Soiled Lemon is a wine and cocktail bar serving small plates by Ruba Khoury with loads of vegetarian choices. Meals is served late, till 1am.
24, rue de la Folie Méricourt, 75011
Open Tuesday-Saturday from 6pm-2am
Closed Sunday & Monday
No reservations
With Soiled Lemon, chef Ruba Khoury (ex-Frenchie, Septime, and Yam’Tcha) seeks to “disrupt the overwhelmingly (and infrequently abusively) male tradition round cocktails and the bars the place they’re drunk.” The result’s an area the place everybody – however significantly queer girls – will really feel welcome.
Regardless of its mission (and spirited pre-opening press launch promising “younger, sizzling, queer mother power on overload”), Soiled Lemon doesn’t come off as an overtly lesbian area. Koury is within the kitchen and Brittini Rae Peterson (ex-Candelaria) constructed the cocktail checklist, however the bartender that one usually sees instantly upon coming into is a bearded man. The gang is blended, with younger, straight-passing {couples} intermingling with teams of ladies. The small room designed by Viviane Chil-Hagopian is clear and brilliant with nary a rainbow flag. As an alternative, dried flowers and pale partitions and furnishings create a comfortable but upscale environment matched by the foods and drinks menus.
The latter does acknowledge Soiled Lemon’s mission, with drinks like mezcal- and beetroot-based Scorching Mama (13€) or La Tomboy (12€), a silky combo of scotch, butternut squash, honey liqueur, and lemon. The meals menu, in the meantime, veers in the direction of the vegetarian (a nod to a stereotype or to a world development?) with flavors and methods that marry Khoury’s background in Paris kitchens and her Palestinian background.
The meals at Soiled Lemon is a bit more formidable than you’ll discover at most craft cocktail bars in Paris. Choices vary from snacks like easy za’atar spiced almonds (4€) to extra intricate hummus deviled eggs (6€) or roasted cauliflower with smoked yogurt and sumac (7.5€). It’s on these latter dishes that Khoury’s expertise shines. The eggs effortlessly mix wealthy, creamy hummus, za’atar, and brilliant lemon for a dish that’s straightforward to share and without delay feels way more substantial than typical bar meals and way more particular than basic deviled eggs. Fried selections like soiled fries (6€) or breaded oysters (9.5€) pale considerably compared to these recent, brilliant flavors.
Soiled Lemon’s lack of overt advertising is a refreshing tackle the lesbian bar. It’s a welcoming area that feels without delay subversive and seamless – and with no need to fly the proverbial flag.
Soiled Lemon in Footage
In Different Phrases
Punch (2020) notes the absence of queer coding in its overview. “For one, the area is, properly, good,” writes Rebekah Peppler. “The outcome proposes what Paris—and so many different cosmopolitan cities around the globe—crave: an inclusive area with a tough slant towards queer and feminine folx, that drinks like a cocktail bar, eats like a restaurant and feels a bit like house.”
Le Figaro (2020) calls Soiled Lemon the “most gourmand” (learn: foodiest) cocktail bar of the yr in Paris.
