Crepe Myrtle Cafe closed its doors March 11, and Tiger Dining might be giving them a new home on campus.
“With Crepe Myrtle Cafe moving, there was this great opportunity to fill the void,” said Glenn Loughridge, director of Tiger Dining. “We knew this was a favorite of students. That’s always a great starting place. If we know students already like something that’s an easy decision.”
Crepe Myrtle Cafe owner King Braswell is in the final stages of confirming his new food truck business with Tiger Dining.
The Crepe Myrtle truck plans to serve a menu that will include breakfast crepes, weekdays from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. in various spots around campus.
The plan is for the truck to rotate around campus just like the other food trucks. The rotating locations
Students will be able to find food trucks in all of the same locations as previous semesters as well as two new food truck spots on the Mell Concourse this fall.
“We felt like the best answer was to put them on that concourse so that students can access them easily," Loughridge said. "That’s the most important thing. We want to be respectful of the library, and at the same time, we want to serve students well.”
Loughridge wants to add more variety to campus food options to give students as many options as possible so they are sure to find something they like.
Braswell approached Loughridge with the idea of a Crepe Myrtle Cafe food truck and it seemed like a perfect fit to Loughridge's variety plan, he said.
“Crepes are something we don’t do on campus,” Loughridge said. “It doesn’t make sense to do a food truck where you can walk in a building and get the same thing. We want to have variety, something new and different.”
The truck is still under construction but Braswell and Loughridge hope to have it up and running on the first day of classes for the fall semester.
Braswell is hard at work to design a truck that provides the same experience to students that the restaurant at 1192 S. Donahue Drive did.
“I know we will be able to have the same atmosphere because it’s going to be created with the same love that I created the other with,” Braswell said. “I know that what we do is we provide an experience for people that lasts a long time.”
Braswell plans to bring as much of the same menu from the restaurant to the truck. He wants to feature as many of his crowd favorite crepes as he can.
“We’re going to have a chicken salad crepe,” Braswell said. “We have the Mexican crepe. We’re having our breakfast crepes as well.”
There will also be one rotating spot on the menu that will feature a popular crepe from the original menu that didn’t make the cut to be a full-time menu item for the truck.
There is a lot of prep work and ingredients involved in many of Braswell’s crepe creations.
“When you craft crepes, it’s a
That’s why the truck’s menu will be smaller than the menu the restaurant had. Braswell wants to truck to be able to accommodate students’ busy schedules so the truck has to be able to get orders out fast.
The rotating menu spot
But the menu isn’t the only thing students may recognize, many of the staff that will work on the truck worked in the restaurant on Donahue Drive.
“Our staff that will be on the truck, servicing the students are heartfelt people that love to serve,” Braswell said. “I think people will experience a really welcoming experience when they purchase crepes from us.”
Braswell still plans to re-open Crepe Myrtle Cafe in a permanent location on the corner of East Glenn Avenue and East Samford Avenue near the Church of the Highlands.
He is hoping to open his new location by the end of the year. He has already re-opened Blooming Colors, the plant nursery that was located on the same property as Crepe Myrtle Cafe, near the intersection of Society Hill Road and Moores Mill Road in Auburn.
In the meantime, Braswell is pouring his heart and soul into creating a one-of-a-kind food truck that will bring back fond memories of the old Crepe Myrtle Cafe.
“It’s a special bond, somehow, when families come there [to Crepe Myrtle Cafe] all together to celebrate,” Braswell said. “We want to provide an atmosphere that will be memorable to everyone that comes to dine with us.”
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