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Le Fouquet's restaurant, on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées is to reopen its doors in time for the Bastille Day celebrations on the 14th of July.
The iconic brasserie was burned and looted on the 16th of March along nearby designer goods stores as part of the Yellow Vest (Gilet Juanes) protests.
Owners say their 110 staff will return to work and guests will find the restaurant ‘identically restored’ to its former glory.
The restaurant serves classic French cuisine and has been a chic dining destination for Paris’ well-heeled for decades. Nikolas Sarkozy held his victory celebrations for the 2007 presidential elections there, a move he later said he regretted, and it is where winners of the Césars, the French Oscars, traditionally hold their victory dinner.
Many people condemned the actions of the protesters who set the red awning outside the restaurant on fire, smashed the windows and ransacked the interior, bemoaning the fact that dozens of people were now out of jobs, but others were sympathetic claiming the restaurant, which is financially out of reach of many Parisians, was a symbol of the elitism they were protesting against.
The restaurant was founded in 1899 and is a part of the city’s heritage. Political movements my come and go, but restaurant service continues.
