It’s Crêpes and Community at Delphine’s Kitchen in Beverly

There’s a new arrival on Cabot Street in Beverly: a portal to France marked with a blue and white striped awning.  Delphine’s Kitchen is a crêperie, bakery, and restaurant, but above all else, it’s whatever you need it to be.

Owner Delphine Minogue describes her menu as “eclectic,” ranging from traditional crêpes to sandwiches, salads, desserts, and weekly dinner specials.

Customers have the choice of sweet or savory crêpes, each with a variety of filling options.  Minogue explained the simplicity of a French crêpe: that it traditionally contains just three fillings and is meant to be eaten with a fork and knife.

Desserts are the star of the display case: colorful fresh berry tarts, apple custard tarts, carrot cake slices, and more. Choux are light, round pastry puffs, sometimes filled with vanilla cream and sometimes savory, like last week’s lobster choux special.  Baked goods are Minogue’s favorite items to make.

“If I could bake all day, I would,” she said. “I really enjoy that.”

The take-home dinner special for this past week was crab cakes, and the week before that featured ravioli with a mushroom sauce.  The restaurant makes a different frittata each day and also offers a traditional Quiche Lorraine.  On the sweeter side, customers can enjoy breakfast breads and pastries.

The menu also features gluten-free and dairy-free options, such as the specialty chocolate fondant cake, and any crêpe can be ordered gluten-free by substituting oat flour or buckwheat flour.

Minogue’s passion for cuisine is evident in desserts and savory items alike, all striking a delightfully perfect combination of ingredients.

As a child growing up in southern France, Minogue dreamed of someday opening a restaurant. She began cooking out of boredom while her mother was at work, and the hobby grew from making meals for her family to attending a culinary vocational high school, then continuing to culinary school after graduation. 

The restaurant’s decor is rich with details that pay homage to Minogue’s roots. She was raised in Le Grau-du-Roi, a small town on the Mediterranean coast in the Camargue region of France.  Elements of her heritage adorn the space.  Above the dessert display case hangs a Camargue cross: a traditional emblem of the region composed of an anchor, a cross, and a heart.  The walls are painted in a traditional provencal blue.  On them hang black-and-white photos of Minogue’s family in France and childhood photos of Minogue herself.  Near the back of the restaurant, visitors are encouraged to place a metallic pin on a world map on the wall to indicate where they are from. Minogue’s own pin sparkles on France’s southernmost edge.

After attending culinary school in France, Minogue moved to the United States as an au pair to improve her English.  She met her husband, Rob Minogue, and the couple has lived in Beverly for 17 years with their children, Nola and Solenn.  For many of those years, Minogue ran a French catering business, Finou’s Cuisine, on the North Shore.

It’s May 20, 2022 when Minogue cuts the ribbon in front of Delphine’s Kitchen, surrounded by her family, friends, and employees, all of whom seem as close as family.  The community clustered on the sidewalk: people who first came to know Minogue through catering, who enjoyed her food at family functions or parties through the years.

Minogue’s food continues to bring people together.  Every Friday and Saturday evening, locals gather to enjoy live music.

“It’s a very family-oriented atmosphere here,” Minogue said.  Of her team, she added, “We know about each other’s lives. If they’re down, we lift them up. This is what it is about.”

At a cozy table in the corner of the creperie, Minogue’s daughter Nola, my friend since we were four years old, tells me that Gina Ferace, the warm, friendly staff member who took my order, is practically a second mother to her.  That, it seems, is the spirit of Delphine’s Kitchen: a genuine friendliness that makes the crêperie feel like home away from home.

I have childhood memories of sitting at the Minogues’ kitchen table as Delphine prepared trays of appetizers for her catering business in the next room.  She always invited the neighborhood kids inside to share a treat.  I remember being one set of hands around a traditional galette des rois on King’s Day, all of us kids fingers-deep in layers of pastry, searching for the ring Minogue had baked inside.

I imagine much of the community has similar memories of the ways Minogue has touched their lives through kindness and delicious food.

“I’m happy about the community greeting me with so much kindness,” Minogue said. “I felt very welcomed to the neighborhood by Beverly and by people that come from all around the North Shore to see us.”

She said the North Shore is home to a larger French community than she realized.

“They’ve been coming to the restaurant,” Minogue said, “and they feel like they are in Europe.”