Dinner with John Whelan - Bringing Back the Splendour of Art Nouveau French Brasseries - Thursday, April 4th

is pleased to invite you to a dinner with

John Whelan

"Bringing Back the Splendour of Art Nouveau French Brasseries"

John Whelan (Oxford Univerisity, St. Edmund Hall) will talk to us about his work in renovating French brasseries, to recreate their original decoration in the late XIXth and early XXth centuries, and about the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements which it reflects.  John Whelan is the founder and director of the Guild of Saint Luke, an affiliation of artists, architects and artisans united by a common aesthetic. 
 
After starting his career with Publicis Conseil as a creative manager on international accounts, John left to found Le Pompon in 2010, one of Paris’s most celebrated nightclubs housed in an old synagogue that he renovated. He became Art Director of Le Carmen, housed in the old hôtel particulier of Georges Bizet, and Faust, under the Pont Alexandre III. In 2016, he accepted the challenge of renovating 15 well-known brasseries in Paris and Eastern France owned by the restaurant group Les Grandes Brasseries de l’Est. The company’s Chairman, Jean-Noël Dron, contacted John after noting his design work for the three Parisian nightclubs. 

Our dinner will be held in the semi-private space of one of the group’s historic Parisian brasseries which John has renovated. Well known until recently as the Brasserie Flo, it reverted to its former name of Floderer after its takeover by new ownership at the beginning of this year. It was originally founded by two Alsatians exiled following the German annexation of Alsace Lorraine after the 1870 war. The name Floderer appeared in 1909 as the name of its then new proprietor, another Alsatian. However, its Germanic consonance led to its being ransacked during the First World War, so when it was reopened in 1918, Mr. Floderer decided to Frenchify its name to Flo. Now, a hundred years later, it has resumed its old name.

Thursday, April 4th at 7:30 p.m.

 Brasserie Floderer

7 cour des Petites Ecuries Paris 10e