NORTHAMPTON — Jean-Luc Wittner had a good career in France, working high-paying corporate jobs such as a sales representative for a large wine purchasing company. But he also felt deeply unfulfilled.

“I made money, more money than I do now, but I was unhappy,” Wittner said. “When I came to the U.S., I knew I wanted to deal with my passion for food and baking.”

Wittner, originally from Strasbourg in the Alsace region of France, moved to the United States in 2011, settling in Massachusetts. Wanting to ingratiate himself into his new country’s culinary and restaurant industries, he took a variety of different jobs such as working in banquet halls and coffee shops.

“Americans eat differently from the French, they eat all the time,” Wittner said. “You don’t realize that it takes a little bit of time to cook. If it didn’t take time, they would do it themselves. So they’re always in a rush, and that’s why I came to crêpes.”

Crêpes are thin, delicate pancakes made by cooking a thin layer of batter over a griddle, and combine the best of both worlds of American and French cuisines. It’s rich in flavor and a signature dish in France’s proud culinary culture, but it’s fast to make and easy to serve to people on the go, appealing to American consumers.

Such a model also works well for Wittner, who said he never had much interest in making “pretentious” high-end French cuisine. “What I wanted to bring is what we eat every day in France,” he said.

Wittner, along with his wife Evelyn Darling, opened his first cafe, Suzette Crêperie & Cafe, in Worcester in 2020 and continues to see success there. The Worcester location attracted the owners of Thornes Marketplace in Northampton, who asked Wittner if he wanted to expand to a small vacant space inside the Main Street shopping venue.

Wittner was skeptical at first.

“After the first 10 minutes of the commute, I’m thinking I’m never gonna do this,” he said.

But after seeing the location in Northampton’s downtown, surrounded by individually owned small businesses, he felt that not taking over the space would leave him with regrets.

The new shop, called Suzette French Crêperie, had its grand opening in the marketplace earlier this month. Unlike the Worcester location, which has seating and a beer and wine license, the Suzette crêperie inside Thornes has a “hole in the wall” feel, with just enough space for a counter and small kitchen to hold and prepare ingredients. The new space is more lunch counter than Parisian cafe, hence the change of name from the Worcester location.

The crêpe menu is divided into two kinds of crêpes: sweet and savory. The sweet crêpes are typical dessert items, such as Nutella, s’mores and an “Elvis” crêpe featuring bananas and peanut butter. The savory crêpes are more hardy lunch options, such as ham and cheese crêpe or a crêpe with chicken and mushrooms that was a signature dish of Wittner’s grandmother (the menu refers to it simply as “My Grandmother’s Favorite”). Wittner says the crêperie is just like any found in France, though he’s also adjusted to offer gluten-free batter to be more accommodating.

“Allergies are as American as apple pie,” Wittner said. “I never met anybody allergic in France. And when I came here, everybody has an allergy.”

Crêpes aren’t the only thing you can find at Suzette. The shop has a small fridge that offers packaged, pre-made French dishes such as beef bourguignon and lamb ragoût. And on the counter is a small display case featuring a selection of macaron desserts, which Wittner takes pride in being identical to macarons found in France.

“Macarons are difficult to make, difficult to get correct. I’d say 90% of them in the U.S. are basically bad. I would not even put the word ‘macaron’ on it,” Wittner said. “The best comment I get about my macrons is people who say ‘I thought I didn’t like macarons.’”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.