Chez Raspoutine, Night club and restaurant in 8th arrondissement, Paris, France
Chez Raspoutine is a night club and restaurant in the 8th arrondissement of Paris located at 58 Rue de Bassano. The venue operates as both a cabaret featuring live music and a dining establishment with theatrical decor throughout.
The 1931 building by Louis-Hippolyte Boileau and Charles-Henri Besnard faces 101 avenue des Champs-Élysées and rue de Bassano. Before 1965 the cabaret Le Drap d'Or occupied the site, owned by Hélène Martini and run by Henri de la Palmira. In 1965 Martini had it redecorated by Erté as a Russian cabaret named Raspoutine. The street facades and roofs were listed on 15 April 1991.
The name comes from Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian mystic of Nicholas II's court, and the Russian cabaret identity that Hélène Martini gave the venue in 1965. The facade carries a painted portrait of a bearded man above the balcony and a metal sign panel listing "CABARET", "RESTAURANT", "RUSSE", "TZIGANES", "CUSINOLE" and "BALALA". Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin and Frédéric Beigbeder were regulars.
The venue sits at 58 Rue de Bassano, at the corner of the 1931 Champs-Élysées complex, with the entrance beneath the RASPOUTINE lettering and the red pediment. Since the late 2000s it has operated as a chic night club rented out for film shoots and private parties, so public access depends on the evening's event.
The heritage listing of 24 March 1993 covers the shopfront and its marquee, the vestibule, the staircase and its cage, the cloakroom, all the decorations of the first basement and the toilet salon on the second basement. The street facades and roofs had already been listed on 15 April 1991.
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