Like winning the lottery

Dell Kab is carving out a little slice of France in Green Bay’s Broadway District at the newly opened Crepe Bistro and Cafe.

“This is a French cuisine history — crepes both savory and sweet, Belgian waffles, paninis, gelato…” Kab said. “It has authentic recipes and we’re using imported ingredients… It’s the taste of Europe and the taste of France.”

But it’s not just the food that gives Kab’s customers an authentically French experience.

“That’s what we have as far as the theme, as well,” he said. “I want it to be laid back and have a casual kind of feel. It’s not fast food. It’s not a drive-thru. It’s when you go on a trip and you’re vacationing and there’s a different pace to that life… I wanted to recreate that here. This space and the food, I want it to be a very immersive type of experience where people just go into this different place that is in Green Bay, but it’s like traveling away from Green Bay as you are here.”

Kab’s passion for French food began long before he came to Green Bay.

“I’m originally from North Africa and I have family and friends in different parts of France…” he said. “My good friend that is in the south of France, he is in the bakery field — pastries, crepe shops and all that. That’s what he specializes in. Spending time with him, I knew that’s what I wanted to do… I’m very passionate about the food.”

It’s a passion Kab has been able to share with his son and, after leaving his corporate job, now with the community as well.

“I have an 11-year-old and he’s always had crepes for breakfast,” he said. “At one time, he thought every kid had crepes for breakfast and that was the norm… After my divorce, I went through this phase of focusing on my kid and I walked away from corporate life… I was watching random stuff, like most of us do… and I remember watching a French show about average people from different walks of life — like a lawyer that decided to become a butcher… or a mechanic that decided to move to a whole different continent and have a small shop by the beach and a lady that works in an office and decided to become a farmer — these random everyday people that wanted to do something different. And the crepes was something that was a good avenue for me.”

Kab said he hopes his story is inspiring to others, and especially to his son, in showing that it’s never too late to pursue your passion.

“That’s something I think a lot of people want, whatever our passions are,” he said. “I’m not into gardening, but I can imagine someone who loves gardening and it’d be fantastic if they end up doing something in that field… When you’re young (I’m in my 50s), you want a job because you have responsibilities and you have to find a job, and those jobs are based on skill sets and hard work and all those things… But it’s never too late to have a job where you can lean on something that you’re passionate about. This serves as an example that somebody can start in their 50s… I want my kid to see that it’s possible to say, ‘Okay, I want to do something that I enjoy and that it’s passionate about,’ and if it’s not the first job, then it could be the second.”

After a trip to southern France to visit his friend and learn all about how a crepe shop operates, Kab decided to try his hand at opening his very own crepe shop here in Green Bay and has already seen positive results.

“What you see around [the shop] is a mixture of the travels and experiences that I have and what I want to share with people,” he said. “I opened for the public during the Run for the Roses event and it was interesting. I had a good amount of people walk through the doors and it was incredible. Everybody was telling stories about, ‘Hey, I went to Paris,’ or ‘Look at my pictures…’ People are already connecting around those ideas that they’ve been there or they want to go there. There’s all this space being filled with those conversations. I thought it was pretty cool and that tells me I’m on the right track.”

Crepe Bistro and Cafe celebrated its official opening with a ribbon cutting last week, and while Kab said he wouldn’t go so far as to call the business a success yet, he’s thrilled with what he’s been able to create in the space.

“It’s not a success yet,” he said. “We’re not saying this empire is built, nor am I looking to be building an empire… I just want good food, a laid-back atmosphere and good music on the patio. To me, that’s like winning the lottery.”

Learn more about Crepe Bistro and Cafe at crepebistrocafe.com.