By Nia Mwangi, Staff Writer
Eight months after opening, the Early Light Creperie knew they needed to change locations. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 think it was gonna blow up as much as it did.鈥� Victoria Sobiech, co-owner of the Early Light Creperie, said. 鈥淭here was one Saturday where we sold out at 11 am. We close at 3 pm.鈥�
The Early Light Creperie is a locally owned brunch spot in Belton, open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Victoria and her mother, Alice Sobiech, opened the place in June 2023. They were inspired by a trip to France and watching a man eating a crepe.
A year after opening, the Sobiechs started to look around Belton for a new potential location. One contender was the building above Popcorn Friday on 213 E. Central Ave. The commercial leasing company was also leasing their current space, which would have made it much easier for them to change locations.
鈥�(The owners) thought they were going to go with that place.鈥� Victoria Sobiech said. 鈥淲e were there for a while, so they thought we were falling in love with the place and staying there hours on end. But really, we were just getting dinner.鈥�
They ended up not going with the space because it had no elevator, and a lot of their customers are families with strollers and other people who need an elevator. After viewing their current space at the end of December, Victoria decided to accept it. The Sobiechs decided to wait to move in until June of the next year, and it took three weeks for them to officially move in.
Their new location is 201 N East St Suite C, Belton, Texas. It is in the same complex of their old space, just in its own building. They opened in their new location on June 27.
Moving locations came with a lot of benefits for them. They used to only have a residential refrigerator, but were able to upgrade to a double door reach in cooler, an under counter cooler, and have both drink and wine coolers. They also have much more dry storage space, which has helped them significantly with how much food they can store at once.
Having space for more customers, they decided to increase their staff. Before, it was just Victoria and her mom. Now, they added five servers that are all family or family friends. When it comes to the menu, there were some small changes. They put some of their hidden menu items that were online on the permanent menu and added a Greek honey yogurt parfait for kids. They also traded having a loyalty card system to two randomly selected $50 gift cards every month.
鈥淚 thought we were gonna really miss that place, since my grandmother was a big component of it.鈥� Victoria said. 鈥淪he passed away this past November, so she never heard about this place. But we have her table, a poem she wrote, and her mixer here. So I鈥檓 very happy when I come in here every day.鈥�
