Coquette Creperie

The Coquette Creperie is a new family-owned restaurant in Manitou Springs that’s been open for about six weeks. Owners Michelle Marx, her daughter Turu Fleites, and Turu’s husband Hiram come from diverse backgrounds that they’ve utilized on the menu and in their store at 915 Manitou Avenue. They sat down with me on Wednesday morning to tell me how it all came together.

Have you ever owned a restaurant before?

Michelle: I come from a background that’s very large in entertainment and public relations. I was a director at A&M records, so I worked with a massive amount of bands: The Police, Herb Alpert, The Eagles. Then I started my own company and handled everybody from Laurence Fishburne, Paula Poundstone, to Richard Lewis. I even did the publicity for Robert De Niro. That was my L.A. life. My father also started a restaurant, JG Melon, in New York. So showbiz or restaurants was the whole setting of my life. Even my grandparents were in theater. So I knew how the restaurant business operated and was very comfortable in it.

Turu and I have talked about this (owning a restaurant) for over 10 years. We almost bought a restaurant in Los Angeles together, but this turned out to be a much better situation.

Turu: I remember being five and my grandmother and my mom were all talking about getting a little place in Tucson and making rice pudding. My grandma’s rice pudding is amazing. We were looking at spaces and it didn’t happen. I remember being crushed like it was the end of the world. From then on, I worked in restaurants. My first real job, I started going back east for summers and working at Melons. Did the bus girl thing, then I was promoted to hostess. The minute I could, I started working at restaurants in L.A. and eventually managed when I lived in San Francisco in my early twenties. I fell in love with the crepe concept. It was just the coolest thing. I had never realized you could do so much with the crepe. When I left, everywhere I’d go, I’d say, this would be a great place for a creperie.

When Hiram and I were living in London, we’d go over to Paris. I remember just watching them make them on the griddles. In San Francisco, we hadn’t seen anyone use griddles. When I was watching them in Paris on the streets, people would gather around and take pictures. It was such a cool show. Not only did I think it would really work as a food concept, I thought the show was really neat. We were initially thinking just little huts or a cart service. The minute we started really talking about it, we realized, like with everything we’ve done in our lives, it’s going to have to be spectacular. And from our perspective as musicians (Turu and Hiram are members of the band, The Human Value), we still get to kind of put on a show and wow people.  

Tell me a little about the menu.

Turu: Obviously, we named the place “creperie” so it’s the basis of what we’re doing here. But all the flavors and our travels and the things we’ve gotten to experience, we’re going to bring those here and have fun with food.

Michelle: We have an international background. It’s like a collision of cultures in the cities. That’s something I think we’re bringing into our food here, is that collision of culture.

Hiram: It’s a gastronomic collision.

Michelle: That would be a mess to clean up on the street (laughter).

Hiram: We take for granted everything that’s on that menu.

Turu: I’ve never seen anyone stare at a menu as long as they stare at ours. They always keep the menu on the table so they can continue to read it.

Michelle: Then there’s the gluten-free aspect. We started looking for flour so we could have one crepe that was gluten-free. We found something that just worked unbelievably well. So we used it for everything.

Turu: You don’t miss the gluten. It’s just a binder that doesn’t react well with a lot of people

Michelle: Turu’s also been making some great lavender-infused martinis and homemade teas.

Turu: When I got here in January, I did nothing but watch the Food Network and I got inspired. I thought of the idea of making simple syrups out of flowers. Or out of herbs or whatever I could get my hands on and just try them. The lavender was a no-brainer and my mom loved lavender.

Hiram: Me too. Make sure that’s in there.

Turu: Hiram sleeps with a lavender teddy bear (laughter). I just thought, oh, mint would work great. And then rose petals. So I’ve been experimenting with it.
Michelle: In the summer, we’re planning on terracing out the land behind us here and grow our own lavender, mint.

What crepes are standouts?

Turu: One of the more interesting is the Tokyo. It’s sesame-seared ahi tuna with a cream cheese wasabi inside.

Michelle: There’s the Bada Bing. Everybody loves that one. It’s got wonderful sausage that are also gluten-free with a homemade sauce that Turu designed.

Michelle: Some people look at the menu who aren’t used to international flavors, and they get nervous. And then they are thrilled. They start to step up to the plate, get brave and order something.

Turu: We’ve had a lot of crepe virgins in here. Once they have it, they say they never knew it could be this great.

Coquette Creperie
Where: 915 Manitou Ave.
When: M-F: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sat. 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sun. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.