Francesco Procopio Cuto is born in Sicilia in the 18th century. He had inherited from his grand father a machine able to make ice cream by hand. With a strong entrepreneurial spirit, he will prefer to export its goods abroad and came to Paris in 1686.
Strategically, he will settle facing the « Comédie Française » at « 13 rue de l’ancienne Comédie » and will create a high place Café, tastefully decorated with marble tables and ceiling chandeliers.
Of course, he will offer the beverage of Café, the popular spiritual drink of the moment but also liqueurs and ice creams. Furthermore, he had the great idea of displaying logs daily.
Quickly, the Café will become a place very famous with a lot of artists who appeared regularly, a meeting place higly frequented. The theater lovers came to trade blows or praise the last play of the « Comédie Française », the philosophers as Diderot, Rousseau and Voltaire presented their last publications and during the time of the « Révolution », everybody came over there to talk about politics, Danton and his friends spent all day, what commotion ! They climbed on the tables for being heard, they inflamed together by knowing the last rumors right or wrong…. From among its illustrious regulars, names like Balzac, Hugo, Robespierre, Napoléon and even Benjamin Franklin made the history of this amazing place.
The great success of this Café had been associated as well to the original products suggested, ice creams ! Francesco Procopio Cuto offered « Icy waters » (Granitas) meaning ice creams with fruits (lemon, orange, strawberry). These refreshing treats allowed him to obtain the French nationality and even an official royal license granted by the french King Louis XIV himself !
Today, the Procope is a renowned restaurant. Its showcases are filled of different revolutionary items and its reception rooms are titled with prestigious names. It’s like a unique museum of the French Revolution !