Please note we are happy to make recommendations & have good relationships with Macéo, Café Blanc and l’Imprimèrie, especially(we’ve hosted corporate / b’day / hen party hunts at all of the below). That said, we do not negotiate menus nor do we foot the bill (as beastly French taxes cause us to nearly double prices & we don’t want our clients to spend more than they should).
Cafés and Bars
Café Blanc (photos, directions here)
Address: 10, rue Croix des Petits Champs 75001
Phone: +33 1 42 33 55 85
Price Range: €
This is my standard haunt. We’re not only fond of the people, the upstairs room has a view of both a small Parisian lane as well as the grand Banque de France. The feel is of a “we are a standard French bistrot and don’t pretend to be anything else” with their tiled and mirrored walls and smooth Serge Gainsbourg tunes. Fine for drinks, and I’ve organized lunches there. It is not haute cuisine, just your basic souris d’agneau or pavé de saumon. This is by far my fave to tally scores over a drink and it’s just enough off the Louvre path so that you don’t have a hundred English speakers around you and prices doubled. Their room upstairs can comfortably suit 35 people, or a bit tighter I’ve also managed 40. Not only the space works well, the service are entirely flexible and accommodating, juggling everything with a smile. Google and Piaggio are former clients who were happy with the wrap up drinks here if you need a reference.
Café l’mprimèrie
Address: 29, rue Coquillière 75001
Phone: +33 (0)1 45 08 07 08
Price Range: €
We’ve hosted a handful of birthday party hunts, networking hunts and corporate hunts here. It’s a lovely plant-filled resto/bar with a mahogany wood bar, decent food, proper cocktails and the service is pleasant. Pros: For a group as large as 30 they close it off just for us, and the vibe’s fun. Cons: The music’s loud and the layout of the space (because it’s on a corner) can be tricky to get everyone’s attention simultaneously for prize giving ceremony and team names or limericks if asked for. It’s ideal for a group of 15 or under (because then we can have a section to ourselves). Students at Science Po had their wrap up drinks here along with several American law firms.
Au Caveau Montpensier
Address: 15, rue Montpensier 75001
Phone: +33 (0)1 42 60 12 89
Price Range: €€
A bar bar, it’s on the narrow street running alongside Palais Royal. It’s more a martini crowd, with the cocktail lounge, cavernous feel (although there’s new ownership, so perhaps they serve food now). This place would probably be able to give us a section, if arranged beforehand (under the old ownership they did) and is a pleasant setting to continue the night for Hen/Stag parties (or for a tonier finish to the night you can go to the delicious Verjus up the street, for dinner – ressies needed).
Restaurants
Macéo (photos, directions here)
Address: 15, rue des Petits Champs, 75002 Paris, France
Phone: +33 1 42 97 53 85
Price Range: €€€
Macéo is the only restaurant on this list that has truly gastronomic, exceptional food. With a cave (wine cellar) housing 10,000 bottles of wine, ambiance fit for a French king (a stone’s throw from Palais Royal) and service who treats you as such, this is most certainly the place for you if you want to impress a client or for a small 10 to 15-person group. There’s a private room upstairs, which can accommodate small wedding receptions or corporate dinners. The cheapest set menu is 40 euros; it’s one of the few restaurants with food on this haute-cuisine level which can also suit vegetarians (who sometimes go hungry when in France). Dishes such as risotto with morel mushrooms & white asparagus, Breton sardines with clementine compote, or quinoa galette with basil & curry oil stand alongside scrumptious French staples (escargots, magret de canard, etc.). Really worth it – but not for those looking after their wallets. Airbus was happy with their post-hunt dinner here, although there was a fair bit of back and forth as they handled the menu beforehand. A prestigious local Executive MBA program hosted their post-hunt drinks for 75 people.
Bistrot Vivienne
Address: 4, rue des Petits-Champs 75001
Phone: +33 (0)1 49 27 00 50
Price Range: €€
For plain old corporate-fancy, or upscale birthday hunt/dinners there’s the upstairs room of Bistrot Vivienne. It’s got good space, and is in a divine setting (it’s within the glorious Galérie Vivienne).
CONS: It’s a bit expensive, I don’t think they’ll accommodate just for drinks and the service needs to get over themselves.
PROS: The setting’s plush and the food’s rich, and the fact that you can have your own space – apart, upstairs – makes it all the more exclusive. Another thing going for it is that you traverse the lovely Palais Royal in order to get to it (as with Macéo and au Caveau Montpensier). We can reference a successful customized 60-year old birthday hunt dinner here, if interested.
Le Fumoir
Address: 6, rue de l’Amirale de Coligny 75001
Phone: +33 (0)1 42 92 00 24
Price Range: €€
You’ve probably been if you’ve been to Paris. This is your place if you want a “scene” of French Bobos (Bohemian Bourgeois). Wood-lined walls and newspapers on sticks, it has the vibe of a place that “beautiful people” go / a bit pretentious with arrogant waiters. It’s not too pricey (but certainly more than l’Imprimérie or Café Blanc) and is large enough that tables can be ordered to be set together for score tallying for a 15 to 20 person hunt. This restaurant faces the Eastern side of the museum and is a pleasant walk through the Cour de Carrée to get there (5 mins). Pernod Ricard had a fun lunch where we gave them the rundown of the hunt prior to entering together. Le Fumoir is also helpful in holding bags & making airport taxi reservations when need-be.
Café Marly
(Entrance from Passage Richelieu or)
Address: 93, rue de Rivoli 75001
Phone: +33 1 49 26 06 60
Price Range: €€
This restaurant is replete with gilded mouldings, patrimoine mirrors, royally high ceilings and overall Louvre details because it’s in the museum (although the entrance is directly to the public). The service, as with all Costes Brothers restaurants in Paris, are models in tuxedos, often with attitude (there have been articles about how they seat people according to how pretty they are). The food’s fine – nothing haute-cuisine, but not horrible – & the prices of course match the height of the ceilings. All that said, to sit overlooking IM Pei’s pyramid isn’t shabby either! It’s difficult for large groups, because they don’t always suit you to sit together more than 10 people, but we’ve hosted Hen party hunts that have worked out well.
