The Bar Journal

Favourite of Ernest Hemingway, birthplace of the Bloody Mary, haunt of generations of expat Americans in Paris – there are few watering holes that can boast the legacy of Harry’s New York Bar.

And as the venerable establishment prepares to mark its 100th birthday, Harry’s Bar remains what it has always been, a small corner of Manhattan in the heart of Paris.

Tucked away on a side street in central Paris under a red-and-gold neon sign, Harry’s Bar could not be more different from the traditional French brasseries and bistros that surround it. Based on the bar’s address at 5 Rue Daunou,

Harry’s trademark advertising slogan

– “Just tell the taxi driver: Sank Roo Doe Noo” –

became a calling card for English-speaking visitors to Paris.

Not a lot of people know that Harry’s New York Bar in Paris created many legendary cocktails, such as:

White Lady (1919),

Bloody Mary (1921),

Harry’s Pick Me Up (1923),

Side Car (1931),

Blue Lagoon (1960),

James Bond (1963), etc.

Harry MacElhone, a Scot from Dundee, was hired as bartender by original owner Tod Sloane, an American jockey living in Paris who opened “The New York Bar” after complaining he could not find a proper cocktail in the French capital.

Keen to recreate the atmosphere of a pre-Prohibition stand-up saloon in Paris, Sloane had the interior of a Manhattan bar completely dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic to Paris.

The original mahogany bar and walls, decorated with shields of dark wood bearing the insignia of US universities, remain fixtures of the place to this day. Sloane sold the bar to Harry MacElhone in 1923, he put up his name above the door, and it has been known simply as “Harry’s” ever since.

The bar became a favourite of American expats in Paris, especially the

“Lost Generation” of writers of the 1920s that included F. Scott Fitzgerald and the hard-drinking Hemingway, a regular for many years and a close friend of the MacElhone family.

They’re celebrate 100 years of cheers by publishing a book and launching five new “special anniversary” cocktails.

It has hosted film stars from Humphrey Bogart to Clint Eastwood. S

ince 1924 Harry’s has been known for its presidential election straw polls of Americans living in Paris, which have accurately predicted the winners in all but two cases: Jimmy Carter in 1976 and George W. Bush in 2004.

The bar has also featured in works of fiction – Ian Fleming’s fictional spy James Bond called Harry’s the best place to get a “solid drink” in Paris – and it was said to be where George Gershwin composed the music for “An American in Paris”.

Harry died in 1958 and the bar was taken over by his son Andy and then his grandson Duncan, Isabelle’s husband, who died in 1998. Their son, 23-year-old Franz-Arthur, plans to eventually take over the business.

Harry’s New York Bar 5,

rue Daunou, Paris 2nd

Bon Anniversaire Harry !!!