Belgo

Belgo is a small chain of London restaurants specializing in simple Belgian cooking and Belgian beer. Belgo is noted for its 1990s design and architecture, including kitchens viewable by customers entering the restaurant (Noord and Centraal) and its waiters and waitresses, who dress as monks. Anand Zenz was the designer-architect responsible for the main space and the furniture and fittings at Chalk Farm (Noord, 1992), with Ron Arad taking over as architect-designer for the extension to Noord (1994) and the 13,000sqft Belgo Centraal, voted London Restaurant of the Year in 1996.

There are six Belgo restaurants: Belgo Centraal, on Earlham Street, Covent Garden, Belgo Noord on Chalk Farm Road, the one former Bierodrome on Kingsway, Belgo Bromley in the Glades shopping centre in Bromley which opened in March 2010, Belgo Soho on Old Compton street and Newest addition Belgo in Nottingham.

History

Belgo was founded in 1992 by French-Canadian Denis Blais and Anglo-Belgian Andre Plisnier. The brand was expanded to a chain of bar diners known as Bierodrome in Clapham and Kingsway (and Islington, and Belgo Zuid (124 Ladbroke Grove), both now closed) but those remaining open all now trade in the Belgo format.

Belgo was bought in 1998 by ex-fund manager, newspaper columnist and ex-Chairman of Channel 4 Luke Johnson, known for his financial stewardship, with colleague Hugh Osmond, of the Pizza Express chain of pizza restaurants in the 1990s. However, attempts to extend the Belgo franchise organically beyond London in the late 1990s were not successful: the franchise in Jersey lasted barely 12 months before closing in 2000 and, in any event, the Belgo flotation was used as a vehicle to acquire a number of celebrated chic London restaurants, such as The Ivy, The Caprice, Daphne\'s The Collection and J.Sheekey, creating the \'Signature Restaurants\' division and a business with a market capital that peaked at more than £90,000,000.