Description: RARE MATCHBOOK FROM EPHEMERA LE CHAMPIGNON FRENCH RESTAURANT in Philadelphia. You may remember Le Champignon, the French country boîte famed chef René Blaschke opened in Philadelphia on Lombard Street near Front in 1967. When Elaine May and John Cassavetes made the nighttime film “Mikey and Nicky” at Second and South in the early '70s, the crew hung out at René's until their 3 a.m. shoot. Many of his regulars became extras on the film, and it helped establish the restaurant's popularity. René Blaschke, an early Philadelphia restaurant pioneer, emigrated from Poland to France before World War II. Chef René spoke both languages, as well as his accented, argumentative and wittily fractured English, with which he regaled people many nights at his own bar, at Sassafras and at other popular bars around Society Hill. He sold Le Champignon in 1987, around the time of his wife Mary's death from cancer. René hid his grief under a harsh yet often hilarious brashness. He was a great raconteur who could keep you up drinking until dawn at his Barnegat summer place with a deep reserve of jokes and stories, often portrayed physically when he jumped up to enact a yarn. Eventually he opened the Country House Inn in Wawa, Pennsylvania. But René also had an explosive temper. According to the story as I heard it, just before Valentine's Day of 1997 his waiters walked out (or was it the cooks?). Dozens of couples out for a romantic dinner had their evening ruined. For weeks thereafter, many of them peppered him with vituperative letters and phone calls until, one morning in March, René opened the restaurant alone, sat down at a table and shot himself. He was only 56. Own this piece of restaurant history and reminisce about the high point of Philadelphia culinary life.
Price: 10 USD
Location: Lake Arrowhead, California
End Time: 2024-09-16T01:05:31.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
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All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
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