Poilevey came to the Chicago area in the late '60s, when he was hired by Arnie Morton to join the culinary staff at the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wis. (The staff included, among others, a very young Jean Banchet.) Poilevey eventually relocated to the city, opening La Fontaine, near Clark Street and Fullerton Parkway, in 1973. Eventually, Poilevey bought out his partners and renamed the restaurant Jean Claude. He closed that restaurant in 1993, and opened Le Bouchon later that year. He added La Sardine, in the West Loop, in 1998.