“It’s very reassuring for many customers to see that such establishments are still present in our history, and in French gastronomic history,” says owner and chief executive Andre Terrail.
Today the Michelin-star restaurant remains one of the most exclusive places at which to dine in the French capital, out of reach for most.
The simplest fixed-price lunch menu is €150 (US$166), and the most affordable fixed-price dinner is €360 – and that’s without even peeking at the 8kg (17-pound) book dubbed the “bible” of its wine cellar.
But the reborn Tour d’Argent offers options for those who want to breathe in its rarefied atmosphere without investing in a full meal: a ground-floor lounge serving croissants in the morning, an adjacent bar serving fireside cocktails in the evening, and a rooftop bar open in the warmer months, where the restaurant’s breathtaking views are on full display.
Piece by piece, the scaffolding that enshrouds the site will come down over the course of 2024, in time for its planned December 8 reopening to the public.
For its neighbours at the Tour d’Argent, the restoration of Notre Dame is welcome news.
“Notre Dame is a landmark and probably had lost a little bit of attention to the Eiffel Tower,” Terrail says. After the fire, Notre Dame enjoyed an injection of funding, notably from the United States.
“Lots of love coming from abroad, making sure that the cathedral was renovated,” he says.
Where is the best French food and wine in Hong Kong? Ask a Parisian
Where is the best French food and wine in Hong Kong? Ask a Parisian
Terrail had been mulling a makeover for the Tour d’Argent too, and finally made it happen after an 18-month closure prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have a front-row seat on the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It’s a great privilege. It starts just there,” he says, pointing at the spot where the unprecedented opening-day extravaganza will unfold along the River Seine on July 26.
The restaurant reopened to generally positive reviews, after years in which it had been seen as resting on its laurels. Michelin says the cuisine and service were rejuvenated “without taking away from its nature”.
The Tour d’Argent – the name translates as Silver Tower – has a redesigned dining room with an open kitchen, and a top-floor one-bedroom flat that rents for nearly €9,000 a night.
Its signature dish remains pressed duck, cooked in its own blood, a recipe popularised in 1890. That is when the restaurant started giving customers certificates with the number of each duck served. It is now well past the one-million mark.
The kitchen uses locally grown products and chefs turn out closely held recipes, like a seductive “mystery egg” starter in truffle sauce.
“You have to cook the egg white, but not the yolk,” says executive chef Yannick Franques.
“People, when they come to eat, are quite surprised when they don’t know the mystery and often come to me asking how I manage to keep the yolk raw inside and the white part cooked. Unfortunately, I can’t say, I just can’t say,” he says, smiling.
“The secret’s the secret. Voilà.”
