Baboto

Baboto's owners (one a famous footballer, another an architect designer) waited five years for the restoration of this historic house in Paris's first arrondissement, near fashionable Faubourg St. Honore in Ile de Paris. The resulting restaurant and bar is remarkable. Daring red walls, tactile super-chic furniture, modern art and glossy wood floors are shown off to their best advantage in the natural light flooding through a series of wall-to-ceiling arched windows. Baboto's food is a show-stopping tour of the South of France, based on fresh fish, vegetables and the herbs of Provence. Think big sunny salads, pata negra, and spinach and goats cheese lasagne. A buzzy-casual atmosphere is maintained at night by groovy music; a DJ plays every weekend in the beautifully lit Baboto bar until 2am. By day, the design bar is a refined brasserie and salon de thé. There's a wooden terrace, too, surrounded by greenery. Like we said: remarkable.