Harry’s Bar - Venice
This is the first post regarding Italy and our recent honeymoon.
Where better to start than writing about one of the most famous bars on the planet?
The story goes that a talented Venecian bartender named Giuseppe Cipriani helped out a chap called Harry from Boston with some sticky money issues (borught about by his drinking habit). A couple of years later Harry returned to Venice much better off and paid back Cipriani five times what he borrowed telling him to set up a bar and call it ‘Harry’s’.
Cipriani did as instructed and thus a legendary bar was born, which one day would be responsible for the creation of the famous Bellini cocktail and a favourite hangout of Ernest Hemingway, Woody Allen, Peggy Gugenheim and many more.
Harry’s bar is located about 3 minutes walk from San Marco Piazza in Venice and it looks out over the Grand Canal, a pretty much priceless location, hence why they are able to charge mind boggling amounts for drinks.
There aren’t many bars which are steeped in so much history however, that they require you to pay a visit and buy a drink just because you are a tourist in the city. For me it would be an obvious stop anyway, but this bar is constantly full of wealthy people (mostly from US) drinking cocktails and eating Carpaccio (also a famed for its quality). We saw a number of people being refused entry due to the quality of their attire and I was repremanded once for taking pictures of a wall because the customers like their privacy! eek!
I sceptcially ordered two Bellinis (€15 each) for myself and Laura as we watched them mass produce them with impressive speed behind the bar. I have always hated making Bellinis, because the combination of fresh peach and prosecco always results in a considerable amount of bubbles, but these guys had it down to an art. Fair enough but does it taste any good?
Yep.
It was the best bellini I have ever had, which I didn’t really expect, in part due to my poor experiences in Cuba at the home of the mojito: La Bodeguita del Medio. Harry’s well and truly nailed the bellini though, well ballanced, naturally sweet.
Further questioning revealed that the Italian white peaches are skinned and pressed, rather than puree’ing resulting in a sweet rich ‘nectar’ without all the other stuff, apparently it is fresher for longer that way too.
Then I got chatting to a Texan called Tom who owned a ranch and dealt in cattle. He kindly footed the bill for our first to drinks simply because we were on our honeymoon, so we thought it rude not to buy another two! When I remarked to Tom that this (Harry’s) was probbaly the most expensive bar in Venice he replied,
“No shit, this is probably the most expensive bar in the world!”
He might be right.
Then I got entangled in a debate with the bartender as to the origins of tonic water (a subject that I know a little about!), but being Italian he was trying to convince me that it came fom Italy…
For anyone interested, here is the method that the bartenders used for making bellinis:
Method
In a cold boston tin add 1 part peach nectar (pressed white peach skinned) to 4 parts chilled prosecco. Stir and dispose of excess foam then simply pour into a chilled slim jim glass. Notably they didn’t use flutes as is common in the rest of the word, why? I’m not sure though it would certainly make the drink easier to prepare in a slim jim.
