Home Made and always on top of fresh!

The flow is such that naturally everything is always fresh: the suppliers deliver every day, Sunday included.

This is one of the keys to Leon's success because everything is handcrafted, prepared on site in newly renovated kitchens that can be admired on entering the restaurant.

The price-performance ratio is amazing.

The record of this report is the children's menu: it is free up to 12 years (if the child is accompanied by an adult who also eats, that goes without saying).
In 2017, for example, no less than 17,000 child menus were served.
But when you know that the -50% promotions are legion, especially in winter, we can not deny that this quality cuisine is offered at a price comparable to that of a fast food even for adults.

Funny detail, if the average ticket is about 25 euros per person, it goes up in these promotional periods of one euro, because it is an opportunity to indulge with more expensive dishes then sold at very low prices. market, but always with the same quality, explains the managing director.

Eloquent figures ...

More numbers? There are 450 places (and a hundred on the terrace) spread over nine houses and 6,000 square meters.
The favorite drink of the customers is the beer: 400 hectoliters a year, that is to say more than one hectolitre per day on average of an excellent home brewed beer especially with this obsession of the freshness and the constancy in the quality.
The turnover is rising, beyond inflation, but the company is well aware that it is no longer considerably expandable to the extent that we approach the maximum possible: the restaurant is full evening.
The charges do not diminish, on the contrary.
The hundred or so workers (some of whom have been there for more than thirty years), paid on a fixed basis and for the hall, partly on turnover, cost 40% of the expenses.

To improve margins, what to do?

We could - but we do not - cheat by reducing portions a little or being less about quality.
The growth in these conditions must come from elsewhere and this is the reason why the Vanlancker family recently took over Les Armes de Bruxelles, which completes the supply upwards while remaining very competitive in the price range for a less popular restaurant, with a long historical tradition as well, and which is already asserting itself even in gastronomic guides a success both in terms of atmosphere and attitude.
Chez Léon is positioned more as a typical Brussels family restaurant, which, at a time when the capital of Europe has become a place to be, obviously attracts a lot of tourists wishing to find a real authenticity, which explains the subtitle of Brussels frying out of history, since as everyone knows, in Brussels formerly, it was called frying for chip.
Another way to develop is to reach international markets, both to bring customers to the two restaurants facing each other and to create new places.
The French experience is well known, with the Léon de Bruxelles franchisees, which do not work at all the same way as in the parent company.
Here, it is the mussels that are featured, with few alternative dishes, except the Flemish carbonnades, which are the same in all branches as cooked in a single place and then shipped under vacuum.
The French experience has given the Léon brand an interesting reputation but let's repeat, the Brussels restaurant does not work at all in the same philosophy.
The menu goes far beyond what is expected of a Brussels fry, since the customer finds, alongside traditional Belgian dishes, a variety of dishes ranging from horse steak to lobster giving desire to come back and try who had come only for a waterzooi or an American.
All sold with decimals, which proves that prices are calculated at the fair.
The secret of success is uncompromising on one point: the customer must not be disappointed.
It is understandable then that this success also fuels the desire to see concepts close to Leon and Weapons open in the near future in countries far away.
A large Chinese clientele, for example, settles every day at the tables of the Sacred Island and would be very happy to find in China the atmosphere and the cuisine that she appreciates.
But that's another story and we'll come back to it in due course.

www.chezleon.be
www.auxarmesdebruxelles.com

Chez Léon, a Brussels fries since 1893, a beautiful book of 362 pages under the direction of René Sépul on sale especially at the restaurant (32 €), richly illustrated and including recipes flagship.

Short meeting with Kevin Vanlancker the new managing director

The numbers are dizzying even when they are a mere number like 6, since recently, the managing director is Kevin Vanlancker, 31, and it is the 6th generation who is in charge.
Year-round, at Léon's, as the many regulars say, there is no less than 400,000 seats, making the place simply the biggest restaurant in Belgium.
Detail.
Daily, an average of 400 kilograms of fries, 50 kilograms of carbonnades, 250 croquettes, 300 chocolate mousse, for example, are served between 11:30 am and 11:30 pm, seven days a week and every day of the year.
But, what about mussels?
Well, contrary to appearances, this is not the flagship dish of the house, although of course, with its twelve tons of molds per month, the brand sells a lot.

Leon's new managing director is therefore the representative of the sixth generation Vanlancker.

• The seventh is already there, smiles this nice young man of 31 years, who filled almost all the possible functions in the family business before being at the controls.
Finally, she will do what she wants, of course, the happiness of my children through the choices they will make, but me, basically, I did not know that one could choose his job ...
So I know this neighborhood as my pocket.
When I look at the clouds on the side of the City Hall spire, I know what the weather will be like!
This is our location, here, our comfort zone.
I do not want to diversify by opening other restaurants in Uccle or Ixelles, for example.
Our Brussels anchorage is central and that is what paradoxically allows us to export far away.

What is Leon's clientele ?

• There is no ethnic counting, smiles Kevin Vanlancker.
But of course we look who's coming.
I would say to the big lad a quarter of our clientele is Asian, a small half is Belgian, and in this part, say 45%, the third is purely Brussels, including regulars.
Some come almost every day!
The remaining thirty percent come from all over the world, European neighbors as American citizens.
Of course, we try to find out who our customers are because we believe that loyalty is a must.
We do not want unhappy customers!
They often leave us their impressions and if by chance one of them complains, we try to understand why and to recontact him.
A happy customer is normal. A discontent, no.

How to satisfy them ?

• Well, make sure the quality is there.
Do you know that we have mystery shoppers, a bit like Michelin inspectors, who come to report to me about their impressions, attitude and service?
You have to be demanding but also empathic.
We all do a difficult job here.
There are people on site from five in the morning to midnight ...
Happy employees is the recipe of the good team!
We must get along with the unions, to whom I pay tribute, we are an SME, we must interest the staff, showcase it ...
At the beginning, a few years ago, I recognize it, I made some mistakes, too quickly dissatisfied, too quickly brittle, but I learned and it is precious to learn.
I'll teach you something: when I eat at the restaurant, I pay my bill. Why ?
Because I occupy a table and therefore, an ordinary customer does not occupy it.
To skip 10% of the additions is to blow up 10% of wages!
It must be reactive, too, to detect immediately when something is wrong and rectify the shot.
An example ?
Sole is an expensive fish and variable price.
By putting "price of the day" on the map, sales have collapsed!
So we chose a fixed price.
Some days, we do not win anything!
But of course, it is offset by other sales, which makes me say in passing that those who indignant at seeing mussels sold at the supermarket a few euros per kilo spend about twenty in the restaurant!
But what about the charges, and the staff, what does it cost when you do not cheat?
Because of black, at Leon, we do not do it.
It's possible, probably, in a small neighborhood restaurant, but for me, black boxes, that's not a problem.
We have been practicing them for twenty years.
And we maintain a value for money that we envy and of which we are all proud.

Chez Léon
Rue des Bouchers 18 in 1000 Brussels
+32 2 511 14 15
www.chezleon.be