Eat Your Veggies and Other Good Advice From Le Botaniste’s Laurent Francois

Michael Mendenhall: This is going to be really fun because it involves food, some of which I have not had all day. But our next business partner and also a customer of ours multiple times, is a man who brought us Le Pain Quotidien. Now, as most Americans say, “la pain quo-tan” or others just say, “the bread place.” He was one of the executives that helped create Le Pain Quotidien, but he is now one of the founders of this newly created new offering, 100% plant-based organic restaurant, Le Botaniste, opening its first restaurant in Belgium in 2015 and now has four locations throughout all of New York City. I went to one many months ago. It is awesome. It’s not sort of fast food, but it can provide you with food very quickly that’s very healthy. So the goal is to sort of surprise guests with delicious, satisfying, plant-powered organic meals that are good for the body, taste amazing and are sustainable to the planet.

We are also thrilled to have him catering. Yes, you’re going to get to sample this at today’s post event gathering. So please join me in welcoming Laurent Francois, co-founder and the CEO of Le Botaniste.

What a story.

Laurent Francois: What a story.

Michael: Well, so we’ll go back to Le Pain Quotidien, the bread place. Well originated sort of in Europe, right? In Belgium. What was the reason why you wanted to get involved with Le Pain Quotidien at first, this idea of the daily bread, that you would bring this to the market and scale it so rapidly and be so successful?

Laurent: So it’s my partner, Alain, who’s always been a food genius. He wanted to bring great decent bread to the table, which was not available. And then he started making bread, put it on a plate, and very rapidly it was successful in Belgium and he got an opportunity to open in the U.S. and 25 years later, 30 years now, there’s 300 locations.

Michael: What was the initial concept, like you’re bringing it to the U.S. and this is all about bread, but you had other offerings?

Laurent: So there was no good bread in the U.S. There was no levain bread.

Michael: Oh, there we go.

Laurent: All of that. And it was a huge opportunity. Today there’s so many different bakeries and everybody’s doing levain bread.

Michael: But you were a first leader in all of this. That’s amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Laurent: I joined later. I joined way later.

Michael: No, but I meant the company itself. They sort of led the market.

Laurent: Oh yeah, absolutely, completely. It had been and I think it still is a leader in what they’re doing. Their offering is so different and they’re not just “bread to eat.” They have table service, they have quality, they have great ingredients. I think it’s just...

Michael: But what was it like? So you bring this concept. You’re going to have to hire a lot of people. Certainly some people would be salaried and others, you have a lot of people that are working that are hourly to build a consistent culture in an environment that’s in the restaurant business and have the consistency. Was that difficult?

Laurent: I think it still is. It’s growing understanding. It’s not something that is easy to be doing. Hiring all of those people, retaining them, but having authenticity, having growth, having the potential of being part of something that is different is always attracting people.

Michael: And was it the brand. I was going to go there. Was it the brand and the culture you created that people like, “I want to be a part of that.”

Laurent: Me joining Le Pain Quotidien, when I joined Le Pain Quotidien, I was actually on a trip with my wife because me in Belgium as a Belgian citizen, I just didn’t get the concept. I was like, why are we, why should I pay that much money for tartine? I make this at home, I don’t need that. But then I was traveling in the U.S. with my wife.

Michael: But you had a Starbucks for $7...

Laurent: Exactly.

And then I was traveling to the U.S. and after 10 days, that was back in 2007 or eight, there’s a Le Pain Quotidien Beverly Hills. I’ll never forget that. My wife sees it and is like “There’s a Le Pain Quotidien. Let’s go eat a salad, let’s go eat something fresh.” And while eating, I was like, “Wow. I get the concept. I finally get the concept” and then I had the opportunity to join them a bit later. But that’s like wow, the wow effect of, I get it.

Michael: But there’s an experience to it, an experience in the design, an experience in every sort of attribute to the actual interior as well as the product. It’s not just, “Hey, get quick bread.” Was that a conscious decision?

Laurent: Yes. So the communal table is probably the first thing that Alain bought when he opened his first restaurant in Belgium. This huge big communal table, which at the beginning in the U.S. was a bit bizarre. Why would I share my table with people that I don’t know? It’s still up for debates at them. We still speak and we hear them say, “Ah, maybe we should get rid of that community table. It’s big”.

Michael: How did that work in New York City?

Laurent: That was complicated. And now with Covid.

Michael: I was going to say, somebody’s like, “Who are you?” That’s interesting. But it did work.

Laurent: It did work. It did work. And once you get acquainted to it, I think this is the first table you go and well, you see them everywhere now. How many concepts have communal tables?

**Michael:**So you did that. And when did you conceive this idea of Le Botaniste?

Laurent: So Le Botaniste. I am developing Le Botaniste and Alain, while traveling realized that he was always craving for vegetables. And he’s tried vegan when he was, and he’d been cooking and suddenly he says, “you know what?”

Michael: I have to interrupt you. Your stuff doesn’t taste like the boring vegan.

Laurent: Home cooked.

Michael: So I want you to keep going. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but it certainly is not that.

Laurent: He started prepping little things by little. And this is where he came with those sauces and he’s like, “Okay, I’m just going to do a vegetable-based surprising meal that is just like a vegetable centered, I need a restaurant that has not vegetables as a decoration but has a main dish”. And he worked around that. And this is how Le Botaniste actually...

Michael: But you do it quickly.

Laurent: Yeah.

Michael: See that’s the other thing. It’s not like we’re going to wait around. You can grab it and go. You can sit if you want you. You’ve built an environment again so that there’s an experience and you feel like you’ve gone into an old pharmacy. So walk us through that. And then the types of food and how fast it can be produced.

Laurent: So part of the creation, because of the fastness, Alain’s idea of being fast was really, he saw Chipotle. He saw the counter and he’s like, “I’m doing this with vegetables.” So at Le Botaniste, everything is there. There’s nothing that comes really out of a kitchen. So for our customers, it’s just an assembly of a base, which is rice, quinoa, potatoes, a sauce and then some toppings. And so the execution is really, really fast. Like making a bowl for our customers is 30 seconds. So when there’s a line, because of the execution and because of the team that we have, we manage to really knock out bowls very, very fast. And the wait is never more than seven minutes. And the great part of it is that you walk down the line and once you’re at the line, you take your bowl and you go sit down or you take it to go. So it’s really a quick lunch.

Michael: But it’s fresh too. You should talk about that. It’s not like...

Laurent: No, so we produce everything. Everything is produced by us. So our sauces are made at a commissary, which is shipped daily or every two days to the restaurants, which is then reheated in the restaurant. And then the potato, the starches, the shredded vegetables, all of those are made in the restaurant and just displayed on the counter. And that’s the beauty of our concept.

Michael: So why the antique sort of feeling of the pharmacy and the pharmacy apparel that the workers are, what was the reason for Le Botaniste and we’re going to move into this idea of an old pharmacy.

Laurent: So at Le Botaniste, we say “let food be the medicine,” and this is where the pharmacy comes in. It’s like we wanted to give our customers an experience, an elevated, fast casual experience. You walk into this checkered marble floors, beautiful design cord and you just walk down the line and you’re fast. So that’s food is medicine, but that’s for our guests, for us. But Le Botaniste is sustainable as well. So we are organic, we are CO2 neutral. So it’s not just for the humans, for our guests. It’s good for planet and for the world. And sorry, for our guests.

Michael: Now you also have interesting drinks there. I sampled several of them.

Laurent: You sampled the beet detox.

Michael: Yeah, that was very good.

Laurent: So the beet detox, this is also one of the things is we use the juices of the beets to make the beet detox. And the pulp is used to make our red beet caviar. So in terms of waste, minimize waste. It’s good for you. Red beets is something that people are always saying, “Ooh, this is not good.”

Michael: That was very good.

Laurent: And you tried it and you were like, “Wow, I’m surprised.”

Michael: No, and everybody wanted it. They’re all like, “We want that too”. That was very interesting. What are some of the challenges that you’ve had relative to the restaurant?

Laurent: I think we just overcame the biggest challenge that nobody ever saw coming, right?

Michael: Covid.

Laurent: Closure, furloughs, hiring back. It’s been a tremendous challenge on the team. And Le Botaniste wouldn’t be where it is today without its team. The people that were involved, the people that are still involved with Le Botaniste helped us get through those unprecedented times. Closure, half open. Open. Yeah. Managing that was probably the toughest.

Michael: And have you expanded your management team and are you going to expand in the U.S.?

Laurent: So we are working on, first of all, we survived and trying…

Michael: Well no, that’s important. There’s many that have not.

Laurent: Exactly. And more and more people want to eat vegetables. So yes, we are going to be expanding. I think there’s going to be a push over the next couple of months, years. We are developing outside of New York as well. We have a couple of locations lined in New York. So there is going to be some significant...

Michael: Are they all, oh, here we say, why do you do eat vegan? So there’s a lot of people that don’t understand, mainly for health and the environment, but a lot don’t eat vegan. How do you convince people? Because the issue is you’re not vegan really. And when someone says vegan, you think, oh, the taste is going to be bad. It’s not. It’s going to be bland. And will I get the protein? And I think you have overcome all of that with your menu. And so I don’t think you promote yourself as vegan. So why don’t you talk a little bit about that? Because I think when you say it’s plant-based, its vegan. Yes, but you’ve gone way beyond that.

Laurent: So in our communication, we don’t use the word vegan because vegan had this connotation, which is slowly getting away. Plant-based is why? It’s because we just offer another alternative that is just plants. We’re not trying to make a fake hotdog, a fake burger. What we do is real food. And I think this question is very interesting, because I’m going to let you answer it.

What were you going to be cooking, you’re doing cookouts at home. And you told me that you were going to bring something and not tell anybody.

Michael: Yeah. Well, and by the way I have done that. I don’t have yours because there was an issue shipping, but I did do that and no one knew the difference. And by the way, you have, you’ve been awarded, I think it’s nationally, is that not right?

Laurent: Yeah, it’s the best vegan…

Michael: The best vegan chili in the U.S. And it was amazing. And are we going to have some of that tonight?

Laurent: There’s none tonight, but let’s not go into those details.

Michael: No, I heard we complicated things for you.

Laurent: There’s our most popular dish that is there. So that’s taken care of. To go back to the original question is that what happens with the people that are coming to Le Botaniste have this preconceived idea of vegan and this vegan taste. We have the real taste. We have a bolognese taste. And when we have people that is not as much convinced about the taste, we try them. Okay you know what, try the chili, try the bolo. And then they’re like, “Wow, I wasn’t expecting this.”

Michael: Wow that chili. I’m so disappointed. Of course, you don’t have that tonight.

Laurent: But the curry is great.

Michael: You don’t have that. So it is healthy. It’s really remarkable. I mean, I thought the juices were amazing. There was also this idea of dessert because most people don’t associate vegan with dessert. And there was that lava thing. I’m sure we don’t have that here. It’s very complicated.

Laurent: It wouldn’t get up the elevator.

Michael: No, but it’s an amazing dessert. Talk about then the desserts as well, because you don’t always associate dessert with vegan or plant-based, I should say.

Laurent: So desserts, it’s guilt free. Don’t get me wrong, the brownie is not that guilt-free.

Michael: I’m just going to say…

Laurent: But the apple volcano is, that’s the one that you’re referring to. It’s just shredded apples and dried.

Michael: Yeah, no, this is amazing. Talk that a little bit.

Laurent: So what we do is we…

Michael: You’re going to make me like, why am I going here? Maybe I should just go to Soho.

Laurent: I can call somebody to bring one over. So we shred carrots. We marinate that with chia and flax seeds, which creates this consistency and then we dry them. But an apple is so sweet that you create that, you have that sweetness, the natural sweetness of the apple, and then we dress it up with a vanilla cashew cream, which is just surprising because it’s an apple dessert. Easy to go, easy to stay.

Michael: I actually ordered that and some of my colleagues did not. And they were quite disappointed. And so they went back and actually ordered it as well. Like, “Oh, we should have done that too.” It was really awesome. Again, the taste was amazing. And I can’t, almost, as a marketing person, this idea of vegan, the plant-based is more interesting because there’s so much sort of negativity and taste of vegan that you have to overcome all of that. And that’s not the case at all. And the people that are here are going to enjoy some of that. But you should really go because it is an environment and an experience. Enjoy tonight. But go into one of these locations and experience it because it’s very unique, different and I think he’s accomplished. Or you have, this idea of, I actually think your food is better than Chipotle. So that analogy I don’t like so much.

Laurent: It’s the speed of service. It’s not the food.

Michael: Yes, your food is far better. But anyhow, it’s such a great experience. We look forward to the expansion of this for sure. What would you say to people who are in that, I wouldn’t say quick service restaurant or fast food that you would share with them. When you’re running an organization that could have high turnover or attrition. You’re trying to build a culture. What are some of the important things you would share to really maintain that, maintain the culture and the experience with turnover and attrition?

Laurent: So the way that we approach this is really to stay true to our blueprint, to who we are and the message that we have, that we relay, the compliments that you’ve just been saying about who we are and what we do. We really try to relay that to our team. Back in 2019, just before Covid, we had a wait list of people wanting to join because we have a purpose other than just serving food. We are sustainable.

Michael: You have a very strong purpose.

Laurent: So the generation that works for us, the people that are working for us need to have an impact. This is something that we read about. And by working at Le Botaniste and us making them sure that we stay strong to that culture, they’re realizing that by selling a bowl, they actually have an impact on you. They have an impact on the planet. We need to stay strong while growing to keep that message.

Michael: Well, that purpose is strong and the people that would want to work there really believe in this.

Laurent: Exactly. And that’s what we notice. It’s the engagement of our team because of the purpose that Le Botaniste has. Ultimately...

Michael: Are some of them going to be here this evening?

Laurent: Yes. Well actually we have basically our whole management team.

Michael: Oh. This is awesome.

Laurent: We have the director of operation, which actually is sitting right there.

Michael: Oh, awesome.

Laurent: Everybody’s there. We’ll be serving.

Michael: I have to tell you. That’s interesting because when we were at Disney, it is true. We all had to work in the parks and I’ll never forget and it was always during peak season, so Easter, Christmas, and you’d have to get dressed up and go out. And I was on Main Street and I was in the popcorn outfit with the person who normally works there. And it was before a parade. It was just like this line and just constant fresh popcorn. I think we went through a couple, at least a thousand of these things at least. And someone that I knew from school saw me and basically was like, “Oh yeah, you work for Disney.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I do”. Yes. Yeah, I’m sure. They went home and said he’s actually the popcorn guy. He’s making popcorn on Main Street. He’s not management there.

But anyhow, it really is nice to see that because the idea was that you begin to interact with the guests in real time and you also start to appreciate your cast members who are hourly and the amount of time and effort that they put in to building a successful brand.

Laurent: They are ultimately the people that represent the brand. If our teams in the restaurants are not owning and are not living up to our purpose, we can be in the offices and we can generate millions of cash, but if the bowl that we sell to our customers is not good because our team does not believe in what it does, you get nowhere. So yeah, that’s our philosophy.

Michael: But it’s also getting to know you have clearly a passion for this and you’re deeply involved and I think the employee base sees that you’re engaged. I see you working at times in the store and so it’s awesome to see that. One, just an immense thank you for being a customer. I hope we are serving you incredibly well.

Laurent: Amazingly. And not just to say because we’re here, but sometimes, and I’m looking at her, she’s going to curse and whatever, but ultimately she’s like, “Wow, I love TriNet. It’s easy. It’s helping us so much.”

Michael: Well, that’s awesome. I look forward to tonight. It’ll be very fun.

Laurent: So do I.

Michael: Thank you for being here.

Laurent: Thank you.