Their attention was immediately brought to the staff of the Bel-Air hospital. More than 2,200 meals delivered to white coats from the start of the pandemic. The zero point of this adventure brought together more than fifty restaurateurs from the Thionville basin. In April 2020, the Verlaine room in Thionville, made available by the town hall against a small rent, brings together a hard core of professionals who, over time, imagine a project of economic interest grouping; a rarity in the French landscape.
Quickly, the ephemeral tends to register in time. The chefs want to “come to support their restaurants, put to sleep”. According to Lionel Gallois, Sommeliers, president of the structure, the partners that his establishment are today, Le P’tit Marcel and Le comptoir à Meat (united as one man), Le Black and White, Miel and Safran and Villa Castellino, the latest arrival, are combining their skills and their differences to set up an entity capable of meeting consumer demand, lost in the surrounding slump. “We must continue to work, be visible, respond to a demand,” says Lionel Gallois.
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“Register in time”
Place Turenne, a vacant store is found. “Le Grand Resto Thionvillois” was born. You have to invest a little. Five partners share the costs. And the recipes. But it is above all a matter of harmonizing this music, both in terms of the culinary offer and the financial repercussions.
What emerges today is that this human adventure allowed the hiring of the manager of the store, and of a second person arriving at the end of partial unemployment rights, who was offered a part-time contract.
“The idea is not to think of an ephemeral shop, but to be brought in over time, in addition to our establishments”, maintains the spokesperson for the well-known chefs of the North Moselle. And why not a food truck, another channel to sell their products and extend over a wider territory. Because for the moment, all remain in the dark. “We know that we will be the last to reopen,” laments Lionel Gallois.
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