Le Dome Cafe

From the beginning of the 1900s, Le Dôme Café (or Café Du Dôme) was renowned as an intellectual gathering place. It was widely known as the "the Anglo-American cafe."

Opening in 1898, it was the first such cafe in Montparnasse, Paris. It "created and disseminated gossip, and provided message exchanges and an "over the table" market that dealt in artistic and literary futures." [artistmarkking.com [http://www.artistmarkking.com/05paris/ memories of Paris] ]

It was frequented by the famous (and soon to be famous) painters, sculptors, writers, poets, models, art connoisseurs and dealers.

Le Dôme Café later became the gathering place of the American Literary Colony and became a focal point for artists residing in Paris' Left Bank.

A poor artist used to be able to get a Saucisse de Toulouse (sausage) and a plate of mashed potatoes for $1. Today, it is a top fish restaurant (Michelin gives it one rating|1|3 star), with a comfortably old-fashioned decor. The sausage is gone and so is its price, dinner for two costs $100.Cite web|last=Friedrich | first=Otto, "Time" |title=The Great Cafes of Paris |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,970172-2,00.html|date=May. 21, 1990] "Dômiers" became a coined term to refer to the international group of artists and writers who gathered at the Café du Dôme.

Address

109 bd. Montparnasse, Paris, FranceClosest Métro: Vavin

Famous clientelle

* Henry Miller (1891 – 1980)
* Anaïs Nin (1903 - 1977)
* Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903)
* Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924)
* Aleister Crowley (1875 – 1947)
* Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)
* Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931)
* Youssef Howayek (1883 – 1962)
* Chaim Soutine (1893 – 1943)
* Amedeo Modigliani (1884 – 1920) [Royal Academy of Arts [http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/ra-magazine/summer2006/features/ Summer 2006: Naked ambition, Modigliani] ]
* Sinclair Lewis (1885 – 1951) [washburn.edu [http://www.washburn.edu/reference/awp/dayseven.html Day Seven] ]
* Ezra Pound (1885 – 1972)
* Pascin (1885 – 1930)
* Tsuguharu Foujita (1886 – 1968)
* Man Ray (1890 – 1976)
* Max Ernst (1891 – 1976)
* Moise Kisling (1891 – 1953)
* Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)
* Charles Gordon Boggs (b. 1921) (also where he met his wife) [ unhooked.com [http://www.unhooked.com/boggs/catartist.htm Charles Gordon Boggs: My Life] ]
* Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944
* Robert Capa (1913 - 1954)
* Gerda Taro (1910 - 1937)

Literature

* Henry Miller, "Tropic of Cancer"
* Elliot Paul's, "The Mysterious Mickey Finn: or Murder at the Cafe Du Dome" (1939)
* Ernest Hemingway's, "With Pascin at the Dôme", in "A Moveable Feast"
* "Paris", lyrics by Édith Piaf
* Aleister Crowley's magical retirement frequenting Du Dome [sacred-texts.com [http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib816.htm John St. John, The Record of the Magical Retirement of G. H. Frater, O.'. M.'.] ]

References