Cocktails, wine bars and dives: drinking in Rennes for grown-ups.
Cocktail bars, wine bars, dive bars and gastropubs: drinking in Rennes for grown-ups.
Monsieur le Zinc runs a two-floor self-service beer wall in a half-timbered house on Rue Saint-Michel, the rue de la Soif of Rennes, pints from €4.
Signature drink: Self-poured pints at €4.50, €4 in happy hour
Food: Boards and bar snacks
Tip: You pour your own from the tap wall with a card; Thursday night is the big student session on this street.
Sunset Café anchors the top of Rue Saint-Michel in Rennes with cheap pints, a 17:00 to 21:00 happy hour and a small dance floor at weekends.
Signature drink: €4.50 pints, €3.50 to €4 in the 17:00-21:00 happy hour
Tip: One of the longest happy hours on the street; come before 21:00 and move down the row afterwards.
Oan's Pub spreads two terraces below the cathedral quarter of Rennes, €5 pints, Breton beers on tap and bar pizzas that made a local top-12 list.
Signature drink: €5 pints and Breton craft beers
Food: Pizzas from the bar kitchen
Tip: The two terraces are the draw on summer evenings; the pizza list is better than a pub needs it to be.
Le P'tit Vélo has poured for generations of Rennes students on Place Saint-Michel, two rooms running funk-disco and rock with cocktails until 03:00.
Signature drink: House cocktails across two differently soundtracked bars
Tip: It runs later than almost anything else on the square; the back room is the rock one.
Le Combi Bar shakes fresh-fruit cocktails of the day near the Rennes station, an electro-leaning room where the Pimousse and Fresh Time rotate cheaply.
Signature drink: Fresh-fruit daily cocktails like the Pimousse
Tip: The daily cocktail board is the value play; Saturday it opens for the evening only.
Les Innocents mixes house cocktails on Place des Lices in Rennes, a warm little room that opens at 06:00 on Saturdays for the market traders.
Signature drink: House cocktail creations in a snug room
Tip: Saturday's 06:00 opening is a market-day tradition; watch the Lices wake up over the first coffee or the last cocktail.
Le Melody Nelson mixes serious cocktails on Rue Saint-Thomas in Rennes, a rock-and-roll room pouring smoked Old Fashioneds until 03:00 Wednesday to Saturday.
Signature drink: Smoked Old Fashioned
Tip: This is the late, grown-up counterpoint to the rue de la Soif; the Old White Negroni is the second order.
Bouchon is the Tire-Bouchon team's neighbourhood bar round the corner in Rennes, sharing plates, cocktails and well-filled glasses from 11:00 to 01:00.
Signature drink: Well-filled glasses from the Tire-Bouchon cellar
Food: Sharing plates from the Tire-Bouchon kitchen in miniature
Tip: When the mothership bistro is full, this is the same DNA without a reservation; it runs all afternoon too.
La Grappe pours glasses from €3 on Place des Lices in Rennes, a small wine bar with charcuterie boards that opens Saturday morning for the market crowd.
Signature drink: A cheap, honest glass on the market square
Food: Charcuterie and cheese boards
Tip: Saturday morning it opens at 08:00 with the Marché des Lices; a white here is the market-lap tradition.