How many generations now run Chez Clément?

Five generations have followed one another at the head of Brasserie Chez Clément since it was founded in 1858. That is a rare span in Belgian hospitality: over 168 years of activity, the house has never moved, the building has never gone dark, and every hand-over has been continuous up to today.

The first generation, from 1858 to 1923, belonged to Henri and Sidonie Clément, who opened the coaching inn called “Bruyère à la Croix”. The second generation, from 1923 to 1954, was carried by Jules Clément and Marie-Lidwina, Jules was a brewer and a lemonade-maker, and he built up production on site. The third generation, from 1954 to 1996, was that of Marcel and Andrée Clément, who opened a wine bar in 1976 and saw the house enter the cultural memory of Walloon Brabant. The fourth generation, from 1996 to 2021, belonged to France Clément, who turned a six-table country brasserie into a destination venue and launched the Thursday disco nights nights.

Since 2021, the fifth generation has been at the helm: Marie and Gilles Verleyen have taken over the brasserie, bought the walls outright and restructured the operating entity under the name J and JJ Brasserie SA. Their stated approach is straightforward: preserve the family soul of the house while modernising. Marie and Gilles were married in the conservatory of the brasserie, a quiet detail that signals their personal attachment to the building they now run.

The sixth generation is already implicitly in the picture: June, the daughter of Marie and Gilles, is the symbolic heir of this transmission. Nothing has been decided yet about her future role, the house treats it as a long horizon, not a tightly planned succession. But the official five-generation narrative of the house already gives June her place. On the ground, the continuity translates into a stable team (a brigade of thirty-two in the kitchen, led by chef Vincent Frédéric De Laloy since 1996) and a high tempo: between 200 and 300 covers per service, more than 1,400 covers a week, seven days a week.