Between 400 and 500 guests filled the Beg-Avel restaurant on Friday March 29, 2024, the day of last service for Guy and Anne Pelleau. A crowd came to enjoy the last pieces of a familiar buffet with the couple before they enjoy, the next day, a well-deserved retirement. “Regulars who became friends. We even go eat at their place sometimes,” confides Guy. Exchange of good practices. Before hitting the keel, the Milizacois worked for forty-two years in the Beg-Avel furnaces.
“I worked alongside my mother (Claire Pelleau) until she retired in 1993. She taught me business sense, cooking and typical recipes.” The many fans of the famous Wednesday kig-ha-farz can praise this attachment to transmission.
From a small farm to a large working-class restaurant
This taste for local tradition was first carried by the grandparents, Soizic and Adolphe Pelleau, founders, in 1935, of Maison Beg-Avel. “A small farm with a bar and a grocery store. The center of neighborhood life.” By taking over the reins, the second generation, François and Claire Pelleau, transformed the place. They were the ones who had the building built in 1973.
“In its juice for fifty years,” Guy proudly points out. “It was already a working-class restaurant. Seven days a week. My parents never stopped.” Thirty seats at the time, 150 (six days a week) when the adventure ended. “And everyone mixes”, appreciate the hosts, fond of the spectacle of social diversity around mixed salads and small dishes that perk up.
New Year’s onion soup
With a special mention for the New Year’s onion soup. “It started in the 80s and ended in 2002, when we expanded. We opened at 6 a.m. The bar and the room were crowded. People came from all over the Iroise region. Some by bus! And there was never a fight.” It was the time before “social” networks, when footballers and supporters came to discover the sports results on Sunday evening.
“The bar was doing better before, young people were going out more, people were stopping for lunch and coming back after work.” However, there is no shortage of them in front of Beg-Avel. “Forty years ago, farmers took their cows along this road. Today, departmental 67 (Gouesnou-Saint-Renan axis) has an average of 15,000 cars per day. It has become the great ring road of Brest.”
Thai cuisine from July
Time has flown, too, around this renowned landmark of good franquette and crossroads of local social life where a number of association meetings have been held. Although they have always been willing to help parents, Florent (31 years old) and Brieuc (25 years old) did not want to take over. A page of family history closes. But a new chapter must open next July. “The buyers, Marie-Line and Duc (Zhang), came to see us on the last day of activity. With spring rolls.” The couple, who ran the Thaï Phuket, in downtown Brest, for ten years, will offer the Milizacois establishment to Thai gastronomy (lunch and catering).
2024-04-07 11:30:50
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