Scoops! Play n Cafe

Name of business: Scoops! Play n Cafe

Type of business: Restaurant

Owners: Al and Rose Necor

Founded: October 2008

Address: 6730 Lone Tree Way, Suite 3 and 4, Brentwood

Phone number: 513-3209

Hours: Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Number of employees: 5

Products and services: The premise behind Scoops, was to build a place were children could have a special play area while parents spent time relaxing. Children ages zero to six are invited to utilize the play area for a nominal fee. The area includes train tables, play kitchen/cooking area, play shopping area with cashier, workshop with building blocks, dress up area, puppet theater and arts and crafts including an area where kids can stuff their own stuffed animal.

Scoops offers a wide variety of crepe dishes, including main course and dessert crepes. Their specialties include beef burgundy, vegetable, chicken, ham and turkey as well as apple, pear and strawberry crepes. They also offer 24 flavors of gelato, French onion soup and organic free-trade coffees. They offer eat-in or take-out foods and the restaurant and playroom can be rented for parties.

How did you get into the business? “It all started as the playroom,” Rose Necor said. The idea was to find a place for her younger children to play at when the family moved to the Brentwood area. At the time Rose and Al had just had their fifth child. “The idea just took off from there,” she said.

After planning the children’s play area the couple decided to add food and found that there was no good crepe restaurants in the area. The couple took cooking lessons from a French chef at UC Davis, who later trained their staff.

“Now we have a place for the children to be close by and play while we work,” Necor said.

Best part about the business: “Just feels good coming in here everyday,” Necor said. “I like the idea of starting something from scratch and seeing the final result in satisfied parents and kids who don’t want to leave because they are having so much fun.”
Worst part about the business: “It’s not really worst, but it is a challenge getting people to know we are here,” she said.

Key to success: “Getting our act together and being on top of our food, making sure it is fresh and good,” Necor said. She said that she also thinks that to keep the word of mouth advertising going she has to make sure that the playroom is always in top condition and that all the toys are fun and the children have a great time playing with them.

Biggest misperception about the business: “For one thing people think that crepes are just for dessert. As our menu shows we have a great deal of main course crepes available,” Necor said. “Also there are people who don’t really know what gelato is.”

She explained that gelato is similar to ice cream, but it is much creamer and can come in many different flavors than ice cream.

Future plans: Still to come, Necor said, is the baby disco area in the playroom. She can’t wait to see the children enjoy the stage area with musical fun. She’d also like to add more products to her menu.

Also in the long term there is a possibility that the Necors will open other branches. “We already have people asking to franchise, but I say we’ll have to wait and see how this one goes first.”