he restaurant was built on the site of an older building, a hunting lodge that belonged to Louis XIV or a cafe/dancing hall from the Revolution. During recent renovations of the eastern end of the Restaurant Laurent, the remains of an old half-timbered wall were found, which show that the building dates back earlier than 1842, which is when the architect Jacques-Ignace Hittorff built the central, rectangular section of the current building.

acques-Ignace Hittorff, was born in 1792, in Cologne, Germany. He studied under Charles Percier, architect for Napoléon I, and promoter of the Empire style. Hittorff loved anything that was Greek, Roman or Egyptian. We went to Sicily to study, and was the first to show that Greek temples were polychromatic. In 1840, Louis-Philippe asked him to design a project to change the Place de la Concorde and build a triumphal way up to the Place de l'Etoile. "Hittorff was given the task of making this huge space, which was still agrestic, into a sort of amusement park designed for the people, with many open-air restaurants, a panoramic rotunda and a circus," wrote Karl Heimer and Albert-Roulhac in the journal "Bâtir" in 1970. Hittorff built the Summer Circus in 1841 and it was torn down in 1899. There still remains a large sandbox where children play, near the Laurent. The panorama was built in 1883, by Charles Garnier, builder of the Paris Opera, and in 1894 it was transformed into a round theater, and became the Marigny Theater in 1925.

n 1842, the year that he acquired French citizenship, Hittorff built a café, called the Café du Cirque. A firm believer in modern techniques, he built it out of a metal and brick framework, while conserving what he could of the old half-timbered building. The facades and interior of the building is decorated
with ancient style pilasters, columns, and capitals. Faithful to polychromism, Hittorff had everything painted: "painting on a monument highlights its shapes and details," he wrote.

he Café du Cirque opened in 1842 under the direction of Monsieur Guillemin. In 1845, Victor Bouton, in his book "The Table of Paris", tells of a gourmand strolling through the streets of the city.

"he Café du Cirque opened its table to us (...) Our dinner was so wonderful (...) We gave our thanks to Monsieur Guillemin for his fine restaurant and excellent service (...) There is no perfection, here, my friend, you eat and you pay for it!" From its very beginnings, the future Restaurant Laurent was not cheap, and you did not see the common people there every day. The café was the meeting place for the beautiful Caroline Otéro, star of the nearby circus, and her many admirers.

fter having become the Café de Guillemin, the restaurant was purchased by Monsieur Renaud in 1845 and he later sold it, in 1860, to a Monsieur Laurent. Why did this Laurent leave his name for posterity, by giving it to the restaurant he managed? No one knows. Nineteen years later, it was purchased by Monsieur Besse
and it was still called the Restaurant Laurent when he sold it to Monsieur Cage in 1906. Cage renovated, redecorated and enlarged the Laurent. He gave it its current state: two half-rotunda wings that were added to the ends of the Hittorff building, built entirely with metal frameworks and glassed in.
The entrance is covered by an awning surrounded by grilles and a hedge. The building remained this way until 1957.

onsieur Forray took over from Monsieur Cage in 1913, and in 1926 Monsieur Sécheresse took over the restaurant. In 1939, the Laurent closed for ten years. In 1949, Monsieur Bos took over the concession from the city of Paris, and renovated the abandoned building. Three large glazed doors were added to enlarge the entrance to the garden, the small dining rooms on the first floor, that were so popular in restaurants in the 19th century, but are not adapted to current times, were removed to make a large dining room. Terraces were added above the ground floor half-rotundas. In summer, covered with canvas that follows their shapes, it is if the Laurent contains a bit of the Cô.

inally, in 1976, the restaurant was purchased again, and has been managed by Monsieur Edmond Ehrlich ever since. Major renovation was done by the architect Le Maresquier, and the new interior decoration by Gérard Gallet and Anthony Little. The roof was redone, the terraces restored and the original facade was rebuilt out of concrete. Some of the private dining rooms still contain their original decoration. The kitchens and offices were entirely redesigned. But the charm of the Laurent, is obviously its garden-restaurant, hidden behind the hedges, next to the fountain by Hittroff. When summer comes, eating lunch and lazing under the chestnut trees all afternoon is a rare pleasure, and could ever make the French President, alone in his nearby Elysée Palace, jealous.