Belgo was a chain of London restaurants specializing in simple Belgian cooking and Belgian beer. There were five Belgo restaurants: Belgo Centraal (

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

), Belgo Holborn, Belgo Kings Cross, Belgo Nottingham and Belgo Bromley ; following closures announced in July 2020. The chain was noted for its 1990s design and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

, including kitchens viewable by customers entering the Centraal restaurant, and waiters and waitresses who dressed as

monks A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

History

Belgo was founded in 1992 by French-Canadian Denis Blais and Anglo-Belgian Andre Plisnier. For a time the brand was expanded to a chain of bar-diners known as Bierodrome in

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history ...

, Kingsway, and

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ...

, and at Belgo Zuid in

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given to ...

– all now closed) but it later reverted to 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 financial stewardship, with colleague

Hugh Osmond Hugh Edward Mark Osmond (born March 1962) is an entrepreneur and businessman and was the founder of Punch Taverns, one of the UK's largest chains of public houses. Early life Hugh Edward Mark Osmond was born in March 1962, the son of a doctor, ...

, of the Pizza Express chain of 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 Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the ...

lasted barely 12 months before closing in 2000. The Belgo flotation was used as a vehicle to acquire a number of celebrated chic London restaurants, such as The Ivy, The Caprice, Daphne's The Collection and J. Sheekey, creating the 'Signature Restaurants' division, and a business with a market capital that peaked at more than £90,000,000. Johnson sold his interest in Belgo in 2005 to Tragus Group, now

Casual Dining Group Casual Dining Group (CDG), formerly Tragus Group, operated 250 restaurants in the United Kingdom. CDG operated restaurants primarily under the Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Las Iguanas names. It also operates sites under the Belgo, Huxleys, Ori ...

, which also owns the French-styled

Café Rouge 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 R ...

chain and the

Bella Italia Bella Italia (formerly known as Bella Pasta) is a chain of over 90 restaurants offering meals inspired by Italian cuisine in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The chain is part of The Big Table Group, which also owns Café Rouge and Las Iguana ...

chain of Italian restaurants. In July 2020 on the back 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 ...

, the Casual Dining Group went into

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 ...

and it announced that Belgo would permanently close three of its four sites.

Charity

In 2013, Belgo was an official partner 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".

References

External links

*
Google Images of 'Belgo'
{{Food chains in the United Kingdom, state=collapsed Belgian cuisine Defunct restaurants in London European restaurants in London Restaurants disestablished during the COVID-19 pandemic Restaurants disestablished in 2020 Restaurants established in 1992

History

Charity

See also

References

External links