In a previous blog post, we gave the recipe for a French 75, a classic French cocktail whose effect on the imbiber was likened to a blow from a 75mm French canon. Savez-vous que* this cocktail was the creation of Le Harry's Bar in Paris? For us in the Anglophone world, the French 75 is likely the least known of the bar's original cocktail creations: the Bloody Mary, the Side Car and the Blue Lagoon all hail from the same adresse*, and the classic Italian Bellini was first served up at Harry's Bar in Venice.

So why is Harry's Bar so special? Well, for a start, the bar started life across the Atlantic in Manhattan, where, with prohibition approaching, the owner decided to dismantle and ship his beloved bar to Paris, piece by piece. Harry's soon became a deuxième chez soi* for American expats and its clubby feel and expert bartenders eventually drew non-French luminaries such as Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart, Aly Khan, Rita Hayworth and even the Duke of Windsor. And bien sûr*, when Coco Chanel is counted as a patron, you can be assured the bar has un charme certain*.

Located at 5, rue Daunou in the 2nd arrondissement, Harry’s needed a way to assure a steady stream of thirsty Americans. So in 1924, the bar's legendary Scottish manager, Harry Mac Elhone, placed the following ad in the Herald Tribune: « Just tell the taxi driver: Sank Roo Doe Noo and get ready for the worst! ». Intelligent, non*?

Indeed, a 16 year old James Bond uttered this very phrase in Ian Fleming's 1960 short story "From a View to a Kill", that .... "started one of the memorable evenings of his life, culminating in the loss, almost simultaneous, of his virginity and his notecase".

An interesting side note: since 1924, Harry's has conducted a straw poll amongst its American patrons prior to each presidential election, and have been wrong only on three occasions: 1976, 2004 and 2016. Je me demande* how they'll go in 2020?

Harry’s Bar Paris