Experimental Cocktail Club (Paris)

Gladys and Romain, bartenders at the ECC Rue Saint-Sauveur, Quartier Montorgueil (Paris)
Cocktails are breathing a new life here in Paris, and the French against all odds are liking it
I first heard about the Experimental Cocktail Club through the monthly FT supplement "How to Spend It", a glossy magazine targetting the very rich which is mostly a base for whole pages of luxury-goods ads featuring Swiss watches and Vuitton bags. While most of this brightly-colored magazine is appalingly-boring stuff intended for a high-heeled conformist elite with no clues about the real life, this supplement has always a few good pictures (fashion photography in particular) and also now and then an interesting report like this story that they run a few months ago : That's how I learnt about this new thing striking Paris, Le Shake, c'est Chic, or how three young French entrepreneurs decided to introduce the cocktail culture in Paris, France.
There aren't many cocktail bars in Paris, usually, demanding cocktails amateurs would head to the bars of luxury hotels to enjoy the art of mixology, places like the Four Seasons/George V or the Hemingway bar at the Ritz where you'd pay 25 or 30 € for an expertly-made cocktail. These high-end venues offer athentic mixology designed by professionals, not just the sugary drinks with flashy colors that you find in the bar next door. But still, at 30 € a glass, you can't bring in crowds and start a trend, at least in Paris nowadays.
The pic on the right shows the rue Saint Sauveur with the shop window of the ECC on the right.

The real thing That's where Romée de Gorianoff, Pierre-Charles Cros and Olivier Bon, 3 young French fellows who learnt to love cocktails in New York while studying in the finance/marketing sector, understood that there was something to do in this field. In New York, they had enjoyed all these cocktails in mixology temples like the Pegu Club, Death & Co or the Box, and when back in Paris, they thought that there was something to do in this unchartered territory on this side of the Atlantic. Their plan was to return to the roots and begin with the original cocktail recipes that can be traced in 19th-century texts. Using original-quality ingredients, they intended to set the standards very high from the start and at the same time offer affordable cocktail drinks, especially that they targetted a younger population than the one found in the bars of luxury hotels. Mickael Mas, who manages the ECC on a daily basis, says that while this cocktail culture is at home in the United States, it's being rediscovered in several countries of continental Europe, like Germany which has for example in Berlin a very dynamic cocktail scene : there's among others the Lebensstern in Berlin/Tiergarten where they have five rooms with an incredible collection of rare spirits. There's also the Stagger lee in Berlin/Schöneberg which displays a saloon style and interior and serves excellent cocktails. Paris was a bit late in this awakening but the trend should gain impetus and the Experimental is not anymore the only exclusively-cocktail bar. What Elsa is doing on the pictures above is the visual part of cocktail making, the one we're all familiar with and which announces the coming treat (but don't think that the ECC is into cocktail-shaker show, Elsa was just posturing for the fun). Before this stage there's a lot of ingredients and prior thinking about the art of bringing together very different types of aromas and spirits. The known history of cocktails goes back as far as 1803 when this type of mixed alcoholic drink was written about in a document. And in 1862, a book named "How to Mix Drinks or the Bon-Vivant's Companion" was printed, detailing all kinds of cocktails recipes. This book is still now a great resource for cocktail lovers.
Their are many ancient versions of cocktails, says Mickael, like the punch or the Mauresque (from southern France). They all are the result of mixing alcohol with flavored ingredients or fruits, spices and sugar. Actually, there's a large base of ingredients which are French and Italian, drinks like Vermouth, Chartreuse, Byrrh, Dubonnet... these drinks were very popular in France until the mid-20th century and the advertising slogans praising these apéritifs were routinely painted on buildings across France and along metro tunnels in Paris. While largely fallen into oblivion since, they are still produced and somehow make a comeback as base ingredients for cocktail drinks. Whirling the cocktail And there are all the other spirits, the whiskies, bourbon, vodka, rum, mezcal, tequila, sake and other more obscure bottles for a person not familiar with this particular art. At the Experimental, they are not into cocktails with flashy colors and fancy glass accessories. They want to get back to the origin of the cocktails, New York style. Here, they put also the emphasis on citrus juice, using several types of these fruits (lemon, green lemon, grapefruit, clementine) and selecting the best quality. The juice is pressed the same day and they also use the peel. They like to work on simple bases, the juices, the spirits, the bitters, and associate them with things like Vermouths or liqueurs like for example the Bénédictine (an age-old liquor using herbs and spices initiated by French monks in Normandy), the Cointreau (a triple-sec liqueur created in France in the mid-19th century) or the Liqueur de Marasquin (a sherry liqueur if I understand). Some of these old drinks are highly revered by professional bartenders, and Mickael says that Americans cocktail experts (who keep an edge on mixology and even experiment in aging cocktails in casks) like to indulge into a glass of Chartreuse between two cocktails now and then, and there's still lots of mystery and aura behind this drink. The mysterious bitters The same way a wine stands out with the right acidity and freshness balancing the alcohol and tannic texture, the cocktail needs its bitter part, and all those nicely-wrapped with a century-old feel are bitters, the one on the foreground being maybe the most iconic if I understand well (I'm a baby here) : Angostura. There's some sort of law in the cocktail trade which is named the "three S", which goes for Sweet, Strong & Sour, and the pivotal sour thing here will be played by the bitters. With only a few drops, the bitter will put your cocktail on track, it's like a sauce in a dish. They seem to come all in small bottled wrapped in paper with 19th-century style printing on it. There's the Angostura (a spicy type of bitter), the Peychaud (more on liquorice or anise), the Fee Brothers old fashion bitters (more on cinnamon), Boker's Bitters, Bitter Truth, Amargo Chuncho, a pisco-sour type of bitter like the Angostura. There are many different families or styles of cocktails, and you choose the bitter according to it. Absinth ! I spotted an absinth on the shelves and asked the permission to have it on the counter for a pic. Absinth has been coming back these recent years, and I see that it's an ingredient for cocktails too. This one sports 73% proof and 35 mg per kg of Thujone, the component which is said to have psychedelic properties. 35 mg/kg of Tujone is the maximum legal limit allowed nowadays for Absinth to be allowed back on the market.
Although it has been banned by 1915 in both the United States and Europe for making people crazy, some say that it has never been proved that Absinth was more harmful than other spirits.
I was speaking to someone of La Maison du Whisky (a whisky importer & distributor) not long ago, and this person told me that the ECC was a big buyer of high-end spirits, he remembered that for example they were the biggest buyer they had for Ketel One vodka, a spirit made in Holland, and he marveled at how quickly this new cocktail operation had grown. Speaking about the vodkas with Mickael, he tells me that the good vodkas are mostly made from either wheat or rye, mostly. At the ECC, they tend to go more toward rye vodkas. These days, in addition to Ketel One, they also use an upper-range Wyborowa vodka (Exclusive) which is made from wheat.
They use different whiskies, among them the Rittenhouse and the Pikesville supreme straight rye whiskey. I spot an Elijah Craig 12 years bourbon, a Maker's Mark Kentucky straight bourbon, a Buffalo Trace bourbon and a Blanton's bourbon. Mickael Mas, chief bartender Mickael, the chief bartender, studied at the Ecole Hotelière, furthering his cursus with an additional specialization in bartending, and before working at the ECC, he worked 4 yearsand a half at Park Hyatt Paris. The cocktail style at the Park Hyatt is different than here at the Experimental and he adapted easily to this more epured style of mixology. As along the Experimental, the three founders manage two other speak-easy bars in Paris (and another one in London), there's good emulation and exchanges between the bartenders, which is good for small innovations to make better drinks. The two other Paris bars are Prescription (located 23 rue Mazarine) and the Curio Parlor (located 16 rue des Bernardins), I visited the latter a year ago for its Nikka (whisky) bar in the basement. The London venue has just opened, it is also named the Experimental Cocktail Club (London). The cocktails cost 10-11 £ there. The Experimental before it fills up Mickael says that they use as inspiration both the early cocktail recipes and more contemporary ones, and he adds that along the years there is something that contributed greatly to an overall improvement of the quality of cocktails : the base products like the spirits are much better and refined than they were in the past because, especially in the upper-range spitits, more care and more distillation knowledge have had results.
The cocktail menu sports 10 to 12 cocktails (priced 12 €) which change with the seasons, but if you have a preference not listed in the menu, the bartenders will probably concoct it for you. Also for a given cocktail, you'll have the option to a have a more bitter version of it, or a more sugary depending of your taste, if it pleases you. THat's what I was proposed for my Gringo Murder, a mezcal-based drink with tequila, orange peel, sugar cane and Angostura. I chose to go more on the bitter side and this happened to be a very onctuous drink, bitter at the same time but with smoothness and harmony between the two things.
B. chose a Baluchon Sake, made with egg white and Koï Koï sake and she loved that. The lounge side

Experimental Cocktail Club 34 rue Saint Sauveur (near rue Montorgueil) Paris 75002 Metro Sentier (line 3) Open 7:30pm to 2am or more phone 01 45 08 88 09 If you don't know this neighborhood, it's a good opportunity to discover the rue Montorgueil (before dropping at the ECC at 9pm for example) : this pedestrian street off the tourist trail is full of small cafés and shops and while it feels very gentrified (there's lots of fashion industry and shops around), it retained a relaxed atmosphere overall. And there's an excellent natural wine bar there too.

Comments

[Laurent]

It kills me that this post has no comment yet! Great job Bertrand.

[hikalu]

The photo of whirling the cocktail is nice!

[LASunshine]

I just came across your site via Tripadvisor and I am loving it! Thanks for much for the info on ECC. Hubby and I are coming to Paris in June, and we are always looking for new and exciting places since we visit about once every year. We are from Los Angeles, and the speakeasy has made a big comeback with great mixologist taking the cocktail to new heights. ECC is on our list!

Merci!

[Nicole]

I'm a Los Angeles girl freshly relocated to Paris, and I love ECC and the Curio Parlor! They certainly fill the places in my heart usually reserved for the Varnish and Seven Grand. The bartenders are lovely and helpful and make mean drinks!

[Maritza Gonzalez]

Great place for drinks and atmosphere!!