The Hotel Plaza Athénée opened on Avenue Montaigne on 20 April 1913. The hotel's first manager Emile Armbruster named it. Composers and artists regularly dined at Plaza Athénée after performances. At the time, Jacques-Léon Colombier, winner of the London Gourmet Prize, was the head chef of the hotel's restaurant. The Hotel Plaza Athénée remained open during World War I.