Buffalo leaves the capital. Located on Porte d’Orléans, in the 14th arrondissement, the brand’s latest Parisian restaurant specializing in barbecue will permanently close its doors this Friday, October 31, according to our information. The establishment will thus suffer the same fate as the Buffalo de République, Pigalle and Gare du Nord, also forced to lower the curtain in recent years.
Voted for ten years as “the French’s favorite brand in the table catering category”, Buffalo Grill seems to encounter some resistance from Parisian customers. But for Robert Guillet, general director of the chain, the closure of the Porte d’Orléans restaurant is mainly explained by a difficult general context for the entire sector in the capital, with more and more establishments closing.
“There is a drop in consumption in Paris, because we click and collect, and they deliver to us. (…) Consumption patterns are changing,” he observes, adding that “inflation of raw materials has made the price of menus more expensive.”
At the same time, the cost of energy skyrocketed and “rents increased” to such an extent that the economic equation had become delicate.
“A concept of the periphery”
“Paris is a city saturated with restaurants. There are too many restaurants,” emphasizes Bernard Boutboul, president of Gira Conseil. For this industry expert, Buffalo pays the price, while Parisian customers already have a significant offer of steakhouses. Not to mention that, in his opinion, it was difficult for Buffalo to “collaborate” with the competing channel Hippopotamus “already well established in the capital.”
Bernard Boutboul also claims that he “never understood why Buffalo settled in Paris.” “It’s purely a suburban concept with its big red houses decorated with antlers. Buffalo needs these houses, these big spaces,” he says. The frequentation of restaurants outside the capital attests to this:
“It is the only brand that affects provincial French so much, it is incredible. It is not pejorative. It is a place where they like to meet, where we eat good meat, where there is a good atmosphere.”
Buffalo does not leave Paris
If the French love Buffalo, the brand, which had a turnover of around 500 million euros in 2024, decided to modernize by abandoning the Western atmosphere in favor of a “road trip” concept that reflects the “American lifestyle.” A new environment deployed in fifty restaurants out of 326 and that is already working with a growth of more than 20% in these establishments, according to Robert Guillet.
The Buffalo of the 14th district had not yet undergone this transformation. However, “jeans and Indians are out of fashion. (…) We are reaching the end of the lease contract. We had the opportunity to leave. Instead of leaving (to Paris) with a concept that no longer works, we are going to think about the strategy and we will return,” explains the general director of the brand.
Beyond the concept, Buffalo is changing its strategy by internalizing the design, limiting intermediaries in logistics or management, accelerating franchising (about half of the restaurants today)…
Adjusted map for the capital? Have the prices changed? Or just copy and paste the new concept that is already popular in the cities located in the suburbs of Paris? Robert Guillet says he doesn’t have the answer yet. But he assures that Buffalo Grill is not leaving Paris: “We will return because our goal is to serve all French people.”
Source: BFM TV
