Two stars Michelin restaurant Comme Chez Soi has temporarily laid off some of its staff. The chef Lionel Rigolet, interviewed on Saturday (16 April) by L'Echo and De Tijd, says that it is a symptom that “Brussels is dying.”
Comme Chez Soi, located at Place Rouppe in Brussels, was founded in 1926 and will celebrate its 90th anniversary in a few weeks. Never before has it happened that some of its staff had to stay at home.
Lionel Rigolet is worried about Brussels. "Restaurants and hotels are almost empty. In the city center, shops are closing one after the other," he says in De Tijd.
He is not only referring to the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels as the cause of the problems.
"Last summer we lost 18,000 euros in turnover in two months after the installation of the pedestrian area. There are also problems with the tunnels. Since the Stéphanie tunnel was closed, we don’t have any more customers from Uccle and surrounding areas. Everyone avoids the city center."
"The center is problematic and foreigners don’t come," he added in L'Echo.
The Brussels Times (Source: Belga)
