THE PARIS LETTER: The Experimental Cocktail Club

Boy, I have been boozing it up this month. All that free babysitting provided by my visiting mom has allowed me to continue my search for the perfect Paris martini, and this time Matt joined in the fun.

From the Time Out France review, since our cameras wouldn't work in the dark

Do you ever wish you could bring the feel of Williamsburg, Brooklyn to your Paris life? If you're visiting from the US, probably not, but Matt and I sometimes long for a Paris/New York mashup, and we've definitely found it in this cocktail bar, The Experimental Cocktail Club.

Located just north of Les Halles, in an area of narrow cobblestone streets that always makes me feel like I'm walking through medieval Paris, The Experimental Cocktail Club is appropriately discreet but thankfully has no secret entrance, just a black facade with some subtle lettering. Once you enter, its a a great combination of New York speakeasy - complete with a piano in the  corner - and Parisian charm, chandeliers and exposed beams on the walls and ceiling. Matt immediately started speculating about what had been in the space before, as he noticed a patched hole in the ceiling that had clearly once been a staircase.

We arrived at 7PM on a Saturday night, which in my mind is perfect cocktail hour. But then, I'm married and have a baby, so I'm not the most exciting person you'll meet. For us, it was great - the place was nearly empty, yet it was still late enough to feel like a romantic beginning to our date. By the time we left around 830, though, it was standing-room-only packed, so keep that in mind as you plan your trip.

The cocktail list is complicated, as expected, but - hooray! - they did make an honest-to-god, not-too-much-vermouth gin martini with olives that was really good, though served in a crystal goblet rather than a martini glass. Which I think is like a hipster choice rather than a Parisian misstep.

Since I was feeling under the weather, I got a slightly less strong drink that was similar to a whiskey sour but with Japanese whiskey, lime juice, and yuzu - very delicious, though I can't tell you the name because the Club, well, it doesn't publish its menu. I CAN tell you that you will be paying 12 Euros a cocktail - so, you know, New York prices. But trust me - go early and you won't be disappointed.


THE EXPERIMENTAL COCKTAIL CLUB
37 rue Saint Saveur
75002 Paris
01 45 08 88 89
M: Sentier, Etienne Marcel
M-Th 7PM-2AM; Friday/Saturday 7PM-5AM 

THE PARIS LETTER: David Lynch's NightClub

So I finally did it. I went to Silencio, the Paris nightclub designed by David Lynch.

I realize I'm a little late to the party - it opened up last summer. But in my defense, I think I was 6 months pregnant when it opened. And it's definitely not a place you want to go if you're pregnant, unless you're naked and using the pregnancy as some kind of performance art.

The club is in the middle of Paris, near the Bourse, or the old Stock Exchange. You descend several flights of black metal stairs, adorned with pictures of depressed naked women and lonely suburban houses to really give it the Lynch-y feel, and finally you end up in this cabaret-slash-bomb shelter which really is kind of awesome. When I arrived - this was for a friend's going away party - there was a concert going on in one room, in which a beautiful woman with streaky eye-makeup was screaming/singing like Trent Reznor while a shirtless dude with long hair manned a Powerbook and played some beats behind her. They were apparently "friends of Bjorn", and were like an Icelandic version of a band you might see in Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY (one of my favorite films in college, no joke).
 
More tales of Lynch-y antics, including  this blog's first ever NSFW picture, after the jump

THE PARIS LETTER: The Sad Truth about Martinis in Paris

Well, while I'm on my food and drink kick this week - it must be some residual Thanksgiving-ness percolating through me - I'll go forth and discuss something you CAN'T get here, or I should say something I definitely haven't found here, and that is a good martini.

Oh Martini, where have you gone?

Oh, Martini, why are you so delicious, yet so challenging?

Really, what is weird to French people I think is that you'd want that much cold alcohol all at once. I do have some French film business friends who are constantly drinking vodka on ice at Cannes and staying up all night, but they're sort of considered wild and crazy.

Whereas this used to be my Friday night after work drink in New York City.

Here are a few things that might happen when you order a martini in Paris - all true stories by the way!

1. You ask for a martini with olives and are brought a glass of sweet vermouth with olives in it.
What? Isn't that what you asked for? It says "Martini" right on the bottle. Right next to 'Rossi". What's the problem?

2. Having learned from this experience, you ask the next bartender if he knows how to make a martini, and he says, "Sure, I've got lots of Martinis. Red martini, white martini, what would you like?" You quickly realize he means vermouth - again. Oh dear. You try to explain how to make a Martini New York-ais: Very cold gin, just a little vermouth, some olives. Oh, like James Bond! he says. Yes. like James Bond, if James Bond's bartender had to go to another part of the hotel for glassware and liquor and came back twenty minutes later with your drink. That was about 50% vermouth but to it's credit definitely had some gin in it. And the glass was big.

If you like Martini Coladas...

3. Go to LE GLASS, a  hip cocktail bar in your neighborhood that was recently written up on a cocktail blog. Find out that it serves draft beer and cocktails that come from those alcoholic-slushie machines you find in New Orleans. 

Get worried when you see that the only Martini-like drink on the menu is something called the Martinez, which includes gin, vermouth, MARASCHINO and ORANGE BITTERS, and seems to come a PRESSION which means on tap which means - a martini from one of these alcoholic slushie machines??? What is this world coming to?

But then you explain you just want a simple martini to the bartender and she seems to get it, and gives you a reasonable version, in the correct glass with olives.

But still with way too much vermouth.

Stay tuned, I'm still on the hunt. I'm headed to someplace called THE EXPERIMENTAL COCKTAIL CLUB next.

THE PARIS LETTER: Finally, American beer in Paris!

Not available in Paris ... until now!

I don't know if I've written about this before, but you can't get American beer in Paris. Like absolutely you can't get it. Not in a can, not in a bottle, not on draft, not in the supermarket, not in a bar, nowhere. There's one beer store here that occasionally has a few Sierra Nevadas that they sell for 4 Euros each, but that's it, and I'm sure those came over in someone's luggage.

But wait! What's that I see in hip South Pigalle? Could it be Brooklyn Lager ON TAP? Indeed it is, gentle reader, and you could have knocked me over with a pint glass because how is this happening??

Well, all I can tell you is that it IS happening, at a bar called LE GLASS that is some kind of only-in-France mashup of hip cocktail lounge and American college bar - in that it is ALL BLACK and has no sign, but then when you walk in they have numerous American beers and you can order pitchers, onion rings, and hot dogs. Except everyone is wearing black and speaking French. Only in Paris, but there's good beer, so who cares?

LE GLASS is the offspring of the same people who run Candelaria, the Mexican cocktail bar/taco stand in the Marais where I once got very drunk on margaritas. They just opened up Le Glass in September, and I didn't even know about the ABOT (American Beer on Tap) until I walked in - I later learned they're the only bar in all of Paris to offer it. Yay for it being walking distance from my house!

LE GLASS
7 Rue Frochot 75009 Paris
M: Pigalle
Open daily from 7PM-2AM
Too cool to have a phone.

THE PARIS LETTER: Dating My Husband

Hello there folks -

Montmartre - Follow him!

It's a rainy Sunday here in Paris, and the Claire Lundberg-Matt Valley household is being really lazy as a result. In fact, Matt is still sleeping over there in the bed -though it's almost 2PM ! In fairness, we did have a nocturnal visit from two friends who had a twelve hour layover here in Paris on their way back to New York from Russia. Armen and his brother Grisha showed up last night around 11:30, and we hung out drinking the Belgian beer Matt brought back from Bruges a couple of weeks ago, and then Matt and the guys left to find fun and excitement (or more beer and food) before they had to head back to the airport at around 5:30AM. Matt discovered a 24-hour Belgian beer bar right on Place de Clichy - about 7 blocks from us! Matt said they had a great beer selection but that it was also full of about 5 or 6 bachelor parties all eyeing each other seeing if they'd have to fight later. I should mention that this part of our neighborhood is pretty close to the Moulin Rouge and Pigalle districts, so these dudes were probably either coming from or going to that area. All in all, a good find but one that resulted in him getting back home around 5AM.