G Taste Crepe Cafe opens in Huntington

A trio of Georgian nationals is making beautiful crepes  in a quaint shopping nook in downtown Huntington. Folded into triangles or rolled up like big blintzes, they arrive brimming with cream cheese, squiggles of sriracha and scatters of colorful fruit and herbs. 

The festive works of art could be ripped from the pages of a modern cookbook, but the French-style crepes are prepared in a humble way. In a small but elegant room, Khatia Shubitidze stands behind a glass counter and sears the sugarless dough on a hot crepe stone. Leaving out the sugar allows G Taste Crepe Café to serve both sweet and savory crepes. When the batter turns into soft springy sheets, she assembles the crepes on a tiny counter next to the cash register.

Shubitidze pumps dollops of pastry cream from a piping bag and taps canisters of cocoa powder and matcha green tea as brothers Luka and Levan Gotsiridze watch. The two came up with the business idea while attending Hofstra University where they studied marketing and entrepreneurship. One of Levan's assignments was to start a business, so the two began selling crepes at the idea hub inside the university. They were so popular they opened their first storefront this March, and recruited Shubitidze from Georgia to man the kitchen. 

Crepes are a popular food in Georgian cuisine, which is becoming more prominent in New York due to its khachapuri cheese boats and meaty soup dumplings you sprinkle with pepper and eat upside down. One of the savory crepes draws from a traditional Georgian dish called shkmeruli, typically made with chicken that's roasted in a rich garlic milk sauce and served in an earthenware dish called a ketsi. Here the chicken is cubed and cooked on a pan before it's tucked into the crepe, and finished with a garlic cream sauce and rips of fresh tarragon.

 But the sweet crepes shine much brighter than the savories. The mixed berry ($12.50) looks like a yule log cake with its snowy cap of powdered sugar. A heavenly berry jam plays against the sweet cream cheese filling, adding tartness and a lush purple color to the bundle. And the tiramisu crepe ($11.50), thought up by Luka and executed by Shubitidze, is playful with its dollops of boozy cream and soaked ladyfingers. He says they're the only restaurant he's ever seen that serves a tiramisu crepe. But the idea is so effortlessly delicious, you have to think it'll catch on. 

G Taste Crepe Café, 308 New York Ave., Huntington. It's open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday; 631-430-7557, gtastecrepes.com

By Andi Berlin

andi.berlin@newsday.comAndiBerlin

Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.