A family with deep roots in the restaurant business is bringing French crêpes, café fare and a little Parisian charm to historic Kimmswick.
Frenchy’s Café & Crêperie opened earlier this year at 119 Market St., offering a menu featuring sweet and savory crêpes alongside French onion soup, artisan sandwiches, coffee drinks and signature mimosas.
The family-owned restaurant is the latest chapter in owner Gina Otto’s long relationship with food and hospitality. Otto grew up around her family’s original Frenchy’s restaurant in Herculaneum, Missouri, where she developed an early connection to the restaurant business. After a career in entertainment and event production, she returned to that foundation, this time drawing inspiration from one of her favorite foods: traditional French crêpes.
The result is a café designed to evoke the neighborhood spots Otto fell in love with in Paris, while still feeling at home in Kimmswick. The restaurant occupies a restored historic building in the heart of downtown, giving the family an opportunity to pair its hospitality-driven concept with the character of one of the region’s oldest river towns.
Much of the restaurant’s appeal is also found behind the counter. Guests can watch Otto and her son, Grant Otto, prepare crêpes to order, spinning the batter across the griddle before filling each one with sweet or savory ingredients.
Otto’s mother, Barb Boyer, is also part of the operation. A longtime caterer, Boyer helped develop the concept and brings decades of experience in the kitchen to Frenchy’s.
For Otto, that family involvement is central to what she wanted the restaurant to become. “We wanted to create a place where people could slow down and feel genuinely welcomed,” Otto said. “At Frenchy’s, our values are simple: warm hospitality, handcrafted food, quality ingredients and flavor worth coming back for.”
In addition to its regular dining room, Frenchy’s has a private event space in the attached Parlour Room, along with patio seating. The restaurant also hosts themed tasting events and may offer off-site catering in the future.
The combination of made-to-order food, family involvement and its location in historic downtown Kimmswick has quickly made Frenchy’s a stop for both residents and visitors exploring the river town.
Rather than simply recreating a French café, Otto said the goal is to bring the spirit of that experience to Kimmswick.
