Nick and Sina Honeyman feel good in Dordogne, “we have two little girls who are at school here, [Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère] This is our home, this is our home.” After the Michelin star won at the start of the year by the South African chef and his oenologist wife with “Le petit Léon”, they decided to embark on a new project.
A restaurant open all year round
The couple set up a new restaurant in Montignac-Lascauxin the Bouilhac hotel, “it’s ten kilometers from Petit Léon, it’s ideal”. This new restaurant, the Robo, named after the dog who accompanied the discoverers of Lascaux, is open since June 1 and it will now be all year round, except for holidays in January.
The couple has been working on this project for six months, explains Sina Honeyman, it was the Bouilhac hotel that requested them and to whom they rent the premises. The couple imagined everything, the dishes, the preparations, and chose everything, “wines, cocktails”. It will be a “more traditional cuisine, it won’t be like at Petit Léon”.
“Little Léon is our babyat the beginning, we only opened eight weeks a year, today, we open it for eight months, but the remaining four months, it is very difficult to stay open” because of the configuration of the place. The tables at Petit Léon are set out in a garden outside, “It’s really a restaurant for the summer, even if we have two small indoor rooms.”
Keep the same team from one year to the next
This new restaurant within the Bouilhac hotel should allow the couple and their team to work every month of the year. The Robo welcomes eight people on permanent contractsmost have already worked at Petit Léon, and the chef or oenologist will be very present: “either Nick or me, we’ll get through every day.”
The Robo should allow the couple to keep their employees from one year to the next, “If we want to stay here and if we want to grow with the region, we had to find something for the whole year.” “Au Petit Léon” in Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, Nick and Sina Honeyman work with a dozen people, many young people for contracts during the summer “who could subsequently remain on a permanent contract”.
