Hôtel Plaza Athénée bar: Le Bar, its blue ceiling, the Dom Pérignon cellar and what a cocktail costs

Le Bar was redesigned in 2014 by Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku. A ceiling of deep blue fabric swirls above a transparent counter made from a single block of resin, and the room keeps its tall wooden arches. The hotel sums up the mood in 2 words, vibrant buzz, and has given the bar a soundtrack: a playlist by the American director and producer Stan Neff, which it also publishes on Spotify. The bar director is Benoit Marin.

The menu calls its cocktail chapter «Il était une fois les cocktails de demain», once upon a time the cocktails of tomorrow, and prices nearly every one at €35. The Not a Porn Star Martini is Belvedere vodka, amaretto, vanilla and passion fruit under a champagne mousse, clarified with milk. The Breakfast Sour is whisky infused with salted butter and a house-made pastry syrup; the Pickles Margarita, tequila infused with gherkins; the Tomato Negroni, gin infused with fresh tomato and finished with basil olive oil. The Wood Old Fashioned ages continuously in a bourbon barrel, and the Kir Plaza, at €37, joins gin, fresh strawberries and basil to rosé champagne. 3 espresso martinis, Le Clear, Le Medium and Le Deep, change the spirit underneath: reposado tequila, vodka or blanco tequila.

Champagne is the other reason to come. By the glass it begins with Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial at €32 and climbs to Dom Pérignon 2017 at €85 and the 2008 P2 at €105. The bar keeps a Dom Pérignon cellar of its own, shown in a display designed by Nicolas Francart: bottles from €680 for the 2017 to €10,200 for a 1973 P3, a magnum of the 1966 P3 at €31,500 and, last on the page, a Mathusalem of Rose Gold 2002 at €155,000. A pairing at €165 sets a glass of P2 beside 6 caviar nuggets.

Food comes in small pieces. From 6pm to 10pm a trolley offers finger food, marked €15 on the menu: an herb tart with basil stracciatella, a chicken and pistachio pâté en croûte, a smoked trout tartlet with lemon, an artichoke with black truffle and almond. 3 cocktails have a bite made for them, a toast of foie gras and passion fruit with the martini among them: the menu prints each pairing at €45 and does not spell out whether that figure takes in the cocktail, €35 or €37 alone, so ask when you order. The larger plates are a Wagyu smash burger with fries at €45, or €95 with 12 grams of Golden Imperial caviar on top, a fish burger at €42, and Casparian caviar served with blinis from €190 for 30 grams.

Guests’ accounts of the bar are few. A visitor in March 2025 had a well-made espresso martini from a friendly barman and described an «ambiance clubbing», a style of its own among the hotels of the avenue. One who came in December 2025, writing in January 2026, tried 5 cocktails and found them correct and unsurprising, thought the bar short of staff and disliked a menu handed over on an iPad. A guest in October 2025 had been several times for drinks before dinner and found the staff nice and the mood fun. 2 more reviews turn on getting in: in October 2024 a visitor was told there was no place without a reservation, and in August 2026 a regular was stopped on the way to the bar while a member of staff checked whether they could go through.

Le Bar du Bristol opens every day from 5pm to 1am, with tapas and petits fours beside its cocktails. At the George V, Le Bar serves from 5pm to 1am and to 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, under bar manager Thibault Méquignon, with last orders 45 minutes before closing.

Bar Hemingway at the Ritz is a different evening: 25 seats, the sound of ice and conversation where other bars have music, open from 5pm to midnight with no booking required. Bar 228 at Le Meurice opens at 2pm, has live jazz every night, refuses shorts after 5pm and takes reservations from hotel guests alone.