Restaurants under increasing pressure in Luxembourg

Within a month, between December 2024 and January 2025, Luxembourg lost several gastronomic establishments. In Kayl, the Eden Rose restaurant folded at Christmas, two days after the An Der Villa restaurant in Steinfort followed, run by chef Thomas Murer, a star of the Top Chef TV show. At the start of the year, another Michelin-starred restaurant was put up for sale, the Villa de Camille et Julien in Luxembourg City. Two months later, it was still up for sale. Chef Julien Lucas, whom we interviewed in mid-January, had pointed to the difficulties in recruiting staff, who were increasingly demanding in terms of salary.

Lucas explained that wages of €2,800 net is no longer enough, even for talent from abroad, as the rent in Luxembourg is so high that potential employees are dissuaded from moving in.

The Hotel, Restaurant, and Café industry (HORESCA) secretary general Steve Martellini points to the change of mentality with regard to weekend work. Indispensable in the hospitality and restaurant business, working on weekends has become unattractive for many, making it even more difficult to recruit new people.

On the other hand, Aline Bourscheid, who manages three restaurants, shares her view that there are ways of attracting young people to these professions, describing it as a great job. 
  In the Neudorf district of Luxembourg, a brasserie called La Table de la Chapelle was also put up for sale at the start of the year. Its manager, Christophe Schivre, believes that many restaurant owners have not accounted for the negative impact that teleworking will have on their businesses.

Schivre explains that his rent has risen by more than €2,000 to €14,000 a month in less than 4 years, having dire consequences for the business. They would need to sell their daily special for €50, but they keep it at €18.90, entailing a cut into their margins and less cash flow.

Gabriel Boisante, member of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) as well as founder and manager of the restaurant group Mama Boys, states that the HORESCA sector is in bad shape. He points to the increasing difficulty of lunchtimes and to the impact that the boom in caterers, sales counters, street food, and snacks have had on the potential clientele of restaurants.

Increase of fast-food establishments in Luxembourg

Clovis Degrave and his partner Aline Bourscheid are among those who continue to make their mark. The couple now manage three restaurants that are well listed in the gastronomic guides: Hostellerie du Grünewald, Grünewald Chef's Table and Maison B, in Bridel. For them, a restaurant manager is as much an accountant as a chef. In other words, finances need to be masterfully managed if they are to continue to survive in 2025.

For Degrave, the number of restaurants in Luxembourg is undoubtedly too high. He notes that the city of Bordeaux and its prefecture have limited the number of restaurants, while in Luxembourg, there is one restaurant for every 275 inhabitants.

According to figures from the Ministry of the Economy, Luxembourg will lose more than 300 restaurants between 2023 and 2024. There were 1,261 at the end of last year, compared with 1,602 a year earlier. Nevertheless, over the last five years, the number of restaurants in Luxembourg has increased by 2.4%. But the most impressive figure concerns the increase in the number of fast-food restaurants in the country: a rise of 23% between 2019 and 2024 to reach 376 establishments. Also since 2019, the bars, cafés, bistros, and ice-cream parlours group has seen a net decline of around 9%.

HORESCA plans to launch a communication campaign to make customers more aware of the realities facing restaurant managers. Secretary general of HORESCA Steve Martellini explains that the communication campaign will show restaurant owners' expenses and what they have left at the end of the day, so that people get a better understanding of restaurant prices.

Watch the full report in French