‘We wanted to create a cosmopolitan space, something new for the city’
Gert de Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens have opened LESS Eatery in Bruges. The new ‘eatery’ as they call it welcomes its first guests on Monday March 11 and it is an impressive space.
The eatery on one of the main squares in Bruges will be open from breakfast till late dinner with customers able to walk in for a coffee and a pastry in the morning, for bites during the mornings or afternoon and lunch or pre-theatre dinners to late dinners.
This is the first time that Gert de Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens have a restaurant in the city centre. They operated Hertog Jan, a three Michelin star restaurant in Zedelgem on the outskirts of this Belgian city as well as the old LESS in the former Hertog Jan spot. The latter is expected to become a traditional Flemish restaurant.
Joachim and Gert told Food and Wine Gazette that they wanted to move to the centre because they wanted to create a cosmopolitan space with a vibe that is inspired from places in cities like London, New York or Tokyo.
“I want the place to be crowded from morning to evening with a dynamic vibe. I also want it to be a place where people come over and start with a smile. “It is about food, happy food and good products. But we also wanted a restaurant where staff also feel good,” Gert said.
Joachim explained that the staff at LESS Eatery will be working a four day week. LESS will be closed on Sunday and Wednesday but members of staff will get an additional working day off which changes.
Joachim told Food and Wine Gazette the opening of the new LESS was a big step for them. “When we closed Hertog Jan we took some holidays and then started again to work at Hertog Jan and it was so quiet. It felt a bit strange in the beginning having no cooks, no staff and no customers. The kitchen was empty We brainstormed a lot and got the feeling that we never worked so hard. But there was nothing tangible to show like serving 60 people every lunch and dinner. So we are extremely happy with the result,” he said.
The inspiration for LESS came from a trip to London. “We liked the atmosphere of the city. The first edition of LESS was in the old restaurant where our first Hertog Jan was born. We had the building and the kitchen and we were therefore ready to start immediately. But in our mind, LESS was more the place it is now.
“Here you have the city vibe, there are many people walking by and we really had the feeling that we could add an extra thing to the LESS concept. We decided to serve breakfast not to maximise our business but we felt it would be nice on one of the largest squares in Brugge. A lot of things happen here, there is the weekly market, lots of events, a concert hall and a big parking space where a lot of people who visit the centre of Bruges park,” he said.
The space has counter seating where people can watch the action taking place in the kitchen, interact with each other and also with the cooks. There is also a large communal table as well as normal tables and can seat around 65 people.
“I think it is something new for Bruges,” Joachim said.
Gert said he was really happy to get back into action after the closure of Hertog Jan. “We are extremely happy. This is exactly what we had in mind. I wanted to create a restaurant in Bruges which had the feeling you get with similar spaces in London, New York or Tokyo.”
He told Food and Wine Gazette that they’ve been doing test evenings and it was very hard given the place will be open constantly throughout the day but we are looking forward to the challenge. “The menu is not inspired by any one country but rather by my travels all over the world. I am always intrigued by local food when I travel. At Hertog Jan, for 16, 17 years I worked with local ingredients, home grown vegetables and it was wonderful and I really enjoyed it but I wanted to have new challenges, to create new tastes and also take inspiration from around the world.”
Gert said he liked the international dining scene and wanted to create that feeling with the food and space. “If I go to Tokyo and eat a great sashimi, it might inspire me to do something in that style with a sea bass from the North Sea. I wanted to create a restaurant with an international vibe.”
The menu is set to evolve, Gert says he has notebooks with ideas and recipes but he also wants to have signature dishes which remain there constantly.
Joachim explained that the staff at LESS Eatery will be working a four day week. LESS will be closed on Sunday and Wednesday but members of staff will get an additional working day off which changes.
“The openings are long and someone has to do the job. But we believe that it is important to have a work/life balance. We are closed on Sunday and Monday and staff will have a third day off which changes and which will also allow them to have a weekend feeling. Once a month, they will also have three consecutive days off. When we proposed the idea, the staff were very enthusiastic about it. We think that this is becoming really important, the world is changing but it is important to keep an open mind and also change. That was also one of the reasons why we decided to stop with Hertog Jan. We wanted to take our next step,” he said.
“That closure was not just for us but also for the staff who have been working with us. We try to give them the opportunity to grow both as a human being and as a profession.”
The next steps for Gert and Joachim are the opening of a traditional flemish bistro in the old LESS and events at Hertog Jan. Once all this is in place, we will have time for new projects. Maybe it is a new LESS or something new. There is time, we are not in a hurry,” he said.
The new LESS
The new LESS Eatery is open from 8.30am to 10pm. LESS stands for Love, Eat, Share, Smile.
Breakfast is served between 8.30am and 11am. Lunch is served between 12 noon and 2.30 while dinner starts at 6pm till 10pm with pre-theatre dinners possible between 6pm and 7.30pm with table needing to be available at 7.30pm.
Bites and drinks are available in between.
Joachim said their aim was not to reinvent breakfast but to focus on the details. “We want to make a difference not in the big things but in the details. Gert has been working on Danish pastries, we will have fresh fruit but we’ve created a dressing with coconut, vanilla and basil. This will take pineapple to another level. They will use different dishes for the morning. People will be able to walk in and have a coffee and a pastry standing up at the counter or sitting in the front area of the Eatery,” he said.
The food menu is composed of bites, cold and hot starters as well as starters from the Robata special as well as main courses and sides (also with Robata specials).
Robata is a Japanese method of cooking similar to barbecue in which food is cooked at varying speeds over hot charcoal.
LESS eatery is open on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8.30am till late.
Address: T’Zand, Bruges.
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