20 years later, Tieck manages several restaurants in Rennes

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Some know him as Jacques Thipthiphakone, others as Tieck. “I like it, it blurs the lines,” smiles the co-founder and manager of the Envie group. It is he who, with his family, is behind many restaurants in Rennes, appreciated for their original concepts, such as WhiteField’s Café, Avec or more recently Librairie. Jacques Thipthiphakone, who describes himself as “modest but uninhibited”, doesn’t like talking about him. But for news Renneshe puts aside this modesty to tell his story.

And this begins in 1985, in his mother’s womb. While his parents, originally from Laos and Thailand, left Asia with their three daughters, they decided to settle in Rennes. It was therefore in the Breton capital that Tieck was born.

“I lived in Blosne, Place du Banat, until I was 18,” says the entrepreneur who has seen the neighborhood change over the years. “We were in the first HLM buildings, with wooden windows. I remember the first renovation work: the building went from brown to yellow and we had PVC windows. »

“An accident of life”

From the age of 16, Tieck began working every summer in a restaurant run by his sister Julie and his brother-in-law, in the United States. A first experience which teaches him rigor.

Then at 19, “after a family disagreement”, his father “kicks him out”. On the street, he slept in his car for a while. A situation which led him to leave Rennes to start a new life.

“My sister told me ‘there’s no way my little brother will sleep in a car’ and I went to join her permanently in the United States,” says Jacques Thipthiphakone.

It’s an accident of life. But today, I say thank you because I became a restaurateur thanks to that.

His brother-in-law trained him in the trade “using the American method, so It’s walk or die.” But he held on and from there his vocation was born. Tieck will create restaurants.

A first restaurant and a first success

After a year spent in Uncle Sam’s country, Tieck decided to settle there: “I took the steps to obtain the Green Card. » But Jacques Thipthiphakone meets the woman who will become his wife. He therefore aborts his project and returned to France in 2005.

Back in the Breton capital, Tieck wonders about his future… “Catering was my only background, so I told myself that I had to start a restaurant. » He first worked as an employee, notably at Fuji to improve his skills in Japanese cuisine.

At the same time, he is looking to start his business with his wife and his brother-in-law. It is in 2007 that the three partners open In Wok January Avenue. The adventure of the Envie group begins. Et the success Also.

When it opened, “the clientele was surprised, as if people were just waiting for that (…) The decoration was new with Buddhas, chandeliers with tassels, a Japanese path and a TV in the bar,” recalls the restaurateur .

The Wok shakes up the codes: customers eat in the window, are visible from the street and can eat directly at the counter. And it works.

“An obstacle course”

“In 2006, the catering offer in Rennes was not that extensive. It was a lot of creperies, pizzerias and brasseries. »

We arrive with Asian cuisine, but American style. The banks saw us as aliens.

We must then fight to obtain the confidence of financiers. “In 2006, the word ‘wok’ was little known, people didn’t understand. The same goes for sushi: eating raw fish has not become popular,” recalls Jacques Thipthiphakone.

So you have to be able to convince. “We had quite a few refusals banks, it was an obstacle course,” recalls the manager.

Ultimately, “the Wok was the locomotive of all the wagons” that followed.

Two restaurants in one year

Thanks to its first success, the Envie group expanded with the opening of Moon, in 2007, and the Piment Rouge grocery store in 2009.

In 2011, Jacques Thipthiphakone opened a second Wok, rue de Fougères. “Initially, the idea was to franchise the Wok, then, given the difficulties of supply and recruitment, we said to ourselves that that posed too many development constraints. »

It was in 2014 that the group took an important turn. “We opened two restaurants the same year with strong identities”: Mr. Yak (rue de la Chalotais) and the BDS (Quai Lamennais).

With BDS, the group offers cuisine different from its usual ones, with beer and burgers, and is launching a new concept from the United States.

Rennes is a very supportive city for its club but there were only bars to watch the matches and no places to drink and eat at the same time for 90 minutes.

Romain Danzé, Camille Combal, Mika…

To launch this bar restaurant which broadcast sports all year round, Tieck can count on a local personality: Romain Danzé, then captain of Stade Rennais. “He was a client of Wok, we told him about the project and he suggested we do it together. »

Second helping hand and chance of fate: the Envie group is contacted by Virgin radio to install the control room Camille Combal for a special broadcast with Mika.

“We had the audacity to accept. All the furniture had to be removed to put 300 people on their feet and install The Voice chairs. »

When Mika and Camille Combal arrived, there was a tidal wave outside, the municipal police arrived. It gave us a big publicity stunt.

The restaurant quickly became the headquarters of many Rennais men and women.

The openings follow one another

The Envie group doesn’t stop there. “In 2016, we opened our first business outside the city center with Tuk Tuk Mum, rue de Chateaugiron. A strategic choice: “We turned our backs on the city center, we saw that it was starting to get tense with the demonstrations and the first tensions broke out,” notes Jacques Thipthiphakone while the French are expressing their anger in the face of Myriam El Khomri’s Labor law.

After that, the openings followed first in 2017, with the WhiteField’s Café, in Cesson-Sévigné. “A UFO” in the restaurant with four different cuisines and pre-paid cards to consume.

In 2018, follows WITH, rue du Breil, a hybrid concept with a bar-restaurant, a garage and a tattoo parlor.

In 2020, Jacques Thipthiphakone and his wife separated. The manager therefore finds himself at the head of the group with two of his sisters – Laure Thipthiphakone and Caroline Dhellin-Thipthiphakone – who have joined the adventure in the meantime. After the pandemic, Envie separated from Moon, BDS and Wok on avenue Janvier.

The bankers, “we gave them a headache”

In 2023, a new adventure begins with: a restaurant, bar and coffee shop, centered on the world of cinema, under the name of Saint-Jacques Café in the Courrouze district.

Jacques Thipthiphakone continues to invest in the district in 2024, with Library, a café-restaurant that looks like a library.

Initially, we do this out of passion to open new restaurants and then we are happy to see the neighborhood take ownership of the place.

A victory for Tieck who sometimes had to battle with the banks. “Bankers don’t like new ideas because there is no guarantee that it will work. They didn’t want to take any risks. And with our projects, we were giving them a headache,” the manager laughs.

” NOW, banks ask us to innovate and not to duplicate. The franchise has lost its fervor,” notes the Rennais.

“Working with family is great”

To find new ideas, Tieck traveled extensively with his wife and children. “ We feed on other cultures and we share our travels by recreating them in our establishments. »

To keep up with almost one opening per year, Jacques Thipthiphakone can count on those close to him. “Working as a family is great,” says the manager.

There is solidarity between us and we can build our restaurants by having children. It’s a luxury to have a maternity plan but to continue to invest. This helps keep the pace going.

“We know each other well, in our best and worst ways,” Tieck also emphasizes.

Pass the group on to the youngest

Working as a family also means transmitting. Éric, the nephew of Jacques Thipthiphakone, joined the adventure. At 23, he was an executive assistant. His son must also join the team.

“We’ll see if other children in the family want to work with us. It is also important to bring back something new, their competence with technology and to develop something other than commerce. »

In the meantime, Tieck continues his journey and imagines his future abroad,in Thailand.

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