Finding the perfect hidden cocktail bar in Paris

While craft cocktails and speakeasy-style cocktail bars are a big part of American drinking culture, the phenomenon hasn’t quite taken over Europe yet. In places like Ireland and England, “cocktails” are sugary sweet concoctions, usually sold to young people who haven’t developed a more refined palate or can’t drink straight beer or whiskey. In France, people drink unadulterated wine or the occasional aperitif, which is usually something simple like a Ricard with water. The speakeasy theme that so many American cocktail bars have taken on doesn’t make sense in Europe, as Prohibition never existed there. You can find great cocktails at old bastions of the original cocktail like Harry’s and the Ritz, but they don’t offer the same ambiance that bars in the speakeasy cocktail world do.

The speakeasy-style mixology craze is starting to show up more and more in Europe, as drinks become more of a craft, similar to culinary arts. At the…