After: the new Paramount Bar bar.

As a Paramount fan since its cheap-chic Philippe Starck/Ian Schrager days, we mourned the hotel’s fall into disrepair in the 2000s and cheered its renovation in 2009. But we disagreed with some design decisions. Apparently we weren’t alone. The renovated Paramount keeps getting tweaked – and better.

First came the lobby (big improvement; see our previous blog). And now – not a moment too soon — the ground-floor bar.  In its 2009 guise, Bar 46 Athletic Club, a sports bar with Italian furniture and a soccer-club color scheme, seemed more Marriott than Paramount and never caught on.  But Paramount Bar, which opens officially April 12, may do the trick.

With black walls, red velvet banquettes and crystal chandeliers, it’s a welcome jolt of

Before: the old Bar 46 Athletics Club.

glamour on a glamour-starved stretch of West 46^th Street (Scientology’s Dianetics headquarters is next door). Vintage black-and-white photos dress the walls, and Murano glass drums light the mirrored bar, the handiwork of Susan Jaques who designed the hotel’s suites. Bartenders sport black waistcoats and Mad Man-era eyewear. Though not ground-breaking, it’s a good-looking retro mash-up and, best of all, complements the hotel’s Roaring 20s Renaissance Revival building as eloquently as a dash of Angostura bitters in a Maker’s Mark Old Fashioned.

Saucer chic: a Paramount after several sips.

The drinks are the alcoholic equivalent of comfort food. Following the latest cool-bar game plan, a selection of mixologist cocktails IDed with names like Disco Punch and Red Velvet is paired with such classics as the Negroni, Gimlet and Champagne Cocktail. All are $14, mid-range for a Times Square bar. We sampled the Paramount – Grey Goose pear vodka, St Germain, lime juice and muddled ginger –light, tart and very pretty.

Which brings us to the glassware (no detail is too trite in the bar world). Instead of flutes and martini glasses, champagne saucers rule, a smart esthetic decision. The drinks look great. And what could be better in the Theater District than a wink at Bette Davis and All About Eve?

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