Melange Creperie
"Buffalo Sean" Carroll of Melange Creperie carefully spreads the crepe batter along the burner, at the City Hall Farmer's Market, Wednesday, September 7, 2011, at City Hall in downtown Houston, Texas. (Todd Spoth for The Chronicle)
"Buffalo Sean" Carroll of Melange Creperie cracks the second of two eggs into the center of a crepe, at the City Hall Farmer's Market, Wednesday, September 7, 2011, at City Hall in downtown Houston, Texas. (Todd Spoth for The Chronicle)
"Buffalo Sean" Carroll of Melange Creperie spreads a chili paste over a finished crepe, at the City Hall Farmer's Market, Wednesday, September 7, 2011, at City Hall in downtown Houston, Texas. (Todd Spoth for The Chronicle)
Sean Carroll of Melange Creperie creates a banana and Nutella crepe at the new Farmers' Market in Hermann Square. Photo by R. Clayton McKee
The crepes at Melange Creperie includes toppings such as ripe bananas sliced and squiggled with a racy ribbon of homemade key-curd, perfumed with the citrus fruit's floral rind.
"Buffalo Sean" from Melange Creperie stays busy at his griddle at the City Hall Farmer's Market on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011, in Houston. ( Andrew Richardson / Houston Chronicle )
Making crepes at Melange Creperie-Right Bank.
Making crepes at Melange Creperie-Right Bank.
Melange Creperie-Right Bank, parked in front of Stella Sola in the Heights.
Making crepes at Melange Creperie-Right Bank.
Making crepes at Melange Creperie-Right Bank.
Making crepes at Melange Creperie.
Making crepes at Melange Creperie.
Making crepes at Melange Creperie.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
Buffalo Sean, left, prepares of the Melange Creperie booth prepares a crepe for customers at the Farmer's Market outside City Hall Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012, in Houston. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)
11/18/11: Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.Sean started his business in March 2010.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes. Seen here is Banana Nutella Crepes.
Sean Carroll with his Melange Creperie cart at 403 Westheimer in Houston Texas at the corner of Taft and Westheimer serves Ham,Egg and Cheese Crepes. Three of his other specialties are Ethiopian Wat Crepes, Hot Pepper, Jelly, Cream Cheese and Fried Wonton Crepes, and Banana Nutella Crepes.
12. Melange Creperie
There’s a lot to be said for focusing on one thing and doing it supremely well. Ask Sean Carroll, the personable ringmaster of the Melange Creperie cart that operates out of a parking lot on Westheimer and Taft most mornings, dispensing the best crepes Houston has ever tasted. It’s not just Carroll’s painstaking technique, ladling and raking the batter, scraping away the excess, flipping and browning the thinny-thin pancake until it’s brown and crisp and lacy at its delicate edges. It’s his ingenious fillings that elevate his work to a higher plane. Using local and seasonal ingredients (some from how own garden), plus ideas borrowed from Houston’s wild range of ethnic cuisines, he comes up with such notions as an Ethiopian Wat crepe, in which a richly caramelized mix of tomato and onion meets dusky-hot spices and a cool, finishing touch of queso fresco cut with buttermilk to mimic an Ethiopian cheese. Or a crepe of cream cheese and tingly six-pepper jelly with whispery leaves of fried wonton tucked inside. I wake up Wednesday, when the weekly specials change, wondering what surprises he’ll have in store. Has he made a lovely tart citrus curd? If so, I feel compelled to order it with the always-available fresh banana. (Yes, customizing is encouraged, part of the cart’s considerable charm). Carroll has opened a second cart that works the Heights in front of Stella Sola, and he’s always at the City Hall Farmers Market on Wednesdays at noon, but for the full effect, the Westheimer cart with Carroll presiding can’t be beat. There’s no seating, and it’s cash only, but for $5 to $7 a crepe, it’s a fabulous deal.
Cuisine: Crepes
Entree price range: $
Montrose: 403 Westheimer
Heights: 1001 Studewood St.
Web: twitter.com/melangecreperie
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