La Côte Basque

The story

Truman Capote burned his entire social world to the ground inside this restaurant without ever leaving his desk. His unfinished novel's chapter "La Côte Basque 1965," published in Esquire in 1975, depicted a catty luncheon among thinly disguised socialites — the very women who lunched there, including Babe Paley and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Henri Soulé opened the place in the late 1950s; Jean-Jacques Rachou took over in 1979, spending more than $2,200 a week on flowers alone. It closed March 7, 2004, after 45 years as what the Times called a "high-society temple of French cuisine."