Clarke Central High School students hold their crepes at the Annual Food Truck Fair at the Jittery Joe’s Roaster. Holy Crepe has been serving the Athens community since 2015 and provides a variety of options. “We make sweet and savory crepes,” Holy Crepe founder and owner Saphir Grici said. “It is very traditional from France. We do it with organic things. You can feed it with whatever you want but because the truck is a small space, we have to keep it simple.” Photo by Olivia Ripps
In the spring of 2015, Saphir Grici started the Holy Crepe food truck in hopes of providing Athens with a unique food option and changing the culture of food trucks in the community. Since opening, the business has undergone tremendous changes.
Saphir Grici, founder of the Holy Crepe food truck, grew up in France eating crepes. When it was time for college, Grici traveled to the U.S., where he discovered food trucks.
“During my period in France, I had a lot of opportunities to come to the United States, because I met a lot of American friends that I made,” Grici said. “I was traveling and I visited one of my friends in California. It was the first time I saw this kind of revival of the food truck. I thought, ‘Wow, if I need to do something else with my life, I will do that.’”
After discovering his interest in the food truck business, Grici’s dreams took shape as he began to perfect the art of crepe making in France.
“The great thing about Athens is even though it’s a small town, because of the university and everything here, we have some many cultural opportunities and so many people that choose to make Athens home that make it diverse,” director of Athens Downtown Development Pamela Thompson said.
“I specialized in sweet and savory crepes,” Grici said. “When I started this project, I said I needed to go there (school) to learn, because I wanted to bring good quality crepes–not just crepes, but really good crepes.”
While in Paris, Grici met Clarke Central High School graduate Kate Marsden. The two later got married and decided to settle in Athens, where Grici would pursue the idea of a food truck.
“Crepes are something that (is) still popular in France, where people, as a snack, are walking down the street and can eat a crepe from any place, and that is something Saphir thought would do well here to help encourage street food culture in Athens,” Marsden said.
(Right) Holy Crepe owner and founder Saphir Grici serves crepes in front of Athens Running Company. Grici recently started serving crepes weekly in this location. “Independent Baking Company and Athens Running Company, they let me use the space,” Grici said. “It was very, very nice of them and it was very important for me to try to have a little bit of visibility in this part of town that we can’t really access.” Photo by Natalie Ripps
In late April, Director of Athens Downtown Development Pamela Thompson was working with Grici to establish a permanent food truck location.
While Thompson believed Grici’s hopes were very risky because the food truck scene in Athens was small at the time, Thompson saw a window of opportunity for food trucks.
“The great thing about Athens is even though it’s a small town, because of the university and everything here, we have some many cultural opportunities and so many people that choose to make Athens home that make it diverse,” director of Athens Downtown Development Pamela Thompson said.
Marsden and Grici partnered with Mike Van Hassel, a long-time friend and owner of Fulfillment Merch. Van Hassel assisted in the creation of the truck.
“When (Grici) came to visit, Saphir and I became instant friends. After (Marsden and Grici) were married and moved here permanently, Saphir decided to embark on the journey of opening a food truck,” Van Hassel said. “We had many discussions about concept, the name, opening a business in Athens, etc. Through those conversations we entertained the idea of my investing and becoming a partner.”
With the help of Van Hassel, the Holy Crepe food truck officially opened and began serving at special events around Athens and Atlanta in April of 2015. These events typically required two to four staffers in the truck.
“During this time we did specific events at non profit events and farmers markets. The regulations in Athens were very complicated, so you can not do everything so easily,” Grici said. “We had between two and four people we need to serve.”
After years of serving at special events, Grici became interested in expanding the business to more than a food truck and farmers markets.
“(In the past year) we have started to do more catering without the truck. The truck is now one of five catering services and more and more people are calling us and contacting us not because of the truck, but because of the crepes and the brand,” Grici said. “Now, we are become more of a classic catering company and the goal is still the same.”
(Left) Holy Crepe owner and founder Saphir Grici stands in the Holy Crepe Food Truck. Grici took a risk in 2015 and started the truck in hopes of changing the food truck culture in the Athens community. “What I wanted to do is for people to think about Holy Crepe is that it is possible,” Grici said. “It is possible to start a food truck in Athens, and it is possible to change the rules. It is possible to create something and to leave from it. As long as you have the determination, patience, and you believe you can do it, no matter the obstacles, you can do it.” Photo by Sophie Fernandes
In addition to expanding the services Holy Crepe offers, Saphir has also expanded his staff.
“I am a cook at White Tiger, the restaurant, and the owner of the restaurant knows Saphir. When I first started working at White Tiger, he had told me about Saphir because I am very interested in French as a language and I studied it,” Holy Crepe cook Rick Adle said. “I told Saphir that I cook at White Tiger and all that and he immediately said he was looking for more help and everything so I took him up on the offer.”
Due to the increase in catering, serving and staff, Saphir is ready to take the next steps for his business.
“(Right now we are building) a smaller food trailer,” Grici said. “(It is going to be) 12 feet. We have more people asking us for food at the same time, so this will help to make it possible to go in different places, but also, it is going to be an opportunity for us to go to Atlanta.”
For the Holy Crepe team, potential expansion is on the horizon.
“I am very progressive and open-minded, but I truly believe there is nothing more powerful than the word of mouth,” Grici said. “You know, we are in this time where everyone is with their Facebook likes. We do not want likes though, we want love. To have love and to have time, it takes love and it just takes time to love with the customers.”
“We are trying more and more to get into catering so people are having us come to specific events to serve and people are prepaid,” Adle said. “Saphir has talked to me multiple times about how he wants to hopefully have a very small restaurant. I think that is his overall goal of the business– to have kind of a widespread number of restaurants and more of a takeout kind of thing. I think that would work well with crepes.”
While there are large hopes for the business, the staff of the Holy Crepe food truck plan to continue spreading the word about their business and showing the Athens community their support.
“I am very progressive and open-minded, but I truly believe there is nothing more powerful than the word of mouth,” Grici said. “You know, we are in this time where everyone is with their Facebook likes. We do not want likes though, we want love. To have love and to have time, it takes love and it just takes time to love with the customers.”
