Hoi Chi Ng

Finally, Paris has a coffee scene. The city has always been the paradox of the industry, a great cafe town where an otherwise discerning audience happily throws back watery shots of ashy swill. I first wrote about Paris coffee in 2010, and after returning to the topic last year I decided to sit on my hands until somebody in the city figured out what it was missing.

It happened. This year, three cafes opened that treat coffee as if it’s a part of the world of gastronomy, a drink to be crafted and savored, rather than a commodity, sold as if it’s fuel. While these aren’t the only ambitious coffee spots to open recently in Paris — there’s the appealing late-morning lull at le Bal Café off Place Clichy, the gadget-obsessed chaos of Coutume Café close to the Bon Marché, the well-intentioned Kooka Boora on the rue des Martyrs — they’re the first to put the focus on what’s in the demitasse, and to have the experience and expertise to pull it off.

The city is late to the dance — it’s easier to get a beautiful espresso by the Barbican than by the Bastille — but let’s not hold that against them. I’m often asked for my list of favorite Paris coffee spots. Now I have one to give:

Café Lomi (3 ter rue Marcadet, 18th Arrondissement; 011-33-9-51-27-46-31)

A microroaster started in 2010 by Aleaume Paturle (nickname: Lomi) recently moved to a larger facility next to the train tracks that feed into the Gare du Nord — it’s a trek to get to this part of the 18 Arrondissement from the center of the city, but the coffee kids will make the pilgrimage. The coffee bar is in the front, next to the training lab. The roasts at Café Lomi are lighter than the ashy beans you usually find in Paris; the coffees bright and clean.

Télescope (5 rue Villedo, First Arrondissement)

Opened by Nicolas Clerc (a photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times) and David Flynn (formerly of le Bal Café and David Lynch’s private barista), the elegant shop is on a serene side street in the First Arrondissement — the Palais Royal is in one direction, the noodle joints of the quartier Japonais in the other. Sometimes Télescope uses its own beans roasted by Flynn at Coutume Café, sometimes it turns to guest roasters: Caffenation, Counter Culture Coffee, Has Bean, Kaffa, Square Mile, Wrecking Ball. Rare for Paris, café filtre, brewed to order on a Kalita “Wave,” shares the menu with espresso drinks. Even more unusual for the city, it’s open every day of the week.

Ten Belles (10 rue de la Grange aux Belles, 10th Arrondissement; 011-33-6-22-71-28-15)

So much talent behind the bar: the cafe is a collaboration between Anselme Blayney, Alice Quillet and Anna Trattles (all of le Bal Café) and Thomas Lehoux (a cult barista). Depending on when you go, you might be served by Christopher Nielson, formerly of Sydney’s Mecca Espresso and London’s Prufrock Coffee. The beans are from Télescope’s David Flynn, the sandwiches, cookies and tartlets from Quillet and Trattles, and the clever chairs from Pierre Hourquet. It’s a central location in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Paris — the cafe is a one-block walk from the Canal Saint-Martin, a one-minute walk from le Verre Volé.