When was Brasserie Chez Clément founded?

The founding year of Chez Clément is 1858. For visitors curious about the genealogy of the place, the simplest way to read it is as a five-generation timeline, anchored at one continuous Walloon Brabant address. Each generation has added its own layer to the brasserie's identity while preserving the same fundamental promise, a serious kitchen, a warm room, and an open door seven days a week.

The first generation, Henri and Sidonie Clément, opened the original inn in 1858 under the name “Bruyère à la Croix”, literally “Heather at the Cross”, on what was then a country lane between Brussels and the southern villages of Walloon Brabant. The second generation, Jules Clément and Marie-Lidwina, took over from 1923 and developed the brewing and lemonade-making side of the business. The third generation, Marcel and Andrée Clément, ran the venue from 1954 and opened the dedicated wine bar in 1976, the first major expansion of the offer.

The fourth generation, France Clément, took the brasserie from 1996 to 2021. France launched the iconic Thursday-night “Thursday disco nights” tradition and recruited chef Vincent Frédéric De Laloy in 1996, who has been in the kitchen ever since. Vincent is himself the grandson of a Michelin-starred chef (Chez Grégoire, in the 1960s), trained at the CERIA culinary school in Brussels and shaped by stints at the Étangs Mellaerts, Thoumieux, Le Méridien and Le Trèfle à 4. The fifth generation, Marie and Gilles Verleyen, took over in 2021 under the J and JJ Brasserie SA banner. Their daughter June is informally already counted as a sixth generation in waiting.

Two telling anecdotes capture how the family logic operates in practice. First, Marie and Gilles were married in the brasserie's own conservatory, a piece of biographical detail that quietly underlines the depth of the personal commitment. Second, the kitchen porter has been part of the brigade for twenty years, an extraordinary tenure that mirrors the family's own continuity into the broader team. From 1858 to 2026, Chez Clément has been a continuous Belgian brasserie story.