Crepe expectations: espresso and expression at Chez Elle

• Sami Dowd
• Chez Elle will become a new forum for public readings every second Saturday.

Jennifer Leigh Coates is a professional writer, a copywriter at Sandweiss Koster Inc., with interests in poetry, short fiction – and crepes. Crepes? One afternoon, at Chez Elle, the Crossroads creperie at 1713 Summit, Coates was having lunch in the cozy dining room and started, by chance, a conversation with the restaurant’s owner, Ellen Trakas: “I told her the space could be ideal for a poetry reading and then the ideas just started flowing.”

The result was an agreement to launch a new literary event in the restaurant, Second Saturdays at Chez Elle. The first program will be held this Saturday, June 9. The dining room will be open from 6 to 9 p.m., and three featured speakers – Mel Neet, Vi Tran and Tom Ryan – will read from their own works for 12 to 15 minutes each.

“After that,” Coates says, “the microphone is open to other writers who bring their own work. They are each allowed five minutes each to read.”