Pour Vous' Francophile Cocktails | Hollywood, Los Angeles

It's the lingering question of the Los Angeles cocktail avant-garde: Where to next?

The answer isn't simply the name of a would-be bar, but the era that the bar evokes, the school of mixed drinks it takes as its muse, or the unassuming neighborhood it calls home.

The newest next is Pour Vous, the latest effort from La Descarga and Harvard & Stone owners Mark and Johnny Houston. As with their other bars, the brothers are sticking to that nebulous space around Hollywood, bringing this so-called salon de Champagne to a Melrose Avenue intersection that is also home to Astroburger and an architecturally underwhelming corner of the Paramount lot.

That drab street view makes stepping inside Pour Vous dramatic. With all of the smoky mirrors, brass details and crystal chandeliers, Pour Vous resembles a Midnight in Paris set, one where you might run into a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec look-alike.

The most exciting drinks were those that took the amaro craze in a Francophile direction. If you've ever lovingly lingered over a glass of Pastis at a Parisian café, order the Phylloxera Flip (pictured; $13), in which that licorice-y drink is shaken with egg and Bénédictine.

Pour Vous, 5574 Melrose Ave., Hollywood; 323-871-8699 or pourvousla.com