Paris House Part 2: Gaston Lievain

 On 6 June 1895 Paris House opened under the management of Gaston Edward Lievain (Daily Telegraph, p. 1). Lievain had arrived in the colony late in 1892 and how he had spent his time before becoming associated with Paris House is not known.* It is clear however that he began his tenure in some form of partnership with Desneux, and Desneux remained employed at, and possibly retained some form of interest in Paris House after he was declared bankrupt (Evening News, 24 March 1896, p. 5). In August 1897, Lievain advertised that ‘the association which managed Paris House has been dissolved’ and he was now the sole owner and proprietor (Le Courrier Australien, 21 August 1897, p. 3; Sunday Times, 29 August 1897, p. 1).

From the beginning Lievain set out to make Paris House the premier eating establishment in the city - ‘Le rendez vous des gourmet, universellement admis qu’il n’y a qu’un’, ‘the haunt of the epicure’, the abode of the gourmet’ (Sunday Times, 3 May 1896, p. 1; 31 May 1896, p. 1). ‘Harkaway’ reporting to the readers of the Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser on his experiences in Sydney described Paris House as providing dining ‘par excellence’:

Here one may dine table d’hote, or á la carte, at the public table; or, if with wife or daughter – or somebody else’s daughter – in private apartments. The menu is French, but it is not necessary to select, as the polite garçon will bring all the courses, and the diner may acquaint himself with the nomenclature of the comestibles according to his knowledge of the cuisine arrangements of the French Culinary artist.

The menu included delicious offerings such as oysters, salmon cutlets with bechamel sauce, fried sweetbreads and tomatoes, lamb cutlets and mushrooms, asparagus on toast, stewed prunes and cream, and gruyere cheese, which were accompanied by red and white wine, included in the tariff and ‘supplied in quart decanters without any reservation as to quantity consumed’ (7 December 1896, p. 3). Harkaway’s description on the Sydney dining scene suggests that Paris House had no real competition at the high end of the market

Under Lievain the business flourished and at the time of renovations completed in 1909 it was described as ‘to Sydney what the Savoy is to London and Maxim’s to Paris’. Paris House was frequented by all classes who could afford to eat there - ‘squatters, merchants, judges, barristers, politicians, artists, writers and showmen’ as well as ‘globe trotters’ such as Robert Louis Stevenson, who used his time there to observe ‘the better circles of Australia’. It was the popular venue for annual dinners and reunions of various clubs and groups, farewell and welcoming celebrations for dignitaries, wedding receptions and the like. The improvements, necessitated by increasing business, included the addition of another storey so that the establishment now covered three floors. Two floors each provided small rooms which could be either public, private, or semi-private as the customer preferred, a third floor offered a new dining hall, a cloak room for the ladies, a wine room, and finally a roof lounge where diners could enjoy coffee and cigars. All was artistically decorated, one of the rooms for example boasting views of Hobart and another Milford Sound (Daily Telegraph, 18 March 1909, p. 4; Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 7 April 1909, p. 37).**

Paris House Menu, 22 September 1910.   State Library of New South Wales, Ephemera/Menus/1880-, Box 2.

The apparent success of the business did not go unnoticed and in 1911 a syndicate of businessmen and lawyers, presumably clients of Lievain, formed a public company called Paris House Limited to acquire the business. Lievain was reportedly paid £7000 cash and Paris House Limited took over the running of the restaurant (Sydney Morning Herald (hereafter SMH), 25 February 1911, p. 17; Dun’s Gazette for New South Wales, vol 5, no. 8 p. 152). Gaston Lievain took off on a European holiday (The Sun, 9 June 1911, p. 8) and subsequently took over the Hampden Hotel at Pennant Hills (SMH, 3 April 1912, p. 3). Here, at The Rendezous, he embraced the rural life, providing motorists with lunch and dinner, promising fresh fish from the Hawkesbury River daily and ‘prime vegetables and Spring chickens from our farm’ (SMH, 18 November 1913, p. 8).

Back in the city at Paris House things did not go well. On Lievain’s departure in June, the management of the kitchen devolved on Phillipe Pic who had been employed by Paris House Limited in March 1911 as head chef. Pic had experience enough, 20 years in total including working in Melbourne at the Café Anglais, Café Denat, and Hosie’s Café as well as opening and running the Savoy Café. He inherited professional front of house staff, Otto Meyer who had been a waiter there for 10 years, and Charles Endacott who had been with Lievain for 17 years, but for whatever reason Pic’s tenure at Paris House was fraught. Not only were there complaints about the food he presented to customers, the new owners were also alarmed that the number of meals provided had decreased and the cost of provisions had increased. Pic was hauled before the board to explain his unsatisfactory management of the kitchen and his contract was terminated. Pic took his employers to court and lost his claim for breach of contract but not before the arrangements at Paris House had been reported by the press in some detail (see Truth 24 December 1911, p. 8).

The new owners were under considerable financial pressure. Only a matter of weeks after forming Paris House Limited the directors announced that ‘[i]n order to provide the extra accommodation necessary to meet the growing demands of clients’ they had taken over the Balfour Hotel. The Balfour was on the corner of King and Elizabeth Street and backed on to Paris House, the area between the two buildings accessible via a narrow alley running down the side of Paris House. The intention seems to have been to link the two buildings – provide ‘a splendid suite of banqueting rooms’ and extend the kitchen facilities (SMH, 31 March 1911, p. 8). In their advertising the directors justified this move on the basis of the business they had enjoyed under Lievain – in the 27 days from 2nd of March, when the company took over management, up to 28th the number of persons catered at luncheon was 2824 and at dinner 4638. Takings for the month were in excess of £3900. The future, they assured investors, looked rosy (SMH, 31 March 1911, p. 8). No wonder they were alarmed when business fell away with Pic in the kitchen. Then in September there was a fire which caused some damage to the restaurant although business remained open to customers (Evening News, 5 September 1911, p. 6; The Sun, 6 September 1911, p. 8).

Detail of map showing position of Paris House and Balfour Hotel. Phillip Street at top, Elizabeth Street at bottom and King Street to the right. State Library of New South Wales, Ignis et Aqua Series, Z/MAXX811.17/18992/1, Block 143, Plan 48.

Shares in Paris House Limited did not fare well on the stock exchange. By May of 1912 shareholders were voicing their concern that an annual general meeting was overdue, and they were anxious to see the annual report and balance sheet (SMH, 25 May 1912, p. 7). In the event the first annual general meeting was held on 1st July. The directors acknowledged that despite making substantial profits at first and paying out two dividends, changes in the management had led to a decline in business. Now however, thanks to the appointment of a new manager, Charles Endacott, the redecorating of the establishment, the provision of additional accommodation, the acquisition of the lease on the Balfour Hotel, and current installation a refrigeration plant the shareholders were assured they would receive ‘adequate returns upon their investment’. Despite reporting an overall debit balance the directors were confident of future substantial profits (Daily Telegraph, 2 July 1912, p. 12). The shareholders were not mollified especially given that they had not been provided with advance copies of the balance sheet. A move to adjourn the meeting to give shareholders time to consider the figures was voted down by the chairman. Subsequently a special meeting of shareholders was held on 19th August at which a committee was appointed to investigate the balance sheet and the director’s report. It was then revealed that the profits and return to shareholders which the promotors had estimated in the prospectus had been ‘arrived at on a purely hypothetical basis.’ No one knew what profits Lievain had made in the past. The auditors the promoters had employed to investigate the business never saw any record of the purchases Lievain made and were not in a position to state definitely what the earnings had been. The auditors did report that the books had not been properly kept but this information was not included in the prospectus. Shareholders would need to be very patient if the yearly profits were ever to reach the £10,000 pound mark ‘safely estimated’ by the ‘irresponsible’ promoters. (The Sun, 24 August 1912, p. 6).

Business continued much as usual. In September 1912 it was announced that the ground floor rooms were reopening to serve table d’hote meals (although there is no explanation as to why they may have been closed) and that Monsieur Ritleng, late chef to the Duke of Connaught, has been engaged as restaurant manager (The Sun, 1 September 1912, p. 17; SMH, 21 September 1912, p. 16). Paris House Limited managed to make some profits despite the departure of both Otto Meyer, who moved to the competition, Holland House (The Sun 12 January 1913, p. 2) and Charles Endacott, who took over the Grand Hotel at Lawson (The Blue Mountains Echo, 5 September 1913, p. 3) and thanks in part to financial restructuring of the company (SMH, 20 May 1913, p. 11; 26 May 1914, p. 13). Although the published accounts do not make it clear, much of the profit was contributed by the operation of the Balfour Hotel. World War One saw the price of commodities increase and trade in general decline which began to have a serious impact on the company’s returns (Evening News, 23 April 1915, p. 3). Having renewed the lease on both the Balfour Hotel and Paris House, in March of 1915 the company made the decision to lease the restaurant (SMH, 15 February 1915, p. 2; Daily Telegraph, 13 March 1915, p. 7). It was initially taken up by Alphonse Tissot, who had formed Tissot Limited for that purpose (Daily Telegraph, 26 May 1915, p. 14). Tissot’s connection with the restaurant was brief. Before the end of the year, he had transferred his interests to ‘Tissot’s Fashionable Restaurant’ on the seventh floor of the Australasian Temperance and General Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited building on the corner of Elizabeth and Park streets (The Sun, 24 December 1915, p. 6) and Gaston Lievain was back in residence at Paris House (SMH, 18 September 1915, p. 16). These machinations coincided with the introduction of wartime restrictions on the sale of alcohol, namely 6 o’clock closing, and the anticipated effect that would have on the company’s returns from the Balfour Hotel. While leasing the restaurant had reduced the company’s overall administrative costs, and shareholders could now be confident that Paris House was back in safe hands (Evening News, 25 June 1916, p. 4), a quick turnaround was hardly expected in the prevailing circumstances and given the ‘misfortune’ of the management of the restaurant in the past ‘ it must be some time before it can regain its former prestige’. Nonetheless leasing it to the former proprietor was probably the best thing the directors could have done (Sun, Monday 3 January 1916, page 3). And indeed, it was; the company’s fortunes improved and Paris House thrived until April 1920 when Gaston Lievain died (Sunday Times, 18 April 1920 p. 8). Smith’s Weekly recorded that with the death of ‘kindly, placid Gaston Lievain, Australia lost both her premier and pioneer restaurateur. In Paris House he created a restaurant with a personality’ noting too that it was during his absence from Paris House ‘that one realised the value of him’ (22 May 1920, p. 11). 

This was not quite the end of Paris House which was advertised in the 1920s as ‘the Bohemian rendezvous’ (The Sun, 30 January 1921, p. 5).*** Paris House Limited was wound up voluntarily in 1922 (SMH, 25 March 1922, p. 25) and the Balfour Hotel, which continued to operate until the 1960s, was disposed of, while, at around the same time, the restaurant passed into the hands of Kabell Mockbell, of coffee house fame, in partnership with none other than Philippe Pic and an accountant by the name of Philip Dudleigh Walker.

Mockbell and friends made changes to the building, converting the ground floor into commercial premises and adding a fourth storey (Construction and Local Government Journal, 18 April 1923, p. 7; SMH, 9 May 1923, p. 4). The new Paris House was open for business in May 1923 ‘entirely transformed on up-to-date lines’. The building now provided private rooms to cater for 4, 8, 25 and 50 diners, the Continental room with seating for 200 occupied all the second floor, and a lift had been installed to convey customers to all floors. It was ‘remodelled, renovated and rejuvenated’ but, patrons were assured, the excellence of the cooking and service remained unchanged (The Sun, 3 August 1923, p. 6; SMH, 10 August 1923, p. 8; Evening News, 11 October 1923, p. 9).

Mockbell’s partnership with Pic and Walker was dissolved in 1924 (Gov. Gaz. NSW, 14 March 1924, p. 1595) but with its new lease on life, Paris House continued a favourite venue for celebrations and banquets until July 1931 when Mockbell filed for bankruptcy (Labor Daily, 23 July 1931, p. 6). The restaurant finally closed its doors for good in August 1931, the furniture and fittings were auctioned, and the freehold was put up for sale (The Sun, 2 August 1931, p. 2; Daily Telegraph, 14 November 1931, p. 8; The Sun, 13 December 1931, p. 50).

Even before it closed for ever, Paris House and its longest serving host, Gaston Lievain had become legends of Australian dining and remain so today. Lievain, a small, round, bald man with a walrus moustache, was lauded as Sydney’s, if not Australia’s best cook. His restaurant was remembered as romantic and exotic, and exalted as ‘the spiritual centre of Sydney’. While poulet en casserole was devoured enthusiastically downstairs, ‘thrilling parties’ were said to be carried on in the private rooms upstairs. The suggestion that girls who dined alone with a man at Paris House did so at the risk of their reputation and that Paris House waiters were known for their for discretion became accepted fact (Bulletin, 22 April 1920, p. 16 and 5 August 1931, p. 92; The Sun, 27 May 1934, p. 43; Daily Telegraph, 22 February 1991, p. 3). 

The building at 173 Phillip Street remained unoccupied until it was remodelled yet again and reopened as ‘a gay night club to be known as ‘The 400’ (Smith’s Weekly, 28 July 1934, p. 7; Truth, 19 August 1934, p. 17). Later it was converted for use as the National Defence League Canteen which provided accommodation for service women on-leave. The ground floor was occupied by a barber and a small restaurant. On the upper floors were a reading room, a dining room, kitchen and bedrooms, a laundry , and bath and shower rooms (Daily Mirror, 17 July 1944, p. 11; Building Survey Card. 173 Phillip St. Paris House. Commercial type. Plan attached. (20/10/1943), [A-00509490]. City of Sydney Archives, https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/963692). After the war the building was remodelled again to serve as the premises of the Australian Pioneers Club (Building Inspectors Card: 173 Phillip St. Australian Pioneers Club. Application to make alts to (21/02/1947 - 23/12/1947), [A-00341474]. City of Sydney Archives, https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/915192; Phillip St (173) (Pioneers Club) (01/01/1962 - 31/12/1962), [A-00556963]. City of Sydney Archives, https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1431662). The last vestige of Paris House disappeared with the demolition of 173 Phillip Street and surrounding buildings (including the Balfour Hotel) to make way for University of Sydney Law School (173-173-175 Phillip Street, 160 King Street, 90-94 Elizabeth Street The University of Sydney. (02/06/1965 - 21/11/1969), [A-00158576]. City of Sydney Archives, https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/791154)

*Gaston Edward Lievain, native of France, 35, restaurant keeper, arrive ship ‘Ormuz’ 1892, naturalised 20 October 1899. State Archive, naturalisation, reel 138, p. 319. Passenger list https://marinersandships.com.au/1892/03/121orm.htm listed at Teirnin, G. E. Arrives 28 November 1892. In 1895 he married Marguerite Costermans in Sydney.

**Descriptions of the layout of Paris House vary, and change over time as alterations were made. Originally there were two rows of small rooms either side of a hallway on the ground floor and more small, private dining rooms on the second floor. Less expensive food was served on the ground floor. The ‘fashionable people’ ate in the private rooms which were on the upper floors, as was the ‘Continental Room’ where functions were held but which was also open for a la cart dining. There were two kitchens, one catering to those who ate on the upper floors and the other for the cheaper customers downstairs. (Truth, 24 December 1911, p. 8; Catholic Press, Thursday 24 July 1913, p. 45.). When the restaurant finally closed in 1931 the building was described as ‘[e]minently suitable for professional chambers, club premises, restaurant etc.’; a brick building on a brick and stone foundation, comprising ground floor (comprising modern shop premises) and three upper floors with dining hall, private apartments, an office, kitchen and pantries etc., and featuring an electric elevator (Daily Telegraph, 14 November 1931, p. 8).

***It is likely that the business was carried on by Madam Lievain and her son Gaston Michael. The latter had moved to the Hotel Ranelagh in Robertson by May 1927 (SMH, 12 May 1927, p. 10).