Le Central

The Troisgros bench in the centre of Roanne

Bouillon, raw veal and bread set the weekly rhythm at Le Central in Roanne, the Troisgros bistro annex in the centre of town, where Grégoire Antoine leads a very young brigade. The restaurant opened in the mid-1990s under Michel and Marie-Pierre Troisgros as a first step aside from the flagship Maison Troisgros, giving the family a more accessible counterpoint to the formal restaurant then rooted opposite the Roanne railway station. The older line runs through Jean-Baptiste Troisgros and Marie, who bought the Hôtel des Platanes in 1930 and built a regional table on clarity, simple sauces, and the removal of unnecessary garnish. Their sons, Pierre and Jean Troisgros, returned from Paris kitchens and made Roanne a permanent address in French cooking, with Pierre at the stove and Jean as saucier. Le Central carries that inheritance at bistro scale. Grégoire Antoine leads the kitchen, while Pierre Boucaud, formerly chef de rang at Maison Troisgros, manages the floor with the discretion of someone trained inside the family’s stricter house.

The weekly turn of the bistro method

The work at Le Central sits in the space between brasserie habit and Troisgros discipline. The format is à la carte, with seasonal changes and a weekly rhythm that keeps the bench from becoming a museum of the family name. Dishes named by guests and the house orbit a clear grammar: bouillon, raw veal worked in a ceviche register, fish with bright seasoning, puddings, bread treated as part of the meal rather than an accessory. The open kitchen makes that program visible without turning it into theatre. Cooks move through bistro preparations with the family’s older preference for acidity, clean lines, and regional produce in mind. In Roanne, the method is French, local, and closer to the pass: a young brigade under Antoine, a menu that changes often, and a house style that values reinvention only when the plate still reads plainly.

The room after the flagship moved

The room keeps the memory of a 1920s hotel, warm with vintage brasserie cues and quiet enough for the work at the pass to register. Le Central became more central to the Roanne address after the main Troisgros restaurant moved in 2017 to Le Bois sans Feuilles in Ouches. What remains in town is not a relic, but a working bistro with the old family gravity still in the walls. Locals, train arrivals, families, couples, and regulars share the same room, held by Boucaud’s floor and Antoine’s kitchen. The open pass softens the distance between table and bench. Bread lands, bouillon steams, fish leaves the station, and the room stays composed.

One lineage, kept at bistro scale

Le Central’s own force comes from the Troisgros line, from Jean-Baptiste and Marie through Pierre, Jean, Michel, and Marie-Pierre, with Antoine and Boucaud holding the bistro in daily service. The plate in Roanne carries it: bouillon, raw veal, fish, bread, and the Le Central pass.