Check out this airy cafe in Sumner for crepes and coffee

Sumner’s Main Street supports a plethora of small businesses, including other cafes. Craft 19 fits that sweet spot when you don’t want a sit-down restaurant, but you don’t want a muffin; when you want something savory, but you don’t want a sandwich.

With floor-to-ceiling windows, a cool cement floor, light wood tables and neutral accents, the space is infinitely airy. Better yet, the cafe currently is playing host to Woodland Park Greenhouse, a pop-up plant shop, so you can choose a little houseplant and cool ceramic pot to bring the experience home.

Waldo Dagan, a family doctor, set out in 2015 to create a community cafe, but one that somehow stood out. He visited coffee shops up and down Interstate 5, noting subtle differences. A single one served crêpes, and — “mesmerized” by the performance of it, the batter swirled just so with a specific wooden T-shaped tool — he knew they would become central to the Craft 19 concept.

The batter — flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt — is made daily. The young baristas behind the counter are also the cooks, and I say it’s a fine skill to learn. (Dagan prides himself in training not just in food-service but team and leadership building, asking his staff, “What experience will you take with you?”) The crêpe I enjoyed was slightly thicker than a traditional French street version would be, but it held up to the pesto, ricotta and cherry tomatoes within. It was topped with a side salad’s worth of spinach, which nearly blew away as I sipped a decent cortado in the cafe’s city-provided parklet.

One of the most popular choices, according to Dagan, is the Lumberjack, filled with hashbrowns, sausage and cheddar cheese — a kind of breakfast burrito in crêpe form. Due to the nature of the cafe kitchen, I would stick with the above Spinach Pesto on the savory side, but on the sweet, any choice will do.

Nothing beats the Nutella-banana combo, but the French frequently just add powdered sugar and butter, here referred to as Traditional served with maple syrup or jam.

On a weekday around lunchtime, two sets of friends were catching up, three generations of women waited for a takeout order, and another took advantage of the parklet. I appreciated that my dish was served on a real plate — I am tired of non-recyclable to-go boxes — but my cortado was in a disposable cup.

The cafe opened with Dillano’s beans, but it recently introduced its own single-origin roasts, produced at the shared Roasterworks facility a few miles north in Auburn and available in bags here.

My wish for Craft 19’s next five years: Develop a true Breton galette with buckwheat flour, an irreplaceable flavor that when matched with ham, gruyère and a runny egg, defines itself as complète.

And my wish for us all: Please don’t pronounce crêpe as “crape.”

▪ Value: fair — $20, including tip, for specialty coffee drink and crêpe I couldn’t finish in one sitting.

▪ Quality: fair — Freshly-made batter and carefully assembled, but I wished for creamier ricotta and more poignant pesto.

▪ Service: Warm and friendly, with food and drink kindly delivered to my table outside.

▪ Atmosphere: Pleasant for lone riders, dates and families alike, with extra tables across the hallway plus sidewalk seating to catch that Sumner scene.

▪ Returnability: There are only so many crêperies. I would consider for a quick lunch with a friend, or en route to the mountain.

CRAFT 19 ESPRESSO + CREPERIE

▪ 1201 Main St., Sumner, 253-447-7957, craft19coffee.com

▪ Daily 8 a.m.-3 p.m. (until 4 p.m. Saturday)

This story was originally published June 13, 2021 at 5:00 AM.