Closed in 2019 for major works slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic, the transformed establishment, whose view embraces the Trocadéro, the Palais de Chaillot and the metal structure of the tower, will reopen on May 17.

But reservations start this Thursday.

On the menu, typical brasserie dishes: "roasted veal breast with fava beans, gilthead sea bream, Boulonnaise-style mackerel, small boat sole" with their "garnishes of the moment: oven-roasted potato, but also green vegetables and pickles", lists the chef, who takes the head of a brigade of 80 people and whose menu will, as always, have a "large vegetable part".

"We know the pickle gherkin, but we forget all the small canned vegetables that embellished the garnishes in the brasserie and are extremely interesting", continues the inventive Thierry Marx, also executive chef of the restaurant of the Parisian palace Mandarin Oriental, the Sur Mesure , two Michelin stars.

General view of the Eiffel Tower, in Paris on March 9, 2022 JOEL SAGET AFP

It will serve seasonal products, from sustainable agriculture, 70% supplied on a short circuit - less than 200 km - by local producers and artisans, for certain members of the "Guilde des artisans de la tour Eiffel". , created to highlight the Ile-de-France region.

Among them, the Parisian cooperative Paysan urbain will provide edible flowers and organic micro-shoots, "vegetable or herb shoots harvested very early, by people in integration," explains its co-founder Gérard Munier.

The chef is "very sensitive to our social commitment, as to the quality of our products", he says.

– The “anonymous” of the tower –

Thierry Marx wants "to rediscover the diversity that has marked the gastronomy of brasseries since the middle of the 19th century: this immigration from the interior, of Aveyronnais, Bretons, Auvergnats who arrived in Paris", without the postcard side.

A tradition already revisited by the chef at L'Étoile du Nord, which opened in 2016 in the Gare du Nord, then closed in 2019.

A "snacking" offer in the afternoon but also, new, breakfasts: Madame Brasserie must seduce tourists from all over the world while "attracting Parisians and French people", with a lunch including starter, main course, dessert - but without drink –, and the ascent ticket, from 56.55 euros.

The child from working-class neighborhoods in eastern Paris, who learned the trade of pastry chef with the Compagnons du Devoir before training in internationally renowned restaurants such as Ledoyen, Taillevent or Robuchon, says he has "a lot of affection for this monument".

"I was born in the 20th, I was in the heights of Ménilmontant and I saw this very small Eiffel Tower, which taunted me", remembers the chef.

A great traveller, a fine connoisseur of Japan and a fan of judo, whose trials he commented on at the Tokyo Olympics, he "no longer knows how to do without Paris" after having lived in New York, Tokyo or Hong Kong and praises the anonymous people who experience the Eiffel Tower.

"Whether they hold the locker room, guide you on the ascent, clean or do security, they have a very strong sense of belonging to this piece of Parisian heritage," he says.

"If you don't recognize it, you will remain the foreigner who came to trade there for a while".

Concerned for twenty years about the social and environmental impact of his activities, Thierry Marx employs 20% of people in integration, strives to reduce the carbon impact (delivery, optimized management of waste, water, energy ...) on its plates and advocates the Bleu-Blanc-Cœur "eating well" label.

It transmits its knowledge in its eleven social schools and works on the packaging of tomorrow with the French Center for Culinary Innovation at the University of Paris-Saclay.

© 2022 AFP