Martin Rouillard Castelnau is the Head of Centre Commercial, the Paris-based concept store founded by the team behind VEJA. He joined the company in 2016 and has since grown from working on the shop floor to leading Centre Commercial and its expanding retail concept. Known for its carefully curated mix of independent and responsibly produced brands, Centre Commercial has become an influential name in Paris retail, with Martin helping shape its approach to sourcing, spaces and community. Outside fashion, he is a passionate food lover with a particular appreciation for simple cooking, great produce and restaurants with a strong sense of place.
Could you tell our community a little about yourself and what you do?
My name is Martin and I grew up in the South-West of France, in a tiny village near Montauban, in the Tarn-et-Garonne, called Lauzerte. I grew up in an incredible environment, deep in the countryside.
My father is an architect and my mother a journalist. They lived in Paris for a long time and aren't from the region; they decided to settle there together shortly before I was born. My childhood was shaped by time spent outdoors in the countryside, but also in museums, always surrounded by culture.
I had a fairly classic childhood, and after high school I decided to move to Toulouse, the nearest big city. I quickly dropped the communications degree I had started there to work in a menswear store I loved at the time, Coexist. In 2016, I moved to Paris overnight to become a sales associate at Centre Commercial, where I still work today. The store was founded by VEJA’s founders, the sneaker brand.
Ten years later, I still work for them: I run Centre Commercial and also oversee Veja's global retail expansion.
Centre Commercial is a cult brand with a strong global following – how do you create one?
Centre Commercial has become an institution in Paris. The store has been around since 2011, and I believe its concept is the reason it's still so successful today.
We only work with brands that see the fashion industry differently, producing exclusively in countries that protect and respect the workers along the production chain. We support young brands, and more established ones, by showcasing them in spaces we design differently: places to live and gather, where anyone can come and discover new projects.
We now have four locations in Paris: CC rue de Marseille, CC Outdoor, CC Kids and CC rue de Charonne, which we just opened in the neighborhood where it all began for Veja. More than twenty years ago, the two founders had their office just a few steps from this new store.
I think our success comes from staying true to our concept and respecting our customers: we offer them different products, sourced from all over the world, in an incredible setting where we've been happily welcoming them season after season for more than fifteen years.
Should restaurants be more creative and if so – what does it mean in this industry?
I'm not sure restaurants need to be more creative. I'm lucky to live in Paris, a city where incredible restaurants open every day. By nature, it's incredibly hard to survive as a restaurateur in an industry that reinvents itself year after year, driven by people with increasingly sincere, high-quality concepts!
You are a food lover. What do you look for in a restaurant?
I'm not a fan of complex fine dining. I'm much more at home in a restaurant where the product takes center stage and tells a story on its own, simple food like the cooking I grew up with in the South-West. I also like simple atmospheres. When the service is good, it changes everything, especially when there's a story behind what you're eating and the place you're in.
What are three hometown restaurants you return to again and again – and why?
I always go back to the same restaurant, Numidia, an Algerian restaurant in the heart of Belleville, where I love eating pretty much everything on the menu. It's a very concrete example of the most sincere thing a restaurant can offer in terms of product and simplicity.
The second is Les Œillets, a restaurant and natural wine bar on rue Saint-Maur. They host pop-ups with a regularly changing line-up of chefs, which lets you discover exceptional chefs, alongside one of the best natural wine selections in the city!
The third is Les Enfants Rouges, a Japanese restaurant right by the Marché des Enfants Rouges. It feels like a refuge from the noise and crowds of the market, which is popular with tourists and local Parisians alike. The owner serves Japanese classics of exceptional quality.
Have there been any new restaurants in your hometown that you’ve found inspiring – and why?
First, there's Selma, the new restaurant from my friend Solal, who runs Les Œillets, which I mentioned earlier. The chef, Sahin, is Turkish, and the food is inspired by his childhood memories and his Turkish roots. The restaurant is actually named after his mother!
Another new restaurant I love is Toy. The chef, Georges, has worked in kitchens around the world and has constantly refined his ramen recipe, which is excellent. Everyone in Paris loves it, and the opening has been a huge success. The wine list is incredible too!
And last but not least, the best restaurant on my street, run by a friend: Lissit. The food has French influences and brilliantly reinterprets classic flavours. Here too, the natural wine selection is well known!
If you had to choose three favourite food destinations, what would they be – and which places do you recommend to try in each – and why?
The Costa Brava
I spent every summer holiday of my childhood on the Spanish coast and in the Balearic Islands. I've always had a deep love for Spanish food in all its forms, especially at its simplest, all along those coastlines and across the islands. There was an exceptional seafood restaurant at the end of the little harbour in El Port de la Selva called "Marcelino". The owner would pull the day's catch out of a freezer normally meant for ice cream to show it to you, and he served Spanish classics: tortilla, fried calamari and outstanding fried fish. But I can't leave out S'Amarador in Ciutadella (Menorca), which serves what is surely the best lobster rice in the Balearics!
Japan
I know it's not very original to say this anymore, but I remember arriving in Paris ten years ago and telling my colleagues that I hated Asian food. Over the years, this city changed my mind, and my trips to Japan changed it for good by introducing me to flavours I had never known. I remember an incredible soba restaurant in Kyoto serving noodles with Japanese duck, Sobashubo Ichii, which I will remember for the rest of my life.
South-West France
To finish, the food from back home, where we objectively have the finest produce in the world, of course! We're famous for duck, obviously, but also poultry, cheese, lamb, and extraordinary fruit and vegetables. My favourite restaurant has since closed. It was owned by the town hall of a small village near where I grew up. These restaurants are often leased to people who run them to keep life going in villages that are emptying out more and more. Close to home, in the Lot, there's a restaurant owned by duck farmers that serves exceptional meat, once again with incredible simplicity and quality: Maison Marlas in Cahors.
What’s the most memorable restaurant experience you’ve had – and what made it so special?
The best restaurant experience of my life, one that brings together absolutely everything I love, was in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the French Basque Country. The restaurant is called Le Petit Grill Basque. Chef Iñaki Aizpitarte, who was also the chef at Le Chateaubriand in Paris, serves traditional Basque cuisine there. This restaurant captures exactly everything I love: incredible dishes and a remarkably varied menu, in an amazing setting, with wonderful service. And the wine list is very good too, trust me!
Who would you like to see in our Member Highlight Series?
I'd love to see Basile Khadiry, the co-founder of BEIGE Habilleur, the Paris menswear concept store, featured in this series. I don't know him very well, but I've been told he has exceptional taste in food and some great spots to recommend!
