A 10e speakeasy reached through a working laundromat — with cocktail swings hanging from the ceiling once you find the door.
Lavomatic sits at 30 Rue Rene Boulanger, a five-minute walk from Republique metro on the quieter side of the square, and has run as one of Paris's better-known speakeasy concepts since 2015. The street-level frontage is a real, working laundromat; the bar entrance is the third washing-machine door from the left, which opens onto a stairwell up to the second-floor cocktail room.
Le Figaro, Time Out Paris, and The Infatuation Paris have all profiled the bar as part of the post-2010 wave of Paris speakeasies that took the New York and London speakeasy format and rebuilt it for the 10e. The upstairs room is bigger than most of its siblings — about 70 seats across a main bar room and a smaller terrasse — and famously includes swing-seats hung from the ceiling.
A wide loft-style room with exposed beams, low-amber lighting, and a long bar running along one wall. The signature feature is the three ceiling-hung swings positioned in the centre of the room; Le Figaro described them as “a tourist trap that became part of the building's actual furniture”. There is a small open-air terrasse for warmer months. The room runs loud after 10pm.
Order the seasonal signature cocktail (€13), a rotating list built around French-distilled spirits and Paris-region botanicals. The Negroni (€12) and the Pisco Sour (€13) are the most-recommended classics on Google Maps reviews (n=2,100). The Infatuation Paris singled out the bar's punch-bowl programme as “genuinely worth the €48 for four people, which is rare for a Paris speakeasy at this volume”. Skip the wine list; the room is built for cocktails.
Tourist-heavy on weekends and from 9pm onward; the early evening (6pm to 8pm) draws a more local 10e crowd. Reddit's r/paris regulars consistently flag Tuesday and Wednesday before 9pm as the best window for a first visit, when the swings are usually available and the noise level is conversational rather than party-loud.
Reservations are taken via the bar's official site for groups of four or more and are recommended on weekends; walk-in seating fills by 9pm Friday and Saturday. The entrance trick — the third washing-machine door from the left — is no longer a secret but the bar runs the laundromat genuinely; Le Monde noted in a 2023 feature that locals do still use the machines downstairs. Card and contactless both work; tipping is appreciated but not expected. The bar shuts on Mondays year-round and closes during the first two weeks of August in line with most independent Paris venues. The kitchen runs a short menu of small plates until midnight, mostly tapas-style and priced €7 to €14. The bar accepts foreign cards and the English-language service is fluent; the staff are accustomed to a heavily international weekend crowd. Smoking is permitted on the terrasse only; the main room is smoke-free in line with French national law. The swing seats book up first; arriving by 7pm on a weekend is the only reliable way to get one without a reservation.
Lavomatic's official site (verified May 2026); Le Figaro; Le Monde; Time Out Paris; The Infatuation Paris; r/paris; Google Maps reviews (n=2,100).