The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-02
FAMOUS PARIS RESTAURANT

From Letter by Henry Watterson, In
 the Louisville Courier-Journal
 TT Is famous quarter of old Paris. \ One of these days, If you are good" ! I may tell you all about it. Just now I shal confine myself to a single one of it's features, albeit, the most signal the tavern--shall I not call it so?-occupying No. and No. of the Rue de Valois-
 (Which in my youth I oft attended,
 To eat bowl of Boulabaisse.'
 For the matter of that, so did a little Corsican, young lieutenant of artillery, who sometimes had to owe his laundress to pay for his dinner. In a faded copy of Figaro, NJ Auger, the present proprie- tor, son-in-law and successor of M. Tam met, the last Qor hundred years the property has come down through the fe- male line) showed me a pretty and we'll authenticated story. It will supply some preface to what have to say myself. I quote Figaro of date in the late seven- ties, roughly translated as follows:
 Since the advent of the Third Repub- lie there has perhaps never been year when everything connected with the great est Frenchman who ever lived has had so much interest for his cooutrymen. Liter ary men and artists have yied with one another in writing, painting, restoring the First Napoleon-his genius, whims and ways, fashions and palaces.
 "The discovery of some quaint relics are drawing attention to the fact that Bona parte, like all intelligent men, was not at all averse to cleverly concocted dish, and, moreover, that he knew more about such good things than most
 "The proprietor Of a first-rate Parisian restaurant (well known to modern epi- cures of the old schooD intends to take advantage of the prevailing fashion and to fit up the very room where Napoleon, as a young lieutenant. used to dine con stantly with two or three friends-and sometimes with only one, who later on became a famous duchess, but who in l those days was a delicate modiste, a sweet IT specimen of living porcelaine-de- Sake
 ..rhe chairs, dishes, plates, bottles, the very knives and forks and many other | things which belonged to the Restaurant | du Boeuf la Mode have been discovered | at Pontoise in the box of an old man who 1 died a few days ago. This man, known | by the name of Jean Stani, was nephew ol | one of the officers of Napoleons body | guard who married his cousin. Henriette Paulchon, the daughter of former pro prietor of Bonaparte's favorite restau- rant.
 .The old restaurant possesses many ad- yantages, especially if you are going tc
 see a play at the Palais Royal of the | Francais theatres. You have only to ster | across the narrow Rue de Valois in which | the restaurant is situated, to be in the
 shelter of the colonnade, and to be able | to walk under cover to either theatre.
 Some of the old glory of Palais Royal restaurants of the days of our grand fathers still fingers around the Boeuf 8 | la Mode The very name of the Boeuf a | la Mode suggests hoops and powder and
 nankeen brooches and gold-headed canes | It was a savory dish, which had it's fash | ion while pigtails were still worn, and the l young English gentlemen who did the 1 grand tour in their travelling carriages
 brought liking for it back with them | from Paris.
 Sometimes we see "boeuf la mode,
 generally misspelled upon our American | bills of fare. It is another breed O
 dogs" altogether There were eating
 houses in London, but before my time where the dish was served. They indeed
 emphasized 1t and made it their princi'
 pal delcacy. We read in Fielding thai | ladies of fashion used to send their malo' | to buy plate of it, which they wouie
 eat in their bedrooms before iuncheon
 and then descend with such an etherea
 appetite that they could only toy with
 wafer or nibple at sugared rose-leaVes
 Tn the London of the present day "poeu
 A la mode may be had in the 'n1ashion able neighborhood of Covent Garden, an'
 in Paris 1t Is still very favourite disi
 near the Halles; but so far as l know
 this Boeuf a Ia Mode Restaurant in thu
 Rue de valois Is the only house wher'
 the beef in its little lake of golden juice'
 and with It's ordered platoons of tn choicest vegetables is served with dignl