The only creperie of its kind for miles, Streetside Creperie serves Conway a unique blend of French and American cuisine.
“Streetside was modeled after a true French-style creperie. If you were to go to France, creperies are pretty plentiful there. They are almost comparable to the amount of coffee shops we have here in Conway,” Streetside owner John Keith said. “There was an inspiration to bring that creperie experience back to Conway. I would say it has become more of a French and American fusion. It has definitely been Americanized a bit more these days, but there are still a lot of elements in our shop that are really true to the culture of French style creperies.”
John Keith and his wife, Jo Keith, have been the owners of Streetside Creperie in Conway since August 2020. They also own the T.H.I.N.K. Coffee business, which recently added a location on campus.
The Keiths brought T.H.I.N.K. coffee to Streetside, “We were able to make a more robust coffee offering, and so adding the two elements together definitely creates a unique experience when you can choose from a pretty robust coffee menu as well as get a true French crepe,” Keith said.
The most popular crepe is the Loaded Hash.
“It is one of those fusion-style crepes. The way we serve our crepes, the ingredients are sort of packed in, and the crepe is more or less a shell for those ingredients. [The Loaded Hash] has eggs, hash browns and your choice of cheese. You can also add bacon and ham. We also have a variety of hot sauces that we can put on it. It’s a pretty customizable, hearty breakfast,” Keith said.
Streetside has been a part of the Conway community since 2017. However, like many other businesses in the industry, COVID-19 threatened its success.
“The business was closed for a little while just because the pandemic was so crazy, and nobody knew what to expect. When we opened the doors back up, we received a warm welcome back from the community. Everyone really kind of flocked in to support the business,” Keith said.
The community that supports Streetside is made up of college students, Conway natives and travelers.
“There is a fair amount of the traffic that we get that comes from the colleges, but we are really supported by the Conway natives by and large. We also have a lot of people that come from out of town to visit us. At the end of the day, it’s our own natives that keep us going. They are tried and true and have supported us in some really big ways,” Keith said.
Streetside has five staff members. All of them are college students.
Keith describes the staff as a family.
“It is a tight-knit family. I think that’s very special about the place. It’s a small space and small crew, but everybody just pitches in, works hard and helps each other out quite a bit,” Keith said.
Streetside Creperie is located at 1321 Oak St. in Downtown Conway. It is open Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Come by and give us a shout. We’ll cook up a crepe for you,” Keith said.