The ribbon is cut by new restaurant Suzette French Creperie Owners Jean-Luc Wittner, his wife Evelyn Darling and Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra.
Reminder Publishing photo by Trent Levakis
NORTHAMPTON — Suzette French Creperie is the newest addition to Thornes Marketplace and celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Dec. 12.
The grand opening celebration featured comments by Owners Jean-Luc Wittner and his wife Evelyn Darling, Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra and members of the Thornes Marketplace leadership team.
Packed right outside the new creperie on the first floor of Thornes, suite 130, the French-born Wittner explained how his restaurant expanded to Northampton in what is now its second operation. The original Suzette French Creperie is located in Worchester.
“I’m going to try to do it short and tell you what the hell are we doing in Northampton. I come from France, then Boston, then Worcester, then Northampton. If I keep going, I’m gonna end up in California,” Wittner joked.
Wittner said they never envisioned opening up a second location as they were content with the Worchester operation until being approached about the open space by Thornes and seeing the potential opportunity in the location.
“Here we are super happy to be and make things happen,” Wittner said.
Darling added much appreciation to members of the Thornes Leadership team, the Chamber of Commerce and city employees for helping smoothly open the new restaurant only three months after signing for the space.
“We’re really pleased to be here in a place that seems to really want a small business and really wants to appreciate and support small business,” Darling said. “I also want to say thank you to the downtown Northampton Association and Chamber of Commerce. We are a very happy recipient of their new small business grant that helped us to really build this space out in a way that we feel is going to support this community best.”
Thornes Marketing Director Jody Doele said they were “super grateful and delighted” to be adding Suzette French Creperie to the Thornes Family. Mayor Sciarra said she had been hearing a lot of buzz from people in the city in anticipation of the new restaurant opening up.
“Once the word got out that you were coming here, there’s just been huge excitement and twittering about it all over the city so thank you so much for your investment in Northampton,” said Sciarra.
Executive Director of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce Vince Jackson had a warm welcome for the city’s latest addition.
“This marketplace is one of the most cherished destinations because it attracts residents and visitors alike. We are so grateful that you chose this location,” said Jackson.
