“We already knew each other a little, but we truly became friends after we separated from our respective partners around the same time, we started going out a lot again and so we often crossed paths,” say smiling Lionel Gisclon and Sébastien Vinci.
The first, 42, is an employee in a vending machine company in La Talaudière. The second, 45, is a customer service representative in a cleaning company in Saint-Étienne. He has also worked in the nightlife scene for many years, as a DJ: he plays the decks in various establishments in the city such as Parci Parla, l’Éphémère and Canopy.
An investment of 60,000 euros
“I had wanted to set up my own bar for a while, but I didn’t feel like doing it alone,” says Sébastien Vinci. We started talking about it with Lionel about a year ago, and I said to myself that he was the perfect traveling companion to embark on this adventure. »
The two partying friends have set their sights on the premises located at 2 of the small rue Antoine-Roule (which connects rue Gambetta and cours Victor-Hugo). This is the former Mérieux firm, which had also launched an initiative to revive this premises by offering free rent for six months then half price for a year. “The location is ideal, right between the Les Halles sector and the Saint-Jacques district…”
Two months of work and an investment of 60,000 euros later, the premises were transformed, and Le Before opened its doors on June 20. Small clarification: there is no link with the former LGBT bar of the same name which was located rue de la Résistance (and which became ZanzyBar last May).
A DJ on the decks every evening
The place is small, 60 m2 but it lends itself perfectly to the spirit of conviviality that the two owners want to establish. “Here, there are no rules, it’s a bar where anything can happen,” they proclaim. Their motto, which is displayed in neon in the middle of a plant wall: “Never grow up.”
If the place is small, the bar is huge: “It was important for us, because personally, we like to lean on the bar when we go out for a drink…” But at Before, you can also get up to dance, thanks to a musical atmosphere provided every evening by a DJ (including Sébastien Vinci himself).
The Before is only open on weekends, from Thursday to Saturday from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. It should remain open all summer, “which will allow us to get into the swing of things for the new school year.”
