Restaurant Dive: Berkeley-Based Grégoire Cooks Up Growth Plans

Growing up in a small town in France, Grégoire Jacquet never visited a restaurant before the age of 14. That first time he stepped into a restaurant inspired him and led him to his culinary career. After years of culinary school and working under some of the best chefs in the country, he decided to open his own restaurant, Grégoire, in his wife’s hometown of Berkeley, California, in 2002. His restaurant quickly grew, and the business only picked up during the pandemic. That was when Jacquet realized he needed to franchise as a way to grow and adapt his concept.

“I don’t want to be the franchise that signs on someone and then trains them for two, three, four weeks and then leaves them to do whatever they want, and just send them a mystery shopper or visit them once every six months to see if everything’s okay and go to the bank,” Jacquet said. “That’s not my franchise.”

Jacquet’s previous business experience applied to his new franchising concept. His business model for the franchisees will be based on a model he used while operating two Grégoire restaurants. There will be a central kitchen to provide food to 20 to 30 franchise restaurants that are no more than two hours away. This system will require fewer restaurant employees, and Grégoire franchisees won’t need to focus on hiring a highly-paid chef.