It is unusual to find a restaurant in Paris that remains open constantly, not just from early in the morning to late at night or seven days a week, but also on all major holidays like Christmas, New Year’s, and May 1st, as well as in August when the majority of businesses take at least two weeks off. Le Castiglione, as we knew it, has always been consistently, thankfully, and obstinately open… until it abruptly closed on Saturday night.
This has come as a huge loss for all of its devoted customers, but especially for the fashion industry who considered Le Castiglione their canteen in Paris, their “happy spot,” and their “home away from home.” The restaurant, affectionately referred to as Casti (the Le optional), has been a cherished, anti-It destination for the better part of three decades. It is conveniently located near several hotels that are fashion staples.
Casti looked unaffected by power dynamics, no of whether you were sat next to Grace Coddington or Amber Valletta, a wealthy CEO or a top retailer, at a table with important reviewers and editors, etc. To dine and take in the Parisian style, you sat down on the red velvet.
When Town & Country’s Stellene Volandes and Business of Fashion’s critic-at-large Tim Blanks formally announced the news on Instagram last week, there was an immediate outpouring of grief, shock, and teary emojis. Not since Colette’s 2017 closure—after 20 years of operation only two blocks east—has a fashion-focused location here taken on such nostalgic significance among a normally unfeeling population.
