Drinking Before Dinner In Paris
 

One thing I have learned in European big cities is that liquor at a restaurant costs an arm and a leg and that it is much cheaper to drink before dinner at local pub, etc and then just have a single glass of wine, etc with dinner. London is the classic example. Drinking in pub is actually cheap, even hard liquor and even by North American Standards while I ended up paying $25 for a drink in a good restaurant

Is this likely to be true in Paris

I don't think drinking hard liquor is commom at meals in France, so it might BE expensive. Hard liquor tends to dull taste buds, eating in France is about enjoying food and the wine the goes with it. Don't believe wine was ever outragous...

~Liz

I guess it depends what your goal is -- it sounds like your goal is just to drink. For others, drinking wine is part of the meal and goes with the food. I don't consider these substitutes at all (drinking beforehand instead of with the meal). Also, wine can actually help digest some food, I believe, the purpose isn't just to get some alcohol in you sometime during the day (I think it especially helps with beef, but I'm not an expert on that).

I often don't have more than a single glass of wine with a meal, anyway, it sounds like you drink a lot more than I do, but I still don't have a quota of the number of drinks I want to consume in an evening under all settings, in order to get a certain amt of alcohol in me, as it sound like you do.

It probably varies, but where I eat and drink, it isn't any cheaper in a cafe (I don't go to pubs in France) than in a restaurant with the meal.

I would say that at least half of the cafés and bars in Paris have adopted the "happy hour" concept. You will see the signs everywhere with varying hours. In some cases, "happy hour" continues up until 22:00. ???

My Mum used to be offered whisky as an aperitif when she was staying with friends in France...
I find in London, that drinking wine by the glass, in a pub, is very expensive....

You can always start your dinner at a restaurant with an aperitif, usually champagne, kir, pastis whatever. Never hard liquor. No need to find a "pub" in France. Pub ands France just do not go together. We always have wine with dinner , even at home. The cost of 2 glasses is often more than a bottle

Some fun reads about aperitifs...

http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/paris...atch-them.html

http://www.parisvoice.com/index.php?...=151&Itemid=30

I THINK your question is: Will it be more expensive to have an apéro at a restaurant before you order dinner (and wine) than it will to go to a café and have an apéro and THEN go to a restaurant. If that's the question, I do think it would typically be less expensive at a café or bar or bistro (Paris isn't about "pubs"). IME, mixed drinks and hard liquor are quite expensive everywhere, but probably more at a restaurant.

I would count about 4€ for an "ordinary" apéritif in most establishments.

I'd limit myself to an aperitif i.e a Kir Royale, a glass of Lillet, or a Pineau de Charente before having a meal.. In France, wine accompanies a meal, so don't dull your taste buds by drinking something too disparate from wine before a meal.

Go to a grocery store, buy a bottle of your choice and have your apéritif on the hotel room before you go.

BTW, the most common liquor in France is single malt whisky and the French drink it as an apéritif as well as a digéstif. Comme vous voulez.

If money is the issue, skip the aperitif and have a decent (which does not necessarily translate to expensive) bottle of wine at the restaurant (assuming that you will be 2 people).
One glass of wine for a whole meal? No way.

Scotch for instance is very expensive there , so that was what I usually brought as a gift knowing the husband preferred scotch. I love to try all the local apertifs when in France. In Paris I prefer Suze (if you like Campari, you'd like this)
In summer my apero is a pastis, PASTIS 51, which is not available here.

Yes.

Europeans typicaly do not drink hard liquor before meals. They either have an aperatif - or just wait and have wine with the meal. (Many feel that hard liquor is not appropo to enjoying the meal, too much alcohol, tastes not compatible with food - and simply a different color.)

Hard liquor is so expensive because each country wants to promote it's local products (usually wine or beer) so there are huge taxes on hard liquor.

I had no issues getting a vodka martini in the lower arronds before a meal. Good luck getting the same thing in an outter arrond. A "martini" in the outter arronds - you will get some odd drink from Italy (?) in red or white... tastes like cough syrup.

If you tell them what you want before your meal, they WILL give it to you based on my experiences in the past few years... the staff knows what it is and how to make it. That is part of the tourist trade i guess. I have no idea why they understand "martini" in the lower arrond and don't understand the same request in the outter arronds - I guess it is all about the afore mentioned tourist trade.

~Jay

It has to do with tourist density. Martini is of course a brand of vermouth and is a common apéritif. The vast majority of the French do not even know that there is a cocktail that uses the name 'martini' but which only contains a very small amount of vermouth.

I have lots of French friends plus various in-laws, and certainly it's not unheard of to drink strong alcoholic drinks before dinner.

As has been mentioned, whisky is a popular apéritif, and with an alcohol content of 40% pastis is hardly a soft drink either... Cocktails before dinner are quite popular too, at least with my Parisian friends.

Cost-wise, drinks (except wine) tend to be more expensive in Parisian bars than in British pubs, unless you find a place doing a happy hour deal (not too hard to find, as Kerouac says).

Anyway, if you really fancy something strong it's probably best to head for a bar before dinner for the simple reason that (perhaps for licensing reasons?) many restaurants don't offer a wide selection of aperitifs.

why would anyone drink in their room. This is about the experience, isn't it? If it's about getting pissed you can do that at home

>>>why would anyone drink in their room.<<<

It depends, of course, on the quality of the hotel room. If you stay in a beautiful hotel, it is a most enjoyable experience to relax in a comfy chair and sip a drink while your wife is dressing up.

Variant: You sip your drink while soaking in the bathtub.

Other variants: not suitable for a family-friendly forum

Don't run away with the idea that booze is cheap in a "pub" in paris. It ain't.

A local bar will charge about E5 for a pint, although plonk is a lot cheaper (but comes in thimbles).

Don't even think abut spirits unless you are Abramovich.

Stereotypes, stereotypes..

>>Europeans typicaly do not drink hard liquor before meals. (Many feel that hard liquor is not appropo to enjoying the meal, too much alcohol, tastes not compatible with food - and simply a different color.)

Reality: Hard liquor is much more popular in Europe than in North America. And usually hard liquor is drunken undiluted, in shots, before, after and during a meal. Because Europeans tend to drink spirits undiluted, Europe produces much better qualities of spirits, e.g. Cognac, Armagnac, Single Malt, Fruit Schnaps, Grappa (I admit that Californian wineries have started to produce decent brandies, but still no comparison to the sheer quantity of high-quality spirits which are produced in Europe).

For apéritif, you have an extremely wide choice of beverages which are all popular in Europe:

- Sparkling wine or Champagne.
- Wine or sparkling wine cocktails, e.g. Kir and Kir Royal (please do not make Felix Kir a fag by writing "Kir Royale").
- Fortified wine like sherry, port or French muscat.
- Bitters like Campari, Suze...
- Fruit liqueurs like Crème de Cassis, Crème de Framboises, de Mure, des Myrtilles...
- Liquorice liqueurs like Pastis, Absinth..
- Vermouth wine like Martini, Noilly Prat, Cinzano.. (In Europe, Martini is NOT a cocktail, it is a fortified vermouth wine which is served straight on the rocks - red, white or extra dry white.)
- Regional specialities like Pineau (Charente), Pommeau (Bretagne)..
- Spirits.
- Cocktails. Cocktails are still not common in French restaurants. Often, the restaurant will serve nothing but "Americano" (kind of Manhattan cocktail).

>>>Hard liquor is so expensive because each country wants to promote it's local products (usually wine or beer) so there are huge taxes on hard liquor.

Reality: Taxes are irrelevant. In a grocery store, you get a bottle of simple grain spirit for 4€ maximum - including taxes. Within the European Union, all countries are considered homeland and all taxes are the same. Foreign spirits have the same price as domestic spirits (in France, a bottle of whisky is as much as a bottle of cognac). In restaurants and bars, however, spirits are a good source for revenue and therefore, they are expensive.

BTW, a shot of decent whisky in a British pub costs usually 6 GBP, and I do not consider that cheap - especially since a whole bottle costs just 30 GBP in a store.

If you really want cocktails such as are served in the United States, your best bet is to look for the words "bar américain" on the awning or window of the establishment. This is the French name for "cocktail bar."

Naturally, you will also often see the word "cocktails" on the façade as well.

BTW, a shot of decent whisky in a British pub costs usually 6 GBP,>>>

Does it hell.

CW - likes booze. Dislikes cobblers.

"a whole bottle costs just 30 GBP in a store."

Bloody Hell. One born every minute. Or are you a member of the 'Keep Mohammed Al Fayed in Business because no-one wants to buy anything from him' club?

A litre bottle of Bells (best selling Scotch in Scotland in my day) in my local Sainsbury's is £12.

Just a little sideline incident which happens all day everyday in the 'saving on hooch' dilema when going on holiday -
There is a huge tax on spirits brought in to the country when travelling to - let's say the Comoros Islands or Mauritius. But not so much on wine.
What you do is get a cheap "Chateau le Carboard" and drain it into the sink. Then buy 2 bottles of your favourite Scotch ( in my case Irish whisky) and get it into the empty silver thing inside the box.
Pass through customs on a breeze - sell half of it to the locals for quite a bit. Enjoy your holiday!

"Within the European Union, all countries are considered homeland and all taxes are the same".

Taxes vary from 20 to 40% from one European country to the other. I live near the Spanish border and spirits are definitely cheaper in Spain.

"Foreign spirits have the same price as domestic spirits (in France, a bottle of whisky is as much as a bottle of cognac)".
It depends on the whisky. The cheapest whisky you can buy in France is approx. €10 for a 75cl bottle. The same bottle will be €6 or 7 in Spain.

BTW, a shot of decent whisky in a British pub costs usually 6 GBP, and I do not consider that cheap - especially since a whole bottle costs just 30 GBP in a store.

That's not true at all! I single is £2-4...unless you are buying something very esoteric. And bottles as mentioned start at about £12, with single malts from £20 (or less)
On a different point, you can buy a bottle of Bombay Saphire gin for €11 in the supermarket in Italy...

Absolutely on the price in the UK. A decent malt in my local costs £2.70- £3 a nip. And I should know!

Oh, Pvoyageuse, you can get much cheaper whisky than that. Even at Monoprix, I can get a liter of Scotch (bad stuff for mixing with cola or other thing) for only 10€.

Meanwhile, cognac is more along the lines of 18€ for a 70cl bottle.

Meanwhile, I am wondering what the size of a "shot" of whisky is in the UK. In France, it is 4cl.

I looked it up, Kerouac. A "shot" in the U.K. is 25ml. In the States there is no universal definition of "shot", except in Utah, where it is defined as 1.5 ounces (44.36ml). A shot in the rest of the States ranges between 1.25 and 1.5 ounces, depending on the honesty/generosity or the bartender.

The Brits are really stingy with their booze!

:-(

>I looked it up, Kerouac. A "shot" in the U.K. is 25ml.<

Not universally. In many pubs 35ml is the measure.

In scotchland perhaps (the home of the quarter gill house).

Down south where there are no penguins or silly hairy cows 25ml is standard.

But I've never paid more than a couple of quid for a nip.

Actually, now I'm thinking that a shot of hard liquor in France is only 2cl but it is 4cl for the various apéritifs like Martini or Suze.

Not going out tonight to take a look, though.

You're right I think.

I remember getting a sixth of a gill measure once. Never seen a more depressing looking drink in my life.

Buckfast tastes of wet dog and regret. That must be more depressing.

This thread is really fun.

Having done a quick web research, I found the following retail prices for Glenmorangie whisky, 10 years old, standard cask, 0.7 liters:

UK: 22.50-27.50 GBP (= 25.12-30.70 €)
Germany: 31.30-38.50 €
France: 34.99-41.99 €
Spain: 28.90-36.27 €
Switzerland: 57.95-59.00 CHF (37.67-38.99 €)
USA: 34.95-55.95 $(23.80-38.13 €) + sales tax

Same relation applies for Cognac. E.g. Courvoisier V.S.O.P. 0,7 liters:
Germany: 24.70-27.50 €
France: 33.20 €

The UK price is only low since the British Pound has been devaluated by the financial crisis.

So, Aard, aren't you glad you asked???

>Cholmondley_Warner on Dec 15, 09 at 12:58pm
Buckfast tastes of wet dog and regret. That must be more depressing.<

It makes very good cheesecake.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...io/8097997.stm

I have no idea what wet dog tastes like but I'm now intrigued. Are there any laws I may fall foul of if I should attempt to lick any of the local canines?