Drinks but no dinner

So, our friends Brian and Julie have been bugging us for months to join them for a drink at the famous Hemingway Bar at the Ritz Hotel Place Vendôme and we’ve been resisting (for months) mainly because I had heard how pricey the drinks there are (30- 50 euros each!). Although, now that they are leaving Paris we finally had to relent. I’ve always enjoyed a visit to the Ritz. I love the walk down the long corridor lined with luxury brand display cases and the feel of the richly appointed carpet beneath my feet. It is so thick that your heels sink in and you feel as if you are walking in sand at the beach (but without getting any annoying sand in your shoes). Since my birthday is coming up I stopped whenever I saw a particularly gorgeous item on display and informed Dear Hubby that it was a potential birthday gift. He said nothing, simply rolled his eyes and kept walking. The main draw of the Hemingway Bar is the head bartender named Colin Field who has been given the ‘Best Bartender in the World’ award numerous times. Mixing cocktails is supposedly a craft. So, for our first round of drinks we decided to test Colin’s abilities as a mixologist. Supposedly by asking each patron just a few questions about their likes and dislikes, Colin, the world famous bartender can create a drink that you will absolutely love. He interviewed each of us for about 10 seconds and then we sat down to munch on some warm, mixed nuts while Colin worked his magic behind the bar. Within a few minutes he arrived at our table with four different beverages tailored to each of our particular tastes. Were they good? Sure. Were they worth 30 euros each? Non. But our friends were absolutely enthralled and ordered another round of drinks, asking Colin to once again make a drink tailored to each of us. After round 3 we pretty much forgot about dinner we were having such a good time chatting amongst ourselves. And it’s too bad because dinner would have most certainly cost less than the bar bill! It came to a whopping, are you ready for this? 275 euros! Dear Hubby nearly lost his mind when he saw it! “We didn’t even eat anything!” he exclaimed. So, to sum up: the Hemingway bar is a nice place to have drink if you are in the area and have the coin but don’t expect a magical experience. Oh, and don’t go there and make the mistake of ordering something so pedestrian as a beer or a gin and tonic. The disgust on Mr. Field’s face was evident when a loud Texan woman ordered a margarita.