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This Park Slope bar and performance space is named after a neighborhood in Paris, and the scruffy creatifs who frequent it are straight out of a Renoir film. Wooden tables and chairs line the perimeter in true French café style and wall light fixtures with bare bulbs and forty-five records for bases bathe the compact space in a dreamlike glow. Barbès attracts a unique array of local jazz, experimental and world musicians—from a solo violinist to the weekly Slavic Soul Party featuring a nine-piece Balkan Brass Band. When the music rebounds off the punched tin ceilings and black-and-blue tile floors, the back room crammed with folding chairs can get loud and raucous, but during events like the monthly classical showcase Upright Piano Brigade, an intellectual hush falls over the crowd. After shows, Slopers under the influence of the popular "All Anise Drinks" menu (Absente, Ricard, Pernod, etc.) spill out onto the front sidewalk and smoke the night away. — Tim O’Keefe

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