Le Pain Quotidien founder opens sixth vegan restaurant

Le Botaniste, a chain of vegan restaurants launched four years ago by the founder of Le Pain Quotidien, has opened its sixth restaurant in Brussels. It is the fourth Belgian restaurant for the chain, following Ghent and two other locations in Brussels.

Local and organic

The first establishment under the brand Le Botaniste was opened four years ago in Ghent, aiming to open a vegetarian restaurant with a wide range of vegan food, working with local and seasonal organic vegetables, and serving wines without sulphite or other additives. Since then, the chain has adopted the promise of “100 % plant-based”.

The success of the business in Ghent was the signal to Alain Coumont, founder of the Le Pain Quotidien chain, to open a second restaurant in Manhattan. In the meantime, new branches were opened in New York and Brussels: this week, a sixth restaurant was opened in Ixelles. “We open one restaurant at a time and wait to see if it is profitable before making plans for the next one”, Coumount told Belgian newspaper De Standaard. The newspaper reports that the yearly turnover of all the branches together would amount to six million euros.