Toulouse: the owners of La Grillée from the restaurant go… to the food truck
In July 2020, a fire led to the permanent closure of the famous restaurant on rue de Metz in Toulouse. He would have celebrated his 50th birthday this year. But the family bounced back.
“La Grillée, when are you coming back?” Many people were impatiently awaiting the return of their rib steaks, their homemade fries and their secret sauce. It took a few months for the mythical Toulouse restaurant, established since August 22, 1992 at 62 rue de Metz, to turn into a food truck. An alternative solution after his disappearance in a fire in July 2020. A new way of consuming, working and sharing had to be found.
La Grillée becomes “Maison La Grillée”
“I was asked a lot by former customers of the restaurant after closing. I gave myself a year off, to enjoy my children, and then I thought about the food truck. It’s freer than a restaurant and more up-to-date”. After his grandmother and his father, it is Adrien Micouleau, third of his generation, who perpetuates the secret of their inimitable sauce with the opening of his own food truck. He went to Lille to look for the truck, it is an old refurbished chip shop. At his side in the food truck, Benoît, a former employee of La Grillée. The name changes to become “La maison La Grillée”, but the concept remains the same. On the menu: rib steak, duck breast and veal kidney straight from the Maison Lascours Lherm butcher. As an accompaniment, homemade fries and a walnut salad, and of course, the famous sauce whose recipe is passed down from generation to generation. “I take care of the sauce. I do it like my grandmother and my father do. In case something happens to me, the recipe is protected and has been filed with a notary,” he says. Food truck rhymes with street food, the novelty on the menu is the Grilled American, “We take a bread from the artisanal bakery Détour Gourmand, we put the salad, the sauce, the meat and the fries, all at the same time, this is what works best with young people,” explains Adrien. The majority of the restaurant’s former customers are still loyal to him. Adrien says: “I started working at the restaurant when I was 21. My father saw three generations, me two. The children who received with their parents at La Grillée now come to get food from the food truck”. It’s no longer the bistro atmosphere he knew when he was younger, but the clientele still appreciates going to him, he explains: “People are happy to find a familiar face when they see me. I try to keep this good mood that we had in the restaurant”.