When did Marie and Gilles take over Chez Clément?

The takeover of Brasserie Chez Clément by Marie and Gilles Verleyen dates from 2021. It marks the passage from the fourth to the fifth generation of the house and closes a cycle opened in 1996 by France Clément. The operation was not just operational, it was patrimonial and legal: Marie and Gilles bought the walls of the establishment and restructured the operating vehicle under the name J and JJ Brasserie SA.

This takeover has a number of features worth noting. First, it happened without an interruption of service. The house carried on operating seven days a week, restaurant from 12:00 to 14:30 and from 19:00 to 22:30, bar continuously from 12:00 to 01:00, with all its historic signatures, the Thursday disco nights, the cooking of chef Vincent Frédéric De Laloy (in place since 1996), the conservatory and the terrace. Second, it includes the purchase of the walls themselves: Marie and Gilles are not tenants of a business asset, they own the building. That is a patrimonial consolidation that anchors the house for the next generation.

The restructuring under J and JJ Brasserie SA simplifies the legal reading of the establishment. A single entity now operates the brasserie in its broadest sense: restaurant, bar, events, private hire. This unification eases day-to-day management and the planning of investments (modernisation of the spaces, communication, the development of the “Apéros” rendezvous around the permanent bar). The line announced by Marie and Gilles is clear: preserve the family soul of the house while modernising it.

The timing of the takeover also fits the personal narrative of the new owners. Marie and Gilles were married in the conservatory of the brasserie, a detail rarely put forward, but one that speaks to the attachment of the fifth generation to the place they now run. Together they embody a continuity transition: the trading name remains Brasserie Chez Clément, the kitchen is still held by the same brigade, the regulars find their bearings. And the sixth generation is already implicit, with June, their daughter.