Glorious Gluten Free Crepes at Marche in Lewiston, ME

I never really knew much about crepes, the very thin French-derived pancake that can embrace any number of savory or sweet fillings, until Andrew introduced me to them.  The word crepe comes from a Latin word that means "to curl," which is quite fitting.  Crepes remind me of the Italian manicotti or canneloni, but are far more light and refreshing.  Andrew's been working on a gluten-free recipe involving various ratios of almond milk, buckwheat flour, millet flour and eggs.  When we heard that a hip new restaurant, Marche, specialized not only in crepes but also gluten free crepes, we knew that making the journey up to Lewiston was a must, for the sake of both research and appetite fulfillment.

Nestled in the downtown area of Lewiston, when you walk into Marche you are greeted by a different feel than you receive from the surrounding area -- trendy, lively, and vibrant, the decor of Marche was fun and hip.  You're given the option to eat at a lovely community table or smaller more intimate tables.  The community table reminded me of an Italian restaurant my family used to frequent a lot in Providence called Angelo's, which had huge marble community tables that encouraged diners to make friends with the other guests.

The menu offered a lot of other options besides crepes -- sandwiches for the gluten-eating folks, and some tempting salads.  I had a hard time deciding if I wanted a small crepe order, a cup of soup (when we went the soup of the day was gazpacho!), and one of their salads, but I figured since I was there for the crepes I'd go large on my order and still get the soup.  It was hard to pass up the selection of wine -- they had one of our favorites, Avalon, but knew that it might be trouble for driving back if we had some.

The gazpacho was excellent -- a bit thicker than the traditional gazpacho that I've had in Spain, but I appreciated its heartiness -- I wanted something to fill me up, and it made a great accompaniment to my Robust Vegetable crepe.  Both Andrew and I were surprised that the crepes didn't come with the vegetables already tucked into the crepe, but we didn't mind in the least once we took our first bite.  The sautéed mushrooms, cherry tomato confit, and spinach were perfectly cooked, not too greasy.  Now, the important part -- the crepes.  Light as a feather and darn tasty, chef Molly Basile personally made our crepes with buckwheat flour, adapting her recipe from a Julia Child cookbook.  We noticed that they had more eggs in them than we use in our recipe at home, and when we talked to her after our meal, she also told us that she used more milk.  Every bite filled our mouths with delight.  We were pretty quiet as we ate together, savoring the meal.  My gazpacho served as a good dipping sauce for my crepes, although I'm sure that's not how things were intended to go.

Andrew let the carnivore in him come out with his order of Rotisserie chicken, balsamic, spinach,  tomato confit, fresh mozzarella on his crepes.  He let me try a bit of the mozzarella with the tomato confit, and it was an instant taste of summery perfection.

We really liked the product philosophy that they printed on their menus:  they use the freshest quality ingredients, sourcing locally whenever possible.  You can taste when things are local and homemade -- it does matter and make a difference!

So, since then our mornings have been filled with crepe experimentation.  When we get it down, I'll definitely share the recipe here.  For now, we'll dream of Molly's fresh and savory crepes, and let them be our inspiration.