Team Restaurant Bacon

Bacon Open for business

Welcome to the Restaurant Bacon, a famous Cap d’Antibes fish restaurant. Situated on the coast road where it starts to curve around the Cap, just past Port Salis, the restaurant has been in the same family since 1948. Back then it was called the Buffet de Bacon. In it’s humble beginnings the Buffet de Bacon was just a make-shift shack with an awning and a couple of tables. The Buffet became the Restaurant de Bacon in 1950.

Even then it was just a little open-air café on the coast run by Alphonsine Sordello, grandmother of the current manager Eve Sordello. Alphonsine was helped in the restaurant by her two sons, Etienne and Didi (real name Adrien). The brothers still come to eat lunch in the restaurant several times a week. Didi is also still in charge of buying the fish. Several times a week you will find him at the fish market in Cannes buying the restaurants seafood.

The Bacon is now run by Didis’ daughter Eve with the help of other members of the Sordello family. If you love fish then you should take a trip to this Cap d’Antibes fish restaurant for lunch. You never know, if you visit during the Cannes film festival, you might even catch sight of a celebrity or two.

Asides from the delicious fish dishes they also make the best Millefeuille ever. This alone is worth a trip here. Eve told me that it is the dessert speciality of the restaurant. I also got to try some of the delicious Tarte aux fraise which was to die for. Unfortunately I was unable to finish both desserts in one sitting which I still can’t forgive myself for! 

The restaurant itself and the menu have remained unchanged for over twenty years. It seems the same thing can also be said of many of the staff.  All, when asked, said they loved working here and all are especially fond of the Sordello family. The Sordellos are, I think, the glue which holds this entire team together. They are such a kind and welcoming family who make one feel completely at home in their restaurant. Bacon really wouldn’t be the same without them.

After their annual four month break Team Bacon are now back and ready to welcome their customers in 2018. I caught up with some of them to find out why they love working here and what they have been up to during the Restaurants closure.

Tom – 17 years old. Trainee on work experience.

I am actually doing a stage at the Restaurant so I just started here last week.  For the next month I will be working here before going back to college to finish my Baccalaureat professionelle for the hotel industry.  I hope to return here to work after school finishes for the summer.

Vincent, Maitre D

I am 28 years old and I have worked at the Bacon for 12 years. 16 years ago I came here for a stage just like Tom. I came here straight from school and I have been here ever since.

During the winter months I work somewhere else. I still work in the restaurant industry but during the winter I work in a Pizzeria in Place de Gaulle. The two jobs are at two completely different ends of the scale but I enjoy both.

I do go away on holiday sometimes but only for a week or two. The rest of the year I work very hard, usually six days a week. In the summer months the hours here at Restaurant Bacon can be very long but I enjoy my work so I don’t mind.

Gregory, Maitre D

I have been working here for 15 or 16 years. Before I worked here I was at school doing my Baccalaureate. When I finished school I went straight into the restaurant industry.  It wasn’t something I planned to do. I finished school and I was looking for work and I just ended up working in a restaurant. Initially I was working in Cannes before coming here to the Bacon. When I started I used to work here during the summer and then I would go to work in restaurants in Courchevel for the winter season.

I have also worked in restaurants in Australia and Ireland during previous winters. Most restaurants were also at the luxury end like the Bacon. It’s a hard job with very long hours but it has it’s advantages. Nowadays I don’t work during our four month winter break so I get to travel every winter. I go all over the world now. I also enjoy staying here in Antibes with my family. It’s perfect really.

Andre, Maitre D

My first day at the Restaurant Bacon was on the 6th of June 1981, 37 years ago. I was 20 years old. This is the first and only restaurant I have worked in. My training was actually in something else. When I came here I started at the bottom and began to learn as much as I could about the restaurant business. I began in the kitchen washing plates and cleaning and then as I learned I worked my way up to Maitre D.

When I arrived here I was a complete novice, I had no other experience at all so I was a blank page and I was eager to learn. The team at Bacon have taught me everything I know.

In the winter when we are closed I do something completely different. I love to help my son in his business. He makes windows, shutters and door frames from aluminium. It’s a complete change to what I do here during the summer.

I love my job  because I love the view and the placement of Bacon. I also love the team and the management, they are really like my second family.

Funnily enough I have never actually eaten here as a guest. I have tried the food but I have never been a customer. Of course I have invited my family and my grand children to eat here but I have never eaten with them. I am always working.

Martial, Maitre D

I have worked in the restaurant for about thirteen years, maybe a little more. Like some of the others I also did my Stage here when I was 17 years old. Then I spent 10 years working at the Hotel du Cap before coming back to the Restaurant Bacon. I have been lucky enough to have always worked on the Cap. Honestly, I love it here.

I am not from Antibes but I have been living here for 37 years. During the winter I have four months off which I spend with my family relaxing. I don’t really go away much as I have my children at school but we often go to the mountains to ski at weekends. My wife is originally from Germany so we also visit her family there during the winter months.

Jacques, Maitre D

I have been here for nineteen years now. It’s a nice place to be which is why so many of us have worked here for so long. The family is lovely to work for. We love working here because we have very good wages and good working  conditions. We are also lucky to have very good customers and  we work with very good products and of course the restaurant is very nice too.

The restaurant  hasn’t changed that much over the past nineteen years which can be a good thing but can also be a bad thing. Unfortunately we lost our Michelin star last year which was quite a blow. Although what we do hasn’t lost it’s quality maybe we have not modernised as we should have to keep up in other areas. The Michelin star isn’t just about the food so maybe we have lost a little the other things required to keep a star.

You know the restaurant has pretty much remained the same for over twenty years, which is part of it’s charm but maybe we need to try other things. New things to inspire the Michelin guides who award the stars and also to attract new customers.

The clients have changed a little over the years. We are kind of the little restaurant of the Russian billionaires, we are like their Canteen. Our customers mostly come from the Hotel du Cap and other Luxury hotels. Of course we also have many regular customers who have been coming here for ever.

Before working here I was working in Paris, Juan Les Pins , I worked in the Belles Rives and in Corcheval during the winter.  I have been working in the restaurant industry for 41 years in fact.

Nowadays I do not work at all in the winter which is great. These days I stay here. I am a diver, a scuba diver so I dive a lot while we are closed. Often I go to Marseille and I take exams to improve my level. I am also a member of a diving club in JLP so we dive all around Cap d’Antibes and also around the Lerin Islands.

That’s my passion when I am not working. I used to go abroad to the Reunion Islands every winter to dive but I haven’t been there since 2015.

Ziad, Head Chef

I started here working in the Kitchen in 2002. I have been head Chef for just 2 years. Before that I started at the bottom and worked my way up to second chef. Two years ago when our last head chef left I took over from him.

I have spent all my working life since leaving school here at the Bacon. Since 2002 I have spent time working in each area of the kitchen to learn the various skills for each section. I started like everyone else with a stage during school. After school, at 18 years old, I started working here full time.

I love being in the kitchen here because I really like to work with fresh ingredients, especially seafood. The family are also very good people to work for and in the kitchen we have a great team. Dishes wise I especially enjoy cooking with fish, even though it isn’t necessarily my favourite thing to eat I love cooking with it. I don’t cook seafood at home so much except for my daughter as she loves to eat fish.

During the winter I mostly stay here in Antibes but I don’t work. I spend a lot of time in the Gym working out and I also spend time with my family. My Parents are originally from Tunisia so I often go there in the winter for a few weeks to visit that side of my family and also for the sun of course.

Our speciality here is the Bouillabaise which has been the restaurants speciality for many many years. It’s what the Bacon is famous for.

 Julien Sordello.  Manager and Chef.

I am the youngest of three children from Didis’ side of the family. I have been working in the family business for fifteen years. After leaving school I worked in several Michelin stared restaurants in the area including the Alain Ducasse restaurant in the Hotel de Paris, Monaco. After learning under a few different chefs for several years I came back to work in the family business.

I love working in here, the kitchen is like home for me. I grew up in this restaurant so it was always my second home really.

During the winter break I used to go abroad to kite and wind surf, those are my passions outside of the kitchen. In past years I have been to Mauritius, the US and also St Barts. When I have money I go to St Barts. I have many friends there as I spent a year working on the island when I was younger. Therefore if I do go to St Barts I just need my air fair really. When I am there I stay with friends so for me it’s an affordable place to visit.

Now I have a family so I don’t go Kite surfing every winter anymore, not abroad anyway. I stay here and relax  these days. I obviously can’t go away for long periods of time like I used to.

If I kite surf here I don’t do it in Cap d’Antibes, for me that’s too dangerous, I go to Hyeres along the coast.

My favourite thing to cook is the fish, although I do a little of everything if I need to. Today I am helping the Pastry Chef but otherwise you will find me in the fish section.

Stefane, Valet

I have worked here for eighteen years. When I left high school I went on to study History at university for four years. I started working in a club as a barman in the evenings during university to fund my studies. After my studies I just kind of continued in this industry. So after a few years I started working in the daytime and the evenings here at bacon.

During the winter months when the restaurant is closed I travel. It’s because of the winter break that I am here. Last winter I was in Miami and the winter before that I traveled around Mexico. Basically I specifically chose this job here to facilitate my passion for travel. Every winter I go somewhere else. Next year I am thinking about Zanzibar but I am not sure yet. I haven’t been to Africa before so it could be interesting.

I like the life I have chosen, I work extremely hard for eight months so that I don’t have to work in the winter. It’s the perfect life for me.

Restaurant Bacon is open Tuesday  to Sunday. Closed on Mondays and Tuesday mornings.

Menus range from 55.00 euros (lunch time menu) to 85.00 euros for the dinner menu.

For further information visit their website here 

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