La Cote Creperie and Saley Crepes do the Parisian snack right

Remember that day in Paris? The sun was shining, beautiful people were smiling, the birds were singing with adorable French accents and every step you took on those cobblestone streets echoed with the je ne sais quoi that made you truly understand why the French invented the phrase joie de vivre.

Then, just when the day couldn't get any more perfect, you stopped and paid a street vendor a few francs for a crepe. A couple of ingredients enveloped in a hot little pancake melted in your mouth and sent you over the edge into a "kill me now!" moment of happiness that quite nearly made your head explode.

It goes without saying that you can't recreate Paris at home, but a paper-thin pancake with the right combination of two or three simple fillings? It shouldn't be that hard. Yet virtually every crepe I've encountered stateside has been overstuffed and overpriced. Now, though, I've found hope, because two Seattle creperies are finally doing it right.

Saley Crepes, on an obscure stretch of East Olive Way, just before the freeway on Capitol Hill, has been open for more than a year but has gone largely undiscovered. It isn't hip. Not sexy. It's definitely not romantic. But it's the closest thing you'll find to the French knock-'em-dead street food that won your heart in the first place.

Saley's proprietor and sole employee, a native of Niger by the name of Aissa Diouf, works two round iron grills, simultaneously turning out both sweet and savory crepes with classic combinations like sugar and cinnamon ($4) or Nutella and bananas ($4.75), as well as more unusual ones like smoked salmon, Swiss cheese, spinach and tomato ($6.25) or the crepe "dog" -- Polish sausage, mozzarella and onion ($5.75).

All savories are sauced up with Diouf's secret crème-fraiche blend. They come without ceremony on a wicker tray with a plastic fork. There are a few tables to sit at and a stack of newspapers in the corner, though many take their crepes and sandwiches (Diouf also makes 6-inch and 12-inch baguette subs) to go. They're light enough to eat two of, which you'll want to do, given the combo special that gets you one sweet and one savory for $7.99.

Crepes originated in the Brittany region of France, where the savory versions, technically called "galettes," are made with buckwheat rather than white flour and are more often eaten sitting down, off porcelain and maybe even atop white linen. This is the experience you'll get at La Cote Creperie, a tiny Madison Valley cafe (formerly Saint Germain) that reopened in January with a menu shift from sandwiches to crepes.

Like Diouf, owner Laurent Gabrel has done right by not fixing something that was never broken. Crepes like Le Fermier (chicken, mushrooms and crème fraiche; $11) and La Complete (eggs, ham, Emmental; $9) are substantial enough without gorging your belly or gouging your wallet. Sugar and lemon, caramelized apple or chestnut spread brings the well-established joys of traditional dessert crepes home to the land of freedom fries.

What really got me here, though, was the beverage of choice: hard cider, the traditional accompaniment to a typical Breton crepe meal. You can have a small bottle of the basic table cider, Cidre Bouche Dupont, for $8, or really go for it with Cidre Drouin de Poire, a large, indulgent bottle that tastes so perfect with the slightly sour tang of buckwheat that the $40 price tag is worth it.

It's hard to find crepes this way even in Paris, so if you don't have plans to visit Brittany anytime soon, at least make the trip to Madison Valley. Then watch your inner Francophile awaken.

Copyright © The Seattle Times Company