This fast-casual chain wants to transport guests to a French-style bistro, “no passport needed.”

Outdoor seating is a must for Sweet Paris restaurants, driving home the bistro feel.For a pair of non-restaurateurs, Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café co-founders Ivan and Allison Chavez were probably as well positioned to start a successful restaurant chain as anyone. Prior to starting the fast-casual concept, Ivan worked in the hospitality sector, focusing on resort development. Allison, meanwhile, specialized in real estate finance. While they may not have had day-to-day operational expertise, they had a solid foundation to enter the restaurant space.

Starting Sweet Paris wasn’t purely a business decision for the couple, though. It was also something of a passion project, says Allison. Ivan studied abroad during his college years in — as if you couldn’t guess — Paris. That’s where he fell in love with crepes, specifically street-style crepes. “I truly believe he spent more time tasting crepes than in actual classes,” Allison says with a laugh.

Ivan never lost his love for crepes and passed it on to Allison. Years later, after they had married and settled in Allison’s hometown of Houston, they would seek out crepes but were never satisfied with what they found. “We looked for the best we could find and concluded we could make something so much better ourselves,” Allison says. “It really did start with a craving for crepes.”

Through that craving, the first Sweet Paris opened its doors in 2012.

While the name screams dessert crepes, Sweet Paris’ menu is much broader. Crepe offerings include savory entree-style crepes including a chicken carbonara, chicken enchilada, ham and gruyere and even a Philly cheesesteak. There are also breakfast crepes with fillings of all kinds, ranging from yogurt parfait-style to eggs with sausage, veggies and more.

In addition, the restaurant offers panini sandwiches, salads and breakfast items like waffles, eggs and omelets. The beverage menu includes espresso-based coffees, beer and cider, wine and champagne and mimosas served cold or frozen.

At the Crepe Stand, at the Cafe

With Sweet Paris, Allison and Ivan didn’t just want to offer delicious food and drink, but also a European experience that mixes street-style and bistro vibes. Walk into any of the chain’s 16-and-counting locations and the feeling comes through almost instantly.

On the hard-to-miss front, there’s the chain’s open kitchen. “We’re always trying to bring the element of the street-style crepe into the store. By design, from the beginning, we always had the crepe griddles up at the front. The customers, when they are waiting in line, can watch the crepes being made,” Allison says. “We’ve always had that, and it’s key to people feeling like they’re watching a person at a crepe stand make the crepes.”

Beyond the display kitchen, the design itself is very bistro. The space is light, airy and bright. Walls are finished with wood paneling, Venetian-style plaster and the chain’s signature color, an almost aqua tone dubbed “Sweet Paris Blue.” Mirrors cover other portions of the walls, adding to the open feeling of the restaurant.

Fitting for a France-inspired concept, Sweet Paris locations also have a number of elevated touches. These include tufted banquette seating, millwork shelving used for a small wine display and marble tabletops and countertops.

The lighting package includes ornate lantern-style fixtures attached to the walls and that hang from the ceiling. The most eye-catching pieces, though, reside above the center of the dining area. These combine a classic chandelier with a few surrounding metal rings, which add energy and a slightly modern touch to the space.

All Sweet Paris locations offer outdoor seating with a very French appearance. In locations where space allows, the patio includes umbrellas, along with small metal tables and bistro-style woven chairs with a diamond pattern.

The patio is also often home to the only intentionally Instagrammable moment: an ivy wall in a vibrant green with the chain’s name and whisk logo. Given how difficult it can be to keep outdoor greenery alive in the Texas heat, Allison notes, this wall is made of faux plants.

Many of these design elements have been part of Sweet Paris from the beginning, and the chain’s leaders have held onto them as it entered franchising.

For cost reasons, says Allison, “there’s always a little bit of pressure when you’re expanding your store account to engineer out a lot of the elements that were original to the concept. We have really resisted that. We continue to have our marble tables and millwork throughout the store.” She explains, “Those elements are really important to stay true to our concept. If the marble tables chip on the edge when they’re being moved to and fro, to me that is patina. I enjoy that. That builds character.”

These elevated design decisions are based on the idea of offering guests a genuine experience. This commitment goes beyond finishes and furnishings. The chain, for instance, doesn’t offer Wi-Fi. Instead of working (and, of course, occupying a table for possibly hours) Sweet Paris wants guests to focus on their experience in the restaurant.

“We really want people to sit and enjoy their coffee in a real cup and their food on a real plate. Between the music and the design and the whole experience, the way the crepes are plated and presented, we want them to have a true experience that is unique … but at an approachable price point,” says Allison.

Contributing to this experience is Sweet Paris’ service style. Guests stand in line to place their orders at the POS station and then take a seat. Orders are delivered by table runners, who are also equipped with tablets for adding new items to a customer’s order. This not only makes for a more pleasant experience, but it also encourages add-ons, Allison notes. “The tablets let guests order instead of having to go up and wait in a long line, which might seal the deal against getting that extra coffee or mimosa,” she says.

Tufted banquette seating, mirrored walls and signature color “Sweet Paris Blue” are key design elements.

Kitchen Showcase

The Sweet Paris experience, along with the food, resonated with customers instantly, says Allison. “The moment we opened we had a line out the door and almost down the block. It was incredible, but we designed the kitchen incorrectly for this level of volume. One of the first lessons we learned as restaurant owners and operators was about the kitchen. Within six months of opening our first store we had to do a little remodel to accommodate the volume we were very fortunate to experience,” she says.

This remodel gave Sweet Paris much of the kitchen design it has today. On the front section of the kitchen, where line cooks face guests, is the previously mentioned crepe station. This station consists of two crepe griddles along with a large well that holds crepe batter. In addition to making crepes, staff use the griddles to cook eggs and egg dishes for the breakfast menu.

Fillings for the crepe station are held in either a cold table for items like strawberries, cheese and produce, while a steam table holds hot toppings like refried beans and creamed spinach. Backup ingredients are held below the station in undercounter refrigerators. The station also has a custom-made catch pan, where team members can scrape tiny bits of broken off crepe and fillings. This keeps the open kitchen clean and presentable.

When a crepe is cooked, it then goes to the finishing station along the back wall. Here, staffers add powdered sugar, garnishes and the sauces that top crepes. During low-volume periods, the crepe cook finishes these items. During busier periods, a table runner will handle finishing the crepes.

Notably, in the original design, the finishing station was originally on the front-facing line next to the crepe station. While in theory this makes sense, in practice it created problems, says Allison. “That area tends to get messy. You have powdered sugar flying. You don’t want that floating into the area where people are walking by, so the garnishing happens on the back.”

In addition to the finishing station, the back wall holds a sandwich table and a panini press, along with waffle makers and a salad station for both entree and side salads.

Sweet Paris’ back of the house is relatively simple. Here staffers use worktables and smallwares to handle prep. Prep work includes shredding Gruyere, cutting and slicing produce, and making sauces in-store every day. There’s also a walk-in cooler and a healthy-sized dish area with a door-style machine. Since Sweet Paris restaurants use real plates, cups and flatware, the dish station is manned during most operational hours, Allison notes.

Throughout its expansion, the chain has kept higher-end design like marble tabletops with ornate bases.

Hub-and-Spoke Model

After opening and then quickly remodeling its first store in 2012, Sweet Paris launched its second company-owned location in 2015. In 2018, it began franchising. Initially, this growth focused on the Houston area, with franchisees filling in the suburbs in a hub-and-spoke manner. This helped build the chain’s brand in its home market while allowing the Chavezes to closely monitor its first franchise locations.

Since those initial openings, Sweet Paris has expanded to more Texas markets. It has also opened stores in Phoenix, Miami and Minneapolis-
St. Paul, along with two locations in Mexico. The company currently has 16 total locations, with another 57 in some stage of development.

With its initial franchisees, Sweet Paris looked for owner-operators, people who could truly commit themselves and their future to the brand. With larger growth aspirations, says Allison, Sweet Paris is now seeking to partner with more experienced franchise groups. Ideally, these groups will be experts in their own markets, those who understand not just how to run a restaurant but know just where a Sweet Paris location has the best chance to thrive.

Sweet Paris leaders still keep close tabs on its far-flung locations, of course. The company has access to cameras that let them keep an eye on each store and gets daily reports on sales and operations from its franchisees.

It also has hired mystery shoppers, who visit both corporate and franchise locations to report back on the food, service and overall experience of every location. This in-person feedback, after all, goes to the heart of Sweet Paris. Tracking this systemwide lets the company know it’s providing the type of holistic experience that is at the heart of the brand.

The chain, after all, isn’t built around just the food or the decor. It’s centered on giving guests the space to slow down and enjoy themselves, their food and their companions.

“That’s kind of what we strive to do, create this fully transformative experience,” Allison says. “We say ‘no passport needed,’ but between the smells, the music, the design and the visual of the food, we feel like you are being transported.”

At a Glance

Chain headquarters: Houston

Year founded: 2012

Key players: Allison Chavez and Ivan Chavez, co-founders

Signature menu items: Chicken carbonara crepe, Nutella crepe with strawberries and/or bananas, s’mores crepe

Number of units: 16

Unit size: 2,000 to 2,400 square feet 

FOH: 70% to 75% of total

BOH: 25% to 30% of total

Seats per unit: 65 seats inside, up to 30 outside

Total system sales: $24 million 

Average sales per unit: Approximately $2 million 

Check average: Approximately $25

Equipment package cost: $175,000 to $200,000