Who are Marie and Gilles Verleyen, the current owners?

Marie and Gilles Verleyen carry the fifth generation of the Clément house. They took over the brasserie in 2021, after France Clément. The hand-over was not just operational: it was a full one. Marie and Gilles bought the walls of the establishment and restructured the legal vehicle under the name J and JJ Brasserie SA. That patrimonial consolidation is an important step, it anchors the house for the next generation without leaving it dependent on an external lease.

Their stated approach is plain: preserve the family soul of the house while modernising. In practice this means keeping the signatures that make the brasserie what it is (the Thursday disco nights, the continuously open bar, seven-day-a-week service, the kitchen of Vincent Frédéric De Laloy) while modernising the tools (management, communication, guest experience, event handling). The whole thing without interruption of service: the transition took place without closure, and the house still records more than 1,400 covers a week.

One biographical detail captures Marie and Gilles's personal bond to the place: they were married in the conservatory of the brasserie. This is not a communication line; it is a family fact that helps make sense of the fifth generation. The conservatory, one of the flagship spaces of the house, becomes a charged location for the current owners, and an extra argument for couples thinking of privatising it for their own events.

On the ground, Marie and Gilles are backed by a stable team. The kitchen brigade counts thirty-two, led by Vincent Frédéric De Laloy since 1996, a chef who has now seen two generations of owners. The kitchen porter has been here for twenty years. The house operates seven days a week, restaurant 12:00 to 14:30 and 19:00 to 22:30, bar 12:00 to 01:00 continuously. The “five generations since 1858” narrative has become for Marie and Gilles a reading frame for the project: not a marketing line, but a continuity commitment. Their daughter June stands as the sixth generation in the making.