Even though it is attached to the restaurant, Boubalé bar is a standalone entity.

The word "Boubalé" comes from Yiddish and means "my little doll," "my little darling"; it is the affectionate name a grandmother gives to her granddaughter. The story of Boubalé - restaurant and bar - is inspired by Ashkenazi culture, as the group's chef, Assaf Granit - known for his Mediterranean and Sephardic-inspired restaurants - wanted to pay tribute to the other side of his family heritage, focusing on Central Europe.

The bar operates simultaneously with the restaurant, but also independently; it is the living space of the hotel. We aim to create a menu that aligns with Chef Assaf's vision while representing it in terms of cocktails.

That was the initial bet: to be a good cocktail bar, open every day from noon to 2 AM, offering the best aspects of 5-star service in a family-friendly and festive atmosphere. This is not very common.

The advantages of a hotel bar serving cocktails.

We are both new to the hospitality industry, and for the first time, we have the necessary space for creativity. In previous establishments, we had to find a place to prepare during closing hours. Here, with the bar open all the time, the team can continue working in the back office.

The hotel clientele should represent about 15 to 20% of the overall attendance. Our location in Paris brings us many customers in the afternoon, especially for a hot drink. However, we are pleased because more and more people - even outside our network - are coming specifically for the bar. Initially, around midnight, it started to get quiet, but now the place is lively until 2 AM. Boubalé is starting to become a cocktail destination.

Moreover, a second bar - slightly larger than this one - is expected to open early this year in the basement. It will be a very festive cabaret, with a menu perhaps less focused on the East. It will initially be open two days a week, then three, and maybe more if it is successful.

An interaction with the restaurant.

This first menu is an introduction to the world of Boubalé, reflecting the spirit of the place; the result of our observations with chefs Assaf and Itamar. Our menu is oriented towards everything east of France: from Germany to Israel, as Ashkenazis are present there.

To this end, we exchange a lot with Chef Itamar about spices and flavors; he tells us stories, in addition to our research on culture. This helps us make flavor pairings, matching cocktails with dishes. The restaurant teams regularly taste our creations, and we explain to the staff the aromatic profiles and the story behind each cocktail so they can discuss them.

Additionally, it is possible to order from the restaurant's menu at the bar counter. This allows us to offer more complete pairings. Later, a more suitable finger food menu will be proposed.

Sometimes, one of us may even go to a table in the restaurant to present the cocktails. If we manage to communicate with the customer and offer evolving cocktails throughout the meal, we have truly achieved something.

A menu designed as a journey through traditions.

It is a challenge we have set for ourselves: to transcribe a dish or traditions into a cocktail. For example, the cocktail Chouchou is inspired by the stuffed vine leaf with rice. With its slight vinegar note, stuffed cabbage, red cabbage; the sake echoes the rice, and the vine leaf is represented by a sparkling wine and verjus.

Similarly, the Totally Nuts, which includes walnut and rose; two ingredients used in pastries, both in Mitteleuropa and around the Mediterranean basin. There are, of course, many vodkas in our recipes, but also a rum cocktail, tequila, and bourbon. We even use white from Christian Drouin - a brand we really like - because we couldn't find good Pálinka (note: Hungarian national fruit brandy) in France.

Our drinks also include other less familiar spirits, such as Armenian vodkas - particularly made from apricot - which would be more akin to a fruit brandy. For this, we had to find niche product suppliers and taste many previously unknown ingredients to incorporate them into the cocktails. It's very stimulating.

Fighting waste and CSR dimension.

We want to keep some "best of" cocktails while evolving with the seasons. This menu includes products available throughout the year, so not necessarily seasonal - like red cabbage or turnip - and found in France. Hence the frequent use of verjus, little yellow lemon, and no exotic fruits or lime. This gives a CSR dimension to the menu.

The issue of waste is also important to us. For example, the bread in the Totally Nuts comes from breakfast. It is repurposed to make a syrup inspired by an old Russian technique, "Kvas," which is a bread beer, but here without the fermentation step. The same goes for the garnishes from our preparations.

In the restaurant, the culture of pickling is central. That’s why it appears in several cocktails, like the Chouchou - garnished with pickled white cabbage - or the Eastini with its fennel pickle juice. It’s a bit of our identity.

A synergy among the different bartenders in the group.

We are establishing, with other addresses in the JLM group, such as Tekés and Kapara, an interaction between our respective bars to potentially create things in common.

As a side note, the bar at Kapara is run by former staff from Moonshiner, like us: Francesco Onnis and Marco Rubegni. We know each other well. In this dynamic, we are also supported by the group's Italian head bartender: Emmanuele Broccatelli (note: behind other projects, such as the bottled cocktails #Allpossibledaiquiris with La Maison & Velier). He negotiates certain contracts, helps us a bit administratively, and centralizes everything.

This good atmosphere among head bartenders is, in our view, a real asset.