A speakeasy before its time
Originally, the Ritz Paris had... no bar. But Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and the other expats who had fled the Prohibition in America and made Paris a moveable feast dreamed of having a watering hole here. Caesar Ritz let himself be convinced.
In 1921, the Ritz Bar opened on the hotel’s Rue Cambon side. At the time, it was known as "Le Café Parisien" and was reserved to men. But since the wife of Charles, Caesar's son, had the impertinence of showing up there, in 1926 came the decision to open a second bar, opposite. Initially intended for ladies, the "Petit Bar" became the Bar Hemingway in 1994.
But let’s give credit where credit is due: the Ritz Bar is where it all began, and where the thrill of cocktails first mixed with the frisson of taffeta.