Meet Arthur SIMONIAN

We had the good fortune of connecting with Arthur SIMONIAN and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Arthur, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I always wanted to be my own Boss doing something I love and that is also close to my French culture. I loved cooking since I am a kid, so I decided to open an authentic French crepe catering business in LA.
I grew up eating crepes at least once a week in Paris, especially when I was a student.
I decided to bring those flavors I was used to in this amazing city of Angels.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Crepe a la French started with an idea: bring French flavors to LA by offering the best savory and sweet crepes! I was not in the food industry before. I used to work in Finance for 10 years alternating corporate finance and financial markets.
I have a Master Degree in Finance and a Bachelor in Economics. I also speak fluently 5 languages.
I left the world of Finance by taking cooking classes and specializing myself in the flour.
When I started my business in 2018, there was not too many crepe catering companies in the market.
The idea was to offer the best customer service with the best quality crepes made by a real French Chef!
My experience in the world of finance in the stock market broker as equity derivative broker or project manager in corporate finance helped me starting this business from scratch. Speaking 5 different languages is also a great advantage to build a very strong customer relationship. People usually appreciate when you speak or do business in their own language.
Was it easy? Not at all! It was extremely tough! I had to work 4 different jobs and more than 100 hours per week during the first 2 years to be able to survive in a city where the cost of life is very high.
The most difficult were the first 2 years where I was breaking even business wise.
I never quitted and always had the belief that I will succeed!
The 3rd year, everything started to change where I had so many requests, calls and emails that I had to leave all my side jobs and focus 100% on Crepe a la French.
I am very proud of what we were able to achieve in the last 6 years since I opened Crepe a la French with almost 10 employees now serving the whole State of California.
I am also very proud of the big portfolio of customers especially corporate, schools and celebrities that we have.
Those are very tough markets to obtain but when you get there, people talk and recognize the quality of service they are getting along with the quality of crepes.
That is the main reason why we only have 5 star reviews on yelp and google!
Our crepes are very different form the others. We offer savory and sweet crepes always made with love and passion!
On the sweet side, we have the classic crepes with Nutella and fruits but we also offer the Crepe Suzette that we call the Frenchy, a PB&J Crepe, a Biscoff spread crepe, a Ferrero Rocher crepe or even a 24K Crepe with edible gold leaves.
On the savory side, we are the only one in the market to offer Black Truffle crepes which everyone is craving for after trying for the first time! We also offer Black Caviar crepes which are delicious. We also have the Crepperoni which is a pizza crepe with our secret home made tomato sauce! We also have our classic crepes with ham, turkey, veggies and special sauces directly imported form Europe.
All our savory and sweet are very unique, authentic never copied form anywhere else and designed by yours truly Chef Arthur!
I always try to add new crepes in our menu to offer a very large palette of choices to my lovely customers and returning customers so that every time, they have something new to try! This is how we are very different from the others by always improving, adding some changes while keeping the quality of our crepes and service.
We are also the only crepe catering company able to cater for very large amount of people. We serve from 10 to 2000 people events with more than 300 events per year!
You overcome the challenges by working even harder! You never quit and always believe that you are going to succeed no matter what! Hard work always pays! I don’t know s single hard working human being that did not succeed in life.
I want everyone to know that everything is possible! I started Crepe a la French with nothing and today, we are almost fully booked till mid next year 2025! Today Crepe a la French is the best crepe catering company in LA for its savory or sweet crepes and for its customer service! Don’t trust our words but the reviews of the people who enjoyed our services and the list of corporations, schools and celebrities that would not have trusted us with their business if we were not the Best!
Just believe in your dreams, never quit and one day, it will happen.
Have faith in your strength, your ideas and mainly in yourself!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
As you can tell, I am a foodie! I love exploring new restaurants from different cultures! We would probably go to Koreatown and get some amazing Korean BBQ which is my favorite food by the way! One of my Favorite spot is Quarters Korean BBQ in LA!
We would go to Grand central Market and try each vendors specialty.
I also love Italian, Japanese and Vegan food! There are so many of them in LA but if were to go, I would go to L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Hollywood, Here Fishy Fishy in Koreatown or Gokoku Vegetarian Ramen Shop in Studio City!
I also love street food that you can find everywhere in LA, especially for a good al pastor or asada taco with their yummy salsa verde and roja!
We would obviously go Universal Studios enjoy the rides get a butter bear from Harry Potter and a gigantic pink donut form The Simpsons!
I also love to hang out at Farmers Market especially the one at the Grove!
We would also certainly go the beach. Manhattan, Hermosa or Laguna beach are my favorite one!
Los Angeles is an amazing city but I also love to travel to the cities around like Santa Barbara, Solvang, San Diego or Palm Spring.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The food industry is a very tough business. Most of the time, only 1 out of 10 succeed. The main reason of my success is perseverance, love and passion in what I do and also excellent customer service with high quality crepes.
I started alone and not many people thought that I would be able to bring Crepe a la French to the level of number 1 Crepe catering ranked by Yelp and Google in LA for private, corporate or school events! We are also the number 1 Crepe Catering for Celebrities in LA!
Obviously, my Wife has always been the main support from Day 1. I would not have been able to achieve anything without her.

Website: https://crepealafrench.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crepealafrench/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crepe-a-la-french-sherman-oaks?osq=crepe+a+la+french 

Image Credits
Hanna Photography LA NK VISUALS Chasing Pleasures Kimberly Photography Mike Akopian Production