L'Entrecôte

[1] In place of the previous Italian menu, he decided the restaurant would offer the traditional French bistro meal of steak-frites as its only main dish, with no other option.

[3][4] To highlight the dish the restaurant was now serving, he added the words "Son entrecôte" beneath the name Le Relais de Venise on the neon sign outside.

[11][12] In 1962, his son Henri Gineste de Saurs opened a restaurant similar to his father's in Toulouse [1], 50 kilometres from the family vineyard at Lisle-sur-Tarn.

Her branch of the family has four locations of its own, three in Paris and one in Geneva, as well as seven others operating under licence, two in Beirut run by Boubess Group,[17] and one each in Kuwait City, Doha, Dubai, Riyadh, and Hong Kong.

[22] From 1979 to 2014, the Geneva restaurant occupied premises that originally housed the Bavaria, a brasserie established in 1912 which became a favourite haunt of international officials during the early years of the League of Nations.

[24] The Relais de l'Entrecôte succeeded the Bavaria in 1979, but the rue du Rhône neighbourhood where the restaurant was situated evolved through the years and the street was transformed into a series of luxury boutiques.

[25][26] Nevertheless, in attempting to thwart the Zurich Insurance Group's determination to terminate the restaurant's lease, Marie-Paule Burrus had in 2011 obtained registered heritage status for the premises encompassing not only the wood panelling and banquettes, ceiling joinery, fittings, and other interior architectural details, but also original furnishings.

[28] The new occupant of the premises opened for business in the third week of January 2015 under the name Le 49 Rhône, offering a similar menu of steak-frites and desserts.

Although the descendants of Paul Gineste de Saurs operate their groups of restaurants under slightly different names, they all adhere precisely to his formula: the same lettuce-and-walnut salad as a starter; the same steak-frites with the same butter sauce as the main course, presented in two services; the same assortment of desserts; and at the Paris and Geneva locations a wine list featuring wines from the family's own vineyards.

In all three groups, though, every restaurant has the typical look of a French brasserie with wood panelling and wall mirrors, closely spaced tables, and bench seating in red upholstery.