Today we’d like to introduce you to Lionel Pigeard.
Lionel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a 42 years old restaurateur from Paris, France.
After graduating from Business schools in Paris and London in 2000, I started my career as a consultant in recruitment but I found out rapidly that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I was attracted by hospitality business. In 2003, I started an event management company specialized in promoting restaurants, bars and clubs . In 2006, my partner and I took over an old brasserie in Paris and with a ridiculous investment (5,000 euros), we managed to raise 250,000 euros to create La Cantoche Paname, an 80 seats restaurant.
In 2008, my partner was diagnosed with severe health problems and had to step aside of business; I took care of the business alone. As the executive operator, I managed the front operations as team leader, cook, maitre d’, bartender and the back office work as head of HR, sales and financials monitoring, food quality control, marketing strategy, PR and social media promotion.
In 2006, the annual revenue of the previous restaurant was 200Keuros; after 5years of hard work on cuisine quality, caring CRM and a restless communication strategy; La Cantoche achieved 1milion euros revenue. In 2010, we opened a second location. In 2013, the two restaurants were achieving about 1,8 million euros net revenues keeping 22 full-time employees. La Cantoche was one the trendiest spot in Paris.
In 2015, my partner and I decided to split and sell the restaurants and I decided to move to LA to start Palikao.
Has it been a smooth road?
I knew ups and downs! I have learnt to manage a successful as well as problematic companies. All those years I have had to cope with all the situations that can possibly happen (unfair competition, violence, lawsuits, floods, robberies, burglaries, equipment breakdowns, street riots, drug traffic, alcoholism, staff shortage, near bankruptcy, IRS audit). The list is long but I became a stronger and wiser entrepreneur.
Concerning Palikao adventure, it has been also a bit of a crazy story.
With a limited amount of cash, we decided with my wife to move to LA. She was pregnant and we needed to go fast to settle before the baby was born. As soon as we landed, I started to study the market, develop my network, understand the neighborhoods and discover the craziness of LA. I visited a lot of spots and eventually I fell in love with this small joint that used to be a Banh mi sandwich shop in DTLA . next to fashion district.
After months of negotiations with a very tough landlord, I was able to take over the space and get a new lease so I could get my investor visa validated. In the meantime, I started to test my concept and my recipes in catering events. It’s been a great experience and a hit too. Between the catering, the works at the location ( I did all the remodeling by myself my a friend of mine), and all the business preparation, I was also a new father. It has been very very challenging and for me, it was also the very first experience as a Chef.
In France, I was very involved in the kitchen and the menus working with my chefs, but not really in the production. Other challenge has been to introduce North African / middle eastern food (and especially Couscous ) to Angelinos. Most of the people here don’t know much about couscous! It’s a staple of the Mediterranean cuisine and in France too but here, it’s just the beginning .. I really wanted to adapt this dish to Californian habits and trends; this is why I chose the BYOB / couscous bar with many local produce, vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. It was very important to give a modern and Californian take to those recipes.
Another massive challenge has been the location. Borders of civilized world and third world are moving a lot in DTLA and I had been able to know precisely how would develop the neighborhood when I settled there, I am just at the frontier of skid row and I experienced the worst of the area to start a business. Poverty, robberies, lack of foot traffic, customers being annoyed while in the restaurant. It’s been hard. And the rents in DTLA are super high… I found out that the catering activity would save me so I developed the best as I could my reputation and brand awareness through social media, catering, pop-ups in office buildings, private chef services…
This is probably the future of Palikao…
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Palikao story. Tell us more about the business.
Palikao is the name of the small village where my grandmother was born in 1910, in Algeria. I inherited from her unique recipes through her and my mother.
I have an investor visa in the US; I created “Palikao” a concept of healthy Middle Eastern food. As the first couscous bar in California, Palikao is a unique concept. We are the only couscous specialist in LA and proud to give a modern and local take to this staple of North African Cuisine. Overall, we offer a larger choice of tastes with a creative middle eastern cuisine inspired by family recipes (from Algeria and Israel where a part of my family lives) and my experience in French bistrots.
With a 1st location in Downtown LA, Palikao is also operating as a caterer for private and corporate events. I am also a personal Chef. Today the retail is only 20% of our sales and 80% of the business come from delivery platforms, private events and lunch pop ups all aver the city.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Everybody knows that deliveries and catering services will keep on booming. Cooking at home became often more expensive than ordering from restaurants. On the other hand, the increase of real estate will be a threat for small size restaurants, they will have to relocate into shared or cloud kitchen. I still think that the 2 major stakes of food business in Los Angeles is being able to produce and deliver for an extensive demand and compete with restaurants who have higher communication budget than you.
Contact Info:
- Address: PALIKAO
130E 6th St
Los Angeles 90014, CA - Website: www.pali-kao.com
- Phone: 3238305248
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: palikaocouscous
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/palikaocouscous
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/palikao-los-angeles
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