Silver anniversary of one of Chester’s best loved restaurants #Blog

Victoria Hayes
17th June 2022

Chez Jules is set to celebrate 25 years in Chester city centre this July.
This beloved venue is certainly one of the queens of Chester’s dining scene and there are few who match her in longevity and consistency.

To celebrate #25Années, owner and founder Jason Ellison is asking for customers to share memories and photos of celebrations held at Chez Jules throughout the years.
I, for one cannot wait to dig out my actual physical photographs of many years of birthday parties, leaving parties and in particular Tuesday nights in Chez Jules.

Owner Jason launched the venue in 1997 with the aim of recreating a neighbourhood French bistro, a feat, he has surely achieved. When asked he said: ‘We are so grateful to be able to put in a quarter of a century in Chester city centre. It’s been quite the journey, from our hands-on renovation transforming what was an old fire station and then law courts in the 1990s through to the current challenges the industry faces. We have customers who have celebrated their anniversaries with us each year for 25 years, or those who dine with their grandchildren now, in the same place they brought their children before them.

Chez Jules as a fire station

‘We have quite the memory bank ourselves and there are some amazing stories, but we’d love to hear any special stories from our ex-team, and our customers – so we’re asking if they can share them – so we can build a trove of memories to commemorate our silver anniversary.’

Jason fell in love with France on his travels and in particular the way they change menus daily, handwrite them and base their dishes on what is fresh and local in the market. This is an ethos, I’m sure you know that is very much in the hearts of the team here at Taste Cheshire and we respect the strength with which Jason and his team have stuck to this for the last 25 year. Every dish is created fresh on site.

Jason explains: ‘Obviously restaurants have changed in the last quarter of a century, but we refuse to change what we are passionate about. So we still make every single dish from start to finish in-house, including pastry and stocks. We buy our food daily and when something runs out, we scratch it off the menu. We don’t use a freezer. We just don’t want to get into that way of cooking – its about fresh ingredients, quality and simple cooking that is value for money.’

For anyone who has memories or photographs of Chez Jules, the team would love to hear them. Please e-mail Jason at [email protected] or tag them in social media @chezjuleschester #25annees