Overview
Set in the heart of the traditional Yungay quarter, it operates in a building dating back to 1900. Apart from its cuisine, visitors can enjoy the original atmosphere comprising old and curious objects, all of which are on sale.
Offering an international cuisine with a French touch for lunches and evening meals, the restaurant is part of the Boulevard Lavaud, an interesting setting drawing together a hairdresser’s, the Collectors Museum and the Old Store.
History
The Peluquería Francesa originally operated across from Plaza Yungay and then on Santo Domingo street. It has been on its current location on the corner of Compañía de Jesús with Libertad streets since 1925.
This traditional neighborhood barbershop started operating in 1868 under the charge of Victorino Tauzan and two French male hairdressers who used to render services to members of the high society and to French civil servants, as the French Consulate was a few steps away from the square.
It is Emilio Lavaud Jr. who, upon his father’s death, took charge of the barbershop, preserving the French tradition and European style of its decoration.
Despite the emigration of the upper class to the eastern sector of the city, the barbershop stuck to its working style and renewed it with the arrival of Manuel Cerda (1963), who used to apply the hot towel shave technique, highly esteemed by the former neighborhood residents.
Although the activity of the barbershop diminished as a result of the political, cultural and economic changes in the 1970s and 1980s, it overcame the difficulties and started to act as a meeting place for artists, actors, musicians and writers who would recall the past of the neighborhood.
The repositioning of the quarter known as Barrio Yungay in the late 20th century brought new life to the barbershop, which has now become the Boulevard Lavaud.
Compañía de Jesús, 2789, Santiago.