Best cafes in Paris
Paris has more cafés than any one visitor could work through in a lifetime, so the useful question was never “where’s good coffee” — it’s which nine rooms are worth an actual afternoon. Some of these places have been serving the same crowd for over a century. Others opened in the last fifteen years and built a following on the strength of their roasting. Here’s the list, whether you’re after history or just a very good flat white.
Angelina
Angelina opened in 1903 near the Louvre and is still known first for its hot chocolate, thick enough that regulars describe it as closer to melted chocolate than a drink. Coco Chanel and Marcel Proust were both regulars in the tearoom’s early decades. The Belle Epoque interior, with its gilded mirrors and red leather Louis XVI chairs, has barely changed since. Order the Mont Blanc, the house pastry built on chestnut puree and whipped cream, if you’re only getting one thing.
Cafe de la Paix
Cafe de la Paix opened in 1862 as part of the Grand Hotel de la Paix on Place de l’Opera, and during the Belle Epoque it was where you went to be seen. Oscar Wilde, Emile Zola, and Tchaikovsky all sat here regularly. The cafe grew alongside Baron Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris and picked up more international visitors during the 1867 World’s Fair. It’s grander than most cafes on this list, with a menu that runs to foie gras and sole rather than just pastries, prepared today by chef Laurent Andre.
La Maison Rose
You’ve probably seen this one before you ever set foot in Montmartre. La Maison Rose was established in 1905 but only took on its current pink exterior in 2017, and it became a fixture of Impressionist-era Montmartre before Instagram ever discovered it. The cafe sits on a corner of Rue de l’Abreuvoir, and now serves farm-to-table French cuisine with outdoor seating looking over the 18th arrondissement.
Le Consulat
A few streets from the Sacre-Coeur, Le Consulat was a regular haunt of Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet during their Montmartre years in the 19th century. It functions today as a cafe, bistro, and coffee house all at once, serving onion soup and escargots on a small terrace along a cobbled lane. It’s more of a tourist stop now than it once was, but the history is real, not manufactured for the location.
Carette
Carette opened its doors in 1927, founded by Jean Carette with the aim of building something with real status behind it. The Place des Vosges location sits under 17th century arches on the oldest public square in Paris, once home to Victor Hugo. The macarons here are frequently cited as some of the best in the city, and the hot chocolate is made with ingredients sourced from established chocolatiers.
Lomi
Lomi has operated out of an industrial space in the 18th arrondissement since 2012, well off the tourist path near Montmartre. It was one of the first craft roasters in Paris, and one of its founders, Paul Arnephy, has won the Meilleur Ouvrier de France distinction for his roasting profiles. The roasting happens on site, in an open setup that also functions as a training space for people in the industry. Today Lomi supplies more than 300 businesses and runs its own coffee school. No laptops on weekends.
Boot Cafe
Boot Cafe occupies a former cobbler’s workshop in the Marais and seats about eight people. The name comes directly from its previous life as a shoe repair shop; the original facade was kept while the interior was rebuilt around it. It’s mostly a to-go operation given the size, but the coffee and pastries are considered some of the better ones in a neighborhood where a quick, well-made espresso isn’t always easy to find.
Shakespeare and Company Cafe
The cafe sits beside the Shakespeare and Company bookshop on the Left Bank, a shop with roots back to 1919 and a history tied to Ernest Hemingway and other writers who passed through the city in the 1920s. The cafe itself is a newer addition, opened in partnership with Bob’s Bake Shop, but it draws its coffee from Cafe Lomi, giving it a direct link to the specialty scene across town. The view from the window looks straight at Notre Dame.
The Cafeotheque of Paris
Opened more than fifteen years ago near the Pont Marie station, The Cafeotheque was one of the first dedicated specialty coffee shops in the city, before the current wave of roasters existed. It was founded by Gloria Montenegro, who sources beans from farms across Africa and elsewhere. The space sits close to La Cite Internationale des Arts along the Seine and doubles as a place to buy beans to take home.
That covers a lot of ground: an 1862 institution near the opera, a former shoemaker’s shop turned eight-seat cafe, and a roaster that trains professionals on the side. Pull up the full set of Paris pins and you’ll find these plus everything around them.