The story
Café Rouge was founded by Roger Myers and Karen Jones, in Richmond, London as a small restaurant chain in 1989. As the chain grew, Myers and Jones incorporated it into a larger restaurant operation: the Pelican Group. In July 1996, Whitbread purchased Pelican Group – comprising 110 restaurants under the Dôme, Mamma Amalfi and, primarily, Café Rouge brands – for £133m.
The chain gained exposure from repeated mentions in the 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary, with the lead character, Bridget Jones, and her friends visiting her local branch throughout the novel.
In May 2002, Whitbread sold Pelican Group to Tragus Group (later renamed Casual Dining Group) in a management buy-in for £25m.
In 2007, Tragus signed a concession agreement with holiday park operator Center Parcs, leading to the opening of Cafe Rouge restaurants on all the company’s sites. This was expanded in 2014 with the opening of the company’s fifth village in Woburn.
In 2009, Café Rouge began a partnership with the Gourmet Society, offering its members discounts.
In February 2011, Café Rouge introduced a fast-service format to the brand: Café Rouge Express, at Euston railway station and Southampton's WestQuay shopping centre. These offered to reduce customer waiting time with a reduced menu range, to eat in or take away.
In 2012, it was reported that Café Rouge intended investing in excess of £20m refurbishing its restaurants over the next few years, starting with the Hampstead branch, designed by Afroditi Krassa. The design was to be rolled out across 125 restaurants within three years, with interiors tailored to each site.
In September 2012, Café Rouge joined the Nectar loyalty card reward scheme as a redemption partner.
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In light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in May 2020 Café Rouge's owner Casual Dining Group announced that it was working with advisors on next steps for the overall business as a prudent measure to protect the company whilst planning for the future and, as part of that process, had filed a Notice of Intention to appoint administrators. On 2 July 2020, the company entered administration, with 32 branches of Café Rouge set to close. The Café Rouge company was dissolved on 4 August 2022. Casual Dining Group, owner of Café Rouge and Bella Italia, went into administration in November 2022.
The Café Rouge Web site listed 28 locations as of March 2023. As of January 2026, it was down to six, five in Center Parcs and one at St Katharine Docks in London.
From Wikipedia’s article on Café Rouge, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4