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| Mr Five Star and World Travel and Dinning Reviews & Resources |
| Harry's Bar-Venice-ItalyFeatured |
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 It was in 1946, when the war in Europe had hardly ended and Venice was still under the control of the Allied armies, that I first poked my nose through the doors of Harry's Bar in Venice. I was young, rather shy, and extremely unworldly, and I did not know what to expect. From the outside the place hardly looked like a bar, occupying as it did an elegant building like a little palazzo. The frosted glass of its windows made it difficult to peer inside. I had heard tales of vast prices and an excruciatingly grand clientele. My friends, feeling much as I did, pushed me through the door first, sheepishly treading on my heels; but the moment I got inside, adjusting my eyes from the sunshine to the shade, I found myself in thrall. This is how I remember it.
The room was smallish and unexpectedly cozy. At the tables around it, sure enough, were smoky-looking, hooded-eyed, tweedy, sometimes hatted, heavily made-up but rather weather-beaten persons I took to be members of the Italian aristocracy. Sitting at the bar were three or four Allied officers, the British looking uncomfortably suave to me, the Americans dauntingly experienced. The conversation level was low but intense, there was a discreet clinking of plates somewhere out of sight, and a solitary ample man at a table by himself was already well into a plate of scampi. Everybody, even the scampi man, looked up as I made my entrance. The officers looked up in a cool officerlike way, holding their glasses. The patricians looked up patricianly, rather disappointedly, as though they had been hoping for better things. The fat man looked up with his eyes only. But it was the contact I had with the three pairs of eyes behind the counter that I remember best - the eyes of the boss sitting behind his cash till beside the door the eyes of the two busy barmen in their white jackets.
The bar synonymous with Venice, it must be said that nobody makes a Bellini (fresh peach juice and sparkling wine) quite like its creators. Opened by the Cipriani family across from the famous hotel, Harry's is steeped in history with a clientele that has over the years included the likes of Proust, Byron and many a passing millionairess. It retains its charm as do the staff, who'll help to anaesthetise you enough to cope with the size of the bill.
Web Link to Harry's Bar
HARRY'S BAR
San Marco 1323
30124 Venezia
Tel. 041.5285777 R.A.
FAX 041.5208822
e-mail:
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| Listing Information |
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| Address: |
San Marco 1323
30124
Venezia
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| Telephone: |
041.5285777 |
| Website: |
http://cipriani.com/cipriani/Locs/ven.htm |
| Cuisine: |
Bar |
| Added: |
2006-07-13 03:09:37 |
| Last updated: |
2007-10-27 12:33:26 |
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