HISTORY
The History of Fouquet's
1899: Louis Fouquet sees an opportunity for a profitable restaurant as mansions rise along the Champs-Elysées, and buys the site (previously a café called Criterion). He establishes Fouquet's as an American style restaurant and quickly gains patronage from the nearby Longchamp racetrack.
1903: Aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont lands his plane on the Champs-Elysées and celebrates at the Fouquet's bar, giving the bar its name: Bar de l'Escadrille (Aviation Bar). (Women were not permitted into the bar area until the 1980's.)
1905: The popularity of the restaurant continues to rise as Fouquet's is sold to Leopold Mourier, who refurbishes the restaurant with its rich mahogany woodworking and deep red and gold color scheme. People from every arena of art, society, technology, and politics meet at Fouquet's.
1914-1918: Fouquet's becomes the favorite meeting place for the world's first fighter pilots, due to the bar's name and reputation.
1920's: Barraya Drouant buys Fouquet's as Paris roars through the Twenties. Fouquet's is considered the de facto office of the French film industry--films are created and actors are signed in the restaurant.
1930's-1970's: While Fouquet's never goes entirely out of fashion, it suffers from the financial repercussions of the stock market crash, the German occupation of Paris during World War II, and solely diminishes in popularity.
1976: Maurice Casanova purchases Fouquet's and turns the place out of its slump, partially by taking advantage of the new César Awards for French films and filmmakers. Fouquet's hosts nominees at a lunch a few weeks before the awards every year, and again its popularity booms.
1991: Charles Casanova buys Fouquet's from his father.
1998: Owner Charles Casanova is ousted for embezzling 32 million francs from Fouquet's, taking thousands of francs from the cash drawers and leaving IOU notes in exchange as well as using the company card for shopping sprees and vacations. The restaurant is then auctioned and sold to the Barrière group, who have successfully run the restaurant since.