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A Parisian-style eatery offering French delights ranging from moules à la crème to tartes aux citrons has opened on King Street this week.
Colmar is based at the former Beghins store, with an adjoining ‘pavement café’ at the old Petite Baguette premises on Broad Street.
David Voisin, who has owned the Beghins unit for almost four years, originally intended to let it out as a shop. However, the impact of the pandemic meant that the demand for retail significantly decreased.
He said: “The retail market has changed, and we knew we weren’t going to find a retail tenant to come and take this site on.”
Mr Voisin originally qualified and worked in hotel management, before moving to work in the trust industry for 25 years.
After leaving finance four years ago, he has been looking for something to fill his time with.
Pictured: The restaurant plans to make the most of the footfall on King Street.
He said: “I’ve known David Parish, the owner of Cheffins restaurant, for a number of years and we formed a plan to get together and create a brasserie.
“I’ve always been interested in French food and was intrigued by the fact that there are no real French restaurants in Jersey.
“I already owned this great site on the high street which was empty and so it was just a perfect fit.”
Pictured: The colour scheme and interior decoration is inspired by traditional Parisian brasseries.
The pair managed to get a change of use permit from the Planning Department and are now opening the first new restaurant on King Street for decades.
Mr Voisin expressed that he was feeling confident about the somewhat unusual location: “If you just look outside right now, there are already people trying to come in all in the time and queuing up to read the menu board.
“We’ve tried to keep the prices quite low to try to appeal to a wide range of people, as we don’t want Colmar to be exclusive.
“If we were a ‘high-end’ restaurant, then you might as well place us anywhere - there’s no point being on the high street if you can’t make the most of the footfall.”
Mr Voisin believes that the location is one of the things that will enhance the brasserie-feel of the restaurant, adding: “You couldn’t do this in St. Brelade or even in St. Aubin, it just has to be the town centre.”
Pictured: There is also a small bar that will service both the brasserie and the café.
Speaking of his hopes for the future of his endeavour he said: “I want Colmar to be a number of things. Some people may want to come here to have a quick bowl of soup or a croque monsieur, while others may want a dozen oysters and a chateaubriand with an expensive bottle of wine while they sit down for a four-hour lunch!”
At the back of the brasserie is the old Petite Baguette outlet, which Mr Voisin also owns and is converting into an adjoining Café Colmar.
He said: “It’ll have a different menu as we will be cooking it in the smaller café kitchen.
“There will be fruits de mer, a selection of hot dishes including steak and frites or moules and frites, as well as sandwiches and charcuterie platters.”
Pictured: The brasserie will be paired with the adjoining Café Colmar.
The name Colmar comes from a “beautiful” town in Alsace, France, which is said to be where the French brasseries we know today originate from.
Mr Voisin laughed: “What sold it as the final name for me was that English people can easily spell it and pronounce it – it’s only six letters, it’s easy to remember, and there are no accents or silent letters!”
Although he has enjoyed all the work that has gone into the opening of the restaurant, Mr Voisin admitted that it has not been without that challenges that have been plaguing the hospitality industry recently.
He said: “There are two main struggles really: one is finding staff, and the second is actually being able to employ them due to Government policy restrictions. Of course, I understand why the policies are in place, but it does make life very difficult.”
Pictured: The café will be located at the back of the brasserie on Broad Street.
In order to attempt to overcome these difficulties, Mr Voisin has taken a different route from many other hospitality businesses in terms of employment contracts.
“All of our staff are on salaries - they’re not paid by the hour. They are all on a set number of hours a week and then we pay them overtime.
“Because we are open all day, we are able to put staff on straight shifts rather than split shifts which I believe makes our brasserie a more attractive place to work.
“I hope this will make staff view Colmar as a ‘proper career job’ where they see a future, rather than just somewhere that they work for the time being before they find something better.
“The goal is to secure long-term staff members – we want them to want to stay.”
Pictured: The brasserie is now open from midday to 9pm, serving food all day.
The restaurant is still slightly short-staffed, but Mr Voisin hopes that the extra vacancies will be filled soon which will therefore allow the restaurant to open for longer hours.
He is excited to finally begin to welcome customers this week and share his carefully selected menu and handpicked décor with them.
He admitted: “A lot of the menu is based on what food I like – we’re not serving anything here that I wouldn’t want to eat.
“In fact, I have eaten it all! I think I had about five three-course meals this weekend to prepare for opening.
“Even on our very first day of opening we were busy and have already had some great positive feedback, so I just can’t wait to welcome even more customers to experience what we have to offer.”
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