The Les Crepes in western Henrico recently rebranded to Sebastian & Co. Bistro, which has a new menu that features sandwiches alongside entrees like steak and seafood dishes. (Courtesy Sebastian & Co. Bistro)
A crepes-focused restaurant in Henrico’s west end has cooked up a new name and menu, but it hasn’t entirely given up on the French pancakes.
Les Crepes at 1308 Gaskins Road has been rebranded by its owners as Sebastian & Co. Bistro.
Kat Peabody and business partner Fernando Lozada said they renamed the restaurant in the Gayton Crossing shopping center to put a more personalized mark on the business that was founded by Lozada’s family and introduced a new menu intended to better appeal to diners living nearby.
“We still have some of the crepes on our menu, but we have turned it into our own project,” Peabody said in an interview this week. “The menu that we have, a lot of that has to do with our location. We’re in the middle of a bunch of neighborhoods, so the bistro style really works for us. It’s a little more varietal than just the crepes menu. We’ve got a lot of sandwiches, a steak, some salmon and crab cakes.”
Sandwiches run from $13.50 to just under $18, and include a BLT, Cubano, fried chicken sandwich and burgers, per the menu. Entrees range in price from a $21 lasagna crepe to a $34 ribeye steak. There are also salads around $13 or $14.
“Out here, people want something a little more accessible,” Peabody said. “We wanted to take classics that you can play around with. So that way, everything looks familiar. However, it’s not overdone necessarily.”
Whereas the previous incarnation had featured a large menu of savory and sweet crepes, the new one has trimmed its crepes down to focus mostly on sweeter styles for brunch and dessert.
“We couldn’t leave it all behind,” Peabody said.
Sebastian & Co. Bistro officially opened last month at Gayton Crossing. The eatery is a rebrand of Les Crepes, which came to the center in 2021. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Peabody said the restaurant’s decor was also reworked, with a lot of equipment and furniture carrying over from Les Crepes and some cosmetic changes. Peabody estimated that about $20,000 has been spent on the restaurant’s rebranding so far.
She said Sebastian & Co. is “moodier” than Les Crepes and features more greenery. The new look is intended to align the restaurant more closely to The Verdant Lady, the next-door cocktail bar owned by Peabody.
The cocktail menu at Sebastian & Co. features “twists on classics,” and similarly is designed to complement The Verdant Lady, where the drinks are intended to be more original, Peabody said.
Sebastian & Co. features regular live music, which Peabody said started while the restaurant was still Les Crepes but has become a more consistent part of the experience at the eatery. Bands play at the restaurant on Fridays and every third Sunday.
Sebastian & Co., which is named for Lozada’s son, officially opened in early March following a soft opening the previous month.
Les Crepes opened at Gayton Crossing in 2021. Lozada came on as an owner a couple years before the restaurant relocated there from Stony Point Fashion Park in Richmond, where it first opened in 2014. Les Crepes was established by Lozada’s aunt and uncle, who have since sold their stake in the company.
Peabody, who has worked off and on at Les Crepes for a decade, became a co-owner about a year ago.
The similar-named Les Crepes at 3325 W. Cary St. in Carytown, which opened in 2017 and is owned by Gonzalo Viloria and his wife, continues to operate as a French restaurant. The two restaurants are independent of each other.
Other businesses at the Kroger-anchored Gayton Crossing include art school Artist Alley and children’s fitness center Kidstrong. Most of the shopping center at Gaskins and Gayton changed hands in a $22 million deal in 2024.
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Dining and Cooking