London's replica slice of nightlife

Last Thursday, as I was sipping a gin and tonic on Gerrard Street in Soho at the one-year anniversary of the Experimental Cocktail Club, I suddenly had a weird feeling of déjà-vu.

Having studied for four years in Paris, I know the city by heart and have my little habits there. I have been living in London for about a year now, and haven't felt any homesickness. As I was thinking about it, I realised that it might be because I can keep all my French habits in London.

You can easily recreate a night out in the French capital here. I could have had tea at Poilâne, the famous French bakery which opened a new "Cuisine de Bar" in October in Cadogan Gardens, Chelsea, exactly like the one I used to go to before heading to La Sorbonne. Then dinner at le Relais de Venise L'Entrecôte, on Marylebone Lane, modelled on the original one in rue Saint-Dominique. Then I was having the aforementioned drinks at the Experimental Cocktail Club, the moody French speakeasy that opened last December. And wasn't I making plans to go to the London version of Le Baron? The ultra-cool Parisian nightclub opened on Burlington Street in Mayfair a few weeks ago.

"Paris is the chic and London the vibrant, the cosmopolitan," explains Romee de Goriainoff, a founder of the Experimental Cocktail Club. "London is innovative and conservative and Londoners love new experiences." He describes the capital as "the perfect in-between: the traditional side of Paris and the edginess of New York."

This clash of cultures is not only making London the ideal nexus for Parisian haunts but also those from across the Atlantic. Last week New York champagne bar The Flute opened an exact replica of its midtown bar on Great Portland Street, "right down to the light fittings," they told me. This year, The Box has been spicing up London's nightlife with its risqué cabaret. The club originally opened in 2007 in a defunct sign factory in New York on Chrystie Street and launched its London twin in February.

Soon Londoners will be able to have dinner in two of New York's most fashionable institutions: Balthazar on Spring Street, in downtown Manhattan, is set to open in the old Theatre Museum site in Covent Garden. It is being renovated by Richard Caring and is scheduled to open early in 2012. Meanwhile Serge Becker's funky Mexican restaurant, La Esquina, will open a London branch on Moor Street next year.

Becker, the entrepreneur behind the ultra-hip Bowery Bar, made La Esquina in Becker Street, New York, famous for its secret back door behind the diner counter which takes you downstairs, through the kitchen, to a trendy cocktail bar and modern Mexican restaurant.

"Those three cities are, in a way, quite similar. We call them 'triplet' cities," explains de Goriainoff. "They're craving new experiences - if a concept works in one it will normally apply for the others. We are also targeting a certain category of clients, who travel in between those cities and are likely to hear about it thanks to word of mouth.

"We keep the same elements that make us special and try to recreate the same atmosphere. We want to make them feel at home - away."