Les Ambassadeurs (restaurant)

Les Ambassadeurs was a restaurant in Paris, France, situated in the Hôtel de Crillon. It closed on March 31, 2013, when the hotel closed for renovations, and in 2017 the space reopened as a bar, with Les Ambassadeurs being replaced by a smaller restaurant.

History

Within the Hôtel de Crillon, which was built in 1758, Les Ambassadeurs operated as a restaurant since the mid-19th century. It reached its peak of fame as a restaurant and nightclub (a café-concert) in the last three decades of the 19th century. Always a center of entertainment for the aristocracy, in the 1870s it also became a regular destination of some of the best known figures of art and the demi-monde. Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec portrayed visitors at the night club,^[1]^[2] and artists like Eugénie Fougère and Aristide Bruant performed there.

Following a renovation of the hotel in 1981–85, the restaurant occupied a former private ballroom with windows looking out on the Place de la Concorde,^[3] a few hundred meters from the Palais Garnier. It was decorated in an 18th-century rococo style, redesigned by Sybille de Margérie with furnishings by Sonia Rykiel.^[4]^[5]

Les Ambassadeurs had two Michelin stars.^[3] In the last decade of its operation, chef was Dominique Bouchet [fr] followed by Jean-François Piège^[4]^[5] and finally when the hotel closed in 2013 for an extended renovation, Christopher Hache [fr].^[6]

In 2017 Hache opened a smaller restaurant, L'Écrin, within the renovated hotel; the former space of Les Ambassadeurs became a bar.^[6]

References

^ See Toulouse-Lautrec's Fashionable People at Les Ambassadeurs (1893). A Study Archived 2008-02-21 at the Wayback Machine is at the Tate Galleries. See also Degas' Cabaret (1876–77) Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine.
^ George E. Smith, III, "James, Degas, and the Modern View", Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 21.1 (Autumn 1987) 56–72.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Paul Goldberger, "Grand Parisian rooms on a legendary square", New York Times, July 7, 1985.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b John Mariani, "Grand Cuisine at Grand Hotels in Paris", Virtual Gourmet, July 10, 2005.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Nigel Tisdall, "Paris: Summer in the city", Daily Telegraph, April 26, 2001.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Thibaut Danancher, "Avec L'Écrin et la Brasserie d'Aumont, le mythique hôtel de la Concorde à Paris met les petits plats dans les grands pour sa réouverture le 5 juillet", Le Point, July 3, 2017, (in French).

External links

Media related to Café des Ambassadeurs at Wikimedia Commons

48°52′02″N 2°19′18″E / 48.86732°N 2.32155°E / 48.86732; 2.32155

[1] See Toulouse-Lautrec's Fashionable People at Les Ambassadeurs (1893). A Study Archived 2008-02-21 at the Wayback Machine is at the Tate Galleries. See also Degas' Cabaret (1876–77) Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine.

[2] George E. Smith, III, "James, Degas, and the Modern View", Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 21.1 (Autumn 1987) 56–72.

[Goldberger-3] Jump up to: ^a ^b Paul Goldberger, "Grand Parisian rooms on a legendary square", New York Times, July 7, 1985.

[Mariani-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b John Mariani, "Grand Cuisine at Grand Hotels in Paris", Virtual Gourmet, July 10, 2005.

[Telegraph-5] Jump up to: ^a ^b Nigel Tisdall, "Paris: Summer in the city", Daily Telegraph, April 26, 2001.

[reopen-6] Jump up to: ^a ^b Thibaut Danancher, "Avec L'Écrin et la Brasserie d'Aumont, le mythique hôtel de la Concorde à Paris met les petits plats dans les grands pour sa réouverture le 5 juillet", Le Point, July 3, 2017, (in French).

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