The restaurant claims that it was founded in 1582, and that it was frequented by Henri IV, but it offers no documentation to support these or other claims about its history. The Quai de la Tournelle, where the restaurant stands, was not paved until 1650, before which it was "a slope, often flooded and almost always made inaccessible by mud". The restaurant does not appear in an 1824 list of "The principal restaurants, who are distinguished by the elegance of the decoration of their salons and by the number and the care taken with the dishes found there...". In 1852, a metals dealer occupied number 15 Quai de la Tournelle, and a hairdresser and wood dealer number 17. Baedeker's 1860 guide to Paris describes the establishment's current location as "out of the way", while mentioning a restaurant associated with a low-cost "Hotel of the Tour d'Argent": "Between Notre Dame and the jardin des Plantes, on the Quai de la Tournelle, facing the bridge of this name, there is a little hotel and the restaurant Lecoq; Hôtel de la Tour d'argent, a bit out of the way, it is true, but well kept and cheap. Facing a swimming school, which has the advantage of not yet being encumbered and imprisoned by all the filth of Paris." The restaurant was owned in the 1890s and 1900s by Frédéric Delair, who began the tradition of presenting a numbered certificate to each person who ate the restaurant's signature dish, pressed duck. In 1912, the Terrail family bought the restaurant. It was operated first by André Terrail, then by his son Claude, who died in 2006 at the age of 88, and then by Claude's son André. Since 1986, La Tour d'Argent has been a recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award. Until 1996, the Guide Michelin awarded the restaurant three stars. The rating was reduced to two stars in 1996, and to one star in 2006.
Specialities
, especially the pressed duck, is the speciality. The restaurant raises its ducks on its own farm. Diners who order the duck receive a postcard with the bird's serial number, now well over 1 million.. The restaurant's wine cellar, guarded around the clock, contains more than 450,000 bottles whose value was estimated in 2009 at 25 million euros. Some 15,000 wines are offered to diners on a 400-page list. The dining room has an excellent view of the riverSeine and Notre Dame.
Cultural references
In A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway says that the Tour d'Argent rented some rooms and gave its lodgers discounts on the meals; also that a valet there used to sell English books left by the tenants. La Tour d'Argent is mentioned by Marcel Proust in his novel À la recherche du temps perdu in the volume "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower". The restaurant inspired scenes in the 2007 Pixar movie Ratatouille, and received an "unexpected boost" from the film. The restaurant is mentioned in the book The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, page 148, as a place where a dinner was held for Orville and Wilbur Wright in July 1906. Two episodes of Iron Chef had chefs from the Tokyo and Paris restaurants competing. One episode of Root into Europe was filmed in the hotel, and the duck being pressed is shown and served to the actors. Claude Terrail appeared as himself. The restaurant was visited in the Paris episode of Remarkable Places to Eat, featuring the duck being pressed at their table, and a visit to the wine cellar.
