PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles creperie on Lincoln Street and Railroad Avenue has changed hands at least three times over the past few years. It’s changed names, too, rebranding from “LaBelle Creperie” to “Pink Pony Cafe.”

But the current owners have a surprise in store for LaBelle’s regulars who may be mourning the changes. Even though the name, the branding and the vibes have been renovated, the owners have reclaimed one component that made the original LaBelle such a success: the crepe recipe.

The Pink Pony Cafe batter that is swirled into thin, sweet crepes is from a 100-year-old recipe, owner Shay Christensen said. The recipe is the same one that the original creperie owner, Rochelle Hoffman, used when she owned the place.

That recipe, which Hoffman said she grew up eating, is from her paternal grandmother.

“Most people grew up on pancakes,” Hoffman said. “My mom made crepes.”

LaBelle Creperie first got started in the early 2010s, when Hoffman decided she was tired of working for other restaurants. Because she’s half-French, she decided to open a creperie.

She named the place “LaBelle Creperie,” which she said means “the beautiful creperie” in French.

Hoffman decided to serve her family’s crepe recipe, without any modifications.

“It took off,” she said. “People loved it.”

Hoffman operated the business for almost 10 years until COVID hit.

At that point, Hoffman said the struggle to get employees, the heightened regulations and the upset tourists took the joy out of her work, and she decided to sell.

When she sold the business, the owner kept the name the same. But even though Hoffman gave the owners a little black book containing the crepe recipe, she said the new manager wanted to do her own thing.

“She winged it,” Hoffman said. “You can’t just wing a crepe … it’s an art.”

Over the next few years, the business changed hands again, although it remained LaBelle Creperie. Then, Hoffman said, “next thing I know, it said on the front of the building, ‘the Pink Pony [Cafe].’”

During the business’ multiple transfers, the crepe recipe appeared to be lost to time. That is, until Christensen was cleaning the place and found the recipe book shoved in a box. She immediately decided to use it for her venture.

In the year that the Pink Pony Cafe has been open, Christensen said “people still come in asking for Rochelle.” Although she’s never met Hoffman, she’s happy she can tell people the crepe recipe survived.

Hoffman said she’s glad they’re using the recipe, “because it worked.”

When Christensen bought the place with her partner and her partner’s mother, she said she wasn’t sure if they would keep the name LaBelle or rebrand. The landlord, however, encouraged them to change things.

“That opened up so many doors of possibility,” Christensen said.

The name Pink Pony Cafe was inspired by a variety of things.

One was the song “Pink Pony Club” by pop artist Chappell Roan. When the song first came out in 2020, Christensen said it struck a lot of emotions for her. The song touches on themes of people searching for “something bigger, and better and more loving for them,” Christensen said, and that’s something with which she resonated.

Thematic elements also were inspired by her great grandmother, who loved music boxes and rainbow chasers.

“A lot of it is to touch that inner child and that wonder we all still have,” she added.

Christensen said there’s not one single thing that defines the cafe’s theme, however.

“Is it My Little Pony? Is it Chappell? Is it a music box?” Christensen said. “I don’t know — let’s find out today.”

In addition to crepes, Pink Pony Cafe sells coffee, croissants, house-made cookies and more, sourced from local ingredients when they can.

The coffee’s simple syrups are made from cardamom, real vanilla beans and lavender from Rain Shadow Lavender Farm. The coffee is from Rainshadow Coffee Roasting Company.

When the owner heard the cafe wanted to use his coffee exclusively, Christensen said he calibrated the espresso machine to perfectly match his roast.

“It’s such a great coffee,” Christensen said. “It’s a bold, biting coffee, and it pairs well with syrups.”

Christensen said she chose it because that’s the coffee she drinks at home.

“If it gives me the warm fuzzies, it’s bound to give someone else the warm fuzzies,” she said.

Part of the ethos of the Pink Pony Cafe is to “play into the wonder of things,” Christensen said. “There are a lot of big scaries out there, but there’s a lot of love and joy and excitement, and that can be found in its simplest form of food and drink.”

When Hoffman first established a creperie on the waterfront, she said she dreamed it would be passed down to her kids and grandkids. Now that that’s not on the table, she said she hopes the new owners will “love it as much as I did.”

“It really was a piece of my heart,” she said. “I hope that they put their heart into it as much as I did, and don’t give up.”

________

Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.