Foodmaker Café: the “anti-McDonald’s” fast-good offensive has begun

With the opening of its first café in Brussels, the Belgian healthy-food chain is not simply launching a new location but unveiling a new business model. Backed by Kharis Capital, the investor behind Burger King and Quick in Belgium, Foodmaker is structuring what could become a European standard for fast-good dining. A new kind of "third place," easily replicable because it is franchise-ready, whose driving force is the exact opposite of junk food.

Evocative merchandising enhances the decor of the first café established at the Quatuor, an office building located in the European Quarter, not far from the Schuman roundabout. © Foodmaker

“The healthiest café in the world.” Behind this unverifiable superlative from the press release lies the real announcement: not so much the opening today of the first Foodmaker Café concept , but rather the strategic shift driven by the investment fund Kharis Capital. Complementing the network of 25 restaurants and the B2B activities of the Belgian chain, this hybrid model of healthy fast food and after-work bar positions itself as the prototype of a franchiseable fast-good concept. Built in opposition to traditional fast food, it features ultra-fresh products, short supply chains, and only foods with a Nutri-Score of A or B (except for beer, which has an E rating, more on that later). But all of this is calibrated for rapid growth.

Already equipped with an industrial facility capable of producing 250,000 meals per day, Foodmaker is looking to expand through a scalable format that will allow it to sell larger volumes while maintaining quality control. When the company emphasizes that it's "more than just a place to eat, designed as a true living and meeting space," it's not just marketing hype. The strategy is to transform a place of transit (low average lunch spend at midday only) into a social hub (alcohol consumption, higher average spend, evening and weekend occupancy).

The paradox of Belgian beer, or how to erase the sterile aspect of the "healthy canteen"

Foodmaker Café attempts to overcome the structural limitations of existing restaurants through its bar offering, made possible by a partnership with the Duvel Moortgat brewery. Combining a health-focused message with a strong alcoholic product like the famous beer is a deliberate image-building strategy. This balancing act is not seen as a contradiction by the two partner companies, who instead view it as a symbol of "Belgian conviviality."

Foodmaker CEO Lieven Vanlommel knows that his new café is one of the few places in Belgium serving Duvel on tap. © Foodmaker

“We are investing in a concept where, after enjoying a bowl of fresh vegetables from our Farm Buffet , you can enjoy a good glass of Duvel in a friendly atmosphere. Living healthily is not a sacrifice, but it is enjoying (in moderation) the best that life has to offer,” argues Lieven Vanlommel, the founder and CEO of Foodmaker.

The presence of "the best beer" contrasts with the usual puritanism of healthy food and seems to want to place the concept in a more realistic vision of everyday life: a place where you can eat better, without giving up pleasure... Where the giants of QSR standardize the global experience, Foodmaker asserts its local roots.

From a business perspective, this mainly demonstrates the desire to capture the evening clientele (after-work), a niche where salad bars usually fail.

Breaking the fast-food mold: from "fill-up stop" to "destination"

While the logistics mimic those of burger giants, the customer experience is its antithesis. Traditional fast food is transactional and utilitarian. Foodmaker aims to make fast-good about relationships. By partnering with The Brand Guys , renowned for their mashup of a snack bar and a laundromat, the healthy meal chain goes far beyond simply introducing draft beer; it invests in the "third place" strategy. People no longer come to Foodmaker just for functionality—to eat quickly and well—but to relax and socialize. This strategy mechanically increases revenue per square meter, whereas a classic fast-food restaurant relies entirely on rapid table turnover.

Another significant detail: Foodmaker Café now offers a plug-and-play franchise model. This is a departure from Fdmkr restaurants, for which the Delhaize supermarket group is the main franchisee, handling their operation and development, while the Westerlo-based chain is responsible for the unique look and feel (in addition, of course, to the more than 200 varied items, from salads to hot dishes, produced in its state-of-the-art €50 million kitchen).

Is this the most obvious sign of Kharis Capital's involvement? By endorsing the Foodmaker Café concept, Kharis isn't looking to open neighborhood restaurants, but rather to build a replicable platform. The model is designed to be franchised with zero operational friction, since managers don't need chefs; the complexity is handled by the central kitchen. The "Farm Buffet" and Nutri-Score-certified dishes offer a consistent customer experience, whether you're in Brussels today or Paris tomorrow. And, in terms of location and real estate, the concept is perfectly suited to fit into transport hubs and office buildings as well as city centers.

With this new flagship store, Foodmaker is sending a clear message to the market: good food is no longer a niche craft; it's a product that can be industrialized with high quality and is ready for broader international deployment. By combining its logistics experience with the expertise of Kharis, architect of operationally successful platforms such as QSRP (Burger King, Quick, Dunkin' Donuts, O'Tacos, etc.), the Belgian chain aims to become a European standard for fast-good. Without sacrificing consumer health for the sake of profitability.