[1] In 1959, Paul Gineste de Saurs established a restaurant in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, near Porte Maillot, offering but one main dish: the traditional French bistro meal of steak-frites, or steak-and-chips.
The beefsteak used was the cut of sirloin known in French as contre-filet or entrecôte, and accordingly the restaurant was named Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte.
A simple salad of lettuce topped with walnuts and a mustard vinaigrette was offered as a starter, and not until the end of the meal did the menu offer some choice, from a dessert list of fruit pastries, profiteroles, and other confections consisting mainly of ice cream, chocolate sauce, meringue, and whipped cream.
One daughter – Hélène Godillot – took control of the original restaurant Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte at Porte Maillot, and her branch of the family subsequently opened additional locations under that name in Barcelona (in 2003) and London (in 2005).
And a son – Henri Gineste de Saurs – opened his group of restaurants outside Paris, under the name L'Entrecôte, in Toulouse (in 1962), Bordeaux (in 1966), Nantes (in 1980), Montpellier (in 1990), Lyon (in 1999) and Barcelona (in 2019).