Cocktail Bars

With the largest hotel gar­den in the cap­i­tal, le Trés Par­ti­c­uli­er seduces you with  refresh­ing, next-gen cock­tails and lux­u­ri­ous bub­bly in one of our nev­er-gets-old, favorite sur­round­ings. (It feels pri­vate some­how, like you aren’t jammed up too close to the next table. We appre­ci­ate that.) Along with the hotel’s restau­rant, Le Grand Salon, the space feels sophis­ti­cat­ed with in-your-face (mer­ci) flower bou­quets and soft light­ing. The black and white check­ered floor­ing and red vel­vet chairs sit under a canopy of green­ery, trans­port­ing you into anoth­er time. But first you have to win their esteem by get­ting past the inter­com-door­man and gain­ing entry, giv­ing the place a some­what ‘speakeasy’ vibe — and keep­ing your shrinks in busi­ness as you can scratch your ‘pick-me’ itch for the price of a few cock­tails, which are always cheap­er than a ses­sion with your urbane, Eng­lish-speak­ing, ther­a­pist. So get your alter-ego ready for the ‘who dis?’ response on the oth­er end of the line.  (Per­son­al­ly, EIC Kat Walk­er goes with an obscure world polit­i­cal fig­ure because she dropped out of uni and nev­er quite got over an ex telling her, ‘Well, what if I AM smarter than you?)