Toto Le Chien
Daniel Lehmann is President of Jeunes Restaurateurs which brings together 390 high end restaurants and 160 hotels across the Continent. The organisation has 25 French members. He relates, “Facing the sea is the pretty town of Wimereux. La Liégeoise is the gastronomic restaurant of a luxurious hotel, Atlantic. This family establishment is run by the great Chef Benjamin Delpierre and his wife Aurélie. Here, Chef Benjamin offers delicious seafood dishes and innovative cuisine awarded a star in the Michelin Guide. You can dine in the dining room, on the terrace or opt for the hotel’s brasserie, L’Aloze.” Or you can sip at the bar of L’Aloze: cocktails and mocktails; boissons fraîches and boissons chaudes.
Aurélie adds, “Our gourmet restaurant La Liégeoise will leave you with unforgettable memoires. The room impresses with its decoration and panorama of the sea. The food is a perfect mastery of preparation and cooking.” The couple met at the Paris Ritz while working for the two Michelin starred Michel Roth. Benjamin was a graduate of the Lycée Hôtelier du Touquet, a leading hotel school in Paris. They took over the running of the hotel and restaurant in 2019. Benjamin’s parents had bought the hotel in 1995. Alain and Beatrice Delpierre relocated their 13 year old restaurant La Liégeoise from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Wimereux.
Arther Eperon, a Kent resident, reviewed the hotel for The New York Times in 1972, before the Delpierres took over: “If you take the old coast road from Calais, over the cliffs from which Napoléon and Hitler both looked across the Channel and dreamed frustratedly of invading England … Just down the coast is Wimereux, a little resort that resembles a faded print of around 1913; you expect the children shrimping among the rocks to wear sailor suits. The old Atlantic Hotel fits the setting – it has only 10 bedrooms, and there are umbrellas and tables on the pathway promenade where you take aperitifs. But the Atlantic is known to gourmets for its fish menu. The turbot and sole are magnificent, the chausson de crabe (local crabmeat in a flaky pastry) has earned the little hotel high rankings with international guides, and there is an unusual pâte of sea bass in pastry that is delicious.”
Hôtel Atlantic opened in the 1920s and its distinctive Art Deco façade with a central arched frame soon became a focal point of the promenade. In 1938 Chef Patron Michel Hamiot launched a popular rotisserie restaurant in the hotel, a forerunner to La Liégeoise. The back of the hotel was damaged in World War II and the front in the 1980s by a coastal storm. In 2003, the original 10 bedrooms were supplemented by another eight in a new top storey and adjoining terraced house. Most of the bedrooms have a balcony or terrace.
The joy of having a first floor restaurant is the uninterrupted view across the Strait of Dover. Dining one day after the summer solstice only enhances the experience. Just as all 18 bedrooms have sea views, so every table has one too in the stepped restaurant. A hush descends under the chapiteau ceiling as everyone watches agog while the amber sun sets on the horizon, at first reflected, then submerged, then disappearing into the opal hued sea. The surprise cheeseboard arrives and dinner continues as darkness falls.
