European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 06, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                France Quick cuisine Bistro tycoon beats recession with fast food technique pizza Pino is a popular fast food Chain in Paris. This one is located on the champs Elysses. Is Kathy Platt by Christopher Burns the associated press As mom and pop bistros die and fast food multiplies a provincial Butcher speeds to the Rescue of the world s culinary capital. Gerard Joulie has done it with american sized dreams and a Bistro Chain that applies fast food technology to French cuisine using mass production to outdo the Competition and beat the recession. Its heart is a 37,000-Square-foot Hub where 80 workers in White uniforms and hats Frost cakes Wash vegetables in huge tubs pre boil vats of shellfish and Cut meat and fish into portions that Are wrapped in plastic. Ten trucks deliver the supplies to his 18 Bati Fol restaurants. Some food critics sniff at Joulie s bistros and say they would not set foot in them but other parisians flock there to enjoy traditional meals and 1920s decor for the reasonable Price of about $20. Atypical meal including a Glass of wine might consist of Tomato Mozzarella salad Salmon Steak and Rerrie Caramel or herring fillets pot a Feu Campagnaro and chocolate mousse. The newest Bati Fol a French word for Romp or Lark opened in september on the champs ttys is. Fast food and French food Are not necessarily contradictory. Bistro comes from the russian word Bystro or  nor is Bati Fol the first Chain to become popular in Paris. Others include pizza Pino the Bistro remain with All you can eat chocolate mousse and the Hippopotamus steakhouses. Joulie 49, is the american Success Story with a twist a Frenchman who went to America for ideas then made Good at Home. I m a self made Man he said proudly. I changed the outside of the newest Bati Fol located on the champs fistes is crowded the Day after Christmas. Is Kathy plan everything after i visited America. I like the Energy there. I m like a child there he described himself As the son of a cattle Raiser who left school at 14 and worked As a Butcher in Rodez in the Aveyron Region of Southern France. He moved to Paris in his Early 20s, worked As a waiter and Cook and at 23 became manager of a Bistro in a seedy area near Montmartre. By the Early 1980s, he was co owner of several restaurants that charged about $45 for a real. Then As the free spending decade gave Way to recession he saw a Price War coming. In 1986,1 saw the limit he declared. I said we must reposition  after repeated visits to the United states and meetings with managers of american chains i wanted to see the manner the approach the rigor Joulie decided on vertical integration his three Story food factory opened in december 1990 near the City s main food depot at Rungis just South of the capital. It includes offices a computerized dispatch room arid a Well scrubbed labyrinth of food prep rooms and walk in refrigerators. We can buy 600 cattle 6 years old at High Quality he said standing next to 150 sides of beef in a huge walk in refrigerator. Portions Are tagged with dates and destination coded for computer scanning. Orders placed overnight Are filled by workers using scanning pistols and computer printouts. Joulie got the Bati Fol name from a Bistro near the Porte de St. Denis in North Central Paris that was a popular after hours hangout for musicians. As soon As i heard the place had been turned into a clothing store i filed to get the rights to the name he said. Paris has about 10,600 restaurants and the total has remained stable in recent years but about 2,000 Are chains and that number is growing according to the French hotel association. I d never go there Philippe Dutertre restaurant critic for the quotidian de Paris said when asked about Bati Fol. It s cuisine that s rather  Joulie s response in France As soon As you re successful you re envied. We think industrially but the product is made by  master chef Paul Bouse takes a More charitable View of chains than the quotidian critic. Why not he said. I have nothing against them. If Mcdonald s exists there must be a need. It s the style now to have chains though there s no comparison with us. We Are haute couture. They Are  10 stripes Magazine january 6, 1994