ROBERT TOURNIER'S BUSINESS STARTS IN THE KITCHEN.

• Author: GAY, MALCOLM
• Position: Le Central restaurant of Denver, Colorado

LE CENTRAL'S OWNER PEDDLES AFFORDABLE FRENCH CUISINE

Robert Tournier doesn't drive a BMW 740, doesn't smoke cigars the size of Polish sausages, and doesn't have an executive office guarded by support staff. Rather, the 50-year-old owner of Le Central, one of Denver's oldest and most successful independent eateries, can be found pedaling his imposing 6-foot-2-inch frame to work on a late-model mountain bike -- in faded jeans and a simple polo shirt, his gray hair standing defiantly on end.

This makes sense to Tournier. He rode his bike (he couldn't afford a car at the time) the day he opened Le Central back in 1980, and, just as he's continued that tradition, he's persevered with the philosophy that made Le Central successful initially. "I don't gouge the customer," the French native says. "My price increases follow inflation."

Originally from Toulon, France, Tournier first came to the United States in 1968. He had been a medical student, but when he landed his first job in an Italian restaurant (as a dishwasher) he was hooked. That was in Westport, Conn., where he remained briefly before going to Chicago, just in time for the 1968 Democratic National Convention. "I didn't know what was going on," he says with a sly grin, "but I loved every moment of it." He remained in Chicago, working his way up the strict hierarchy of French restaurant kitchens, and left for Santa Monica in 1977 to open the prototype for Le Central.

That restaurant, located on Main Street and adjacent to a pornographic movie theater, played host to Orson Welles, Jane Fonda, and two of the architects of nouvelle cuisine, the brothers Troisgros. "But I didn't understand what a success it was," Tournier says now. "I was getting free noise from the theater. It was very hip. There was a line out the door, but I didn't realize."

Tournier was young then, and his idea "was to open a restaurant, run it for one year, sell it, take two years off, open another restaurant, sell it." And that's exactly what he did.

After selling the restaurant in Santa Monica, he landed in Denver in 1980. With about $20,000 and a small business loan, he opened a two-room restaurant called Le Central: The Affordable French Restaurant.

Those were heady days. Colorado's economy was skyrocketing behind an oil-driven engine, and many restaurants were charging as much as $17 for pork chops. Tournier knew he could offer a comparable dish at a fraction of the cost -- and still be able to support himself. And...