| Belgo | |
|---|---|
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| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1992 |
| Current owner(s) | Tragus Holdings |
| Food type | Belgian |
| Street address | 50 Earlham Street |
| City | London |
| State | UK |
| Postal code/ZIP | WC2H 9 LJ |
| Coordinates | |
| Seating Capacity | 440 |
| Other locations | Bromley, Chalk Farm Road, Clapham, Kingsway |
| Website | www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk |
Belgo is a small chain of London restaurants specializing in simple Belgian cooking and Belgian beer. Belgo is noted for its uber-cool 1990's design and architecture, including kitchens viewable by customers entering the restaurant ( Noord and Centraal), and its waiting staff who dress as monks. Anand Zenz was the designer-architect responsible for the first great space and furniture and fittings at Chalk Farm (Noord, 1992), with Ron Arad taking over as star architect-designer for the extension to Noord (1994) and the 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) utilitarian-chic statement, Belgo Centraal, that quickly became the London restaurant success of 1996 ( voted London Restaurant of the Year, 1996).
There are five Belgo restaurants: Belgo Centraal, on Earlham Street, Covent Garden, Belgo Noord on Chalk Farm Road, the former Bierodromes on Clapham High Street and Kingsway, and Belgo Bromley in the Glades shopping centre in Bromley which opened in March 2010.
Belgo was founded in 1992 by French-Canadian Denis Blais and Anglo-Belgian Andre Plisnier.[1] 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 highly successful financial stewardship, with colleague Hugh Osmond, of the Pizza Express chain of up-market 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 much-celebrated chic London restaurants, such as The Ivy, The Caprice, Daphnes The Collection and J.Sheekey creating the 'Signiture Restaurants' division and a business with a market capital which peaked at more than £90,000,000.
Johnson sold his interest in Belgo in 2005 to Tragus Holdings, which also owns the French-styled Café Rouge chain and the Bella Italia chain of Italian restaurants.