Le Bœuf sur le toit (cabaret)

Le Boeuf sur le toit began as a humble bar called Le Gaya on rue Duphot, but its magnetic pull on the Parisian avant-garde soon forced it to relocate to larger quarters. The establishment took its name from a surrealist ballet farce composed by Darius Milhaud with choreography by the poet Jean Cocteau. The name itself comes from a Brazilian song, O Boi no Telhado, which means the ox on the roof. This quirky title was chosen by the owners because they hoped to secure the continued patronage of the elite circle of artists and musicians who treated the bar as their primary clubhouse.