“I do not want to be remembered as a crepe lady. I want to be remembered as someone who made a difference in the world through my restaurant.”

Crepe Therapy Cafe Boulder chef Mawa McQueen’s cooking journey is a very different story from most other chefs.

The crepes served at the fast-casual restaurant on 31st Street and Pearl Parkway are not just transactional food products, but food connecting the community through comfort and care, sharing the open space together.

From Côte d’Ivoire to Colorado, McQueen, born in the French-influenced west African nation in the 1970s, moved to Paris when she was 12 and eventually landed in the eastern United States in 2002, and Aspen in 2012. She owns restaurants Mawa’s Kitchen, the Crepe Shack and Mawita.

However, McQueen did note grow up around luxury. Cooking was a chore throughout her life.

“In my culture, I’m the one who’s supposed to be in charge of the cooking,” McQueen said. “I have 20 siblings, so I was in charge of cooking because we were living in low-income housing in Paris and I was making the food.”

Ironically, a driving force behind McQueen’s wish to be in America came from a scene on the television soap opera ‘The Young and the Restless.’

“Victor Newman came out of this private jet with his girlfriend…,” McQueen said about the scene taking place in Colorado, “…it was the beauty, the sexiness of the scene. They had a romantic scene in Aspen and I’m like, oh my God, I want to go there.”

Once McQueen reached Aspen, however, her choice of being a chef was shrouded in doubt as the years ticked away, having to work three jobs at times including cooking, and having to make ends meet when customers were not willing to pay $12 or $13 for a high quality sandwich when all they wanted to pay was $7.

But her life-changing moment came in 2022 when she was nominated for a James Beard award, remotivating her to continue cooking.

“Honestly, I never, never thought I would be recognized by James Beard,” McQueen said. “I thought it was for fancy, and fancy restaurants. When I got recognized, and honestly like a year before I got recognized, I almost gave up cooking. Yes, I almost gave (it) up.”

Lucky for future customers McQueen did not give up.

With her French (food) and African (community) heritages combined, cooking crepes for Boulder’s college-town scene was a no brainer.

“I love the place and it’s like a bigger Aspen,” she said. “Even though it’s different, it’s not that different than Aspen. The mountain, the cleanliness, the organic holistic part of it. I love it.”

Furthermore, McQueen wanted to create a place where people can connect with one another, a place that will allow people to talk to each other, a place for people to be with each other.

“Having a place that’s for the community and having a fast casual set, it’s amazing,” she said. “It takes a village to raise a kid today. So many people are lonely, so many people have no place to go. A community that eats together stays together.”

What is inside Chef Mawa’s crepes:

McQueen thrives on bringing ‘farm-to-table’ style, clean and organic ingredients to her dishes when cooking and serving the restaurant’s guests.

Every crepe is customizable, made fresh using hand-selected ingredients.

The menu at Crepe Therapy Cafe includes two main focuses: Savory and Sweet Crepes.

Savory:

All savory crepes are made with either an organic plain batter or sub organic vegan gluten-free buckwheat batter.

Eleven different crepes can be chosen from, including the Pyramid Peak – a Buckwheat crepe with chickpea hummus, mushrooms, oven-roasted tomato, arugula and onion confit, or the Rocky Mountain – a Gruyere & Swiss crepe with smashed bison, arugula, tomato, onion confit, horseradish cream.

Sweet:

All sweet crepes are made with either an organic plain batter or sub organic vegan gluten-free buckwheat batter.

Eleven different crepes also can be chosen from, including the Velvet Crush – a crepe with red velvet crepe, fresh strawberries, cheesecake mousse, Nutella and cocoa powder, or the Gen Z S’mores – a crepe with chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, graham cracker and salted caramel sauce.

Crepe Therapy Cafe future and details:

A smaller Crepe Therapy Cafe will be opening inside the Limelight Boulder in spring 2026, giving guests the same experience as the main restaurant off campus, but the same crepe-eating and community experience of the hub restaurant on 31st Street.

Crepe Therapy Cafe is located at 2273 31st Street Ste 140 in Boulder, Colorado.

The restaurant is open Tuesday – Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday-Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. with coffee, crepes and beats every Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Crepe Therapy Cafe is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.