Anya Firestone’s job as a luxury tour guide in Paris has taken her to many rarefied corners of the city. But only recently did she do something that countless locals and visitors have done over the past 130 years: book a reservation at Maxim’s, the famous French restaurant that opened in 1893 and included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Margrethe II of Denmark, Jean Cocteau, Jane Birkin and Man Ray among his patrons.
“The place was packed,” Ms. Firestone, 35, said of the night she ate there in late November. “There was energy – the ghosts of Maxim’s are probably happy.
Ms. Firestone, who has lived in Paris on and off since 2010, had not tried to dine there earlier because the restaurant had fallen “off my radar,” she said, in part because she didn’t know if it still operated as a restaurant. restaurant. She wasn’t the only one with this perception.
“A lot of people, even most, didn’t know it was a restaurant,” said Pierre Pelegry, a manager at Maxim’s who has worked there for 27 years and was hired by Pierre Cardin, the fashion designer French, after buying the restaurant. in 1981.
In recent years, Maxim’s has shifted its focus to private events, Mr. Pelegry said, and for a time it was only open to diners Wednesday through Saturday. Daily reservations resumed in November, two months after Société de Paris, a French hotel group, took over operations in a deal with the Cardin family. (Mr. Cardin died in 2020; his heirs have since been embroiled in a battle over his estate.)
The three-story space, complete with a small stage on the ground floor, has long been a favorite in the fashion world. Fendi plans to host an event there during Paris Couture Week this month, and last year, Maxim’s parties hosted by Valentino and Dior. Alexa Buckley Roussel, shoe designer, and Alexandre Roussel, whose father is a fashion executive, had their wedding welcome party at the restaurant in September.
“Maxim’s transports you,” said Ms. Buckley Roussel, 32, “and we wanted to offer our guests a true immersion.”
Over the decades, Maxim’s has been recognized for its cuisine – it once had three Michelin stars – as well as its interiors, which include bronze features, velvet upholstery, stained glass and other signature details of the Art Nouveau style became popular after the restaurant. first opened in the late 1800s. The space has been used as a location for films including “Gigi” and the 1952 version of “Moulin Rouge”, and for Vogue photoshoots.
In 1979, its interior was designated a historic monument by the French government. Cordélia de Castellane, the Société de Paris artistic advisor tasked with refreshing Maxim’s look, said the designation gave the restaurant’s new operator little chance of changing its appearance. But she was largely OK with it: when she was asked to participate in the hotel group’s takeover, she remembers thinking: “I’ll take the job, but I’m not getting anything!”
Ms de Castellane, 42, who is also artistic director of Dior’s baby and home lines, said her “small interventions” at Maxim’s included new floral upholstery for banquettes and changing lamp shades table from a reddish tint to a pinkish tint.
She also changed the restaurant’s logo, which under Mr. Cardin’s ownership had become a stylized M that she said looked “too much” like the golden arches of McDonald’s.
After Mr. Cardin bought Maxim’s, it began to function as a brand: new locations opened in New York and around the world, some of which have since closed, and the restaurant’s name began appearing on products, including luggage and kitchen utensils.
Amanda Lear, a model and singer in Paris who once wrote gossip columns for British publications, said in an email that Maxim’s had “lost its magic” because of these efforts to grow the business.
In the 1970s, Ms. Lear often ate out with Salvador Dalí. “Each guest had to pass by their table upon entering the room and of course they stopped to say hello,” she said.
Most recently, she traveled there to perform at last year’s Dior event, where she sang “Fashion Pack,” a disco single she released in 1979. Its lyrics include the line ” In Paris, you will be seen at Maxim’s.”
Ms. Lear was cautiously optimistic about the restaurant’s new operator and the next chapter.
“I hope they resurrect him,” she said. “But I’m not sure that today’s rock stars and Kardashians will succeed in bringing the glamor back to this historic place.”
