Bygone places / Champs Elysées: From a Set Menu Bistro to Political Elegance
The Champs Elysées restaurant on Reforma was a gathering place for politicians and national and international artists. It was also a touchpoint of French haute cuisine in Mexico City for over fifty years.
By: Youyi Mayora Eng
Photos courtesy of: Sophie Avernin
In 1965, Mexico began preparing for the 1968 Olympic Games. President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz appointed former President Adolfo López Mateos to lead the organizing committee. It was in this context that the Bouteille family founded the legendary restaurant Champs Elysées. It opened its doors in a small establishment at 4 Amberes Street in the Colonia Juárez.
It started as a small bistro serving a set menu. Years later, its success necessitated a move to 316 Reforma, a more distinguished location where one could enjoy dishes like manta ray in black butter, which was not available anywhere else in the city at that time. Notably, it might have been Mexico’s first organic restaurant. Whether by accident, preference, or choice, the family grew their own plants, herbs, and even had poultry farms. Sophie Avernin, daughter of the founders and a prominent wine personality in Mexico City, recalls that as a child, they brought plants and small trees from France in their suitcases, which they then planted in Morelos.
Until recently, their website stated: “Dining at Champs Elysées means belonging to an elite group of people with a taste for tradition.” By then, the restaurant had been acquired by the Advent investment fund. Perhaps its refinement and elegance were key factors in its struggle to survive postmodernity. Some accounts speak of their veal kidneys and roast lamb, which filled the air with flavors and aromas cherished by Mexican society. High-level politicians frequented the place almost daily; it was undoubtedly a business hub—a restaurant, as once described, “to see and be seen.”
In its final years, Champs Elysées opened another branch in Polanco, on Campos Elíseos Avenue. Change sometimes traps us in an abyss from which we cannot escape. In 2019, the restaurant closed its doors for good.
Just over a year ago, the name of the mythical Mexican restaurant Champs Elysées resonated in a high-profile trial in the United States. Testimonies spoke of meetings at the restaurant where corruption and power consolidated around dark interests. By then, Champs Elysées had lost all connection to its founding family.
We are left with the memory of that French restaurant founded by the Bouteille family on Reforma, which touched our senses and affection for French haute cuisine for over fifty years. We pay tribute to the memory of the manta ray with butter, organic herbs, wine conversations, and the view over Reforma.
