DINING: A crepe shoot at City Market

It took a while, but the tortilla and the pita are now fully entrenched in the Indy lunch pantheon. These days, you are as likely to see either of those on a downtown sandwich as you are to see sliced bread.
 

Sam Marshall, crepe artist, pours the batter and assembles two crepes. (IBJ Photos/ Perry Reichanadter)

The crepe, though, has yet to reach that level of market penetration. That could change if 3 Days in Paris (222 E. Market St., 674-5602) has anything to say about it. 3 Days is building a business on the notion that downtown lunchers should savor the occasional sandwich wrapped in a thin pancake.

The biggest downside of the crepe vs. those other ingredient-holders is its messiness. Sure, there are some crepe combos that make mobility easy—the BLT ($6) or the Classic ($5 featuring Nutella and banana) look like they’d hold together well. But many on the 3 Days in Paris menu are creatively sloppy. Take, for instance, the Apple Pie High ($5.50), in which caramel sauce lubricates the combo of apples, pecans and dried cranberries. Wrapped in a crepe, it’s a treat—but one in which napkins are de rigueur.
 

In the foreground is the Pic Nic crepe, which contains chicken, cheese, bacon and barbecue sauce. The Apple Pie High crepe, in back, features apples, pecans, dried cranberries and caramel sauce. (IBJ Photo/ Perry Reichanadter)

A bit more stable, at least on our lunchtime visit, was the Red Eggs & Bacon ($6), but we suspect that’s because the cook was using the last of a batch of Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. The hearty combination of egg, bacon, havarti cheese and spinach was plenty filling, but flavor-wise it needed a fuller squeeze of sauce. Best of our bunch was the Pic Nic ($6.50), in which chicken and a bit of bacon blended with red onion, cilantro and BBQ sauce. Imagine the topping of a good barbecue pizza—only with an outer layer of French flair.•

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Third in a month-long series of reviews of eateries in and around City Market.