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Under Mr. Briguet, Le Périgord grew to become a household affair. His spouse labored with him there, as did their son Christopher, who was a manager for 30 years. Ms. Le Gall, too, labored on the restaurant, for 10 years, together with Eric, Jean-Luc, who’s an architect, and a grandson.
“You have to like what you do,” Mr. Briguet informed Crain’s New York Business in 2004. “This is my life.”
Le Périgord, at 405 East 52nd, on a dead-end part of the road simply east of First Avenue, was opened in 1962 as La Provence by a German chef. It was quickly taken over by Ferdinand Desbans, who was from the Périgord area of France and who had been chef to the grandfather of Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Mr. Briguet and a enterprise companion, Willy Krause, purchased the restaurant in 1964, however didn’t cease there. In 1969 they opened Le Périgord Park, a sister restaurant at Park Avenue and East 63rd Street; it closed in 1985. With Jean-Louis Missud, they opened La Reserve at Rockefeller Center in 1983; it closed in 2000.
In 2015, Mr. Briguet pleaded responsible to a federal tax fees and paid the federal government practically $170,000 in restitution after admitting that he had hid earnings in Swiss financial institution accounts. That identical 12 months, an worker sued the restaurant for unpaid wages in a case that was settled for $90,000.
Two years later, Mr. Briguet failed to achieve an settlement with the restaurant staff union and closed the restaurant, stowing his 17 tuxedos. By his estimate he had served three million meals there. Today, the area stays vacant.
