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PHILADELPHIA, October 4, 2002 – Lovers of French cuisine will visit Philadelphia this fall for a culinary French renaissance, with the rebirth of two restaurants by the city’s most decorated French chefs. Georges Perrier and Jean-Marie Lacroix have simmered their sauces in Philadelphia for more than 50 years, combined. Within two weeks, and three city blocks of each other, these friendly rivals have reinvented the landscape of French dining in Philadelphia.
Georges Perrier’s Le Bec-Fin is considered by many to be the best French restaurant in America. After a three-week closure for renovations, it re-opened on September 7, 2002, having transformed the interior from an ornate Louis XVI style to a look inspired by turn-of-the-(last) century Parisian salons. Perrier, Chef-Proprietor, and new Executive Chef Daniel Stern will run the kitchen. The renovations retain two essential elements from the original design, good taste (English translation of the French idiom, “le bec-fin”) and the chandeliers! David A. Schultz of DAS Architects and Designers explains, “Georges Perrier told us to change everything but his three crystal chandeliers.” Le Bec-Fin remains in the heart of Philadelphia’s premier shopping and dining destination, Rittenhouse Row.
Jean-Marie Lacroix's eponymous restaurant, Lacroix at The Rittenhouse, opened on September 23, 2002, in the posh Rittenhouse Hotel. Overlooking Rittenhouse Square, the space was designed to create a park-like setting complete with stone pathways and abundant greenery. Noted hotel and restaurant designer Meg Rodgers designed the new space. Rodgers also designed Le Mas Perrier, Perrier’s Euro-Asian bistro in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Renovations extended beyond the dining room into the kitchen, which now includes state-of-the-art chocolate and pastry rooms, an area for cooking demonstrations and a chef's table. The menu reflects Chef Lacroix's signature style and the casual elegance of his new restaurant.
Chef Lacroix has been in Philadelphia since 1983 when he opened the famed Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel. Lacroix joined the AAA Five Diamond Award-winning Rittenhouse Hotel in fall 2001. Lacroix at the Rittenhouse opened in the space that had been Treetops, overlooking Philadelphia’s beautiful Rittenhouse Square.
Perrier is widely regarded as a founding father of French cuisine in the United States. He is also the nation’s longest continuously working French chef and has won every accolade in his field. A native of Lyon, France, he came to Philadelphia in 1967. By 1970, he opened his own restaurant, Le Bec-Fin, and moved it to the current location at 1523 Walnut Street in 1983. This renovation is the first since the move.
A native of Epinal in France's Franche-Comte region, Jean-Marie Lacroix has been a leader of the Philadelphia culinary scene since he opened the famed Fountain Restaurant at The Four Seasons Hotel in 1983. He is especially recognized for his encouragement of talent and referred to affectionately as "Papa" by the young chefs he has trained over the years. In 2001 he was named the James Beard Best Chef Mid-Atlantic U.S. and in 1998 he became the first Philadelphian to receive the Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence.
If you’re lucky, you just might see one of these French masters at dinner – in the other man’s restaurant!
Le Bec-Fin is
located at 1523 Walnut Street; the phone number is (215) 567-1000. Lacroix at
The Rittenhouse is located in the Rittenhouse Hotel, 210 W. Rittenhouse
Square; the phone number is
(215) 790-2533.
The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation is a non-profit organization dedicated to generating awareness of and visitation to Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties. For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit www.gophila.com or call the Independence Visitor Center at (800) 537-7676.
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Note to Editors: For story angles and photographic images of Philadelphia and its surrounding countryside, visit www.gophila.com/pressroom.
October 2002
