Belfort. The globetrotting pizza maker returns to his roots with Basilico

A pizza chef and chef at heart, Cyrille Michel traveled the world before returning to settle in his native department. This globetrotter, originally from Moval, first ran La Pâte à Pizza in Grandvillars, from 2007 to 2017. "It was a wonderful adventure for ten years," he says with emotion. His next steps took him to the French Riviera, the West Indies, and then to Saint-Barthélemy.

"I worked at the Byblos in Saint-Tropez, and at a Barrière casino in Saint-Raphaël," he explains. He then gained experience in the Antilles and Saint-Barth. But despite the exoticism, he eventually began to miss the local air. "It's true, I wanted to open a business back home, in the Territoire de Belfort."

He then began to browse the ads on Le Bon Coin. One of them immediately caught his eye: the takeover of the restaurant Le Bouche à Oreille, located on the corner of Rue du Repos and Rue Lecourbe.

"It's an exceptional location, an unimaginable opportunity to seize," he says. Supported by a real estate agency and an accounting firm, he embarked on the project. Three months of work followed. "I wanted to redo everything to give this restaurant a true Italian flavor ," explains Cyrille Michel. Warm colors, careful design, renovated facade... He completely redesigned the premises, even going so far as to expand the restaurant by reclaiming a former garage, now occupied by a pizza oven. The result: Le Basilico, a modern trattoria that can seat around forty people indoors and 35 on the terrace. A team of six people supports him. The menu offers crispy-crust pizzas, pasta, as well as carefully selected meats. And finally, the desserts are homemade, prepared by the chef himself.