The Restaurant, A Geographical Approach. Olivier Etcheverria

The Restaurant, A Geographical Approach - Olivier Etcheverria


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id="ulink_bf125c01-f616-5c4d-a1ed-b2c56da0a214">“The business of Fontaine [Aubertot’s successor], owner of Café de Chartres, was going well since in 1791, four years after its installation and despite the troubled period, he asked for permission to pitch a tent in the gardens to expand his café and shelter his customers. Driven by the success of the eating lunches with forks, he began to serve delicious dishes ensuring him an honorable place among the young lions of the restaurant industry – Bœuf à la Mode, Méot and the Frères Provençaux – and attract a gourmet clientele that is in addition to that of politicians.”3

      Luxury products were served such as black truffles (marengo chicken with truffle at 8 francs) and exotic fruits (including pineapple grown in greenhouses in Sarcelles). The fire in the wooden galleries in 1828 and the closure of the playhouses in 1836 led to a long decline of the Palais-Royal’s fortunes. However:

      In 1944, Louis Vaudable, owner of Maxim’s restaurant on rue Royale, bought the Grand Véfour. The restaurant’s decoration is refined: carved woodwork with Louis XVI style garlands, mirrors and painted canvases fixed under glass inspired by Pompeian neoclassical frescoes – game, fish, flowers and women with flowered baskets – on walls, rosettes, garlands and medallions featuring allegories of women painted in the style of 18th Century Italian ceilings. In 1948, Raymond Oliver, originally from Langon, served a Parisian-influenced Southwestern cuisine there:

      From this center, restaurants spread geographically and socially.

      Restaurants spread geographically according to a logic of axes, mainly on the right bank of the Seine initially.

       2.2.1. Axial diffusion

      During the 19th Century, the flow of eaters and, correlatively, the locations of restaurants mainly moved towards the west of Paris [ORT 90]. The Parisian geography of restaurants was modeled on that of urban transformations, in particular the layout of structuring openings (boulevards) and the organization of a traffic network linking the center with the new districts.

      Rolande Bonnain explains:

      The geographical spread of restaurants can be linked to the new socioeconomic and urban dynamics of Paris:

      “The restaurateurs, in their travels, followed the phases of Parisian emigration […]. From 1815 to 1830, this greatness was not reduced; but perhaps, as it spread, it was less real, less solid and less sustainable than in the previous era. Thus, the number of restaurateurs increased; these establishments, with admirable intelligence, addressed all needs and all distractions; they were placed at all levels of society, and spread in the existence of each other and in life in general new facilities, of which they had not found anywhere the traces and the indication. This was the true and first merit of the restaurants in Paris during these 15 years.” [BRI 03, p. 93, p. 98, author’s translation]

      At the same time, it followed, supported, maintained and reinforced the urban “staging” of the city of Paris.

      Thus:

      “Under the Empire a new geography was emerging. The Palais-Royal no longer had a monopoly; establishments opened in the Les Halles district (Le Rocher de Cancale, rue Montorgueil) and already on the main boulevards (du Temple, des Italiens). An isolated individual to the west, Ledoyen, foreshadowed the success of the Champs-Élysées district. At the Palais-Royal, customers came to enjoy themselves, but their place of activity was close; from then on, it was the places for walking and the theaters that attracted restaurants.” [PIT 91, p. 166, author’s translation]

      The boulevard des Italiens – the Boulevard – (Café Anglais, Café Hardy, Café Riche, Maison Dorée, Café Foy, etc.) is particularly elegant. Eugène Briffault specifies:

      “At La Chaussée-d’Antin, the lunches of the Café Anglais; Hardy’s famous ramekins and Riche’s skewered kidneys attracted the young and elegant world. It was cheerfully said ‘that you had to be very rich to dine at Hardy’s or very bold to dine at Riche’s.’” [BRI 03, pp. 93–95, author’s translation]

      “In 1867, the value of the business of the Café Riche


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