Harlem has always been an international village, and the history of the Cafe Pacheteau, at 128th Street and 3rd Avenue, (just east of 3rd Street) in Harlem, New York, 1911, echoes that point.
Cafe Pacheteau was owned and operated by Jacques Pacheteau and his business partner H. Moffltt. Pachetteau, may have been from France, but he understood Harlem marketing, the text in the upper left hand corner of the card reads:
America’s Newest And Finest French Restaurant. Table D’Hote And A La Carte Music And Singing.
Jacques Pacheteau’s building was a three structure mega venture, with the first building “Cafe Pacheteau,” the restaurant, topped with a clock and the American flag. The second building the tallest, a nondescript green and white structure that may have worked as the office spaces topped with a French flag. The third building bares the name “California Wine Cellars,” above the street entrance, topped with a large “J. Pacheteau” billboard above the text that reads:
Lunch for 50 cents and Dinner for 75 cents, with wine.
Cafe Pacheteau had to pull out all the marketing stops they were competing with the top French restaurants; Mouquin’s, the Lafayette-Brevoort, Cafe des Beaux Arts, Martin’s, and La Parisienne Rotisserie.
The Harlem eatery advertised in the New York Times and the ad above that ran in the Evening Telegram New York on Monday, September 25, 1911.
Mr. Pacheteau was quite an entrepreneur, born in France, he became a resident in Calistoga, California after a trip in 1875. He is considered one of the fathers of Napa Valley wines, owning one hundred and ten acres called the “Pacheteau’s Castle” and “Chateau Pacheteau,” and twenty wine cellars. In addition, he was one of the first to ship California wines to the East Coast, shipping four thousand barrels of wine a year.
He died in 1919.
Jacques Pacheteau and Cafe Pacheteau, great stories in Harlem.
Postcard published by Gut & Steers (source).
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