Grégoire's Founding Story: How Chef Grégoire Jacquet Went From Fine Dining To Fine Fast Casual

When chef and restaurateur Grégoire Jacquet opened his self-titled Berkeley restaurant 20 years ago, he was doing something completely new that people had never seen before: putting high-quality food in to-go boxes for carryout ordering. The unique concept for Grégoire came to Jacquet after many years of working in fine dining when he decided he wanted the freedom to run a restaurant of his own.

Jacquet has worked in kitchens at high-end restaurants in the U.S. and his home country, France, including seven years with the Ritz Carlton in Puerto Rico, Boston and San Francisco. He knew from his experience what he did and did not want in a restaurant. He wanted to continue to cook premium quality food without the fuss of a front-of-the-house and white-tablecloth dining experience.

“I knew I wanted to open a restaurant, but I didn't want a full-scale restaurant. We wanted to offer quality food, be open all day and touch a different market,” Jacquet said. “I love people and customer interaction, so I decided to do something really small. I wanted to create a fine dining restaurant, but my way, where I'm the chef, the server, the face, the everything.”

Jacquet and his wife, Tara, moved to the Bay Area at the turn of the century, and in 2002, he opened the doors to Grégoire with just himself and a cashier. The location is in the heart of Berkeley’s foodie neighborhood called the “Gourmet Ghetto.” It’s an area that always has long lines and hungry people roaming the streets, making it the perfect place for their open-concept, neighborhood-style eatery, Tara said.

The culmination of five-star menu items and quick, efficient carryout service really caught the attention of the local population. It was at the time - and still very much is, Jacquet said - unlike anything else around.

“What we wanted to do, we weren’t seeing anywhere else. Everything about takeout was an afterthought,” Jacquet said. “I came up with this concept because I knew that there was a need for high-quality food to-go because the only to-go you could get was some sort of fast food. Even now we have items that no one can compete with.”

One of the major reasons Jacquet believes the business has done so well is because he has always been focused on the details. When starting Grégoire, he was struggling to find a takeout box that was sturdy enough, would keep the food hot and had a sleek look, so he used box designing software and made his own patented containers. Jacquet also worked with point of sale systems to print labels and create custom processes to streamline the marking of orders.

“There are detailed processes for everything here, from the relationships I have with the vendors to how the food gets to the customers,” Jacquet said. “Everything that we have done for Grégoire is something that has been very well thought out.”

Many of the customers that have been frequenting Grégoire, and many of the vendors he has had a long-term relationship with over the last 20 years. Jacquet has been working with the same local, family-run business, Catalan Farm, almost the entire time he’s been in business.

“We found them at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market and it became a relationship that's been established now. It developed from just walking the aisles of the organic farmers’ market,” said Tara.

Many of the same workers have been with him for a long time, as well. While he started out slowly, he eventually grew to hire a full kitchen staff, leaving him a little more time to spend with his growing family. Side by side, that team has helped him grow the restaurant to what it is today and will aid him in the franchising process as they grow in his target market of the Bay Area.

French-trained chef Grégoire Jacquet had a vision of a local restaurant offering quality fine dining-style food with the convenience of a quick carry-out experience. In 2002, Grégoire opened its doors as the first fine-fast-casual restaurant concept that serves gourmet sandwich and salad dishes, its famous potato puffs and scratch daily fresh-made french fries, all served in a custom-designed take out box. After two decades of serving the local Berkley, CA community, Grégoire has launched franchising opportunities in the Greater Bay Area.