Candelaria

Marais - 3eme / 4eme, Paris –

Owned by two New Yorkers, a Colombian, and a Mexican, Candelaria is a lively little joint that attracts a youthful, international crowd with its authentic Mexican cuisine – a tough find in Paris – as well as its quirky cocktail creations put together by a mixologist from the Experimental Cocktail Club.

At the front is the tiny taqueria, decorated with shelves of Spanish-style trinkets, a few fresh pineapples, and a neon sign reading TACOS. It’s so small that most customers eat at stools by a plain white bar overlooking the kitchen, or at the lone communal table near a window facing the quiet and unassuming Rue de Saintonge.

The simple space regularly overflows with customers sipping Sol and scarfing down tortillas stuffed with steak and fresh vegetables, but the real party is behind the unmarked door in back, which leads to an open room with rough stone walls, pillow-piled banquettes, and a tiny bar backed by square boxes stuffed with top-shelf booze.

Littered with white candles, the sultry space is normally shoulder-to-shoulder by 10pm nightly, with stylish Parisians, cool-cat connoisseurs, and savvy tourists sipping crafted drinks like gin mixed with “elixir of springtime” and tequila infused with chili.

Ideal for choosey drinkers and taco seekers, Candelaria is a hotspot with two very distinct sides – one with a side of specialty drinks and one with a side of guacamole – and both are damn tasty.