Gautier's Restaurant

[L Verge]

Most of us know the story of the late-night meeting that Booth had with his cabal at Gautier's Restaurant in March of 1865. The average reader, however, probably assumes that the restaurant was some dive that catered to the lower echelons in life. Such is not the case.

I belong to a wonderful forum called Streets of Washington that carries tidbits of D.C. history. I just received the latest email from them, and it is on the fancy caterers and confectioners of the city from the early 1800s. Here's a snippet of how they describe the establishment of M. Charles Gautier:

How Sweet It Was: Washington's Great Caterer-Confectioners
Posted: 30 Jun 2014 04:30 AM PDT

A prominent profession in the 19th century, the caterer/confectioner was the epitome of commercial fine dining. Acclaimed chefs in the French tradition in those days were expected to display their virtuosity through their delicate and sumptuous confectionary. When they opened their own restaurants, they would offer catering services and sell cakes and candies in addition to offering sit-down dinners in their fashionable dining rooms. Catering was essential for these early restaurants because most of the city's important dinners and receptions were held in private homes.

One of the most prominent of mid-19th century caterer/confectioners was Charles Gautier (1811-1884), who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1838. In 1846, Gautier advertised a “Great Christmas Display” at his Ville de Paris on the northeast corner of 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, promising he could “supply parties and balls with every thing that is rich and good and needed on such occasions, at reasonable rates.” He invited visitors to see his display of “a large number of superb Cakes, most tastefully and richly ornamented, ranging in weight from five pounds up to near twelve hundred pounds!” The Evening Star’s James Croggon recalled that Gautier’s Christmas display also included handsomely dressed dolls, which drew admiring crowds.

Gautier was a master of haute cuisine. He catered inaugural parties for James Buchanan in 1857 and Abraham Lincoln in 1861. When not catering enormous parties, Gautier tended to his elegant restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1853 he built a new place at 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and a detailed description was printed in the Alexandria Gazette:
"Entering the main front door from the broad sidewalk of one of the most frequented parts of the avenue, you find yourself in a handsome Confectionary and Comestible Store, the counters of white marble, the floor of chequerwork, the walls and ceiling highly embellished, and lighted, at night, by gas emitted from a chandelier of much taste and great costliness. Immediately in the rear of this, but still in the same room, you advance, up a step or two, to a saloon with walls beautifully papered, and fittingly ceiled and carpeted, containing series of marble-topped tables and exquisite chairs to match, for the accommodation of lady visitors or parties of ladies and gentlemen…. Descending into the lower regions of the establishment, we encounter a room for the making of Ice Cream, three apartments for the manufacture of French Confectionary, store rooms, oven, kitchen, furnace-room, &c., all fitted up with a view to convenience and labor-saving, and after the most modern and approved plans…."

A March 1865 advertisement proclaimed Gautier’s to be “the restaurant of this city, where a gentleman can take a lady to enjoy the luxuries of the season, as no improper characters are admitted here.” Ironically, that very month, one of the most improper characters in U.S. history, John Wilkes Booth, had met with his co-conspirators at Gautier's to plan the kidnapping of President Lincoln. Gautier was later questioned about the plotters, but he had no involvement in the conspiracy. After the war, Gautier got out of the confectionary and catering business and concentrated on wholesale liquor sales, including his trademarked Native Wine Bitters. He died at his home in Washington in 1884.