La Petite Marmite appears in Andy Warhol’s diary as a repeat meeting place for Truman Capote and Bob MacBride during the summer of 1978. Located on 49th Street in Beekman Towers, the restaurant hosted lunches that mixed work on Interview with conversation and, on one occasion, Warhol’s attempts to record Capote’s proposed plays.

Setting and Recurring Use

Warhol visited La Petite Marmite on June 29 and July 5, then returned for a meeting there on July 14. The diary records the cab fares for two trips: $3 on July 5 and $3.50 on July 14. The restaurant’s significance in these entries is less its food or décor than its function as a place where the three men could meet and talk. On June 29, the stated purpose was to discuss Interview; on July 5, Warhol taped Capote describing play ideas.

The June and July Meetings

At the June 29 lunch, Capote said he was starting to feel normal again, then teased Warhol for believing him too readily. Warhol taped the conversation and described the pair as spending the meal gossiping. Capote planned to go to his analyst afterward, explaining that the analyst was an old friend whose feelings he did not want to hurt by stopping their appointments. The exchange gives the lunch an easy, confiding tone while showing Capote’s self-mocking humor.

On July 5, Capote and MacBride were not drinking, while Warhol had orange juice and vodka. Warhol taped Capote’s ideas for three plays. One involved a young Greek scholar, his mother, a maid, and rats emerging from the moon; MacBride pointed out that the story came from Capote’s earlier short story “Walk Around the Block.” Capote’s other pitches included a marriage between a sixteen-year-old boy and a thirteen-year-old girl, and an improvised play called Deep Holes. Warhol found the ideas unpromising and tried to redirect the conversation toward making plays from real people and recording Capote at the gym. The lunch thus captures a small creative disagreement: Capote offered invented plots, while Warhol wanted the tape to preserve the supposedly more compelling material of real life.

From Lunch to the Palladium

At the July 14 meeting, Warhol picked up Bob before joining Capote and MacBride at the restaurant. Capote brought along the forthcoming second part of a Sunday Times article about himself. Although it was not the cover story he had expected, Warhol had Capote autograph the paper and give it to him. Capote also described plans for a party for his 540 best friends, to be held in a loft with women wearing veils, and paid the restaurant bill.

The meeting led into a wider evening out: Susan Blond sent a limousine for Warhol and Capote to go to the Palladium. When a manager demanded that everyone clear a dressing room, Warhol identified Capote, and Capote answered by identifying Warhol; the manager then apologized. Though the incident took place elsewhere, it extends the social pattern surrounding the restaurant lunches: these meetings connected work and taping with the public recognition and celebrity encounters that followed the pair through the city.