Suspended French restaurant formerly connected to Farine bakery
A French restaurant on Wukang Road has been ordered to suspend operation after it was discovered that its license was out of date.
The restaurant's former legal representative is the Frenchman Franck Pecol, the boss of the popular bakery chain Farine in Shanghai, that was closed in March over an expired flour scandal.
Xuhui District market watchdog said yesterday that the restaurant's catering service license was found to have expired for about 20 days.
The restaurant has been operating for 10 years. It was formerly known as Franck Bistrot, and was renamed Bistrot de Tradition after the bakery scandal.
At the restaurant, which only opened for business at night, Shanghai Daily found that the valid period of its catering service permit was from August 5, 2014 to August 4, 2017.
The restaurant was ordered to stop business until it receives a valid catering permit by the Xuhui District Market Supervision and Management Bureau.
The bureau said the restaurant had already applied for the change of legal representative to be noted on its business license as well as the extension to its catering service license. The bureau is reviewing the application.
The manager of the restaurant, who declined to give his name, said it had only opened to a small number of "friends" after the bakery scandal, and it wasn't open to the public at large.
Franck Pecol, who has since returned to France, has been dismissed and the restaurant no longer has any link with the Frenchman or Farine, the manager said.
Meanwhile, the restaurant is having interior decoration work done. "We planned to reopen in mid or late September when decoration finishes," he added.
"We have opened for 10 years, and everything is legal," the manager said.
Four people in the Farine bakery flour scandal, including its French production director and three Chinese employees, were arrested.
They are accused of using expired flour to make bread at their factory in Minhang District, which was then supplied to five Farine outlets across the city between last December and March.
Bistrot de Tradition
