Cafe Gets Overwhelmed with Customers After Being Awarded with Michelin Star

The Bouche a Orielle in Bourges, France is your typical workmen’s cafe. It’s filled with men in high-visibility vests during lunchtime, and their fare is hearty, wholesome, and homemade. The decor is simple, and the ambiance is cheerful. This isn’t what you’d normally expect from a restaurant awarded with a Michelin star.

Veronique Jacquet, the cafe owner suddenly realized a huge surge of customers, some of whom came from miles away. She had reporters coming in and gourmet diners looking to book tables. Their little cafe was suddenly bustling with people looking to taste some of their dishes.

This humble cafe was suddenly swarmed with customers and reporters!

As it turns out, they were mistakenly awarded a Michelin star due to a clerical error in the address listing on their website. A more refined restaurant of the same name located near Paris was supposed to be awarded with the Michelin star. Both establishments are named Bouche a Orielle. Even their street names are similar, with Mrs. Jacquet’s cafe on Impasse de la Chapelle and the other on Route de la Chapelle.

The Bouche a Orielle that was supposed to receive the star is a tastefully decorated restaurant with dishes like lobster flan and confit beef, with some expensive champagne to wash it all down. This is opposed to Mrs. Jacquet’s Bouche a Orielle, which can get you the dish of the day for just €10!

The difference between the two restaurants is astounding!

Thankfully, the listing was changed. Aymeric Dreux, the chef of the more expensive restaurant, says:

“I phoned Madame Jacquet in Bourges. We had a good laugh about it and I invited her to come to the restaurant to sample what we do. If I’m in her neck of the woods, I’ll pop in for lunch and a beer at her place.”

While Madame Jacquet may not have gotten the coveted Michelin star, this funny little error certainly helped her with marketing her humble cafe!