Hidden from the gilding of the Ritz Paris, an unexpected symphony unfolds: the creation of haute couture cocktails, the French way. The menu, soberly titled "around biodynamics," conceals a true revolution within the Ritz, masterfully positioning the establishment on the French cocktail scene and beyond! A few years ago, The Connaught Bar broke the codes of luxury hotel bars in London. The Ritz Bar, led by Romain de Courcy, is doing the same in Paris, in a completely different vein: biodynamics, cocktails measured to the microgram, single-product focus, and cocktail dispensers!
Ritz Bar: The Next Generation Ritz Experience.
For generations, THE bar at the Ritz was called Hemingway. A comforting experience nestled in a unique setting, serving perfectly executed classic cocktails. The creation of the Ritz Bar two years ago has changed the game. A new bar that brings a breath of fresh air and a new form of experience to luxury hotel bars! An imaginary world that reveals itself to us from the precise 5:30 PM opening ceremony. Custom-made music by Polo & Pan plays, the curtains open, and the grand lantern rises to the ceiling to reveal the circular bar and project a fresco of zodiac constellations. No doubt, the show has begun and intends to disrupt our conventions. This is evident for Romain de Courcy:
The idea behind the Ritz Bar is to reconnect with the pioneering spirit of César Ritz.
Romain de Courcy - Director of the Ritz Bar.
He was the first to put the telephone in every room, the elevator on every floor, or electricity.
He was also the first to install bathrooms in every room. Oscar Wilde even said he would never stay at the Ritz because it was inconceivable to have a bathroom in one's room.
Ritz Bar, make way for perfection
An inspiration drawn from the history of the place: the Ritz Bar already existed 100 years ago, even before the creation of the Hemingway bar. Parisian high society, fond of astrology, used to come here in the 1920s to have their cards read and palms read. A mystical, festive, and creative spirit that is found today in the soul of this place where nothing has been left to chance: everything here is circular, to recall the shapes of the stars, whether it's the majestic and central bar, like a sun with planets revolving around it, and 12 tables like 12 constellations.
Only the menu is square, for practical and ecological reasons, Romain informs us.
Scarcely open, the mystery remains intact. A circle divided into 4 categories: fruit, flower, root, and leaf. Each associated with its sign: water, fire, air, or earth.
Each cocktail is precise. Under a deceptive appearance of extreme simplicity, it is a true goldsmith's work manufactured around a single and unique product that is offered to us! A titanic constraint that forces the Ritz Bar team to conduct in-depth research in technique (rotovap, infusion, extraction), but also in product sourcing: "we have access to unique raw materials, some of which are only found in luxury perfumery", indicates Romain.
A single-product menu
To start, we are tempted by the cocktail named pear. A version "super natural since it does not exist in nature", which expresses the product in all its complexity and diversity. The Ritz Bar team set out to find the quintessence of the product. It is here that Romain's passion for the world of wine and sommellerie is revealed.
The cocktails on this "Around Biodynamics" menu are discovered step by step, sense by sense, sip by sip! Here, the pear comes to life thanks to two pear eau-de-vie: red for the heart notes, and green paired with a vintage grand cru perry for the top notes, a candied pear for depth, and a pear puree to reinforce the heart notes. Nothing else, yet the balance of the cocktail is there, as are the textural plays in the mouth. An assumed minimalist philosophy, emphasized by the choice of glassware and the desire to have no garnish: "I have adopted Saint-Exupéry's quote, that perfection is not achieved when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove", Romain confides in us.
The same principle applies to the eleven other cocktails, with a construction worthy of perfumery. Nine months of work to create the first menu, but now a well-oiled technique allows for imagining the next menus for the next ten years: "We started with lavender, as it was potentially the most complex ingredient to work with as a single product... When we saw that it worked, we decided to launch the menu. Today, we have over 90 single-product cocktail recipes in stock."
A lavender cocktail served almost instantly after our order. The secret? This one is served on tap. Yes, you read that right. The Ritz Bar also breaks the mold on service with three cocktail taps, which are added to pre-mixed cocktails, assembled on demand. Even the orientation of the bar is surprising: facing the entrance, not the customers. "The Ritz Bar de-sacralizes the Ritz to attract not only hotel clientele, but a younger, more local clientele who wouldn't dare, or wouldn't think of coming to the Ritz".
An Exhilarating Alcohol-Free Offering
While the alcohol-free offering is often the neglected part of cocktail bars, especially in hotel bars, the Ritz Bar has taken it to the pinnacle of perfection. A Leaf cocktail with a subtle nose, but which then literally explodes in the mouth with a complexity rarely encountered in a no-low cocktail.
Romain enlightens us: " The 4 alcohol-free cocktails on the menu are composed of different fruits, different flowers, different roots, or different leaves to truly express the diversity of each of the categories on the menu ".
The High-End Cocktail Experience Reinvented
Romain de Courcy positions himself as a cocktail visionary, even if he humbly adds "it's important to also talk about the team, they are passionate, lovers of the Ritz and the Ritz Bar. The team is really the number one reason to come visit us at the Ritz Bar."
A customer-centric approach, offering them an experience that engages all their senses. Without a doubt, we will return. Especially since it is said that ephemeral cocktails make their appearance on full moon nights...
Ritz Bar
15 Place Vendome or 38 Rue Cambon,
75 001 Paris
