Harry‘s Bar

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This is Harry‘s New York Bar, on the rue Daunou, near the Opéra Garnier. This relatively tiny bar is a Paris landmark, and its small size belies its considerable historical significance. The bar was frequented at one time by the likes of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and it supposedly invented the Bloody Mary cocktail as well (in fact, Harry‘s was the first cocktail bar in Paris when it was opened almost a century ago).

I‘ve only been inside a few times, since I don't drink alcohol. They serve soda pop, too, for people like me. It is said that the bartender knows how to prepare every type of mixed drink in existence, and I've personally seen him prepare even the most obscure cocktails flawlessly. There is a room for live music, too.

The bar is named after Harry McElhone, who bought it from Tod Sloan in 1923. The bar itself dates from 1911, whence the "96 years" in the photo. Prior to that, it was a standard bistro; it achieved fame after Sloan converted it to a bar, and McElhone built upon that to make it world-famous.

Photographed on July 15, 2008.