Hotel Dispatch: Grand Pigalle

It seems these days a hotel can be created around a destination restaurant so why not a cocktail bar or at least the spirit of the cocktail? That’s the question being posed by the new Grand Pigalle boutique hotel in SoPi. “The concept is bed and beverage, says Hotel Co-Owner Olivier Bon. “It’s easy to do a bed and breakfast. You just put out some croissants, but we wanted to do something different.”

Bon and partners are behind Experimental Cocktail Club, Companie des Vins Supernaturels and restaurants like the Fish Club and the Beef Club. Cocktails have subtly influenced every aspect of the Grand Pigalle from the design– a custom made martini glass carpet blankets the halls and stairway, to the amenities– minibars come stocked with bottled cocktails.

The hotel’s interior, furniture and graphics were designed by Dorothée Meilichzon of Chzon Design and the look is eclectic vintage with some modern touches like custom fabric headboards in the bedrooms. Meilichzon says her goal was to make the hotel feel like it’s always been there and she drew inspiration from a variety of time periods and from the art of traveling itself.

Mirrors and windows look like boat portholes and alot of mahogany wood and brass light fixtures have been used throughout somewhat reminiscent of a train from the early 1900s. The hotel’s 37-rooms feature original crown molding, fireplaces, textured wall paper and tiled bathrooms and some have balconies overlooking exclusive avenue Frochot where artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec once lived.

Bon says the hotel’s bar and restaurant Wine and Dine is meant to appeal to locals just as much as hotel guests. The lively space has a handpainted parquet floor, an ever changing menu of travel-inspired cocktails featuring no more than five ingredients (try the Chicago Fizz made with port and egg whites) and a Spanish and French influenced tapas style menu.

Rooms from around 200 euros a night.

29 Rue Victor Massé

75009 Paris

+33 (0)185 73 12 00