“Here it’s like home”: a brasserie in Gironde in the new guide “PMU, the 100 bars that make France”

“Hello Christopher! Since he drinks hazelnut coffee, I call him my little squirrel!“It is not for nothing that this Gironde brasserie appears in the new guide “PMU, the 100 bars that make France“(Éditions Le Fooding) which appears on newsstands this Thursday. Written by Paul-Henry Bizon, this directory distinguishes addresses”close, mythical and unique” where you can bet on horse races and enjoy a menu of dishes “which revisits French classics“. The only establishment retained in the department, Jep's, located east of Bordeaux, at the gates of Entre-deux-Mers, in the town of Fargues-Saint-Hilaire.

“It’s the local novel that is written every day”

Open for 19 years, Jep's is a PMU brasserie which is also a tobacconist. “We welcome 1,000 daily customers all combined”indicates manager Johanna Salleneuve. “I don't play at PMU, what I like is to come and have a good drink and what's nice is that they renew the menu every week, there's ossobuco , beef cheek or even tapas”explains Bertrand, a winegrower who came with his Golden Retriever to enjoy the sunny terrace.

More than the church, it is Jep's which is in the middle of the village. “The church is a little geographically eccentric”, smilingly recognize six men of the church, including the vicar general of the diocese of Bordeaux, in the middle of a seminar in the brasserie. “Life is the PMU, it’s the bar! I come for the morning cream, the mid-morning and midday cream too“, testifies Jean. “Thank you Father”, answers Johanna Salleneuve.

“We even have a customer who comes from St-Médard-en-Jalles every morning!”

“It's like home, we know all our customers, warns Johanna Salleneuve, giving Jean-Michel a kiss. So we come here to have a drink, to play, to eat, to listen to music. Our customers come from everywhere, from Libourne, from Bordeaux. We even have a customer in the morning, a regular who comes from St-Médard-en-Jalles just to drink his coffee and then goes back to work. It’s incredible!”

“It's the clash of cultures, welcomes the young woman. Everyone mixes well here. There, we have priests, we have construction guys, families. We are the only ones to be open 365 days a year, 18 hours a day. So, in fact, people know that at any time of the day or night, they can come.”

Nicknamed Shakiro for her ability to sing”presque” like Shakira, Johanna Salleneuve and her colleagues Mélinda and Laurence are “always in a good mood.” When customers arrive in the morning, “They still have their heads in the bed and when they leave, they have a smile on their face and they are singing!” Besides, Christophe doesn't hesitate to sing Johnny at the top of his lungs at the counter.

“Look at number 14, he ends up like a bullet!“A Jep’s regular, Christophe has been an inveterate PMU player for several decades.”If you don't have your head on your shoulders, you lose everything in your life. When we realize everything we have lost in thirty years, you regret having one day played at PMU”recognizes the fifty-year-old in front of the mid-day trifecta.

“We are not going to defraud people“, assures Johanna Salleneuve. When a customer seems on the tightrope, the boss advises him to play in moderation before the drama. “We had the story of a little man who came every day, and at a certain point, he no longer played the same games as usual, he always did more and more, and we told him to stop, it was over“.

“I don't drink alcohol, I come and have my little Perrier every day.”adds Ilan, an Amazon delivery driver. “If you drink too much Perrier, I’ll tell you too”says Johanna Salleneuve. And during this time, the group of six priests leaves without ruling out the possibility of one day blessing Jep's. “I have blessed houses, cars, so why not this PMU, I could“, says the priest of Fargues-St-Hilaire.

14,200 points of sale examined throughout France

“Near my house, there is a PMU bar called the Kennedy that I particularly like. All the people in the neighborhood pass there, each at their own time. It's the local novel that's written every day.”says Paul-Henry Bizon, editor-in-chief of the guide “PMU, the 100 bars that make France” (sold at the price of 10 euros). To create this address directory “which are the beating heart of local life“, 35 investigators from the independent guide Le Fooding examined the 14,200 PMU points of sale in France (287 in Gironde) before preselecting 250 establishments.

“We feel an increasingly marked interest in these warm places which are refuges of conviviality, quite simple in fact, where we can go without asking too many questions, without code. So we wanted to go out into the field and investigate as we do with the addresses of restaurants in the Fooding guide. We then classified these places by theme, categories for places very involved in local life, others because they are indeed a little more festive, others where you eat very well, others more focused on sport”explains Paul-Henry Bizon to France Bleu Gironde.

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