In 1686 a Sicilian named Procopio Cutò opened Café Procope in Paris. Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin all went there. The Encyclopédie is said to have been conceived there in talks between Diderot and d'Alembert.
It is often called the oldest café in continuous use, but that claim does not hold. The original café closed in 1872, and today's restaurant opened in 1957.
France's own coffee trees started with a gift. In 1714, Amsterdam sent a coffee plant to Louis XIV. A French naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu, later carried a seedling to Martinique.
In 2018 a group of Paris bistro owners began a campaign for UNESCO heritage status for their bistros and café terraces, saying rents and big chains threatened them.
What time is taking away
The original Café Procope
The 1686 café of the Enlightenment closed in 1872; the restaurant on the site today opened in 1957.1
What the record says
- Café Procope was opened in 1686 by the Sicilian Procopio Cutò (also called Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli) on what is now Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie.1
- Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson frequented Café Procope; the Encyclopédie is said to have been conceived there.1
- Café Procope's claim to be the oldest café in continuous operation is not supported: the original café closed in 1872, and the current restaurant opened in 1957.1
- Women were banned from English and French coffeehouses in the mid-17th century.2
- One account says coffee reached France when a plant was given to Louis XIV in 1714 from Amsterdam's Hortus Botanicus.3
- French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu carried a coffee seedling to Martinique; that tree is described as the ancestor of many coffee trees in the Americas.4,5
- In June 2018 an association of Paris bistro owners and others launched a campaign for UNESCO intangible heritage status for the city's bistros and café terraces.6
- After the 13 November 2015 attacks, Parisians crowded onto café terraces as a show that they saw them as places of freedom.6
The de Clieu date differs by source (1720 in one, 1723 in another), so no year is given. Whether the 2018 bistro bid ever reached UNESCO was not confirmed. A Phrygian-cap and revolutionary link to the Procope was left out as thinly sourced.
- Café Procope · Wikipedia in the bibliography
- Coffeehouse · Wikipedia in the bibliography
- Coffee's History Blooms At Amsterdam's Hortus Botanical Garden · Sprudge, 2017 in the bibliography
- History of Coffee · National Coffee Association USA (aboutcoffee.org) in the bibliography
- History of coffee · Wikipedia in the bibliography
- Parisians seek Unesco World Heritage status for cafe terraces · The Local France, 2018 in the bibliography
