Paris
Bar Hemingway, Ritz Paris
Address: 15 Place Vendome, 75001 Paris Expect to spend: 30-40 euros per cocktail, champagne by the glass from 35 euros
The most literary bar in the world. Hemingway arrived here with a machine gun on August 25, 1944, to “liberate” the Ritz from the Germans (who had already left). The manager told him to put the gun in the Jeep. He ordered 51 dry martinis. The story has been retold so many times that the bar itself has become a monument to it.
The space seats about 30 people. Dark wood, leather, low lighting. Hemingway’s typewriter sits in a glass case. Colin Peter Field, the legendary head bartender for 27 years, created the Serendipity — voted the world’s best cocktail by Forbes. The current team maintains his standards.
The champagne list is extensive and serious. The dress code is enforced. Reservations are strongly recommended.
Full story: Hemingway Showed Up at the Ritz With a Machine Gun
La Closerie des Lilas
Address: 171 Boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris Expect to spend: 15-25 euros per glass
The cafe where Hemingway wrote much of The Sun Also Rises and Fitzgerald drank too much. The brass plaques on the bar mark where famous patrons sat. The champagne list is curated rather than encyclopedic, and the terrace is one of the best people-watching spots in Montparnasse.
Less formal than Bar Hemingway. More literary history per square meter than anywhere in Paris except Shakespeare and Company.
London
The Rivoli Bar, The Ritz London
Address: 150 Piccadilly, London W1J 9BR Expect to spend: 25-45 pounds per glass
Art Deco gold leaf, mirrored walls, and a champagne list that reads like a textbook. The Rivoli is the Ritz London’s answer to Bar Hemingway — smaller, more intimate, and more focused on the wine than the cocktails. The by-the-glass selection usually includes grower champagnes alongside the grand marques, which is unusual for a hotel bar.
Afternoon is quieter than evening. The room catches light from Piccadilly through original windows.
Bob Bob Ricard
Address: 1 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DF Expect to spend: 25-50 pounds per glass
Famous for the “Press for Champagne” button at every table — a service bell that summons a waiter with champagne. The gimmick is real, the champagne list is serious, and the blue-and-gold Art Deco interior is one of the most photographed restaurant designs in London.
The button was installed because the founder noticed that people in restaurants wanted to order champagne but felt awkward flagging a waiter. The button solves a social problem with engineering. It also makes excellent content.
Reims & Epernay
Cafe du Palais, Reims
Address: 14 Place Myron Herrick, 51100 Reims Expect to spend: 10-18 euros per glass
Not a champagne bar — a cafe that happens to be in Reims, where every cafe serves champagne by the glass from local producers. The difference is the setting: across the square from the Reims Cathedral, with terrace seating that faces the facade where 25 French kings were crowned. The glass of grower champagne costs less than a cocktail in Paris and comes with a view that costs nothing.
This is where you start a day in Reims. Cathedral, coffee, champagne. From here, the 7 best champagne cellars in Reims are all within walking distance.
C.Comme, Epernay
Address: 8 Rue Gambetta, 51200 Epernay Expect to spend: 8-25 euros per glass
A champagne bar on a side street off the Avenue de Champagne that focuses exclusively on grower and small-producer champagnes — the RM (Recoltant-Manipulant) bottles that most tourists walk past in favor of Moet and Veuve Clicquot. The staff can explain terroir differences between villages with the precision of a sommelier and the enthusiasm of a local.
This is where you come after the cellar tours to understand why village matters, why vintage matters, and why the 15-euro glass from a grower in Avize is at least as interesting as the 40-euro glass of Dom Perignon at the house. If you’re planning a full trip to the region, our visiting Champagne guide covers the cellars, villages, and logistics — and our list of secret champagne experiences goes beyond the tourist trail.
New York
Champagne Bar at the Plaza
Address: 768 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 Expect to spend: 25-50 dollars per glass
The Plaza’s champagne bar occupies a corner of the hotel that has been serving champagne since the building opened in 1907. The setting — original moldings, views of Central Park South — does the work. The list is weighted toward prestige cuvees and vintage champagnes.
The experience is inseparable from the building. The Plaza is a New York landmark, and drinking champagne in its original setting feels like participating in 120 years of Manhattan social history.
Hong Kong
The Champagne Bar, InterContinental Hong Kong
Address: 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Expect to spend: HK$150-400 per glass
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Victoria Harbour. The view alone would justify the price — the Hong Kong Island skyline, illuminated at night, reflected in the water — but the champagne list is also one of the deepest in Asia. The bar occasionally hosts champagne dinners with visiting winemakers from the major houses.
The Hong Kong handover ceremony — the end of 156 years of British rule — happened across the harbor at the Convention Centre. The champagne that flowed at the Mandarin Hotel the next morning was the same champagne that flows here every night. The connection is not coincidental.
Vienna
Champagne Bar, Hotel Sacher
Address: Philharmoniker Str. 4, 1010 Vienna Expect to spend: 18-40 euros per glass
In the hotel famous for its Sachertorte, the champagne bar is an intimate room where the Vienna Philharmonic plays next door and the Opera is across the street. The list includes Austrian Sekt (sparkling wine from traditional method, improving rapidly) alongside French champagne — a pairing that makes sense given the Congress of Vienna’s champagne-soaked legacy.
Helsinki
IISI Vallisaari
Address: Vallisaari Island, Helsinki Archipelago (boat access only) Expect to spend: 15-30 euros per glass Season: Open approximately 150 days per year (May-September)
The surprise on this list. A wine restaurant on a fortress island in the Helsinki archipelago, accessible only by a 10-minute ferry from the Market Square. The island was a military ammunition depot until 2016 — closed to the public for over a century — and now hosts one of the most unlikely fine wine programs in Northern Europe.
The champagne and wine list is curated with the same obsessive care as a Parisian cave, but the setting is the opposite of everything else on this list: no crystal chandeliers, no Art Deco, no literary ghosts. Instead, you’re drinking on a granite island surrounded by Baltic water, with the Helsinki skyline behind you and the open archipelago ahead. The contrast between what you’re drinking and where you’re drinking it is the entire point.
IISI Vallisaari proves something that every other bar on this list also proves, but less obviously: the best champagne moments happen when the setting is so specific, so unrepeatable, that the wine becomes part of the memory of the place. A fortress island that was forbidden for a hundred years, open for a hundred and fifty days, reachable only by boat — that’s not a gimmick. That’s scarcity doing what scarcity does best.
The Rule
The best champagne bars share one quality: the setting makes the wine taste better. A glass of grower champagne on a Reims cathedral terrace at sunset. A flute of vintage Bollinger in a bar where Hemingway cleaned his machine gun. A Krug at the bar of a Hong Kong hotel overlooking the harbor where an empire ended. A glass of something extraordinary on a fortress island in Helsinki where the military stored ammunition until you were born.
Champagne is context-dependent. The bars that understand this are the ones worth visiting.
FAQ
What is the best champagne bar in Paris?
Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris is the definitive champagne bar in Paris — and arguably the world. It seats about 30 people in dark wood and leather, with Hemingway’s typewriter in a glass case and an extensive champagne list curated to match the literary history of the room. Expect to spend 35 euros or more per glass. It’s expensive, it’s small, and the dress code is enforced — but the combination of setting, story, and wine list is unmatched. For something less formal with equally serious literary credentials, La Closerie des Lilas on Boulevard du Montparnasse is where Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises and glasses start around 15 euros.
What is the Press for Champagne button at Bob Bob Ricard?
The “Press for Champagne” button is a service bell installed at every table in Bob Bob Ricard, a restaurant at 1 Upper James Street in London’s Soho. Press it, and a waiter arrives with champagne. The founder installed the buttons because he noticed that people in restaurants wanted to order champagne but felt awkward flagging a waiter — the button solves a social problem with engineering. The champagne list behind the gimmick is genuinely serious, and the blue-and-gold Art Deco interior is one of the most photographed restaurant designs in London. Expect to spend 25-50 pounds per glass.
Where can you drink champagne in Reims?
Cafe du Palais on Place Myron Herrick is the classic spot — a cafe across the square from Reims Cathedral where every glass of grower champagne costs less than a cocktail in Paris, and the terrace faces the facade where 25 French kings were crowned. In Epernay, C.Comme on Rue Gambetta is a champagne bar focused exclusively on grower and small-producer bottles — the RM (Recoltant-Manipulant) champagnes that most tourists walk past. Glasses start around 8-10 euros, and the staff can explain terroir differences between villages with the precision of a sommelier. Both are better introductions to champagne than any cellar tasting room.
How much does champagne by the glass cost at top bars?
Prices range dramatically by city and setting. In Reims and Epernay, expect 8-25 euros per glass — grower champagnes at C.Comme start around 8 euros, and even Cafe du Palais rarely exceeds 18 euros. In Paris, glasses at Bar Hemingway start around 35 euros, and La Closerie des Lilas charges 15-25 euros. London’s Rivoli Bar at the Ritz runs 25-45 pounds. In New York, the Plaza’s Champagne Bar charges 25-50 dollars. Hong Kong’s InterContinental bar runs HK$150-400 (roughly 18-50 euros). The best value is always in the Champagne region itself, where you’re drinking local at local prices.
Sources: Ritz Paris — Bar Hemingway, Michelin Guide — Best Bars in Paris, Decanter — Best Champagne Bars, Bob Bob Ricard Official Site, Hotel Sacher Vienna, Reims Tourism Office — Cafe du Palais. Explore where the champagne comes from on our Champagne Odyssey trail or read our visiting Champagne guide.
