Harry's Bar is a private members dining club at 26

South Audley Street South Audley Street is a major shopping street in Mayfair, London.'South Audley Street: Introduction', in Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), ed. F H W Sheppard (London, 1980), pp. 290–291. Bri ...

in London's

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

district. It was established by

Mark Birley Marcus Oswald Hornby Lecky Birley (29 May 1930 – 24 August 2007), known as Mark Birley, was a British entrepreneur known for his investments in the hospitality industry. Early life Mark Birley was the son of Sir Oswald Birley (1880–1952), ...

in 1979. Birley sold the club with his four other Mayfair clubs,

Annabel's Annabel's is a private members club at 46 Berkeley Square in Mayfair, London. It was opened at 44 Berkeley Square in 1963 by Mark Birley and named for his wife Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart. It was founded in the basement of the Clermont C ...

Mark's Club Mark's Club is a private members' club and restaurant in Mayfair, London, UK. Established in 1972, it has hosted many fashion events and been patronised by members of the British establishment. Location The club is located in a townhouse at 46 ...

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

, and the

Bath & Racquets Club The Bath & Racquets Club is a private members gym and squash club at 49 Brook's Mews in London's Mayfair district. The club has 300 members and is the most expensive private gym club in London. It was established by Mark Birley in 1989. Birley s ...

, to

Richard Caring Richard Allan Caring (born 4 June 1948) is a British businessman. He initially built a business, International Clothing Designs, supplying Hong Kong-manufactured fashion to UK retailers. After surviving the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, he di ...

in 2007. Harry's Bar is renowned for its Italian cuisine.

Origins

Harry's Bar is located at 26

in London's

district. The site had been previously occupied by the wine merchants Block, Grey & Block. The club was established by

in 1979 and named for the famed bar of the same name in Venice founded by Giuseppe Cipriani. Birley's

silent partner A silent partner is one who shares in the profits and losses of a business, but is not involved in its management. Silent partner or Silent Partners may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Silent Partner'', a 2005 film starring Tara Reid ...

in Harry's Bar was the American businessman James Sherwood who owned 49% to Birley's 51%. Sherwood invested $575,000 to establish Harry's Bar through his

Orient-Express Hotels Belmond Ltd. (formerly Orient-Express Hotels Ltd) is a hospitality and leisure company that operates luxury hotels, train services and river cruises worldwide. In 2015, the company had 35 deluxe hotels, 7 tourist trains, 3 river cruises and rest ...

company. Birley and Sherwood's original agreement included a clause that stated that the other would have the right to buy out his partner's shares should either of them cease to act individually. The clause led to a dispute between Birley and Sherwood after Birley's children, India Jane and Robin Birley, assumed the management of his clubs due to Birley's ill health. Birley wrote an open letter to members stating that he " adn'tbeen well for some time and I've tried in vain for nearly a year now to persuade him herwoodthat Harry's Bar can only work as a family run business and not as part of a large publicly-quoted hotel group ...As a family we can't agree to his terms which involve short term performance targets that would trigger a buy-out by Orient-Express Limited in the event we fail to meet them. As you know I don't run my business like that and as my children have been brought up in the clubs they understand that we take a long term view". Robin Birley said that "Harry's Bar is about spending $80,000 per annum on flowers; it's about perfectionism. We wouldn't start doing catering or opening on weekends or turning tables to make ends meet. That completely goes against the ethos of what we do". In 2004 Harry's Bar made a profit of $1.8 million. The Birley family bought the 51% stake of Orient-Express Hotels in Harry's Bar for £5.1 million in 2006.

Ambience

Birley said of Harry's Bar that he tried to create "... the essence of Harry's in Venice – a certain warmth and informality". The head chef upon opening was Alberico Penati, with the menu centred around the Milan region of Italy. The decor of the club was designed by

Nina Campbell Henrietta "Nina" Sylvia Campbell (born 9 May 1945) is an English interior designer and businesswoman, whose clients include the Duke and Duchess of York, Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart and the Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge. She is known for her he ...

in a Venetian style with furnishings and tableware imported from Italy. Cartoons by ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' cartoonists

Peter Arno Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. (January 8, 1904 – February 22, 1968), known professionally as Peter Arno, was an American cartoonist. He contributed cartoons and 101 covers to ''The New Yorker'' from 1925, the magazine's first year, until 1968, the ...

Charles Addams Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters, signing the cartoons as Chas Addams. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams Fa ...

and Whitney Darrow Jr. are prominently displayed among fabrics by Mariano Fortuny. The restaurant has polished floorboards and a large

Baccarat crystal Baccarat () is a French luxury brand and manufacturer of fine crystal located in Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. The company owns two museums: the Musée Baccarat in Baccarat, and the Musée Baccarat in Paris on the Place des États-Unis. ...

chandelier hangs in the main room. A smaller room can accommodate private diners. The club was intended to be more receptive to women diners than Birley's

. Lawrence Goldman, wrote of the club in Birley's entry in the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' that "For thin ladies who lunched, as well as American visitors and devotees of Italian cuisine, the food and ambience were sublime. Prices were exorbitant: at one time Harry's Bar was the highest grossing restaurant per square foot in the world. Birley considered it to be his apogee". Birley had previously opened the members club

in 1963.

Membership

The membership of Harry's Bar was described shortly after opening in 1979 as consisting of a "dollop of the titled...and some of the top businessmen around town". By 1990 Emma Soames felt that the " ... clientele attracted to Harry's is classy, and in some ways the place resembles the departure lounge for

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

" and spotted

Lew Grade Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 ...

David Frost Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was a British television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme ' ...

and

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekd ...

at lunch there on her visit and listed

Lord Hanson James Edward, Baron Hanson (20 January 1922 – 1 November 2004) was an English Conservative industrialist who built his businesses through the process of leveraged buyouts through Hanson plc. Career Educated at Elland Grammar School nea ...

Alan Sugar Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician and political adviser. In 1968, he started what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics com ...

and Gordon White as regular guests. The cost of membership was £600 a year in 1990 (). In his 1988 book ''The Fashion Conspiracy'',

Nicholas Coleridge Sir Nicholas David Coleridge (born 4 March 1957) is a British former media executive, author, and cultural chair. He is chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum, chairman of the Prince of Wales' Campaign for Wool, chairman of the Gilbert Trus ...

described Harry's Bar as the perfect place to "watch designer clothes in action" with Harry's Bar being a "national park for designer labels, with Valentino's, Ungaro's, Armarni's and Saint Laurent's roaming at will in their natural habitat". In 1998

Jonathan Meades Jonathan Turner Meades (born 21 January 1947) is an English writer and film-maker, primarily on the subjects of place, culture, architecture and food. His work spans journalism, fiction, essays, memoir and over fifty highly idiosyncratic tele ...

described the members of Harry's Bar as being " ... industrialists, diplomats, kings, American widows with an appetite for what the French euphemise as

aesthetic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofa ...

, film stars of the old school, dandiacal

plutocrats A plutocracy () or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income. The first known use of the term in English dates from 1631. Unlike most political systems, plutocracy is not rooted in any established ...

smoothies and the gastronomically earnest" and noted that "Members and staff know each other, are mutually respectful and on amiable terms – there is no doubt a trace of

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

in all this but it works to the benefit of both sides". In 1989 Claire Frankel summed up the clientele as being "classy international

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

Prince Rupert Loewenstein Rupert, Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Loewenstein-ScharffeneckMartin, Douglas (22 May 2014). ''The New York Times. ''Retrieved 27 May 2014Archived here (24 August 1933 – 20 May 2014) was a Spanish-born Bavarian aristoc ...

persuaded Birley to allow the American singer

Terence Trent D'Arby Sananda Francesco Maitreya (born Terence Trent Howard; March 15, 1962), who started his career with the stage name Terence Trent D'Arby, is an American singer and songwriter who came to fame with his debut studio album, ''Introducing the Hardlin ...

to lunch with him at Harry's Bar shortly after the launch of D'Arby's debut album in 1987. Birley quipped to Loewenstein that D'Arby had a "fine English aristocratic surname". The painter

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

dined with the performance artist

Leigh Bowery Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 – 31 December 1994) was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer. Bowery was known for his flamboyant and outlandish costumes and makeup as well as his (sometimes controversial) perform ...

at Harry's Bar in late 1980s. Bowery arrived without the customery jacket and tie demanded by the

dress code A dress code is a set of rules, often written, with regard to what clothing groups of people must wear. Dress codes are created out of social perceptions and norms, and vary based on purpose, circumstances, and occasions. Different societies an ...

of the restaurant, so Freud lent him a grey scarf and Bowery borrowed a jacket from a waiter. In 2008 banker Bob Diamond hosted a $25,000 a head fundraising event for 60 guests at Harry's Bar organised by Frances Prenn which raised $2 million for John McCain's American presidential campaign. Guests included

Cindy McCain Cindy Lou McCain (; born May 20, 1954) is an American diplomat, businesswoman, and humanitarian. McCain has served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture since November 5, 2021. She is the widow of U.S. Senat ...

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

Louis Bacon Louis Moore Bacon (born July 25, 1956) is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder and chief executive of Moore Capital Management. ''Forbes Magazine'' estimates his net worth to be US$1.81 billion, mak ...

, and Russ Gercon. A Harry's Bar cookbook was published in 2005 by Harley Publishing with a foreword by Mark Birley and essays by

Frederick Forsyth Frederick McCarthy Forsyth (born 25 August 1938) is an English novelist and journalist. He is best known for thrillers such as ''The Day of the Jackal'', ''The Odessa File'', '' The Fourth Protocol'', '' The Dogs of War'', ''The Devil's Alter ...

and

Nicholas Lander Nicholas Lander (born April 8, 1952 in Manchester, England) is a consultant to and writer on the restaurant industry. He studied at Manchester Grammar School, Jesus College, Cambridge, and Manchester Business School

Reviews and opinions

Harry's Bar is renowned for its Italian cuisine. In 1990 Emma Soames described Harry's Bar in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' as the "king of the High Urban school in London" contrasting its "High Urban" Italian cuisine with the newer "Tuscan Farmhouse" style as exemplified by the recently opened

River Café A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

. Soames wrote that the food was "Unmistakably Italian and mostly classical, it is almost impossible to find fault with any of it (until you come to the bill)". The bill for "lunch with one bottle of wine and two glasses of pudding wine" for Soames and her guest came to £145 in 1990 ().

reviewed Harry's Bar in 1998 in ''The Times'' and praised its "unflashy opulence, discretion, nothing overlooked, obsessive attention to detail" that served "some of the most exquisite cooking in London". Meades felt that Harry's Bar was "...somewhere which is wittingly outside time, place and fashion (in so far as that's ever possible). It certainly goes by its own rules, it's hermetically swaddling, an autonomous cocoon". Harry's Bar has attracted praise from the Italian fashion designers

Georgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer. He first gained notoriety working for Cerruti and then for many others, including Allegri, Bagutta and Hilton. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expande ...

and Valentino, though

Frankie Dettori Lanfranco Dettori (; born 15 December 1970), better known as Frankie Dettori, is an Italian horse racing jockey based in the United Kingdom. Dettori has been British flat racing Champion Jockey three times and has ...

said that the meal was the most expensive he had ever had in London at £1200 for four people.

Sexual harassment allegations

The head chef of Harry's Bar, Alberico Penati, subjected a waitress to several months of aggressive sexual harassment while she worked there. She was subsequently awarded £124,000 by an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination. Penati remained as executive chef following the tribunal. Penati would walk around the kitchen dressed in his underpants while making sexual remarks about women and would tell the waitress that he never surrendered "until I see the blood of my victim" and that she would have to be punished for rejecting him. The chairman of the tribunal, Gordon Etherington, said that Penati had a "grossly inflated sense of his own importance" and had a "bullying and arrogant" approach to staff. Penati later left Harry's Bar after it was bought by

, stating that he preferred to "work for a family-run business not a corporation". He subsequently joined

Aspinall's Crown London Aspinalls (or Aspinall's) is a private gambling club, established by John Aspinall in London since the 1960s. Crown London Aspinalls is currently at 27–28 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London. History Club founder John Aspinall, known ...

Curzon Street Curzon Street is located within the Mayfair district of London. The street is located entirely within the W1J postcode district; the eastern end is north-east of Green Park underground station. It is within the City of Westminster, running ap ...

, opening the restaurant Alberico at Aspinall's.

Sale and recent history

In 2007 Birley sold his four Mayfair clubs, including Harry's Bar, to

for £90 million. The club is now part of the Birley Clubs owned by Caring, including

, and the

. A branch of Harry's Bar opened on James Street near Oxford Street in October 2018. Another branch of Harry's Bar, Harry's Dolce Vita, opened on

Basil Street Basil Street, originally known as North Street, is a street in London's Knightsbridge. It was laid out in the second half of the eighteenth century on land belonging to Lord Cadogan and runs between Sloane Street in the north and the junction of ...

in Knightsbridge in December 2017. Harry's Bar celebrated its 40th birthday with a party in October 2021.

References

External links

* {{portalbar, Companies, Food, London 1979 establishments in England British companies established in 1979 Buildings and structures in Mayfair Gentlemen's clubs in London Italian restaurants in London Restaurants established in 1979