Ketty Pichaud and her husband Yvonnick Le Lorec fell in love with Winnipeg when they first visited the city together ten years ago.
Back in their home of Brittany, France, the pair ran a successful café, but they couldn’t shake their yearning to return to Winnipeg.
“[We made the] decision to come back to Manitoba because we have some friends here, and we like the city, we like the atmosphere,” Ketty said. “We also think Winnipeggers are very open. They don’t really care about the original nationality of people. We thought it would be a good opportunity for our children and for a business.
They returned to Winnipeg permanently in 2018 with the idea for a crepe restaurant, something they noticed was virtually nonexistent in a city with such strong French roots.
“In every corner in Brittany you have a creperie,” Ketty said. “Everyone eats crepes in France—you can eat a savory, a sweet, or even just a plain crepe, and we wanted to recreate that atmosphere from back home.”
Ketty and Yvonnick first started Creperie Ker Breizh at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market.
“We wanted to test the population to see if the buckwheat flour would be a good fit with the people,” Ketty said.
Buckwheat flour crepes originated in the Brittany region of France and date back to the 13th century, so Ketty and Yvonnick wanted to honour the tradition of their homeland.
“We started [at the market] in November 2018 and we won a contest with [CDEM—the Economic Development Council for Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities] to open our kiosk on the Provencher Bridge,” Ketty said. “And so, we started like that, making more of a name out there.”
Ketty and Yvonnick took the creperie to the Downtown Winnipeg Farmers’ Market and the Alleyways Market in the Exchange District, and people slowly started catching on.
Soon, the duo began looking for a space to open a permanent restaurant. At first, their search was mostly in St. Boniface, but they eventually found their creperie’s new home in West Broadway, right on bustling Sherbrook Street.
“All the commercial buildings we’d seen weren’t up to code,” Ketty said of their storefront hunt. “A lot of renovations would have been needed before we could have opened. And then we got a call from our real estate agent about this place.”
The Sherbrook Street location was a brand-new concrete building—a blank slate for their imaginations to run wild, and their renovations to be minimal.
“We wanted to make a difference with the inside, because we know the concrete is very cold,” Ketty said. “So, we went with the wood for a warmer feel, and all the decorations and furniture came from France. We wanted something cozy.”
Once they secured the lease, they needed some funds to get the restaurant up and running.
“Since we are French and have only been here four years, the bank didn’t want to help us,” Ketty said. “So, if MWEC had not been there, we couldn’t actually have opened.”
Ketty and Yvonnick received financing through MWEC to open the creperie’s brick and mortar location in 2022, and have been slinging all kinds of crepes since, with Ketty at the helm of the menu.
“I am the pastry chef, and I have the eye for all the cooking and food styling ideas,” Ketty said. “We wanted to have a lot of choices, because we can do a lot of things with crepes!”
Creperie Ker Breizh offers appetizers, main course savoury “galette” crepes, dessert crepes, and other baked goods and pastries.
Creperie Ker Briezh also serves cider, which is a common pairing for crepes in France. Also common in France is taking a walk or a bike ride to get a coffee, pastry, or crepe with friends, which Ketty says is important to them as well.
“We want to get more bicycle racks on the street; bring people who are biking and walking,” Ketty said. “It should be an adventure to come here and back to your house, and we want to bring a more friendly atmosphere than just this busy road full of cars that gets you to Portage Avenue.”
Like Portage Avenue, the road to opening the creperie was anything but short. The doors officially opened on July 14, 2022, but Ketty had been busy running the Provencher Bridge kiosk for the summer, so when she finally saw the space, it wasn’t until it was nearly finished.
“I said, ‘oh my god, it’s so pretty!’ with all the decorations,” Ketty said. “It was like, wow, this is what we wanted, we have it now.”
Ketty loved the creative process of creating new dishes for the restaurant, a task she happily accepted while her husband – who was the driving force behind the renovations – dealt with the contractors and spearheaded the interior design work.
“I really love to present the plates of food to my husband and say ‘I want to make it look like this’ and make the plate very pretty” she said. “He presented me the restaurant, and I presented him the plates. It was a win-win.”
In addition to menu development, Ketty said working as a team with all the staff and serving happy customers are what gets her up in the morning.
“There are a lot of ups and downs, and we don’t always know what to expect,” she said. “But the customers are the only way to know if it’s what you want to do your whole life. When they see the dessert case and I see them smiling…this is a lot of work, and that’s validating.”
Ketty and Yvonnick have recently opened their Provencher Bridge kiosk for the summer season, so you can get your crepe fix there, at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market on Saturdays, and at their restaurant located at 110-276 Sherbrook Street Tuesday through Sunday.