Pierre Victoire restaurant chain returns after spectacular collapse

• Pierre Levicky pictured outside Pierre Victoire restaurant in Eyre Place, Edinburgh. Pic Ian Rutherford

Pierre Levicky is trading once more under the distinctive green sign once a familiar sight in many British high streets before the business foundered with debts of 6 million.

In the restaurateur's 1980s/90s heyday, the rickety wooden tables and the blackboards describing Pierre Victoire's mouth-watering yet affordable French bistro food were associated with a great culinary success story that had revolutionised the British dining experience. But the rapid expansion of the chain to 147, mainly franchised, restaurants was to end in disaster in June 1998 when the firm went into receivership.

The business problems led to Levicky fleeing Edinburgh, his adopted home where he founded the business by opening his first Pierre Victoire in Victoria Street in the 1980s.

It was 12 years ago that Levicky and his Scottish wife, Jackie, and their two children, crammed their possessions into a rented white van and headed to Paris in an attempt to escape their imploding business. They had been told their flat would be repossessed.

Lurid headlines followed their departure including the allegation that Levicky had removed 2m from the company shortly before its collapse to buy a chateau. Levicky denies that claim – but the fact that it was doing the rounds did little to soothe the anger of creditors smarting from the chain's debts of 6m. A court later ruled that he had removed around 2m from his company between 1994 and 1996 for his own purposes.

"The creditors of the past are the creditors of the past," Levicky said with a shrug of the shoulders yesterday. "I'm being supplied by many of the same suppliers at the moment. I think they made losses in the past, but they made money, too. Things move on."

Despite the controversy surrounding his chequered business career, Levicky, 50, was upbeat about his attempt to resurrect the Pierre Victoire name in Edinburgh.

"Things have moved on, obviously, but we are back doing 1980s food," Levicky told Scotland on Sunday.

"We are coming back with the old favourites, mussels, garlic butter, salmon with ginger and spring onion – a lot of seafood – all dishes that were iconic. The presentation is not as circular as you see these days, it is a bit more rustic. Today I was putting on some brown bread ice cream. That was something I did in 1986. We are bringing back the old favourites."

The fall-out from Pierre Victoire's demise lasted for years. In January 2001, a firm named Voila! – which took over 30 outlets – itself went into receivership. Around the same time, Levicky was disqualified from having any involvement in a limited company for 13 years, after Court of Session proceedings initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry.

The court found that there were inadequate accounting records and inadequately explained transactions. Levicky is able to get around that ban because he has gone into partnership with his friend Mark Lawrence and his new venture operates as a sole trader rather than limited company.

After a spell working in restaurants in the continent, Levicky returned to Edinburgh about two years ago and opened the restaurants Chez Jules and Chez Pierre. It is Chez Pierre in Eyre Place that he has converted into his first new Pierre Victoire for more than a decade.

The multi-millionaire lifestyle that he enjoyed when the Pierre Victoire chain spread as far afield as Dublin and Barcelona is a distant memory. "We are very poor," Levicky said.

But the idea of bringing back the brand that set him on his roller-coaster ride proved irresistible after he held a nostalgic Pierre Victoire themed night recently in Chez Jules.

"I never thought I would bring back Pierre Victoire," he said. "But we had a Pierre Victoire evening recently. I didn't think people would remember. It was only going to be a bit of fun and in fact I couldn't believe the enthusiasm for it. I was very touched and very surprised. I just thought why not?"

Today's version of Pierre Victoire remains true to the original concept of good, affordable food in charming surroundings that proved such a breath of fresh air before things started to go wrong. "It is the best possible food at the best possible prices in the most convivial environment – that's what we used to do – and we are really enjoying our time again," Levicky said.

"What happened hit hard, but the enthusiasm that's going through this and everyone involved in the restaurant makes it a pleasant day."

As for his future plans, Levicky did not rule out expanding the brand once more, but he will want to avoid previous mistakes. "I couldn't say (if we will open more]," Levicky said. "At the moment we are concentrating on Pierre Victoire and Chez Jules."

But the ghost of bistros past can still haunt Levicky.

"The day before we opened, I got cold feet and wondered if I had done the right thing," he said. "I still can't say 'Pierre Victoire' when I answer the phone – there are still kind of problems with it. One day I am sure I will be able to say: 'Allo, Pierre Victoire… bonjour…'"