Places in this guide
N°1SpeakeasySHELBY BAR | SECRET BAR
A speakeasy in the middle of Lille-Centre: concealed door, telephone to pick up, hushed room. The opening is recent and the Google rating is climbing, a sign that the surprise comes with real work at the shaker.
« Shelby Bar is an unusual experience from the very first seconds, because you have to pull the right telephone for the door to open and the bar to reveal itself. »
— lillebymat.frSee the full place file6 mentionsRating rising
N°2Cocktail barJoker Cocktails & Bar
On place Louise de Bettignies, François Descamps and his team make their own juices, syrups, purées and infusions, in season. It is the Lille name the cocktail press quotes most, and reviews keep coming back to drinks that taste like nowhere else in town.
« A warm cocktail bar with premium drinks right in the heart of place Louise-de-Bettignies: this is Joker. Every one of their products, be it the juices, the syrups, the purées or the infusions, is made in house and seasonal. »
— Lille AddictSee the full place file11 mentions
N°3Cocktail barQuai Des Bananas
A sprawling list running to several hundred drinks, and theatrical service: flambé, baby bottles, sharing vases. It is the busiest cocktail bar in town, the one you take a group to without thinking twice.
« With 700 cocktails on the list, the bar, open for three years, describes itself as an eccentric cocktail bar. »
— Le BonbonSee the full place file11 mentions
N°4Cocktail barLe Farafina
A rum bar that has held rue Solférino for more than twenty-five years, facing the Théâtre Sébastopol, with a West African and Jamaican room guests describe as genuinely transporting. For a rum cocktail in Lille, this is the consensus address.
« Facing the majestic Théâtre Sébastopol for more than 25 years, Le Farafina is a pillar of Lille nightlife. »
— lagazettedelille.frSee the full place file7 mentions
N°5Cocktail barLe Charlatan
On boulevard Victor-Hugo, steps from parc Jean-Baptiste Lebas, a potion bar styled as an apothecary shop where a cocktail is prescribed for whatever ails you. The menus change monthly, sometimes weekly, and the guest rating is one of the highest here.
« Le Charlatan opened in October in Lille. The concept is devastating: a potion bar in the style of an apothecary shop! Here the cocktails are brews that the Charlatan can prescribe for this or that ailment. »
— Le BonbonSee the full place file6 mentions
N°6Cocktail barNoao
On rue de Weppes, some twenty cocktails that shift with seasonal garnishes and juices and, above all, a three-tier alcohol format. With its terrace and its sharing boards, it is the easiest address to suggest to a table that wants different things.
« Their signature is serving their cocktails at three different alcohol levels: the classics, the alcohol-free ones, and also the low-alcohol ones, with interesting flavours to suit everyone. »
— Lille AddictSee the full place file13 mentions
N°7Cocktail barLa Pharmacie Bar
Erlenmeyer flasks, test tubes, smoke: at the corner of rue Royale and rue Léonard-Danel, Victor Gaussin takes the laboratory staging all the way. The concept entertains, the list keeps up, and the spirits press has covered it since it opened.
« Victor Gaussin, cocktail alchemist, opens a new bar in Lille. For almost a month now, a new bar has opened at the corner of rue Royale and rue Léonard-Danel, in the Vieux-Lille: la Pharmacie Bar. »
— La Voix du NordSee the full place file8 mentions
N°8Cocktail barLe Dandy
Four years away, then a return on rue des Bouchers that Lille's mixology crowd had been waiting for. The guest rating is among the highest in town and still climbing, on drinks described as precise rather than showy.
« Four years we had been waiting to see this cocktail bar, now a reference in the mixology world, back on the Lille map. »
— VozerSee the full place file9 mentionsRating rising
