NEW YORK -- Can one of Paris' world-famous restaurants be duplicated with success in New York?
That is a question that Jean de Noyer and his associate, Jean Manuel Rozan, set out to answer when they opened a French-style brasserie named La Coupole just off Park Avenue on the fringes of Manhattan's Murray Hill district last January. Almost a year later, the answer is an unqualified 'yes.'
La Coupole has found particular favor with the lunch and after-theater crowd and has been the scene of many private parties ranging from designer Valentino's cocktail for his celebrity friends to a fund-raiser buffet dance for PBS's Channel 13.
The original La Coupole on Boulevard Montparnasse has been a hangout for writers, artists, entertainment personalities, politicians, and tourists since Rene Lafon established it in 1927. It has been identified with such clients as Ernest Hemingway, Eugene Ionesco, Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso, Henry Miller, and more recently French President Georges Pompidou.
French-born De Noyer, a friend of Lafon's son and current Coupole director, Jean Lafon, had the idea of opening a La Coupole in New York. He was already well known as a restaurateur because of the success of La Gouloue, one of upper East Side Manhattan's most popular French Art Deco restaurants which De Noyer opened in 1973.
'We gave permission for the use of our name with no strings attached, and to copy our decor, but no money or asssistance,' Lafon told UPI in Paris. 'We hope De Noyer is succeeding for the sake of the name.'
De Noyer teamed up with Rozan, an accountant for a Wall Street brokerage whose father runs a resort hotel on the French island of Guadeloupe. They found a cavernous space, formerly a furniture store, at the rear of one of Park Avenue's most distinguished Art Deco office buldings and went about duplicating Paris' La Coupole down to almost unnoticeable details.
The tables and maroon-upholstered banquettes are made by the same firm that originally supplied La Coupole. The same white Limoges china, flatware and glasses used in the Paris restaurant were made to order. The mosaic-pattern floor of odd bits of colored tiles, brick red Art Deco pillars topped by paintings by local artists, lighting fixtures, and long polished wood bar are all authentic.
'We've attracted a wonderful clientele who seem to like the brasserie atmosphere with the big glass windows in front and a spacious openness about the interior,' said De Noyer, an impeccably tailored man of matinee idol good looks.
'We get publishers, artists, photographers, models, a lot of people from the Seventh Avenue fashion industry nearby, and after the theater we get stage and screen personalities. Cast members of 'Nine,' the Broadway hit musical, practically have made it their home.'
This was confirmed by former Folies Bergere star Liliane Montevecchi, who won a Theater Wing Tony Award for her show-stopping performance in 'Nine' and often holds court at La Coupole after theater.
'I feel at home here,' said the glamorous actress. 'And I like the menu.'
La Coupole offers straightforward French fare such as choucroute Alsacienne and cassoulet Toulousain at moderate prices, a small selection of seafood, and the inevitable hamburger. The cuisine is not haute, but neither is the food at La Coupole in Paris where a more diverse menu features regional casserole dishes, chops, and game in season.
The Paris establishment used to be open 24 hours a day in the Lost Generation years and beyond, but it now opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 2 a.m. because, according to Lafon, 'People now go out less very late at night.' The New York La Coupole, which opens for lunch, also closes at 2 a.m. for the same reason.
