La Bécasse reopens for curbside orders, celebrates 40th year in business
From staff reports
La Bécasse, the beloved French country-style restaurant in Burdickville, east of the Glen Lakes, reopened for curbside pickup last Thursday. The to-go menu is available here. To order, please call 231-334-3944 or email info@restaurantlabecasse.net.
This year of the coronavirus pandemic marks La Bécasse’s 40th year in business, and 15 years since Frenchman Guillaume Hazael-Massieux and his wife Brooke acquired it.
We’ve written plenty about the exquisite dining experience at La Bécasse, including this 2010 story by Norm Wheeler, The perfection of La Becasse:
“What is the perfect finish to an ideal summer day? What dwelling could you possibly enter after baking all afternoon on a secret beach where the sugar sand and the sweet water have drawn every knot of stress and worry from your languid body? Where can you find the ideal balance between light and darkness, between laughter and silence, between refreshing wine and delicious food? My friends, C’est facile!”
“La Becasse in Burdickville is that place; the little white house on the corner with the blue trim. When you push through the thick plum curtain into the French country house you have the sensation that you are entering a magical place right out of the Scheherazade, and it will take you one thousand and one nights to taste its delights. The bright walls are adorned with lithographs of woodcocks (la becasse is “woodcock” in French) and dappled Greg Sobran paintings that only enhance the sweetness of the space. You could be in a fold in the mountains on the way to St. Paul de Vence or Aix-en-Provence.”

We chatted with Brooke Hazael-Massieux about the reopening, the hurdles La Bécasse has overcome this spring, how their family is doing, 40 years of the restaurant, and some of their most memorable experiences as owners.
Glen Arbor Sun: Why the decision to re-open [Thursday]?
Brooke Hazael-Massieux: We would have opened even earlier, but the kitchen flooring project took on a life of its own, and the kitchen is just now being put back together.
Glen Arbor Sun: What have been the biggest hurdles to overcome during the pandemic?
Hazael-Massieux: The unknown nature of the pandemic is maybe the biggest hurdle: wondering when will we open, what will that look like, how can we operate and best protect ourselves and our customers? It was important for us to receive funding from the government in the form of the [Paycheck Protection Program] loan, which we did, and are grateful for. This loan was not created with independent restaurants in mind, and it’s tricky to use the funds in a way that will be forgivable, but it has provided financial breathing room to get to what we hope will be a partial reopening in June.
Glen Arbor Sun: How is the family doing?
Hazael-Massieux: We might each have a different answer for that! We are healthy. We are not knocking it out of the park with quality family time, but in our own way we are enjoying the slow pace and the nightly dinners together (rare with a chef for a husband). Guillaume has spent a lot of time connecting with his friends and family in France and Guadeloupe. The global nature of this is so unique, right? We are all experiencing the exact same thing at the exact same time. We also have a 2020 graduate in our family, and I think that the fact that every single 2020 graduate in the world is in the same situation, eases the personal pain a little bit.
Glen Arbor Sun: How will you celebrate 40 years?
Hazael-Massieux: Big celebrations are out for this year, so we will find small ways to celebrate the enduring quality of this little French restaurant in Burdickville. Maybe we’ll reach out to the O’Neills, whose parents were the original owners, and the Rentenbachs, who ran it for 18 years, and feature favorite recipes from their tenures.
Glen Arbor Sun: What have been some of your most memorable moments as owners of La Bécasse for the past 15 years?
Hazael-Massieux: Every Bastille Day [July 14], there was this wonderful group of eight couples who would celebrate at La Becasse—they’d been coming since before we took over in 2006. They’d bring miniature French flags for their table. They were college friends, and I recall that one of the couples met in Paris in the 40s—I’m getting the details wrong, but there was definitely Paris in the 40s, which sounded pretty fabulous. The group is old now. Last year was the first year that they didn’t celebrate, and we missed them on the holiday. It’s the relationships that end up being memorable.
This story was sponsored by Pegtown Station in Maple City.
