Café Riche

**Status:** Closed in 1916. ([fr.wikipedia.org](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Riche_%28Paris%29)) **Literary passage:** “our Saturdays at the Cafe Riche at seven-thirty.” — Guy de Maupassant, *Bel-Ami*. ([gutenberg.org](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3733/pg3733-images.html)) **Why it matters:** Café Riche is a boulevard room for assignations and semi-public privacy. In *Bel-Ami*, the private dining room allows flirtation, social testing, and conversational maneuver under cover of dinner. The venue also appears in Balzac and Zola, which fits its reputation as a place where luxury and intrigue were meant to be seen together. It is less a neutral restaurant than a theater box with waiters. ([fr.wikipedia.org](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Riche_%28Paris%29))

16 Boulevard des Italiens, 75009 Paris, France. ([fr.wikipedia.org](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Riche_%28Paris%29?utm_source=openai))