
Harry's Bar is a restaurant located at Calle Vallaresso 1323,
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, owned by
Cipriani S.A.
Cipriani S.A. is an Italian hotel and leisure company domiciled in Luxembourg that owns and operates luxury restaurants and clubs around the world including Harry's Bar in Venice and formerly the Rainbow Room in New York City. It specialises in ...
History
Harry's Bar was opened in 1931 by
Giuseppe Cipriani. According to the company's history, Harry Pickering, a rich young American, had been frequenting the
Hotel Europa in Venice, where Cipriani was a bartender. When Pickering suddenly stopped coming to the hotel bar, Cipriani asked him why. Pickering explained that he was broke because his family found out his drinking habits and cut him off financially, and Cipriani lent him 10,000
lire (then about $500 US
7,839 in 2015 dollars. Two years later, Pickering returned to the hotel bar, ordered a drink, and gave Cipriani 50,000 lire in return. "Mr. Cipriani, thank you", he said, according to the Cipriani website. "Here's the money. And to show you my appreciation, here's 40,000 more, enough to open a bar. We will call it Harry's Bar."
[Harry's Bar of Venice - a modern Italian landmark](_blank)
CNN.com, 13 October 2000.
The
Italian Ministry for Cultural Affairs declared it a national landmark in 2001.
[Harry's Bar]
at cipriani.com
Patrons
Harry's Bar has long been frequented by famous people, and it was a favourite of
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
. Other notable customers have included Italian conductor
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...
, inventor
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess of Marconi ( ; ; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegraphy, wireless tel ...
,
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
,
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
,
Jimmy Stewart
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...
,
Maria Callas
Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophia Kalogeropoulos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised ...
,
Richard Halliburton
Richard Halliburton (January 9, 1900Declared death in absentia, presumed dead after March 24, 1939) was an American travel writing, travel writer and adventurer who, among numerous journeys, swam the length of the Panama Canal and paid the lowes ...
,
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
,
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
, Baron
Philippe de Rothschild
Philippe, Baron de Rothschild (13 April 1902 – 20 January 1988) was a member of the Rothschild banking family who became a Grand Prix motor racing driver, a screenwriter and playwright, a theatrical producer, a film producer, a poet, and one ...
,
Giuseppe Sinopoli
Giuseppe Sinopoli (; 2 November 1946 – 20 April 2001) was an Italian conductor and composer.
Biography
Sinopoli was born in Venice, Italy, and later studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice under Ernesto Rubin de Cerv ...
,
Princess Aspasia of Greece,
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; , ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975) was a Greek and Argentine business magnate. He amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men. He was marri ...
,
Barbara Hutton
Barbara Woolworth Hutton (November 14, 1912 – May 11, 1979) was an American debutante, socialite, heiress and philanthropist. She was dubbed the "Poor Little Rich Girl"—first when she was given a lavish and expensive debutante ball in 1930 ...
,
Peggy Guggenheim
Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemianism, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who we ...
,
Tareq Salahi,
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Ac ...
,
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul DiMaggio (; born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, ; November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "the Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career ...
, and
Woody Allen
Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...
.
The bar was also briefly mentioned in the second and subsequent editions of
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...
's novel ''
Brideshead Revisited
''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of Charles Ryder, esp ...
'' (in the first edition Waugh simply called the bar "the English bar") as a frequent haunt of principal characters Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte during their time in Venice. The mention is anachronistic as their visit takes place in 1923.
Food and drink
Harry's Bar is home of the
Bellini and
Carpaccio
Carpaccio is a dish of meat or fish (such as beef, veal, venison, salmon or tuna), thinly sliced or pounded thin, and served raw, typically as an appetiser. It was invented in 1950 by Giuseppe Cipriani founder of Harry's Bar in Venice, Ital ...
.
[Rayner, Jay]
Harry's Bar, Venice
''The Observer'', 11 November 2001.
Harry's Bar is also famous for its dry
martini
Martini may refer to:
* Martini (cocktail), a drink made with gin and vermouth, garnished with an olive or a lemon twist
* Martini (vermouth), a brand of vermouth
* Martini (surname), an Italian surname
* Martini (automobile company), a Swiss auto ...
, which is served in a small glass without a stem. Their dry martinis are very dry, apparently with the ratio of 10 parts
gin
Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients.
Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...
to 1 part
vermouth
Vermouth (, ) is an Italian aromatized wine, aromatized, fortified wine, flavored with various Botany, botanicals (roots, Bark (botany), barks, flowers, seeds, Herb, herbs, and Spice, spices) and sometimes Food coloring, colored. The modern ve ...
. This is an adaptation of the Montgomery Martini, which is 15 parts gin to 1 part dry vermouth. The Montgomery is named after British
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who liked to have a 15 to 1 ratio of his own troops against enemy troops on the battlefield.
Harry's Bar serves classic Italian dishes. Its prices are relatively high (40,000
lire (€20) for a bowl of minestrone, in 2001).
Expansion
Harry's Bar is today "the anchor to a global brand, positioned around the Cipriani name." In
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, the Ciprianis run the restaurants Harry Cipriani, Cipriani 42nd Street, and DownTown, a travel company, and a catering company.
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
is home to three more outlets. In Venice, the Ciprianis also own Harry's Dolci. The Cipriani brand also includes lines of pastas, sauces, olive oils, coffee, books, and kitchenware.
In 2007 the Ciprianis pleaded guilty to
tax evasion
Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. In 2012, with debts of over €6m, the bar was sold to Luxembourg-based investment group Blue Skye.
The Caterer: Owners of iconic Harry’s Bar pushed out after 80 years, December 2012
/ref>
Reception
Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Michael Bourdain ( ; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author and Travel documentary, travel documentarian. He starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the huma ...
said of Harry's, "You get a pretty good plate of food—and the Bellinis are just fine. They just cost a fuck of a lot. But they do treat you courteously and it ''is'' Venice out the window—and everything's expensive anyway."
See also
* Harry's Bar (Rome)
* Harry's Bar (London), named after the Venetian establishment
* Harry's New York Bar
Harry's New York Bar is a bar in Paris, France located at 5, Rue Daunou, between the Avenue de l'Opéra and the Rue de la Paix. It was converted from a bistro by jockey Tod Sloan in 1911 and became a popular expatriate spot during World War I ...
References
External links
Cipriani website
Harry's Bar
at cipriani.com
Harry's Bar paintings
Harry's Bar Venezia fan site
{{Coord, 45, 25, 57, N, 12, 20, 14, E, region:IT-34_type:city_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title
Drinking establishments in Europe
Food and drink companies of Italy
Buildings and structures in Venice
Restaurants in Italy
Tourist attractions in Venice
Restaurants established in 1931
1931 establishments in Italy
20th-century establishments in Venice