Fodor's Expert Review Closerie des Lilas

A popular and pricey bar-restaurant, the Closerie is also a staple of Parisian literary tours for its storied history. Commemorative plaques are bolted to the bar as if they were still saving seats for their former clientele: an impressive list of literati including Zola, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Beckett, and, of course, Hemingway. ("Papa" wrote pages of The Sun Also Rises here and lived around the corner at 115 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.) Although the lilacs that once graced the garden—and shaded such habitués as Ingres, Whistler, and Cézanne—are gone, the terrace still opens onto a garden wall of luxuriant foliage. There is live music in the piano bar. There are two menus here; the brasserie menu, served near the bar, is less expensive and very good.