The Hemingway Bar at the Ritz is considered one of the best places in the world to sip a cocktail. Sadly it’s closed for restoration until 2014, so we’ve unearthed some other suggestions for a tasty tipple in the French capital.
Come right this way for our roundup of the best cocktail bars in Paris right now. A la votre!
Experimental Cocktail Club – 37 rue Saint Sauveur
This is a sublime mixology establishment. Just like the best of its New York and London speakeasy peers, L’Experimental Cocktail Club sits discreetly in a narrow, dimly let alley – the entrance an unmarked door. Expect low lights, 30s jazz, extremely handsome bartenders and expertly mixed drinks.
Harry’s New York Bar – 5 rue Daunou
In 1911 a New Yorker dismantled his Manhattan bar – wood panels and college pennants an’ all – shipped it to Paris, and rebuilt it stone for stone inside an existing bar space on rue Daunou.
Over the next three or four decades the bar became a legendary Parisian landmark, not least because of its clientele – Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, Jack Dempsey and Humphrey Bogart were all once regulars. Be sure to checkout the piano bar downstairs. Our featured image, above, is by simonov.
Le China – 50 rue de Charenton
We love how the black and white chequerboard floor contrasts with the dark, red-lit wood panelled and draped walls in this bar-restaurant and live music venue. With the Asian flavour thrown in, it has the feel of a British gentlemen’s club in 1930s colonial Shanghai.
La Conserverie – 37 rue du Sentier
What makes this a great place for a cocktail? Well a few things really: the beautifully refined night blue walls and red velvet furniture; the well-executed cocktails; the cheese and charcuterie mixed plates; and the really friendly staff (by Parisian standards, anyway).
Les Taulières – 10 rue de la Fontaine du But
The shabby exterior will put off many from entering Les Taulières, but their loss is your gain. How to describe it? Imagine if you were given a day to set up a bar in a relatively small cellar.
You’d end up with something a little bit like this, with an erratic mix of furniture, rubber water lily leaves on the ceiling and comic strip drawings on the wall. What you’d really struggle to match, however, is the friendly and pumping atmosphere created by owners Nat and Kat. LGBT-friendly.
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
