Café Rouge is a French-styled restaurant chain, with 30 sites across the United Kingdom. Café Rouge is part of a bigger restaurant network owned by Casual Dining Group.

History

Café Rouge was founded by Roger Myers and Karen Jones, in Richmond, London as a small restaurant chain in 1989. As the brand grew, Myers and Jones incorporated the chain into a larger restaurant group: the Pelican Group. In July 1996,

Whitbread Whitbread plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest division ...

purchased Pelican Group – comprising 110 restaurants under the Dôme, Mamma Amalfi and, primarily, Café Rouge brands – for £133m. Cafe Rouge, Leeds

The restaurant chain gained much exposure after frequently being mentioned in the 1996 novel ''

Bridget Jones's Diary ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding. A co-production of the United Kingdom, United States and France, it is based on Fielding's 1 ...

'', with the main character

Bridget Jones Bridget Rose Jones is a fictional character created by British writer Helen Fielding. Jones first appeared in Fielding's '' Bridget Jones's Diary'' column in ''The Independent'' in 1995, which did not carry any byline. Thus, it seemed to be an act ...

(and her friends) visiting her local branch of the restaurant regularly throughout the novel. In May 2002, Whitbread sold Pelican to Tragus Group (later renamed Casual Dining Group) in a

management buy-in A management buy-in (MBI) occurs when a manager or a management team from ''outside'' the company raises the necessary finance, buys it, and becomes the company's new management. A management buy-in team often competes with other purchasers in the s ...

for £25m. In 2009, Café Rouge began a partnership with the Gourmet Society, offering their members discounts on production of a Gourmet Society restaurant discount card. In February 2011, Café Rouge introduced a new fast-service format to the brand. Café Rouge Express at Euston railway station and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

WestQuay Westquay (formerly WestQuay) is a shopping centre in Southampton, England. It has an area of of retail and leisure space and contains around 130 shops, including major retailers such as John Lewis and Partners, Marks and Spencer, Zara, Schuh ...

shopping centre, aims to reduce customer waiting time and the reduced menu range is available to eat in or take away. Café Rouge, The Light, Leeds (17th December 2012)

Café Rouge, The Light, Leeds (17th December 2012)

In 2012, it was reported that Café Rouge intended investing in excess of £20m refurbishing its restaurants over the next few years, starting with the Hampstead branch. Created by Afroditi Krassa, the new design is inspired by classic but urban Parisian bistros, whilst remaining sensitive to the essence of the original Café Rouge. The design will be rolled out across 125 restaurants within three years, with interiors tailored to each site. In September 2012, Café Rouge joined the

Nectar loyalty card Nectar is a loyalty card scheme in the United Kingdom run by Nectar 360 Ltd, a company wholly owned by Sainsbury's. The scheme is the largest in the United Kingdom, and comprises a number of partner companies including Sainsbury's, Esso and eBay. ...

reward scheme as a redemption partner. In light of the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, in May 2020 Café Rouge's owner Casual Dining Group announced that it was working with advisors on next steps for the overall business as a prudent measure to protect the company whilst planning for the future and as part of that process had filed a Notice of Intention to appoint administrators. On 2 July 2020 the company entered

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

, with 32 branches of Café Rouge set to close.

Charity

In 2013, Café Rouge were official partners of

Comic Relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

, the British charity founded in 1985 that aims to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people."

Tipping and minimum wage

In 2008 the company was reported as paying staff less than the legal minimum wage, relying on tips to make up the difference. This led to a campaign in Parliament to make this practice illegal. In 2009 the company was found to be threatening to dismiss waiting staff who do not get customers to pay tips on credit cards rather than in cash. Credit card tips were used by the company to subsidise wages (which are usually the legal minimum) whereas cash tips go directly to waiting staff. In line with changes to tipping legislation, which came into effect on 1 October 2009, Café Rouge reviewed and updated its policies to ensure that all tips, after a 10% deduction for administrative and other costs paid by credit or debit card, were distributed through the payroll system to restaurant staff. This was done via a tronc system. In 2015, Café Rouge amended its policy to ensure all employees are permitted to keep all tips and service charges paid in cash and are free to share their tips with colleagues if they so wish. Their employees are required to declare the income generated from cash tips to HM Revenue & Customs for tax purposes. When tips or service charges are paid for by credit card or debit card, the restaurant does take a 2.5% administration charge to cover administration and bank fees before distributing the remainder in full to employees. Employees retain any tips in addition to their pay at the rate of or above National Minimum Wage.

Environmental record

In November 2015 the chain was one of seven restaurants surveyed that failed to meet a basic level of sustainability in its seafood. After working closely with the

Marine Stewardship Council The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a non-profit organization which aims to set standards for sustainable fishing. Fisheries that wish to demonstrate they are well-managed and sustainable compared to the MSC's standards are assessed by a te ...

(MSC), Café Rouge topped Fish2Fork's analysis of fish sourcing policies across high street restaurants in 2017, and subsequently received MSC's official Blue Fish Ecolabel accreditation in March 2018.

References

External links