Whenever Kate Moss is in Paris, she heads straight to Saint-Germain. Not to Café de Flore or even Les Deux Magots, but directly opposite, to Brasserie Lipp, where the international elite has rubbed shoulders with France's political establishment for almost 150 years.
The mirrors are tilted by ten degrees – a wonderfully snobbish detail that allows diners with their backs to the door to keep an eye on new arrivals without having to turn around. At Brasserie Lipp, in the heart of chic Saint-Germain-des-Prés, people have been watching who comes through the door since 1880, while the Art Nouveau décor, floral ceramic tiles and crisp white tablecloths have remained virtually unchanged.
An Alsatian institution in Saint-Germain
On 27 October 1880, Léonard Lipp and his wife Pétronille, both Alsatians displaced by the German annexation of Alsace, opened a brasserie at 151 Boulevard Saint-Germain. They brought with them sauerkraut, fine beers and a warm sense of hospitality that quickly won over literary Paris.
Paul Verlaine became a regular, Marcel Proust is said to have nursed his neuroses there, and Ernest Hemingway wrote several pages of his memoirs within its walls. Under the ownership of Roger Cazes, who took over the establishment in 1920, the brasserie evolved into a meeting place for writers, politicians and influential journalists.
It's the ground floor or nothing
At Lipp, where you sit matters almost as much as what you eat. The ground floor, with its leather banquettes, dark wood panelling and floral ceramic tiles – listed as a historic monument since 1989 – is the place to see and be seen. Upstairs? That's generally left to first-time visitors and tourists.
Regulars know the score and request their favourite table as soon as they book, with Table No. 1, near the entrance, remaining the most fiercely contested. Above them, ceilings painted by Charley Garrey have watched over this little theatre of Parisian life since 1900.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUXy7-l5NCo
Confit, cervelas and baba au rhum
The menu has never bowed to culinary fashions or healthy-eating trends. Cervelas with rémoulade, herring with potatoes in oil, duck confit, rib steak and stuffed pig's trotter have long been staples of the house, prepared with reassuring simplicity.
Daily specials punctuate the week for loyal regulars: roast leg of lamb on Tuesdays, cassoulet on Thursdays and salted beef on Sundays, before a classic baba au rhum invariably rounds off the meal. Expect to pay around €45 per person before drinks – almost reasonable for such a legendary Paris address.
Where Paris's great and good dine
From Françoise Sagan to Sofia Coppola, François Mitterrand to Emmanuel Macron, Yves Saint Laurent to Lily-Rose Depp, generations of politicians, artists and celebrities have made Brasserie Lipp one of their favourite haunts without diminishing its appeal.
The waiters, well practised in the art of discretion, greet everyone with the same composed courtesy, politely pretending not to recognise anyone at all. Such is the price of discretion.
Brasserie Lipp151 Bd Saint-Germain
75006 Paris
01 45 48 53 91
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