Anya Firestone’s job as a luxury tour guide in Paris has brought her to many rarefied corners of the city. But only recently did she do something that countless locals and visitors have done over the last 130 years: Book a reservation at Maxim’s, the storied French restaurant that opened in 1893 and has counted Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Margrethe II of Denmark, Jean Cocteau, Jane Birkin and Man Ray among its patrons. “The place was packed,” Ms. Firestone, 35, said of the night she ate there in late November. She was not alone in that perception. “Many people, even most, did not realize it was open as a restaurant,” said Pierre Pelegry, a director at Maxim’s who has worked there for 27 years and was hired by Pierre Cardin, the French fashion designer, after he bought the restaurant in 1981.

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Persons: Anya Firestone’s, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Margrethe II of Denmark, Jean Cocteau, Jane Birkin, Man Ray, Ms, Firestone, hadn’t, ”, Pierre Pelegry, Pierre Cardin Locations: Paris, Maxim’s