Hi all,
I’m back.
Summer was good. Busy and slightly chaotic, but very LOBBY in the end.
We opened Frank’s Market, which means we discovered again that hospitality is mostly about making a thousand tiny decisions before 10am, then pretending you are calm when the coffee machine and the first guests all arrive in the same sentence.
The first days were crazy. In a good way. The kind of crazy where you realize the project is no longer a deck you explain to people over dinner with too much confidence. People now walk in. They can order. They ask questions. They move the chairs. They misunderstand things. They love things you didn’t expect. They ignore things you spent six weeks discussing. Very fair.
LOBBY Studio is also getting ready for the new year. We’re hiring, we’re structuring the next season, we launched the FOUNDATIONS Program for founders starting from zero, and we’re working on new formats for the podcast and content. Basically, the break was a break in the same way a restaurant soft opening is “soft.” Nice word but little lie.
And during the summer, while moving between Frank’s Market, the office, the kids, the coast, calls with clients, and the usual founder sport of answering one message while forgetting three others, I kept thinking about something.
We all see that the map changed during this summer right?
I mean, we can say that this summer, the weather became part of the business model.
For years, when people talked about hospitality location, they mostly talked about visibility, foot traffic, airport access, famous destinations, beach fronts, the beautiful postcard, the obvious address…
And of course, all of that still matters.
But this summer, we understand that comfort is becoming a destination. Temperature is becoming a filter. You know, eating outside without questioning your life choices, all of that is becoming part of how people choose where to go.
The weather is no longer just the background of a hospitality project.
France had a brutal summer. Some classic destinations still performed because they are classic for a reason, and because rich people have a special ability to survive discomfort with better linen. But at the same time, cooler coasts, northern territories, mountain regions and places with a more breathable rhythm started to look less like alternatives and more like smart decisions.
Which brings me to Brittany.
For years, Brittany has been treated by some people like the emotional backup plan of French summer. Beautiful, yes. Authentic, yes. But also the place people joke about because you might need a sweater in August.
This year, the sweater started to look like a luxury item.
And I think this matters a lot for independent hospitality.
Because if the weather becomes part of the value, then the best location is not always the most obvious one. A good territory with a sane climate, a real community, decent rent, strong local culture, and a reason to exist outside peak season can become much more attractive than the postcard everyone is already fighting for.
So this week, I want to talk about that.
The weather as a new layer of location.
As a business question.
Because maybe the next generation of independent hospitality will not only be built where people used to go.
Convinced it will be built where people can still breathe.
I’ve always liked the idea that location is misunderstood:
