Brasserie Des Halles
Project Type
Website + Online reservation
Industry
Restaurant
Deliverables
Website, Reservation system
Introduction
The largest brasserie within Vannes's walled city, with 140 seats across medieval 16th-century buildings. I built a website worthy of the venue and an independent online reservation system.
Brasserie Des Halles occupies three interconnected medieval buildings from the late 16th century, unified under a glass roof exceeding 10 meters in height, at 9 rue des Halles in Vannes. Period fireplaces, stone sinks, Quimper faience murals by Olivier Lapicque including a monumental piece over 4 meters tall. The venue is truly unique. Yet the website didn't do justice to this exceptional heritage. The 140 seats across five distinct dining rooms, the building's history, Jean-François Ballot's generous homemade cuisine: none of it came through online.
The other challenge: the brasserie had no online reservation system at all. Everything was done by phone, with all the problems that entails, including missed calls during service, no visibility on occupancy, and no way to book outside opening hours. Market solutions like Zenchef or TheFork existed, but with per-cover commissions or hefty monthly subscriptions. For a 140-seat restaurant open 7 days a week, I recommended a different path.
My approach
The site was designed to convey the venue's atmosphere before you even walk through the door. The design draws on the contrast that gives the brasserie its charm: medieval stone and contemporary glass, artisanal murals and modern cuisine. Each room has its own personality, and the site shows it. Rather than going through a third-party platform, I built a reservation system integrated directly into the site, with no commissions, no subscription, and full control for the restaurateur: time slot management, room allocation, covers per service, with automatic email confirmations.
The reservation system handles the complexity specific to Brasserie Des Halles: five rooms with different capacities, lunch and dinner services seven days a week, and occasional events (groups, private hire). The admin interface lets the owner block time slots, adjust capacity room by room and view occupancy rates in real time. On the customer side, booking takes three clicks: date, number of guests, confirmation.
The impact
Over 3,000 online reservations since launch, from customers who would otherwise have had to call during opening hours or move on. The restaurateur checks bookings from his phone between services and controls his schedule without depending on an intermediary or paying commissions. The website, meanwhile, finally does the venue justice: visitors discover the buildings' history, the murals, the five rooms, and arrive at the restaurant wanting to live the experience, not just eat.
We were paying a fortune in commissions for a reservation system we had no control over. Now we manage everything ourselves, the site finally reflects what Brasserie Des Halles really is, and customers arrive knowing they're coming to an exceptional venue.
Jean-François Ballot
Chef-restaurateur, Brasserie Des Halles
François Couverture Zinguerie
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