Maxim's is a restaurant in Paris, France, located at No. 3 rue Royale in the 8th . It is known for its Art Nouveau interior decor. In the mid 20th century Maxim's was regarded as the most famous restaurant in the world.
History
Early history
Maxim's was founded as a bistro in 1893 by Maxime Gaillard, formerly a waiter, at 3 Rue Royale in Paris. The location had previously been an ice-cream parlor. In 1899, it was given the decor it became known for, in preparation for the 1900 Paris Exposition. Ceilings were done in stained-glass, and there are murals of nymphs. In that era, it became known as a "place to take ladies but never one's wife," as said in Franz Lehar's music about the location. At the end of the 19th century, in la belle époque, Maxim's "became the social and culinary centre of Paris."
It became one of the most popular and fashionable restaurants in Paris under its next owner, Eugene Cornuché. He gave the dining room its Art Nouveau decor, installed a piano, and made sure that it was always filled with beautiful women. Cornuché was accustomed to say: "An empty room... Never! I always have a beauty sitting by the window, in view from the sidewalk." It was so famous that the third act of Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta The Merry Widow was set there.
In 1913, Jean Cocteau said of Maxim's clientele: "It was an accumulation of velvet, lace, ribbons, diamonds and what all else I couldn't describe. To undress one of these women is like an outing that calls for three weeks' advance notice, it's like moving house."
After the restaurant fell on hard times, in 1932, Octave Vaudable, owner of the restaurant Noel Peters, bought Maxim's. He started selecting his clients, favouring the regulars, preferably famous or rich, beginning a new era of prestigious catering under the Vaudable family which lasted more than half a century. Famous guests of the 1930s included Edward VIII, Josephine Baker and Jean Cocteau, a close friend and neighbour of the Vaudables. The playwright Georges Feydeau wrote a popular comedy called La Dame de chez Maxim ("The Lady from Maxim's").
World War II and mid-20th century
During World War II, Otto Horcher was installed by the occupying Germans as manager of the restaurant, with the restaurant remaining in business. Maxim's was the most popular Parisian restaurant of the German high command and collaborationist celebrities. Hermann Göring, Otto Abetz, and Ernst Jünger favoured Maxim's when in Paris. Due to the support of officials, Maxim's enjoyed protected status during the occupation: its employees were not deported and it was exempt from food restrictions. The French resistance closed Maxim's after the liberation, but it reopened in September 1946.
After the war, the Vaudables restored the restaurant and began expanding internationally as well, with the restaurants in Chicago and Tokyo and Mexico City using Maxim's name but operating under different management. In 1949, the Peacock Grill opened in Houston, and then was renamed Maxim's, with design based on Maxim's de Paris. In the late 1950s, Pan Am had Maxim's de Paris food catered in-flight, including their famous beef entree, as the Boeing 377 Stratocruisers "had their own ovens, and there was usually a beef tenderloin cooked on board and sliced in front of you."
Maxim's was also immensely popular with the international celebrities of the 1950s, with guests such as Aristotle Onassis, Maria Callas, the Duke of Windsor and his wife Wallis Simpson, Porfirio Rubirosa, Max Ophüls, and Barbara Hutton.
When the restaurant was renovated at the end of the 1950s, workmen discovered a treasure trove of lost coins and jewelry that had slipped out of the pockets of the wealthy and been trapped between the cushions of the banquettes.
In 1956, the fame of the restaurant led to its becoming the namesake for a Western-inspired restaurant in Hong Kong, Maxim's Boulevard. The restaurant achieved rapid success and eventually developed into the conglomerate Maxim's Caterers, the largest catering corporation in Hong Kong by revenue and market share, and one of the largest in all of East Asia.
In the 1960s, Maxim's Restaurant at Orly Airport in France opened. Maxim's: The Nancy Goldberg International Center in Chicago went up for bids in 2013, after opening in 1963 as a replica of Maxim's Paris as well. The Chicago Maxim's de Paris was sold in 2022 from the City of Chicago, to local residents Victoria and Adam Bilter, to have the interior restored and re-opened as a private members social-club, Astor Club.