It’s impossible to miss Club Rayé when walking along the Rue Saint-Sauveur near Montorgueil. From the black and white awnings to the elegantly dressed waiters and chic terrace with stylishly trimmed bushes, this cocktail bar oozes elegance. The atmosphere recalls that of an American piano bar, with faux-baroque decoration (padded leather, lots of stripy monochrome, bronze and stone statues) and a soundtrack of jazz classics and pop covers played every evening by a pianist. It's all the work of American designer and Francophile Kein Cross, who saw a gap in Paris’s market for a decent jazz bar with a buzzing New York-style cocktail hour, and so decided to do something about it.
The cocktail menu is exhaustive, taking in drinks as diverse as a Sazerac (one of the oldest cocktails around, containing rye whisky, cognac, absinthe, Peychaud’s bitter and brown sugar) and a French 75 (a mix of gin, champagne, lemon and sugar syrup). All time-consuming preparations, but their subtle, carefully balanced taste is well worth the wait and the price tag (€14-€16).