page_title: Paris in the Belle Époque
section_title: Restaurants, cafés, and brasseries
hierarchical_section_title: Paris in the Belle Époque / Restaurants, cafés, and brasseries
context_page_description: Paris in the Belle Époque was a period in the history of the city between the years 1871 to 1914, from the beginning of the Third French Republic until the First World War. It saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower, the Paris Métro, the completion of the Paris Opera, and the beginning of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur on Montmartre. Three lavish "universal expositions" in 1878, 1889 and 1900 brought millions of visitors to Paris to sample the latest innovations in commerce, art and technology. Paris was the scene of the first public projection of a motion picture, and the birthplace of the Ballets Russes, Impressionism and Modern Art.
  The expression Belle Époque came into use after the First World War; it was a nostalgic term for what seemed a simpler time of optimism, elegance and progress.
context_section_description: Paris was already famous for its restaurants in the first half of the 19th century, particularly the Café Riche, the Maison Dorée and the Café Anglais on the Grands Boulevards, where the wealthy personalities of Balzac's novels would dine. The Second Empire had added more luxury restaurants, particularly in the center near the new grand hotels: Durand at the Madeleine; Voisin on the Rue Cambon and Rue Saint-Honoré; Magny on the Rue Mazet; Foyot near the Luxembourg Gardens; and Maire at the corner of the Boulevard de Strasbourg and Boulevard Saint-Denis, where lobster thermidor was invented. During the Belle Époque, many more prestigious restaurants could be found, including Laurent, Fouquet's and the Pavillon de l'Élysée on the Champs-Élysées; the Tour d'Argent on the Quai de la Tournelle; Prunier on the Rue Duphot; Drouant on the Place Gaillon; Lapérouse on the Quai des Grands-Augustins; Lucas Carton at the Madeleine, and Weber on the Rue Royale. The most famous restaurant of the period, Maxim's, also opened its doors on the Rue Royale. Two luxury restaurants were found by the lakes in the Bois de Boulogne: the Pavillon d'Armenonville and the Cascade.
  For those with more modest budgets, there was the Bouillon, a type of restaurant begun by a butcher named Duval in 1867. These establishment served simple and inexpensive food and were popular with students and visitors. One from this period, Chartier, near the Grands Boulevards, still exists.
  A new type of restaurant, the Brasserie, appeared in Paris during the 1867 Universal Exposition. The name originally meant a place that brewed beer, but in 1867 it was a type of café where young women in the national costumes of different countries served different drinks of those countries, including beer, ale, chianti, and vodka. The idea was continued after the Exposition by the Brasserie de l'Espérance on the Rue Champollion on the Left Bank, and was soon imitated by others. By 1890, there were forty-two brasseries on the Left Bank, with names including the Brasserie des Amours, the Brasserie de la Vestale, the Brasserie des Belles Marocaines, and the Brasserie des Excentriques Polonais (brasserie of the eccentric Poles), and they were often used as a place to meet prostitutes.
caption: Dining in the garden of the Ritz, a painting by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot (1904)
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