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initial stood for his own name, while the son-in-law felt
flattered that his beloved Emperor of France reigned at least
in name at the Cafe Royal when he was unable to reign
anywhere else.
When Nicols died, in 1897, he had lived long enough
to see his little cafe grow into the finest restaurant in London,
patronized by princes and peers, the leading lights of the
arts; in fact, everybody who was anybody. His devoted
wife survived him by twenty years, and carried on the
control of the business until the day before she died.
With the rebuilding of Regent Street the old cafe was
pulled down and the present edifice rose in its place—a
change that swept away the Bohemian element of the
customers.
With all these changes the old customers shook their
heads, their beloved haunt was finished, they declared, just
as " The Empire " was no longer the meeting place of the
gilded youth of the town. The intervening years have
shown that they were wrong, for, although the Cafe Royal
had changed beyond recognition, its cooking and cellars
maintained their old reputation under the management of
the new regime.
Once again pass and repass through the portals of the
Cafe Royal everybody who is anybody.