Au Rocher de Cancale, restaurant on Rue Montorgueil since 1804

Au Rocher de Cancale, the restaurant on Rue Montorgueil, was founded in 1804 at the corner of Rue Montorgueil and Rue Greneta. Alexis Balaine, a former oyster seller from Les Halles, opened it with Madame Beauvais on the street where Parisians then came to eat oysters.

It served suppers after the theatre and the opera. In 1809 La Reynière installed his tasting jury there. Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier and Eugène Sue dined here, and Balzac sent the characters of La Comédie humaine, Lucien de Rubempré, Henri de Marsay or Coralie, to its tables. In 1837 the chef Langlais created sole normande in its kitchen.

Pierre Frédéric Borrel, once maître d’hôtel to Jean-Pierre de Montalivet, succeeded Balaine and kept the house at its height for nearly thirty years, with a fine cellar. The restaurant closed in 1846, reopened on Rue de Richelieu, then Monsieur Pécune brought it back to Rue Montorgueil, across the street, at number 78.

On the first floor the house keeps frescoes by Paul Gavarni, and the building is a listed historic monument. On pedestrian, busy Rue Montorgueil, it serves oysters, seafood and the classics of French cooking, from breakfast to dinner.