Word: cojean
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...restaurant chain's popularity is proof that in a city famous for its smoky brasseries and aloof, bow-tied waiters serving up artery-clogging dishes, there are citizens hungry for alternatives. Until Cojean, Parisian lunchers who didn't have time for hour-long steak-frites meals were mostly limited to baguette sandwiches on the run or the international fast food chains hardly noted for their selection of nutritional offerings. But now Cojean, with his vegetable-packed toasted sandwiches, chicken curry wraps and salmon and quinoa salads, is the de facto godfather of a near-movement. In the last few years...
...Cojean has quickly gained a faithful following of regulars, and for its eponymous founder, his success isn't strictly business. "This may seem silly," he says, "but what motivates me is that I'm really passionate about food and wanted to create something beautiful that had the best quality products and service." Sounds like p.r. boilerplate, but Cojean has the bona fides to back it up - a grand irony that is a little-known secret: he's a 15-year veteran of McDonald's Europe. Literally the day after he resigned as one of the hamburger giant's directors...
...year and half seeking start-up money. "They kept saying no, but I knew it was just a matter of time, because I had a sound idea. It was the 14th bank that gave me the loan." Now celebrating half a decade, with three openings in 2006 alone, Cojean has been profitable since last year. Not bad for a guy who's never read a marketing book and claims to have no long-term business plan...
...also has no public relations department nor even a business card - just his cellphone and backpack and motorcycle, deciding each morning at which location he'll spend the day. Alain Cojean would be a decidedly unconventional CEO, if ever he cared to take the title. Daily menus and product development is more and more solely in the hands of Fred Maquair, his associate and old friend of almost two decades. After the first few restaurants opened, Cojean bought a large kitchen in an industrial section of the Left Bank, where the food for the day is prepared then delivered...
...healthier diets and lifestyles. Indeed, with next February's law that will prohibiting smoking in cafes and restaurants, and even the international fast food chains adding veggie-centric offerings, the proverbial tipping point may have already been reached. All this attention on nutrition and fresh food environments makes Alain Cojean one happy restauranteur. He doesn't even mind the competition. Well, at least not anymore. "It bugged me at first that we kind of served as a laboratory for some of these other ones before they got started," he says, "but in the end, more fresh food around town...