Danico

A glass-roofed Belle Époque cocktail room hidden inside Galerie Vivienne in the 2nd, where Nicolas de Soto's program runs deep on technique and seasonality. Polished but unfussy, with a list that rotates quarterly and a back bar visited by traveling bartenders when in town. Best for a mid-evening drink before a late dinner, or a long bar-seat session with someone who orders by ingredient.

Order: Jacquouille La Fripouille, a complex butter-caramel and buckwheat riff on a classic Bénédictine cocktail.

Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris

The wood-paneled, leather-armchaired institution off Place Vendôme, named for the writer who claimed to have personally liberated it from the Germans in 1944. Colin Field ran the room for over twenty years and his successor team has kept the tradition: classic technique, perfect ice, no nonsense. Best for an early-evening martini after a long Paris day.

Order: a Serendipity (Calvados, mint, fresh apple, Champagne) or a Clean Dirty Martini.

Bar Nouveau

A buzzy, low-lit cocktail room in the 11th from the Bar Hemingway and Little Red Door lineage, World's #18 in 2025 and Best Bar in France. Long bar, no-reservations policy at the rail, and a program that has done as much as any room in Europe to pull Paris back to the global cocktail map.

Order: whatever's at the top of the seasonal menu.

Dirty Dick

The Paris tiki institution on rue Frochot in Pigalle, opened 2013 and the survivor of a generation of cocktail bars that came and went in the same neighborhood. Bamboo and rattan, totems and Polynesian masks, hawaiian shirts on the staff, rum-deep program from Scotty Schuder's Liquid Corp group (also Moonshiner, Nodd). Dirty Dick is known for its authentically inauthentic tiki theme, with shared cocktail bowls served in tikis and totems. Best for a late drink in Pigalle when you want escape and a serious rum cocktail that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Order: the Zombie or a Painkiller.

Le Mary Celeste

A corner restaurant-bar in the 3rd from the Experimental Cocktail Club founders, the room that defined the Paris drinking-and-eating crossover when it opened in 2013. Oysters from Brittany, natural wine from small producers, snacks from a tight kitchen, and a cocktail program that holds up to its lineage. Best for a long late-afternoon to mid-night session that runs from oysters into cocktails.

Le Voltaire

A white-tablecloth Left Bank power room on Quai Voltaire in the 7th, the address-restaurant where Yves Saint Laurent ate every week and where the bar still pours an actual Negroni before lunch. Bourgeois French menu, deep Bordeaux list, and a clientele that looks like a Hedi Slimane photograph. Best for a long lunch or a quiet pre-theater dinner with someone you want to walk along the Seine with afterward.

Four Seasons George V

The 1928 Art Deco palace on Avenue George V, three Michelin-starred restaurants on property (Le Cinq, Le George, L'Orangerie), and floral installations by Jeff Leatham that have become part of the hotel's signature. Le Bar pours one of the great Paris hotel-bar cocktail programs in a room of marble, leather, and tapestry. The address that defines the Triangle d'Or.

Ritz Paris

The 1898 César Ritz original on Place Vendôme, restored and reopened in 2016 after a four-year renovation that returned it to grand-hotel form. Hemingway, Coco Chanel, Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Diana Princess of Wales; the guest list is pure legend. Bar Hemingway already earns its slot in the bars list; the palatial suites, the École Ritz Escoffier cooking school, and the Ritz Club spa seal the deal.