Lots of restaurants have a reputation. Very few have a mythology. Even fewer start a movement.
In 2006, chef Iñaki Aizpitarte opened Le Chateaubriand at 129 Avenue Parmentier in Paris. Everything about the restaurant looked like a typical neighborhood bistro: bare wooden tables, marble countertops, a blackboard against beige plasterwork. But the cooking said otherwise. The daily set menu, which included rose veal sweetbreads and candied egg yolks, was paired with a biodynamic wine list. The staff wore their own clothes. The service was fast and casual, sometimes described as chaotic and messy.
The industry declared Aizpitarte the “godfather of bistronomy.” He became the first chef in the category to make the World’s 50 Best list. He helped amplify the natural wine movement (he also opened/ran Le Cave, a teeny wine shop down the street). On how he impacted Parisian dining, Tarajia Morrell wrote for The Wall Street Journal in 2016: “Septime and Saturne, as well as Au Passage, Spring, Le Servan and Frenchie, grew up in the path Le Chateaubriand carved out.”
In 2024, Aizpitarte stepped away from day-to-day operations. Now, after 20 years, Le Chateaubriand will close permanently in December. Until the doors close, the kitchen is handing the pass to chefs whose talents it helped shape (names like Bus Palladium’s Valentin Raffali, a fitting nod from a generation that grew up in Aizpitarte’s shadow). Also reflecting on its legacy is The Complete Works of the Restaurant Known as Le Chateaubriand, first published in French and now translated into English for the first time. Compiled over three years from one hundred interviews, the book features memories and reflections from chefs, critics, regulars, and more on “the Paris bistro that broke every rule fine dining had.”
Here, in an exclusive excerpt, six well-known regulars share their favorite moments from the restaurant’s heyday.
The late Bertrand Grebaut, Chef, Septime
“It was the coolest place in Paris. In bourgeois culture, spending the evening enjoying an extensive menu is already commonplace, whereas in middle-class, artistic, or trendy culture, dining out is incidental. It expanded the idea of spending an entire evening at a restaurant. Spending your time at this creative place became the thing to do, and more and more people started to come overnight.”