Our story starts with Chef Joe Mannke, the founder of Bistro Le Cep who  grew up in Pomerania (a German province that is now in Poland) and had to flee his village because of World War 2. Years later he started his apprenticeship in Munich and was a chef all over the world until he settled in Houston opening Rotisserie For Beef and Bird in 1978. After 23 years at Rotisserie Chef Joe Manke decided to open Bistro Le Cep. In 2011 Joe Mannke sold Bistro Le Cep to his loyal employee, Oved Salmeron who started as a busboy at Rotisserie when he was 19 who later became a manager at Bistro Le Cep. Oved also had to flee his country El Salvador during a civil war which brought him to Houston where he started working for Joe Mannke. Both Joe and Oved have made Bistro Le Cep very successful and an inspirational story of the American Dream. What makes Bistro Le Cep so special is that we have been operating at the same location for the past 22 years. Since our opening three of our four waiters have been working with us for those 22 years and the last waiter we hired was in 2006 and our cooks have also been the same since opening Bistro Le Cep and were taught by Chef Joe Mannke.