When he opened the butcher Grégoire in June 2019 in Paris, chef Antonin Bonnet chose the difficulty. Rather than buying unifying pieces of meat from Rungis, he works directly with small producers and uses whole carcasses, so as not to spoil anything. This means that he does not always have the pieces that customers demand in stock, that he has to come up with recipes to sell the pieces that do not sell well (offal, tripe and company), and that he has to hire butchers capable of cooking them.
“The start was pretty tough. There was not enough passage, and customers did not understand that we do not have beef tenderloin all the time, whereas on a 500 kg animal, the tenderloin is 7 kg, and you have to dispose of the remaining 493 kg … “, explains Antonin Bonnet. At the start of 2020, the future of his loss-making store seemed compromised.
And then comes the containment of spring. The butcher’s shop remains open in the storm. “Many Parisians have left for their second homes and left the old people there. They were very happy to find us and buy a piece of meat. “ An unprecedented line forms in front of his stall at 9 am.
With this lonely clientele, eager to converse, Antonin Bonnet can take the time to explain his philosophy. For the first time, the store becomes a beneficiary. A year later, she still is.
The case of the butcher Grégoire is not isolated: in France, the year 2020 allowed many small food businesses to go up the slope, to develop, even to hit the mark. The ten merchants we interviewed speak of an increase of around 30% in their turnover with individuals between 2019 and today. For those who also supplied the restaurants, this compensates a little for the shortfall.
“The French want to have fun and can neither go to a restaurant, nor leave for the weekend, nor see a show. So, yes, we are winning at the moment ”, says Sébastien Bouillet, pastry chocolate maker in Lyon.
“A fool’s mother’s day”
For him, business was already going well before the pandemic: with a solid reputation, his sophisticated pastries were deployed in seven shops in Lyon and four in Japan. As for Antonin Bonnet, the first confinement in spring 2020 was an opportunity to strengthen ties with its customers.
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