Laperouse: A Parisian Icon Since 1766: a peek into a unique web of history, seduction, food and fun

A new book pushes past the heavy drapery and into the fascinating stories held by one of the city’s oldest restaurants.

Richard Clune
The Nightly
Laperouse: A Parisian Icon Since 1766: a peek at a unique web of history, seduction, food and fun.
Laperouse: A Parisian Icon Since 1766: a peek at a unique web of history, seduction, food and fun. Credit: The Nightly/The Nightly

Founded in 1766 on the Quai des Grands Augustins, Laperouse became a haunt of writers, courtesans, political operators and artists – think Musset, Hugo, Balzac, Proust, Rodin, Colette, and Picasso all tucked away in its gilded salons and Belle Epoque glamour.

Equally engaged and anointed by contemporary celebrities — the restaurant holding the secrets to a wealth of fashion and film after parties, so too hedonistic private gatherings — it remains a revered and unique entanglement of decadence, discretion and duck tartare.

Laperouse: A Parisian Icon Since 1766: a peek at a uniquely Parisian web of history, seduction, food and fun.
Laperouse: A Parisian Icon Since 1766: a peek at a uniquely Parisian web of history, seduction, food and fun. Credit: The Nightly/The Nightly

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“Founded before the Revolution, this ‘house of pleasures’ has spanned three centuries with the same unforgettable lightness of being,” states author Frederic Beigbeder in Assouline’s new exploration of the diner, Laperouse: A Parisian Icon Since 1766.

Read the latest edition of ROAM here. Beigbeder holds an intimate eye to things given he hosts his literary radio show speaking to celebrated contemporary authors at Laperouse, the restaurant then turning tables as dinner guests come to indulge the private rooms and booths of velvet and candlelight, all designed for discretion as much as traditional menus.

The new hardcover tome (a hefty 264 pages, no less) proves an indulgent and peek behind the heavyset drapery into this uniquely Parisian web of history, seduction, food and fun. $205; assouline.com

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