Ballroom du Beef Club

The room is small, low-ceilinged, and dark in the way only basement bars in the 1st arrondissement still are. The list rotates regularly but draws heavily from American whiskey and aged rum, which makes sense given the steakhouse upstairs. Twelve seats at the counter; another dozen at the banquettes. After 10pm the room is full and the waitlist outside is real.

The Smoked Old Fashioned is the cocktail to order first. Built with Buffalo Trace, demerara syrup, Angostura, and a hickory-smoke dome released over the glass tableside, it is the kind of theatrical-but-disciplined drink the Experimental Group built its reputation on. The Penicillin (Scotch, fresh ginger, honey, lemon, Islay float) is the second-best in Paris. Order both.

Ballroom rewards the patient drinker. Two cocktails here is an excellent evening; the kitchen sends down small steakhouse plates if you are hungry. Walk-ins arrive early; everyone else books at least a day ahead. The cocktail prices are mid-tier for the 1st: €16–€19 for serves of this quality is fair, by Paris standards.