and black and white photos of different Inman landmarks adorn our walls. On the exterior walls of our building are two public art displays. One of the murals depicts the history of Inman, our building, and the restaurant. The second mural portrays a classic street in France, with a boulangerie, café, and crêperie. Our mascot is Rooney, my two-year-old double doodle (a mix of Labradoodle and Golden Doodle.) Rooney’s image appears in our logo and he is our official “spokesdog.”
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about? What is surprising that most people who know you or your work/brand might not know about you?
While I worked in restaurants during high school and college, my background is not originally in the hospitality industry. Upon graduation from college as an Education major, I started my twenty-six-year academic career teaching a special needs class at an inner city school in Trenton, NJ. After 15 years, I shifted from classroom teaching to becoming a school librarian. My first job as a librarian was to build a library media center from the ground up. The media center was necessary for a national accreditation conducted three months later. We had to have more than 10,000 volumes electronically cataloged and shelved to meet their criteria. It was a daunting task because the only holdings we had at the time were several boxes of donated books and an outdated encyclopedia set. I’m proud to say we passed! Today, my career as a librarian is evident in the book area for our youngest restaurant patrons. Reflecting on my past experiences, I realize that establishing the library helped prepare me for some of the challenges I’d face in opening and running a restaurant. Both require adhering to a strict budget, remaining organized and attentive to detail, and being prepared to adjust when issues arise.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.thecrepefactorysc.com/
- Instagram: @thecrepefactoryinman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecrepefactoryinman
