‘I think the hotels realised that with so many options for where to drink outside the hotel, that’s exactly where their guests were going,’ says Aurélie Panhelleux, co-founder of cocktail bar CopperBay, which now has a third outpost at the Hotel Lancaster in Paris. Watching guests leave to find newer, more hip cocktail bars has motivated a wave of high-end Parisian hotels to reimagine their own bars, and they’re welcoming a new crowd of discerning drinkers as a result.
Unlike in London or New York, where it’s considered rather chic to meet for a Martini in a hotel bar, it has not traditionally been a part of Parisian culture: drinking in hotel bars was for hotel guests. But that’s changing as cocktail culture takes hold in the French capital and hotels seek to bring in established mixologists capable of creating high-quality, contemporary drinks. Now a growing number of Parisians are ordering cocktails, even queuing to do so, in the low-lit bars of the city’s spectacular five-star hotels.
The trend is seeing hotel guests staying in for drinks too, enticed by the new wave of bartenders who are not just shaking and stirring but also fat washing, infusing, clarifying and even rotovap distilling. For hotels with fine-dining restaurants, developing their bars is not just a way to keep guests inside but also a way of complementing and enhancing the gastronomic experience. At the Mandarin Oriental, it was clear that while the hotel’s restaurant had achieved acclaim, two Michelin stars no less, the bar wasn’t garnering the same attention. So the hotel tapped Alex Francis and Barney O’Kane, alumni of Little Red Door and co-owners of the-soon-to-open De Vie, for a summer pop-up in its bar (called Bar 8) last year. Francis says, ‘they were looking to bring in some more energy and do something more contemporary.’
Similarly at the Hotel Lancaster, there was a desire to bring the bar more in line with its restaurant in terms of quality and creativity. They brought in CopperBay for a two-week pop-up, saw that it worked, et voilà: it’s now permanent. ‘If you want to develop the restaurant you have to have a good chef,’ says Panhelleux, ‘so if you want to develop the bar, you also need to bring in someone who knows what they’re doing.
At boutique hotel Maison Proust, this meant bringing in famous bartender Colin Field. After nearly 30 years at the Ritz Paris, Field is now a permanent Friday night guest at the hotel with his own exclusive Proust-inspired menu, which includes possibly the most expensive cocktail in Paris, ‘Le Temps Retrouvé’. The mix of Château Laubade Armagnac from 1922, the year of Proust’s death, Périgord black truffles and Maison Barons de Rothschild Champagne Brut Nature from costs €500.
While they might all reside inside hotels, the boundary-pushing bars have all managed to create distinct identities. The menu at Le Bar at the Four Seasons Paris George V takes clients on a tour around France, while CopperBay at Hotel Lancaster stays true to the bar’s Mediterranean DNA. At Les Ambassadeurs in the Hotel de Crillon and The Library Bar at the Saint James Paris, the teams take a sustainable approach with vegetal-forward cocktail menus based around seasonal produce. Romain de Courcy at the Ritz Bar takes it one step further by tying his plant-based menu to the biodynamic calendar.
Some bartenders are also taking advantage of hotel resources and the higher prices that often deep-pocketed guests are happy to pay – up to 30-something euros versus the average €14 in one of Paris’ top cocktail bars – to set themselves apart with ultra-premium ingredients. This can mean fresh produce coming directly from the hotel’s own vegetable garden, in the case of the Saint James Paris.
Watching guests leave to find newer, more hip cocktail bars has motivated a wave of high-end Parisian hotels to reimagine their own bars
At the Ritz Bar, de Courcy is sourcing some ingredients from the same producers that supply France’s high-end perfumeries. And Bar 1802 might sit within the ‘mere’ four-star Hotel Monte Cristo but it’s serving its own exclusive cocktail in the form of the Cuir, which arrives in a glass wrapped in Hermès leather. The €150 cocktail is a mix of 24-year aged Caroni 1998, the bar’s own SMWS x 1802 rum, H. Theoria, Cuir Lointain and oudh from a supplier that works with Dior. The team sells one a week, on average.
The minds behind these reinvigorated hotel bars admit that they had to take a gentle approach to revamping menus. ‘It was difficult at first,’ says Angelo Forte, who joined Hotel Lutetia’s Bar Joséphine in October 2023, ‘When you work for a hotel bar, you have to create a way for people to understand these drinks. You have to create curiosity in the client.’ Go all in with high-tech methods and oddball flavours and you risk alienating the guests who just want a classic.
When Kevin Rigault joined Les Ambassadeurs at the Hotel de Crillon in 2022, he started with a small test menu of five drinks before increasing it to the current 15, not only to gauge the reactions of guests but also to train the team in a new way of working with seasonal ingredients. And of his biodynamic approach at the Ritz Bar, a concept that usually applies more to wine production than cocktail shaking, de Courcy says: ‘Was it daring? Yes. We didn’t start with this menu. It’s evolved since we opened and as people have become more open to it.’
Paris hotel bars may not yet be making industry top lists but the best ones have become drink destinations in the city regardless. At peak times, there can be queues of an hour to get into Les Ambassadeurs, while at Bar Joséphine, a line often stretches down the street as the clock ticks closer to opening time. ‘French people don’t have the culture of drinking cocktails like in the US, the UK, Italy. But we’ve seen more people ordering them since we changed the menu,’ Forte says. ‘Our customers like that we’re doing something different. And every hotel is doing something different. Some are more classic, some are more modern, but hotels must always look forward because guests change.’
Seven of the best Paris hotel bars for cocktail lovers
Bar Joséphine
Hotel Lutetia
The easy, relaxed vibe of the beautifully frescoed Bar Joséphine has long made it a favourite with Saint-Germain-des-Prés locals but now Angelo Forte’s cocktails are pulling in crowds of drinks connoisseurs too. Forte launched his first menu with a fun comic book-style design and creative twists on classics, such as the Martini-inspired Bang Bang: Bombay Sapphire 1er Cru, dry vermouth, oyster leaves, dill and black sesame oil, which with its boozy kick lives up to its name. Then there’s one of Forte’s personal favourites from the menu, the Tequila-based Sangre with red porto, chipotle, wakame seaweeds and lime. Head upstairs to Bar Aristide, Hotel Lutetia’s low-lit speakeasy, for a more intimate evening and a more classic menu.
CopperBay
Hotel Lancaster
After opening its beloved first bar in Paris’ 10th arrondissement and then a second outpost in Marseille, CopperBay partnered with the Hotel Lancaster to transform its historic bar. The founding CopperBay trio take a food-forward approach to their drinks, so expect a menu based around savoury ingredients you’d be more likely to see on a snack menu, such as the tomato-based Pan con Tomate with Barley Shochu 35, passata, lemon juice, white balsamic with citron, roasted garlic and olive bitters, as well as the sweeter Tiramisu, which tastes like the dessert in a glass thanks to Metaxa 7 with cocoa nibs, Amaretto, homemade vanilla syrup, coffee, cold brew coffee liqueur and cream. There’s also a great bar menu to match, with plates served up by the team behind the hotel’s gastronomic restaurant. On Thursdays there’s a brilliant DJ set, nothing too raucous, but a mix of disco classics and 90s hip-hop lively enough to help pull in a new, younger crowd.
Les Ambassadeurs
Hôtel de Crillon
If there’s one bar that gets other bartenders talking, it’s Les Ambassadeurs. While its stunning decor has given it a headstart (think 18th-century frescoes and Versailles-worthy gilded gold), its reputation isn’t just thanks to good looks alone. Head bartender Kevin Rigault has managed to transform one of Paris’ most historic hotel bars into one of the city’s most innovative, with a minimalist menu focused on expressing the ingredients that encapsulate each season. On the menu right now: the Porcini Mushroom, blended with Campari, Tanqueray Ten Gin and Mancino Rosso Vermouth, and the tangy and pared back Gherkin, balanced with Michter’s Bourbon and coriander seeds. Also look out for pop-ups from friends; previous guests include the likes of Singapore’s Atlas
Bar 1802
Hotel Monte Cristo
Sitting inside the Hotel Monte Cristo, Bar 1802 continues the hotel’s Alexandre Dumas theme with plush decor inspired by the Count’s travels and Dumas’ exuberant character – think rich jewel tones and fringed velvet sofas set amongst leafy palms. As a tribute to Dumas’ ancestors, who were rum producers in St Domingo, the bar is entirely dedicated to rum and holds a collection of more than 1,600 references. Bar managers Donovan Chouari and Paul-Antoine Herbet are, naturally, also rum enthusiasts and pool together their extensive knowledge to keep reinventing the spirit in the cocktail menu, as well as creating their own exclusive cuvées with top rum producers. For fellow rum fans, pull up a seat around the central bar to chat to the team about what you like and try one of the bar’s specialty rum tastings.
Ritz Bar
Ritz Paris
Ritz Paris bar director Romain de Courcy takes inspiration from the four elements of the biodynamic calendar – fruit, flowers, roots and leaves – to create his plant-based menu at the iconic Ritz Bar. Each labour-intensive drink is focused on just one single ingredient in order to express its full flavour. The Petitgrain cocktail, for example, uses five varieties of citrus from three countries, while the Lavender reinterprets three different varieties in four ways to achieve the perfect balance. The decor also showcases a lunar influence and nods to astrology with 12 tables set around the central bar as the sun, crowned with golden stars.
The Library Bar
Saint James Paris
Its out-of-the-way, 16th-arrondissement location and part-time members-club status has given The Library Bar at The Saint James Paris a secretive air but after 7pm anyone can pop by to relax into a leather armchair with one of Marion Segarra’s drinks in hand. After joining the Relais & Châteaux hotel as Cheffe Barmaid, Segarra decided to take the same hyper-local, eco-friendly approach to the drinks as the hotel’s one-Michelin-star restaurant takes to food, and now sources the fresh ingredients for her plant-forward menu directly from the hotel’s own vegetable garden. Drinks change regularly according to what’s growing and what Segarra finds inspiring, but expect a more earthy, vegetable offering in winter, while in summer the menu will naturally lean more towards fruit. Feel free to order an off-menu classic and see what seasonal twist the team comes up with.
Le Bar
Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris
Le Bar might have all the looks of a traditional gentleman’s club but there’s some fun, modern techniques going on behind the scenes. To match the hotel’s famed F&B offering (it’s home to an impressive six Michelin stars), the bar has really upped its game in the last couple of years and revamped its menu with more unexpected flavours and homemade ingredients. There’s mezcal fat-washed with Bayonne ham, clarified-milk punch using buttermilk from Brittany, and croissant and tarte tatin syrups, which put a French twist on sugar syrup using the hotel’s leftover buttery pastries. Even the classics are given a George V spin: the Negronis come with a grapefruit infused-gin and only French products are used in the Spritz as a celebration of the local terroirs. Aside from the cocktails, there’s also a strong collection of spirits, including some rarer bottles for guests who want to make an off-menu request.
