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Date: 7/23/2015
WESTFIELD – Crepes Tea House, a West Springfield restaurant, has added a spot on wheels in Westfield. The restaurant’s food truck is now open at 55 Elm St.
Art Ribinskas, owner of Crepes Tea House, said that the food truck was opened as a chance for the restaurant to grow within the area.
“We’re trying to expand. We opened the food truck in Westfield to try and see how the area was going to treat us,” Ribinskas said.
Before setting up shop in Westfield, the food truck was located on Route 83 in Springfield. The site plagued the staff of Crepes Tea House with problems ranging from finding a power source for the truck and theft, even being robbed at gunpoint.
“Certain people from that neighborhood obviously liked us and wanted us to be there,” Ribinskas said. “In general, we had waitresses and people who were working there saying that they didn’t feel secure, even when we installed cameras. Obviously, the police were more on the watch, but still we had that unsecure, unpleasant experience.”
The combination of the decision to leave the Springfield location and officials from Westfield trying to get a Crepes Tea House presence in the city for a few years, according to Ribinskas, led the restaurant to the downtown district.
Tucked between buildings, the truck is set up with a short fence and shaded picnic tables to create a “cozy atmosphere” for patrons, Ribinskas said. Thus far, he said, they have only received positive feedback from the community and their customers.
“So far, it’s good, but there’s always room for improvement,” he said.
Though the agreement with the city only runs through the fall, Ribinskas said the weather would dictate when the Crepes Tea House food truck closes. Once the agreement is over, Ribinskas said the city has expressed interest in getting Crepes Tea House to stay in a more permanent location. It was something he said was worth looking into, though he would not disclose any future plans.
While the future of Crepes Tea House in Westfield has not been cast in stone, Ribinskas said they will be opening another location in Enfield, CT, in August. The lease is set for six months, allowing the restaurant to test the market before committing fully.
“We definitely want to expand … We want to see if the public is going to accept us,” he said. “We have a lot of customers from Connecticut, and we hope by opening a location in Enfield we’ll be meeting them halfway. We’re not hoping we lose customers here. That’s not the point. The point is that we are going to be more convenient for customers in Connecticut, and maybe we can get more customers from there.”
Crepes Tea House is located at 261 Union St. in West Springfield, 55 Elm St. in Westfield and will be opening at 90 Elm St. in Enfield. For more information, call 304-2052.