Grand Scène, the great mezze – Liberation

In Lille, this “temple” of street food opens its doors with a dozen local and responsible stands. An initiative that also aims to be a place of exchange, and will host conferences, cooking classes or concerts.–

It took almost three months to wait, pandemic obliges, before Grand Scène (1) finally opens its doors in Lille (North). Initially scheduled for April, the launch of this maousse space dedicated to street food did not finally take place until the end of June, in the very busy rue de Béthune. On two levels and some 1,600 m2, we discover a dozen stalls offering gourmet and easy-to-eat food, with an emphasis on local products, a tea room-style pastry shop and two bars, whose drinks are, as many. as possible, produced by breweries and lemonade in the area. For example, we will sip a glass of artisan cola instead of the famous soda from the Coca-Cola Company – in terms of taste, we don’t lose out.

In this space designed as a “food court”, like the large halls where you can eat popular and generally not too expensive food, in Asia, northern Europe or North America, and which can accommodate up to 800 people, everyone chooses what they want to eat and drink. Before settling down at one of the large shared tables, like a picnic on the road to the holidays or a convivial Fête de l’Huma (but in a slightly more elegant atmosphere, shaped by Cut Architectures and the design studio FormaBoom ). The guests of the same group can thus eat Syrian, Italian, Greek or French. “The idea of ​​this pharaonic project is also to create a place of culture and awakening”, explains Marianne Barbier, the co-founder and general manager of Grand Scène. Stands can indeed accommodate conferences, wine and cooking classes, game evenings, blind-test and bingo type, DJ sets, afternoons dedicated to children, or even concerts. For the team at the initiative of the place, it is in fact a question of making it a «Restaurant», or the contraction of “party” and “restaurant”.

“A kind of springboard”

Manon Lietar, 28-year-old from Lille, who runs the La Güerita taco stand, says: “I have traveled a lot and learned to cook while traveling. It’s not my job, even if cooking and good products has always been a family passion. I cook fusion cuisine. ” In his tacos of the day, we find refritos, a homemade black bean puree, common in Mexican cuisine, chipotle (a smoked pepper, also from Mexico), feta, green asparagus, pumpkin seeds, pickles of fennel, and a little dill. An amazing mix that works well. If you don’t have a palate very fond of spices, you can opt for a pizza, cooked in a large oven that can accommodate nearly ten (at Pizzou), bowls healthy, a Greek-inspired souvlaki (skewer of grilled meat and vegetables) (at Kalimera), a burger with duck breast or duck confit with fries in parsley sauce (Canard Street, also present in Paris and Reims), a sandwich which is located on the border between kebab and burger (La Broche, run by brothers David and Fabrice Louf), pancakes and pancakes (by the trio of friends at the head of Brutus, also found in Paris), frankly cheerful pastries, cookies with banana bread and other babka-type brioches (at Tamper!), a fish and chips (at Mersea, supervised by the two-starred Breton chef Olivier Bellin), a delicious Syrian mezze (at Ataya) …

“The chefs know how to cook, we support them in the business process. It’s a kind of springboard ”, explains Marianne Barbier. The cooks thus benefit from a mentoring system, to help them establish their business plan or organize their management, for those who are just starting out in the profession. They come from Lille, Lyon, Paris or London… and sometimes from further afield. Bassem and Reem Ataya, originally from Damascus, left their country in the early 2010s. Arrived in France, Reem, who taught French in Syria, found a job, but Bassem, who worked in the magazine press, had more of difficulties. Inspired by the cuisine of his parents, at the head of a restaurant in Syria, he took to the kitchen by participating in one-off events such as the Refugee Food Festival – an initiative which, every year for four years, has hosted, refugee cooks at French tables so that they can share their recipes. Since becoming a home caterer, Bassem Ataya was able to open this year, via the Grand Scène project, its first physical store.

(1) 31, rue de Béthune, Lille (59). Open every day from 10 a.m. Rens. : Grand-scene.com

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