There are a growing number of businesses in Ditmas Park that sell multiple dissimilar things . There’s a bar/flowershop and now a new combination bar/guitar shop. Against all odds, the flowershop bar works great but the idea of drinking in a music store is a horrifying thought.  Most of my memories of guitar shops include assholes playing Alex LIfeson riffs and the like — but I guess I could see myself stopping in to buy strings or picks.  The latest dual-offering in Flatbush is Le Crepe Et La Vie, a combination creperie and thrift store.  Nothing precious or conceptual here, just an older guy who appears to be Greek with his wife running a small thrift store in the back.

I went there with my daughters a few days after they opened and the owner, Konstantino, let them try their hand at making crepes.  Although I promised him I wouldn’t tell anyone about it, the pictures are below.  Now he’s too damn busy to offer up such things.  We were just lucky — and because of his warmth and delicious fucking crepes I’ve been back several times since.

Konstantino is hilarious and always complains about how busy he is, with a proud smirk on his face.  I asked him, “You didn’t want to succeed?” I get the feeling he thought he was opening a business as a hobby as he nears retirement age — but now he’s completely overwhelmed because this hood really needed a place like this.