L'Hotel Bar

Address: 13 Rue des Beaux Arts, Saint Germain, Paris, 75006, France
Tel: +33 (0)1 44 41 99 00
Website: view L'Hotel Bar ’s website
Style: Hotel bar

Review

The street name says all you need to know about this area - a charming and pretty area with higgledy-piggledy streets full of antiques dealers, rare book merchants and modern art galleries. L'Hotel feels like a real hidden gem - though many have already found it, with Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp, Mick Jagger and others having signed photographs on the walls. It's been popular with 's'lebs' of one sort or another for centuries: Oscar Wilde made Room 16 his last home and he died here - he's commemorated in a drink.

Before you enter the bar, look up as you pass through the round galleried vestibule - sublime architecture. The bar is bijou - a bar with four stools at, plus two book-lined lounges dressed in expensive fabrics. The tones are hushed and it's all wonderfully discreet. Well-dressed businessmen and rich American tourists are the typical clientele.

The drinks (€17 upwards) are the creation of 'bar chef' Carlos Madriz - a spectacular list of his own twists on classics. We couldn't fault the cocktails we had, from the house punch, made with honey containing five spices and añejo rum, nor a superb Sazerac - with cognac, what else?