The new eco – The café restaurant “les Délices Blues” will open in Dijon with autistic staff
A new brand will soon open in the city center of Dijon instead of the bar “Granjib” whose owners are retiring. The restaurant “Les Délices Blues” will take over at 49 rue des Godrans from January 2022 after imminent renovation work. This new establishment offers meals to eat in and take away, all “homemade” made from local products. Its particularity, it will employ young autistic people, supervised by three people, including Delphine Jeauneau, the future manager of the “Blue Delights”. Maintenance.
Why open a restaurant with staff with autism spectrum disorders?
Quite simply because I have been involved at the associative level for several years in an association that I created to help young adults with autism and their families. These young people grow up, reach adulthood and suddenly, there is no solution for them. I told myself that we needed an “after” association to continue to support these young people and ensure their future as best as possible.
How many young people with autism are you going to employ and how are you going to select them?
There is no diploma required for these young people. Simply, what we are going to ask them is an appetite for the catering industry. Love to cook and love to serve people. They will be recruited already within the association, and then also by word of mouth. So, initially, we are going to hire four young people and then, I would like to arrive at the number of six. The goal is that they turn on all the stations and that they do all the missions within the restaurant because I said to myself that if I put two in the kitchen, they will never have contact with customers. And the desired goal anyway, is precisely to work on your relationship with others.
What will be the status of this restaurant?
It’s an ordinary business project because symbolically, for me, it was very important that young people could say that they were working in an ordinary business.
What kind of cuisine are you going to offer?
It will be traditional cuisine, completely “homemade” and we will favor the use of local products. It will be simple, authentic and traditional cuisine in our restaurant. In fact, we will offer breakfast until the afternoon snack break. We will simply have two opening evenings, Friday and Saturday evenings. In the evening, on will rather be on “aperitif” boards. We will also organize privatized evenings for company meetings, association meetings, birthdays, theme evenings, such as Autism Day, which takes place every year on April 2.
You are going to launch a call for crowdfunding. Why ?
We are indeed going to launch a crowdfunding campaign to finance the necessary equipment in the kitchen, for example a hooded dishwasher that is much more practical and much easier to use for young people, which prevents them from hurting their backs. by carrying heavy crockery baskets when they are full to do our decoration. Things like that and material that will be used by young people.
Did you do a market study to relaunch this restaurant?
Yes. This market research was carried out by students from BSB, Burgundy School of Business. It turns out, in fact, that people are sensitive to our project and ready to take a little walk to come and eat with us and discover the capacities of our young people. For it to be rented, we need 25 covers every day, and we address people who will come for their lunch break between noon and two to people who are walking around and who will simply drink a coffee or eat a piece of pie.
Providing a future for young people with autism
Delphine Jeauneau has been working on this restaurant project for two years, because her son, who himself has Asperger’s autism, has been passionate about cooking and baking since he was little. The son of the secretary of the association, who is a little over 20 years old, is also passionate about cooking and catering, it is a service “to others”. It’s making other tastes happy and it’s a great area for all that is social skills work. The biggest difficulty with these young people is communication and there, they will be in daily contact with customers. Comment made on with others? How do we behave with others, this restaurant will allow them to open up to others.
What aid to support this project?
In terms of aid, despite the social aspect of this restaurant project, Delphine Jeauneau has no help from local communities (town hall, department, region). On the other hand, she thanks associations such as the Lions Club, Rotary or the “Inner Wheele” association.