The Mama Shelter Paris East rooftop sits six floors above 109 Rue de Bagnolet in the 20th arrondissement, a seasonal garden terrace enclosed by plant-covered trellises. Philippe Starck designed the hotel's bar and summer roof, and the terrace runs cocktails, frozen drinks, and table tennis when the weather holds.
Who would love it: anyone after a relaxed garden rooftop away from the tourist core. Who would hate it: drinkers who want a year-round bar, since the roof opens seasonally for the warm months.
The terrace tops the original Mama Shelter on Rue de Bagnolet, the 2008 hotel that started the group. The roof reads as a secret garden, wrapped in plant-covered wooden trellises and strung with festoon lighting at night, a setup the hotel's own pages and The Rooftop Guide both describe. Sofas, hammocks, and a table-tennis table fill out the space.
The terrace is a designed garden rather than a viewpoint: Philippe Starck's roof wraps the space in trellises heavy with climbing plants, with festoon bulbs strung overhead and low seating scattered across the deck. The sixth-floor setting trades a skyline panorama for an enclosed, planted calm, which is the trade the eastern arrondissement crowd comes for. A barbecue runs on warm afternoons, and the table-tennis table is a fixture of the Mama Shelter style.
The kitchen and bar share the menu, so the terrace works for a full evening: bites, salads, and burgers alongside cocktails, frozen drinks, sangria, wine, and beer. The Rooftop Guide and the hotel's own pages both flag the seasonal calendar of events, so the programme shifts through the summer. The roof leans on warm weather and closes out of season, which makes a check before the trip the sensible move.
Order a cocktail or a frozen drink on a warm evening, and add a pizza or a burger from the rooftop kitchen for a longer sit. The menu runs from bites and salads to sangria, wine, and beer, so the terrace works for a full evening rather than a single round. The frozen drinks are the warm-weather move.
What regulars flag, across Google and rooftop guides, is the garden feel and the relaxed crowd, with the seasonal hours noted as the catch. Reviewers describe a neighbourhood mix rather than a tourist scene, and single out the hammocks and the lighting after dark. The same notes mention that warm weekend evenings fill fast, so an early arrival helps.
Best time to go is a warm summer evening at golden hour, before the terrace fills and after the daytime heat eases. The roof runs seasonally, so the window is the warm months rather than year-round. Weekend evenings run busiest.
Who it is for: rooftop drinkers after a relaxed garden terrace, locals on the eastern side of the city, and anyone who wants greenery over a skyline view. Who it is not for: visitors after a year-round bar or a central landmark backdrop.
The Mama Shelter roof pairs with a Ménilmontant and Charonne evening, an easy stop among the eastern arrondissement's bars. It works as the relaxed start before a move toward the Père-Lachaise quarter's later rooms, a short walk from Alexandre Dumas and Maraîchers stations on lines 2 and 9. The metro is the simpler arrival.
It earns its place in the city's hotel rooftop conversation. See where it lands in our guide to the best rooftop bars in Paris, browse the full Paris bar guide, and compare it across the wider best rooftop bars worldwide.
