PAMPAM Juan les Pins

Biography: The Pam-Pam, a hub

. Originally, in 1927, it was an American, Parker, who created the PamPam.
. Then it became a firm, the Markovich Company,
with 2 Pam-Pam in Paris, 1 in Geneva, New York and London.
. The Pam-Pam of Juan-les-Pins, as the mother-house, had remained independent.

“Charly Lebano, a former social dancer, presided over the destinies of the Pam-Pam with remarkable elegance in his outfit, in his appearance. He received all his guests as friends, guests, having a word for everyone. Very quickly, thanks to the success obtained, the space that Madame Gould had offered her proved to be too small. It has therefore expanded by the purchase and transformation of the Hotel des Pins just behind. »Huguette Pulinckx

We have introduced music

“We, the Pam-Pam, we bought it from Charly Lebano in 1958. We broke everything, we expanded, we did a kitchen: we were about twenty-five people: seven or eight behind the stove , the same thing behind the bar, a dozen boys and Jacques Leporati, an institution!

We did non-stop restaurant. For example, at three or four in the morning you had Barclay arriving with about fifteen people. And we made tartars in front of the customer. Every morning at five o’clock, I went to fetch three hundred and fifty, four hundred croissants for boxes, Maxim’s and more. After that, it was breakfast. But above all, especially, we introduced music to Pam-Pam.

Biography My mother was a jazz musician before the war. Saxophonist, violinist, clarinetist. She knew everyone in that environment. She had played with Stephane Grappeli, Warlop, Jacques Helian, Count Basie … And so, we could have orchestras like those of Duke Ellington, Errol Garner. .. Jimmy Smith wanted to come play for free for three months … I remember Ella Fizgerald singing with Aznavour, in front of the audience, and the forty musicians behind, sitting on the bar.

RitaHayworth on the terrace, Glenn Ford, Roger Moore, Jack Warner, patron of the Warner Brass, The Seneschal, Kurt Jurgens with Aymé Barelli, a statesman with Funès, Roger Pierre and Jean-Marc Thibault, Edith Piaf, Viviane Romance, Claude Dauphin, Fernand Raynaud … It was the rendezvous.

The cars stopped at the crossroads. People were dancing on the roof of the vehicles. Furious madness … Sometimes it was a beautiful time. And suddenly, the sky was starting to turn gray. My mother said: – In two hours, the Pam-Pam is full! He went quickly into the kitchen and made five, six trays like that of chocolate cake. And all of a sudden, people were coming from everywhere. On top of that, he was called to our Geo Bilman shop to put pins, for a fitting, a retouching. We went from one box to another. You could hit a burger, a Coke or an evening dress! I worked nineteen hours a day. My father and my wife were opening. With my mother, we kept the nights. We did not close. It was really the big mess. And then, in the 1980s, we sold the establishment. Today is a rum in the Brazilian style. The restoration has been abandoned. It is good too. It’s another time. Willy Blioch

Exoticism at your fingertips

“Originally from Burgundy, I learned cooking in four-star hotels. I kept this training the taste of perfection and respect for the customer. It is this way of apprehending the work that I applied in a more democratic way to the Pam-Pam as soon as I arrived, in 1977, like manager of Mr. Bertrand, who had succeeded Mr. and Mrs. Blioch.

Biography From that moment on, I hired a Dixiland orchestra that brought a mad world. These very good musicians, whose conductor composed Aux Champs Elysées, put a terrible atmosphere with their striped jersey 1900, their frock coat and their top hat. And I think that gave Juan a boost, Juan who was suffering from the new competition of Saint-Tropez and who had not been able to anticipate. The Pam-Pam found the aura that Charly Lebano, an exceptional man, had given him.

In 1979, Mr. and Mrs. Bertrand and myself, in association, proceeded to a complete overhaul of the establishment with the decorator of the time, Mr. Bing. We doubled the interior area giving it an exotic atmosphere, which allowed guests to get away from it all while staying in Juan. And there, in this insular universe, we were the first in Europe to launch the caipirinha, the Brazilian national drink (we served up to fourteen thousand per season), and to produce, every evening, tropical groups that we did (and still do) come from Brazil.

In this unique atmosphere, it only needed Junior, known by all for his Brazilian temperament, his kindness and efficiency and without which the PamPam would not be quite the PamPam. Juan-les-Pins then regained a festive air, then confirmed by the Ice Festival, opposite, which, by engaging in the same niche, doubled the impact of the novelty. The Carrefour could, as in the past, indulge in its joy and the station seemed to reactivate. Jean-Yves Parizot