Behind the Counter: Eve Kennedy at Sofi's Crepes

Eve Kennedy, of , recently chatted with Patch about why she likes working at the Valley Village restaurant.

Patch: What do you like about the Owings Mills area? Where are you from originally?

Kennedy: I grew up in Cleveland, OH, but I’ve been here since college. I live in Westminster, but my family grew up in Randallstown, so I know the area very well. I’ve been coming to this shopping center [Valley Village on Reisterstown Road] since I was a kid. It’s kind of neat to be back here.

How long have you been in the restaurant business? Where else have you worked?

Probably for about 10 years now. I used to make ice cream for a local company called Moxley’s. I ran the factory, handled all the production, developed flavors, worked with restaurants and did deliveries. I pretty much ran the show there. I used to work at another restaurant called Nino Taco.

What makes this place special compared to other places to get breakfast or lunch?

I’d have to say it’s good food, fresh—everything is fresh. It’s a different way of doing fast food where you are getting healthy options and you’re really able to customize, make it what you want and you know you’re eating something that’s fresh. We get a lot of our vegetables from local markets. Summertime especially, our tomatoes we get from a local farm. We try and support the local farms in the area.

What’s your favorite thing to eat off the menu?

Oh, gosh. I like the Florentine and I also like the veggie crepe. The Florentine is Gruyere cheese, spinach, mushrooms, sunflower seeds and a pepper parmesan dressing. The veggie is a mix of chickpeas, salsa, cilantro and green onions that we make. I’m a vegetarian, so I like the veggie options. For the sweet ones I really like the turtle, with almonds, caramel and chocolate chips. And, anything with fruit like the fresh strawberries and bananas with Nutella.  

How has the fact that the business doesn’t face Reisterstown Road been challenging? Do you have a lot of first timers? Regulars too?

We’re starting to get a lot of regulars, which is really nice. We do get new customers all the time that are saying ‘we saw you on the Jumbotron’ but they didn’t know we were here. But, we’re getting the word out. We haven’t done a lot of advertising, so it’s nice just to be able to work with word of mouth for right now.

Where did you go to college? Did you see yourself falling into this?

I went to Goucher, as an art major. But, growing up my mom was a gourmet cook and she used to do catering, so at a very early age I was her sous chef, chopping and learning how to make things. I’ve always loved to cook and be a part of it. I kind of fell into the industry working with Moxley’s after college and just kind of took it from there.

What are you most proud of with this place?

I’m very proud of our staff—we have a great staff, just the atmosphere. We try to have it be very friendly and fun, and we want our customers to come in and enjoy their experience here. Out of the [different] restaurants I’ve worked at and people I’ve worked with, it’s probably the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

Making ice cream was fun, but this [is] really fun. You can’t not have fun making a crepe. It’s fast paced, but it’s not rocket science. You take pleasure from giving someone something that you made that’s good and fresh. You take pride in that.

After a long shift what’s the first thing you do when you get home?

Hmm, sit down? Probably sit down for a minute. I have a little boy, so after tending to him, sitting down is probably the first thing, which is nice because we don’t get to sit down here very often. I’ll kind of relax, then I’ll get started on dinner.