What this place is and who it is for
Le Select opened in 1925 on the Boulevard du Montparnasse, opposite La Coupole and a few doors from La Closerie des Lilas, and has been the late-night cafe of the four Montparnasse classics ever since. Hemingway drank here, Joyce drank here, and the room has been redecorated less than any of its peers. Le Figaro called it “the least-renovated of the four,” which is meant as a compliment and reads as one.
It works for a Pastis-and-Croque-Monsieur evening that runs from 11pm to 1am, with a working pianist on Friday nights and a terrace that is heated through winter. Avoid if a modern cocktail program is the goal — Le Select is not running one and never has. Regulars on r/paris describe it as “the Montparnasse cafe where the waiters still wear the jacket and still know what a kir is.”
What the space feels like
A wide front room with the bar on the right and banquettes the length of the windows, a back room with a piano, and a heated terrace facing the boulevard. The New Yorker described the room as “more lived-in than designed,” and that is the cleanest possible summary.
What to order, what to skip
Order Pastis Henri Bardouin (8 EUR) and a Croque Monsieur (13 EUR) and stop. The room is a Pastis room first, a cocktail room second, and a wine room third. Skip the modern cocktail twists added in the 2010s; r/paris reviewers consistently call them an afterthought against the Pastis pour. The kir vin blanc, at 7 EUR, is what the waiters drink on shift.
Who shows up and when
An older Montparnasse local crowd in the afternoon, students and writers in the evening, a 1am crowd that is half hospitality industry and half people who missed the last metro. The New Yorker noted that “the crowd shifts four times a day and the room absorbs every one of them.”
When to walk in
Le Select runs four shifts and each one has a different room temperature. Mornings from 7am the room is a working cafe with regulars and a coffee-counter rhythm. The 5pm to 7pm aperitivo hour is the busiest of the day and the only time a wait for a terrace seat is plausible. From 9pm to midnight the room shifts to evening drinking with the pianist on Friday. The 1am to 2am window is the one r/paris regulars consistently flag as the right time to come: the boulevard has emptied out, the terrace heaters are on through winter, and the waiters will pour without hurrying the order. Sunday afternoon is the slowest of the week and the right time for a paperback and a kir.
What regulars say
Pick this if
- A 1am Pastis on a heated terrace in winter
- Showing a visitor the Montparnasse classics without the La Coupole queue
- Avoid if the order is a tasting-menu cocktail program
Three siblings in Paris
Le Select’s entry in the Le Figaro Paris classics guide; The New Yorker Paris feature (2019); Hemingway and Joyce biographies; r/paris; Google Maps reviews (n=140).