Louvre & Les Halles - Paris - page 280

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
RUE D'ARGOUT & RUE MONTMARTRE

Rue d'Argout is a slip of a street from the 13th century, but it's one of those short,
stumble-upon strips where Paris' young bright things like to be, where you just know
you'll walk down that same street tomorrow, or next week, or next month perhaps,
and another trendsetter will have popped up.
Take Blend ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.blendhamburger.com ; 44 rue d'Argout, 2e; burger & fries
€14; noon-11pm daily; Sentier) , a gourmet burger bar the size of a pocket handkerchief
that is still going strong following its 2012 opening. Easy to spot by the hungry crowd
lingering outside waiting for a table, the sharp, smart, black and wood space cooks up
bijou-sized burgers with homemade buns and meat from celebrity butcher Yves-Marie
Le Bourdonnec.
Up the street is the colourful and always busy Fée Nature ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; 67 rue
d'Argout, 2e; plat du jour €8.50; noon-4pm Mon-Sat; ; Sentier) , with its inventive, wholly
'bio et sain'(organic and healthy) menu - there are even a few gluten-free options.
Just beyond is rue Montmartre, clad with numerous places to sip coffee and cock-
tails. Two of the longest running are the Crazy Heart, aka Le Cœur Fou ( MAP
GOOGLE MAP ; 55 rue Montmartre, 2e; 5pm-2am; Étienne Marcel) , a tiny gallery-bar with
candles nestled in whitewashed walls. A few doors down, Le Tambour ( MAP
GOOGLE MAP ; 01 42 33 06 90; 41 rue Montmartre, 2e; 8am-6am; Étienne Marcel or Sentier) is a
vintage mecca for Parisian night owls with its long hours (food until 3.30am or 4am)
and hip mix of recycled street furniture and old metro maps.

Les Halles

COCKTAIL BAR

EXPERIMENTAL COCKTAIL CLUB
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.experimentalcocktailclub.com ; 37 rue St-Saveur, 2e; 7pm-2am daily;

Réaumur-Sébastopol)
Called ECC by trendies, this fabulous speakeasy with grey façade and old-beamed ceiling is
effortlessly hip. Oozing spirit and soul, the cocktail bar - with retro-chic decor by American
interior designer Cuoco Black and sister bars in London and New York - is a sophisticated
flashback to those années folles (crazy years) of Prohibition New York.
Cocktails (€12 to €15) are individual and fabulous, and DJs set the space partying until
dawn at weekends.