Harry’s bar in Paris is more than a bar, it’s an institution, a piece of America that has enlivened the neighborhood with its legendary cocktails for more than a century.
Born on Thanksgiving Day
Harry’s Bar was born on November 26, 1911 on Thanksgiving Day, (sacred sign for an American bar). It is a bar literally dismantled from 7th avenue in Manhattan (pre-prohibition 9 dry states) and reassembled rue Daunou in Paris. It is much more than a superb mahogany bar already polished by hundreds of elbows across the Atlantic that is installed that day in Paris, it is a whole new genre: the Cocktail. Toad Sloan, the American jockey who had this bar transported from New York, called on the most famous bartender, Harry MacElhone, who would take him over a few years later to make this young New York bar, Harry’s Bar. At the beginning of the twentieth century the legend was born.
Frequented by Ernest Heningway
The dark woodwork, stained glass and tinned ceiling, imported from New York before Prohibition, have not changed. The collection of college pennants and world banknotes has been enriched by generations of patrons. On the large stitched mirror, we find the mysterious notation “Sank Roo Doe Noo“, the phonetic address for English speakers ! Ernest Hemingway, Rita Hayworth, Humphrey Bogart, George Gershwin and even Ian Fleming frequented this mythical address hidden in a small street located between the Opéra Garnier and Place Vendôme. Remember to consume in moderation and also to complete your order with an excellent hot dog like in Brooklyn.
An international clientele
The establishment was then able to prove itself worthy of this premiere by inventing over the years what would become classics, first and foremost the Bloody Mary; the SideCar the Blue Lagoon or the White Lady to name but a few. According to their motto, to be traditionally inventive, they perpetuate this know-how and continue to regularly invent cocktails, some of which travel with a very international clientele and sometimes even return to Paris according to fashion…
Harry’s Paris
5 rue Daunou, 75002 PARIS
Phone: +33 (0)1 42 61 71 14
