FoodNet

The gourmet's guide to Europe

1903

Page 25

Presented as published in 1903. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Les Quatre Sergents de Rochelle, named after the heroes of the “ Conspiration de la Rochelle,” whose fame has been perpetuated by Eugene Sue, is the last restaurant I need men- tion on the boulevards. It is on the Boulevard Beaumarchais. It is all white outside, and cream and gold within. A picture of the four gallant sergents, who were so basely Les Quatre Sergents, 3 Boulevard Beaumarchais ? Varis 4 1 betrayed by Goupillion, clinking cups, is on the face of the restaurant. Inside, the wine-growers and mer- chants and buyers from the great depot across the river, fine, fat, bull-necked gentlemen, eat rich meats and drink generous wines. A filet de boeuf at the Quatre Sergents always seems to me to be more juicy than any I get elsewhere, and the restaurant has a good cellar of Burgundies. Of restaurants away from the Grands Boulevards the Boeuf a la Mode, the Regence, and the Cham- peaux deserve special mention. The first is in the Rue Valois, which runs down one side Bceuf a la Mode, of the Palais Royal. Its signboard, 8 Rue de Valois which is of an ox garlanded with flowers, has a his- tory. When the restaurant was first established in June 1816 and hung up its sign of an ox dressed in garments of the fashion of the day,, the Comte Decazes, the then chief of the Paris police, denounced the inn-keeper to the king as a revolutionary, and was commanded to inquire into the matter of the seditious sign-board, “ for,” the order ran, “ the ox, the symbol of force, is dressed in red cashmere, with a straw hat having white plumes and a blue ribbon, and this hat, which obviously represents the crown, is falling oflF.” The proprietor of the res- taurant was held to have been prompted by no treasonable design in his choice of a sign-board, but flowers were at once painted in place of the fashionable clothes. It is .quiet and quite comfortable. When I first knew it the walls of its rooms were either ochre-coloured or covered with green trellis work, but now they have become fashionably light in tint. The dish from which the restaurant takes its name is always on the bill of fare, and is served with due dignity on silver plates. I always find the cuisine at this restaurant excellent, and the prices moderate. It is an establishment at which I often 42 tfhe Gourmet's Guide to Europe see English ladies lunching without escort, and the proprietor, who is immensely proud of being allowed to supply our Queen Mother with woodcock pates , Champeaux, speaks English fluently. The Cham- 13 Place de la peaux is the restaurant of the Paris Bourse Stock Exchange, being in the Place de