Pierre Levicky yesterday relaunched Chez Jules in Edinburgh, the name used for a series of outlets in his former chain which brought affordable French bistro food to the country’s high streets and employed more than 1,000 people at its height.
However, the chain later collapsed, with more than 140 restaurants being sold or closed.
Now, with a more modest team of four, he is opening the eaterie in Hanover Street and claims not only the atmosphere but prices will be reminiscent of the rural Gallic-style restaurant.
He said he was not expecting a return to the same kind of scale as Pierre Victoire, which crashed in 1998, the victim of rapid expansion and lack of consistency, with more than three-quarters of the restaurants franchised.
But he added: “We are bringing it back pretty much as it was, so we will have the same prices as 1995. A good house wine will be £10, red, white and rose, and rib eye steak will be less than £10.
“It is more or less French. We will have French onion soup, pate, mussels and three steaks – sirloin, rib eye and fillet – with three sauces.
“We will have candles and music and benches and you can eat here on your own or with friends. It is going to be very rustic.
“We are expecting to be busy; I remember in Chez Jules it was the people who made the atmosphere, they would get quite merry, and we were known for our steaks.”
Mr Levicky was banned from running a UK limited company after Pierre Victoire collapsed. Although still unable to hold his own directorship, he is able to work in partnership. Around 18 months ago, he opened Chez Pierre in Eyre Place in Edinburgh, a joint venture with business partner Donald Thow.
He has now linked up again with Mark Lawrence, who runs the Iris restaurant in the capital’s Thistle Street, and who has been a friend for 20 years.
Mr Levicky said: “There are a lot of restaurants in Edinburgh – some are better than others, some are stronger. I think people are much more knowledgeable nowadays.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article