Inside the Eiffel Tower’s Newly Redesigned Jules Verne Restaurant

Eating well on the Dame de Fer, a.k.a. the Iron Lady or Eiffel Tower, is tradition. When it first opened in 1889, there were already four restaurants on the first floor, tucked away in wooden pavilions. And to celebrate the landmark's 130th birthday this year, three-Michelin-starred chef Frédéric Anton (of Le Pré Catelan in the Bois de Boulogne) will take the helm of the City of Light’s highest gastronomic destination, soaring 410 feet above the city.

Located on the second floor, with direct access via a private elevator on the south pillar, the Jules Verne Restaurant—named for the celebrated French novelist, poet, and playwright—is reopening on July 20, entirely refurbished by architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman, founder of Culture in Architecture. With some six million visitors every year, around 80 percent of whom are foreigners, Chef Anton wants his cuisine to mirror France’s “culinary excellence,” he says. Revisiting the great classics with seasonal and local products, Anton intends to create a gastronomic experience in the arts décoratifs tradition, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Revisiting all of the restaurant's spaces, Asmar d’Amman conceived a site-specific aesthetic: industrial mixed with intricate metalwork—silver, blue, and green shades of gray, echoing the sky, the Seine, and the cobblestones, all highlighted with black, gold, and silver accents. She sourced materials both raw and precious, “reviving the marvelous encounter of engineering, architecture, and gastronomy," says Asmar d’Amman, "while weaving a visual dialogue with Parisian beauty in a contemporary decor mixed with a 1900s connotation.”

The designer brought in a team of craftsmen for the project, all members of the highly regarded Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant. Aside from the gray onyx tables and two unique stone-embedded tabletops from Venice, every piece was custom designed by Asmar d’Amman and her firm.

The restaurant’s three main spaces comprise pearly white and silvery gray velvet benches (following an 18th-century craft) inspired by those inside the apartment that Gustave Eiffel once occupied at the tower’s summit. Likewise, delicately brushed French oak tabletops, accented with mother-of-pearl, stand on legs whose design was inspired by Suzanne Belperron’s 1930s jewelry and which are decorated with small bronze candleholders by sculptor Marie Khouri. Surrounded by mirrors in antiqued gold leaf and a luminous sculpted ceiling, elegant overhead lighting fixtures mimic wheels, and painted screens pay tribute to fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin and artist Sonia Delaunay.

“I named the metal chairs Iron Lady, a reference to powerful women, designed on the curve of the Eiffel's main arch," says Asmar d’Amman. "And the Lace Chair is made of wood with smoky caning, like feminine fishnet stockings.” In the Comptoir space, facing the tower's yellow mechanical wheels, vintage books and rare flea market objects populate an artful wall composed of dark woods and hand-cut leather. In the alcove, striated and pleated textiles adorn the walls like a couture dress, making the ceiling appear like an abstract suspended skirt in movement. Two rounded benches surround custom table tops embedded with colored stones, a gift from Karl Lagerfeld to the restaurant.

“His extraordinary genius and unparalleled photographer's eye will continue to inspire my projects,” says Asmar d’Amman, who worked with Karl Lagerfeld on the Grand Apartments he designed for the Hotel Crillon; she also oversaw the first furniture line created by the late fashion designer.

Additional, more tucked-away spaces, like the private salon for four to six guests, are hidden under the restaurant, where a pair of embroidered panels by Lesage line the staircase leading down to the secluded room. At the chef’s table in the kitchen, available only by invitation from the chef himself, Aline installed contemporary artwork. "Tools and Men" by Pascal Dangin, who's responsible for the restaurant's newly rendered logo and printed materials, is a photo installation evoking the link between construction tools, gears, and Anton’s kitchen. Welcoming the guests at the ground floor entrance are two torsos, Gustave Eiffel and Jules Verne, in light resin by Leblon Delienne. Once at the restaurant's entrance on the second floor, visitors are greeted by a stormy sky painted by Christophe Martin, works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, sculpted panels by Ingrid Donat, vases by Victoria Wilmotte, and ceramics by Lebanese artist Hala Matta. At the Comptoir, Xavier Veilhan’s work Rays, framed by a bookshelf backdrop, nods to the permanent rotation of the tower’s wheels.

In short: Historical and contemporary French references abound. Now the central emblem of Paris, which was meant to be razed after the 1889, has been reborn yet again.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest