After eating my way through Paris last week (I loved Le Comptoir, Le Chateaubriand, and--above all--Les Cocottes, the new place from Christian Constant), I met a friend at the Plaza Athénée to sample some of the city's famous nightlife. Settling in at Le Bar, the hotel's chic hotspot for fashionistas, just off the Avenue Montaigne, we ran into something neither of us had ever seen before. On the bar was a futuristic-looking screen with a digital cocktail menu containing high-resolution photos of all the drinks created by the bar's renowned mixologist, Thierry Hernandez. Images popped up on one of the portable Carte Numeriques (all of which could be passed around the bar and from table to table) at the flick of a button, so even speakers of the most feeble French could easily point out their selections to the bartender or waiter. The aperitifs and cocktails at Le Bar are as striking as the beautiful people lounging about in this sexy, and still smoky (the French ban on smoking begins in January), room--designed by Patrick Jouin, a protégé of Phillipe Starck, with an illuminated glass bar resembling a wall of giant ice cubes. The drinks are wildly expensive, though, up to $35 a piece. But being among the first to experience what is certain to be the digital future of bars and restaurants was worth every euro. Talk about feeling chic.
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