French Canada-born ‘sports brasserie’ La Cage has opened its first UK restaurant on Kensington High Street, marking the 42-year-old brand’s debut in an English-speaking market.
Part of Quebec-based restaurant operator Groupe Grandio, La Cage has close to 40 restaurants across its home province and recently launched two locations in France. Officially opened earlier this month, the London site is company owned and intended to serve as a flagship for further international expansion.
The two-storey venue is aiming to compete with the more polished contemporary sports bars that have emerged in London in recent years, including ETM Group’s Sport London division and MEATliquor spin-off BLOODsports. No expense appears to have been spared on the high-specification design, which features room dividers made from baseball bats, lighting housed in aluminium beer kegs and a ceiling installation incorporating hundreds of hockey sticks.
An open kitchen gives diners a view of smartly dressed chefs at work, while the more premium lower-ground floor is geared towards larger bookings, with several private rooms that can be arranged in different configurations.
Then there is the technology. The venue has more screens than a Currys showroom, controlled through a sophisticated iPad-based system that, in theory, allows each one to show a different fixture. Mainstream sports including football, ice hockey, American football and Formula 1 will sit alongside more niche interests such as curling.
Here, Jean Bédard, president and chief executive of Groupe Grandio, discusses the evolution of La Cage, why the business chose London and his plans to take the brand into new markets.
You have been involved with La Cage for most of its history. How has the brand evolved?
La Cage was founded in 1984, and I became a franchisee in 1989, when I was 26. I became president in 1995 and have been involved ever since. I am a chartered accountant by training, so I know how to count, but I love hospitality. La Cage began as a much more traditional sports bar, with shirts and helmets on the walls. We were among the first businesses in Canada to show satellite sport on huge screens, which at the time could cost as much as a car. Around 15 years ago, we began transforming it into a sports brasserie. We moved away from food that was microwaved and just okay to dishes made from scratch. We now have very few freezers in our restaurants. The food, design and service all became more important.
Why did La Cage need to make that change?
Competition was evolving, but technology was changing too. Large televisions and access to live sport suddenly became much more affordable. People could install a huge screen in their basement, so we needed to give them a reason to leave home. A restaurant cannot simply be somewhere that serves food because customers have so many alternatives - they can order something, buy high-quality ready-to-eat food or stay at home. You have to create a special moment. For La Cage, that comes from bringing together the sport, food, atmosphere and service. The repositioning worked very well for us and helped make the brand more mature. The London restaurant takes that process much further and is more elevated than anything we have done previously.
Why did you choose London for your first restaurant in an English-speaking market?
For about 25 years, people from France told me La Cage would work in Europe because there was nothing quite like it. In 2018, I met François Bultel, who is behind the Ange bakery business in France. He visited La Cage while developing Ange in Quebec, fell in love with the concept and approached me about taking it to France. Our first French restaurant eventually opened in Bordeaux in 2023, having been delayed by Covid, followed by a second in Aix-en-Provence. The London opportunity came through Pierre-Yves Gerbeau (the current president of the French Ice Hockey Federation). He told me I had to bring La Cage to the city and later said he had found the perfect site. I had looked at Covent Garden and the City, but as soon as I saw this building, with its high ceilings and two floors, I thought it was fantastic.
London is a notoriously competitive restaurant market. What makes you think La Cage can succeed?
People told me that if you want to build an international brand, London is the place to begin: if you can succeed here, you can succeed elsewhere. It is a significant risk because London real estate is expensive and the strength of the pound makes the investment even greater for a Canadian company. This is a corporate restaurant, and we have funded it ourselves. However, I believe we are bringing something different. There are sports bars that compete for part of the same market, but La Cage has its own offer and atmosphere. It is a full-service restaurant where people can come as a couple, with colleagues after work or with their family. It is not only for the traditional sports-bar customer. London also has a significant Canadian population and attracts many Canadian visitors, some of whom will already know the brand and want somewhere to watch Canadian sport.
How have you adapted the food and drink offer for London?
We have retained dishes that define La Cage in Canada, including poutine, which can be topped with confit duck, but we knew we had to raise our game because London is such a competitive market. The menu includes 24-hour smoked beef short rib with creamy polenta; a smoked short rib burger with Jarlsberg and maple bacon; lobster rolls; and rib-eye seasoned with Montreal steak spice. Free popcorn also remains part of the experience. We tried removing it from our Canadian restaurants for one day and every customer asked where it had gone, so it had to stay.
How important is the technology, and what sports will you show?
We will show sport from across the world, but with an eye on what Londoners want to watch. Football will obviously be important, alongside NFL, boxing, UFC and Formula 1. Ice hockey will also be a major part of the offer because it is by far the most popular sport in Canada. The technology gives us a lot of flexibility because different areas can show different fixtures simultaneously. That is important in a city with so many sporting allegiances. It allows us to create atmosphere around a major event while still accommodating guests who want to watch something else.
What will distinguish the La Cage experience beyond the food and sport?
Service can be a competitive advantage for us. Things considered normal in Canada, such as pouring a customer’s drink from the bottle and returning to check whether they need anything else, are not necessarily standard within sports bars over here. It is not about being formal; it is about camaraderie We want to bring Montreal hospitality to London: warmth, closeness and a natural desire to please the customer. Full table service is an important part of that. Our team includes people from 18 different nationalities, which reflects the diversity of London. The venue and location are important, but hospitality remains a people business. The team will ultimately determine whether the restaurant succeeds.
Where could La Cage go next?
The London restaurant will be the blueprint for future La Cage openings. We intend to create a similar flagship in Montreal and could take this version of the concept into markets such as Toronto, where we don’t yet have a presence. No final decision has been made on the next UK site, although it would probably be another company-owned restaurant in London, perhaps in the City or Covent Garden, because we now have the infrastructure here. Beyond that, I believe La Cage could work in cities including Manchester, Dublin and Amsterdam. Our priority is making Kensington successful, but the work we have done over the past two years has created a concept that is ready to travel. We also think that our IRU Izakaya brand would be a great fit for London, so watch this space.