It may sound like a lab where your daiquiri comes in a test-tube, but this hip cocktail bar is done out in speakeasy style, with exposed brickwork, velvet drapes and leather bar stools. The drinks are experimental, albeit made with old-fashioned expertise: the Experience 1 combines vodka with lemon juice, basil, lemongrass and elderflower cordial; the Margarita uses agave nectar. Three young gents launched ECC in 2007, modelling their venture on their favourites in Manhattan, and hoping to improve Paris’s godawful reputation among liquor lovers. There’s nothing but a discreet sign to declare the bar to passers-by, apart from the bouncer. There’s room for some 40 people inside; the clientele includes some impressively faithful regulars. The owners launched Curio Parlor in 2008, a bigger sibling venue in the Latin Quarter.