What Le Procope is known for

Le Procope stands at 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comédie on the site of the café Procopio Cutò opened in 1686. Voltaire, Diderot and Benjamin Franklin were among its eighteenth-century regulars. The original café closed in 1872, and the present restaurant dates from 1957. It serves classic French dishes such as coq au vin in period rooms, with a terrace in the cour Saint-André.

Le Procope occupies 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comédie in the sixth arrondissement, on the site where the Sicilian Procopio Cutò, known in France as François Procope, opened his café in 1686. He had taken over a refreshment stall from an Armenian named Pascal and moved it to the rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Coffee was served at table in porcelain cups, which the house still presents as the moment coffee entered Parisian life. When the Comédie-Française opened across the street in 1689 the café filled with actors and writers, and later with Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson also came. The record is not unbroken. Wikipedia notes that the original café closed in 1872 and that the present restaurant opened in 1957, so the claim of continuous operation does not hold. Today the house serves classic French cooking such as coq au vin and braised beef cheek in eighteenth-century rooms, with a coffee salon and a hidden terrace in the cour Saint-André. Salons can be booked for private events, and the nearest metro station is Odéon on line 4.