EBG Rating: 9.1/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Value For Money:
❤️❤️

Description:
Birthplace of the Bloody Mary, Blue Lagoon and Sidecar cocktails, Harry’s New York Bar, circa 1911 is more than an ex-pat hangout, it has become as much as fixture of Paris as the Louvre and Notre Dame.

The first iteration of New York Bar was dismantled and shipped from Manhattan piece by piece. Today they claim it as Europe’s oldest cocktail bar.

After the eponymous Harry MacElhone took over the place, its fixtures and fittings have been well preserved.

Out on the street, the Neon signage of Harry’s is unmistakable, the small and unassuming Reu Daunou not offering too many visual distractions. It suits the bar to not be right on the main drag, and on entry, particularly on a bitter winter’s night, a sense of calm, comfort and ease hits you immediately.

Inside, the sound is of natural conversation and service, social, convivial and welcoming.

The mahogany fit bar and its splendid etched mirror fittings are on the left as you enter, with smart waiting staff going to and fro, with a wood panelled interior reaching past the bar to a lounge room at the back. These are decorated with old fashioned American sporting club emblems and fraternities. The famous ‘I.B.F’, international bar flies cartoon is etched on to the mirror of the back bar. This references a society Harry created for special guests, replete with a secret handshake.

It would be pointless to reel off the list of celebrity names that are typically associated with frequenting the bars of Europe, instead be content that if you’ve heard of them, they’ve been here.

There’s more – downstairs you’ll find a second bar ‘The Ivories’, a plush, clandestine space where live Jazz is performed in the evenings. On the very piano you see, George Gershwin wrote ‘An American In Paris’.

Although predominantly a cocktail bar, there are a range of drinks including 350 whiskies, cocktail of the week and some seasonal specials and one-offs are introduced.

It does not come cheap, but you weren’t expecting that in a famous bar in central Paris, I suppose.

A quirk which ties the bar to the US is their poll of customers at each general election, which with only a few exceptions has correctly tracked the Presidential election results.

On your visit you will find a typical selection of ex-pats and an international audience which is to be expected in its location near the Place Vendome.

As with the likes of London and Prague, Parisians can be overly dismissive and passé about some of their finest bars on account of their international exposure and tourist crowds, but Harry’s Bar was already Paris a institution even 60 years ago. It isn’t its fault.

Admirable longevity, tasty cocktails and, peculiarly Manhattan-esque dive bar surroundings and evening piano downstairs make it a true, downright classic that remains one of the best in Europe.

(Added January 2026)