It’s not uncommon for a bar or café to remind patrons that someone famous once ate there by having a physical photograph of said VIP on display. For 36 years however, at Davé, a Chinese restaurant on Rue Saint-Roch in Paris’s 1st Arrondissement, Polaroids of beloved guests were less a marketing tactic than a key feature of the building’s interior, framed and affixed to any available wall space.

The various portraits, which included those of the singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, filmmaker David Lynch, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, model Kate Moss, and entrepreneur and socialite Kim Kardashian, made up something akin to a personal album for owner Tai “Davé” Cheung.

“The immediacy fascinated me,” the restauranteur told CNN, recalling his initial interest in the Polaroid. He purchased the camer

See Full Page