Harry's Bar (London)

Last updated

Harry's Bar
Harry's Bar, 26 South Audley Street, Mayfair, January 2022 06.jpg
Harry's Bar in January 2022
Harry's Bar (London)
Restaurant information
Established1979;45 years ago (1979)
Owner(s) Richard Caring
Food type Italian cuisine
Dress codeSmart
Street address26 South Audley Street
City Mayfair, London
Postal/ZIP CodeW1K 2PD
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates 51°30′33″N0°09′05″W / 51.5093°N 0.1514°W / 51.5093; -0.1514
Website www.harrysbar.co.uk

Harry's Bar is a private members dining club at 26 South Audley Street in London's Mayfair district.

Contents

It was established by Mark Birley in 1979 with the American businessman James Sherwood as his silent partner. Birley and Sherwood subsequently had a dispute after Birley left the management of the club to his two children. Birley sold the club with his four other Mayfair clubs, Annabel's, Mark's Club, George, and the Bath & Racquets Club, to Richard Caring in 2007.

Harry's Bar is renowned for its Italian cuisine. Two unaffiliated branches of Harry's Bar also owned by Richard caring have opened in the 2010s: on Basil Street in Knightsbridge in 2017, and on James Street in Marylebone in 2018.

Origins

Harry's Bar is located at 26 South Audley Street in London's Mayfair district. [1] The site had been previously occupied by the wine merchants Block, Grey & Block. [2] [1] The club was established by Mark Birley in 1979 and named for the famed bar of the same name in Venice founded by Giuseppe Cipriani. [3] Birley's silent partner in Harry's Bar was the American businessman James Sherwood who owned 49% to Birley's 51%. [4] Sherwood invested $575,000 to establish Harry's Bar through his Orient-Express Hotels company. [5] 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. [5] 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. [5] Birley wrote an open letter to members stating that he had been unwell and had " ... tried in vain for nearly a year now to persuade him [Sherwood] that 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". [5] 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". [5] In 2004 Harry's Bar made a profit of $1.8 million. [5] Sherwood wrote to Mark Birley in March 2005 that he did not have the same freedom that Birley enjoyed as he was the head of a public company and also said that he had never asked Birley to restrain his spending on the restaurant. [5] The Birley family bought the 51% stake of Orient-Express Hotels in Harry's Bar for £5.1 million in 2006. [6]

Ambience

Harry's Bar from another angle Harry's Bar, 26 South Audley Street, Mayfair, January 2022 01.jpg
Harry's Bar from another angle

Birley said of Harry's Bar that he tried to create the warmth and informality of the Venetian Harry's Bar. [7] 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. [8] Cartoons from The New Yorker by Peter Arno are prominently displayed among fabrics by Mariano Fortuny. [5] [9] [10]

The club was intended to be more receptive to women diners than Birley's Mark's Club. Lawrence Goldman wrote of the club in Birley's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 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". [1] [11] [4]

Membership

The membership of Harry's Bar was described in the New York Times shortly after opening in 1979 as consisting of a "dollop of the titled...and some of the top businessmen around town". [7] By 1990 Emma Soames felt that the clientele of the restaurant was "classy" and "resembles the departure lounge for Concorde" and spotted Lew Grade, David Frost and Terry Wogan at lunch there on her visit and listed Lord Hanson, Alan Sugar and Gordon White as regular guests. [8] The cost of membership was £600 a year in 1990 (equivalent to £1,723in 2023). [8] In his 1988 book The Fashion Conspiracy, Nicholas Coleridge 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". [12]

In 1998 Jonathan Meades 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, film stars of the old school, dandiacal plutocrats, Mayfair 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 in all this but it works to the benefit of both sides". [9] In 1989 Claire Frankel summed up the clientele as being "classy international yuppie". [10]

Prince Rupert Loewenstein persuaded Birley to allow the American singer Terence Trent D'Arby 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". [13] The painter Lucian Freud dined with the performance artist Leigh Bowery at Harry's Bar in late 1980s. Bowery arrived without the customery jacket and tie demanded by the dress code of the restaurant, so Freud lent him a grey scarf and Bowery borrowed a jacket from a waiter. [14]

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, Henry Kissinger, Louis Bacon, and Russ Gercon. [15]

A Harry's Bar cookbook was published in 2005 by Harley Publishing with a foreword by Mark Birley and essays by Frederick Forsyth and Nicholas Lander. [16]

Reviews and opinions

Harry's Bar is renowned for its Italian cuisine. In 1990 Emma Soames described Harry's Bar in The Times 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. [8] 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 (equivalent to £416in 2023). [8]

Jonathan Meades 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". [9]

Harry's Bar has attracted praise from the Italian fashion designers Georgio Armani and Valentino, [17] [18] though Frankie Dettori said that the meal was the most expensive he had ever had in London at £1200 for four people. [19]

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. [20] She was subsequently awarded £124,000 by an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination. [20] Penati remained as executive chef following the tribunal. [20] 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. [20] 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. [20] Penati left Harry's Bar after it was bought by Richard Caring in 2007, stating that he preferred to "work for a family-run business not a corporation". He subsequently joined Aspinall's on Curzon Street, opening the restaurant Alberico at Aspinall's. [21]

Sale and recent history

In 2007 Birley sold his four Mayfair clubs, including Harry's Bar, to Richard Caring for £90 million. [22] [23] The club is now part of the Birley Clubs owned by Caring, including Annabel's, Mark's Club, George, and the Bath & Racquets Club. [24]

An unaffiliated restaurant - also owned by Caring- heavily inspired by Harry's Bar, Harry's Dolce Vita, opened on Basil Street in Knightsbridge in December 2017. [25] With another branch of the unrelated Harry's Bar Restaurant opening on James Street in Marylebone in October 2018. [26]

Harry's Bar celebrated its 40th birthday with a party in October 2021. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claridge's</span> Hotel in London

Claridge's is a 5-star hotel at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in Mayfair, London. Claridge's Hotel is owned and managed by Maybourne Hotel Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racquet and Tennis Club</span> Social and athletic club in New York City

The Racquet and Tennis Club, familiarly known as the R&T, is a private social and athletic club at 370 Park Avenue, between East 52nd and 53rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Ivy (United Kingdom)</span> British restaurant

The Ivy is a British restaurant founded in 1917 known for its popularity with celebrities. The original restaurant's location in the West End, opposite the Ambassadors and St Martin's theatres, made it a popular restaurant for theatregoers. The Ivy has since expanded into various locations across the United Kingdom and Ireland, known as the Ivy Collection.

Robin Marcus Birley is an English businessman, entrepreneur and political donor. He is the son of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and the nightclub owner Mark Birley. He had a brother, Rupert, who disappeared and is presumed deceased, and a sister, India Jane Birley. His half-brother is the former MP, now peer, Zac Goldsmith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annabel's</span> Private members club in Mayfair, London

Annabel's is a private members' club at 46 Berkeley Square in Mayfair, London.

Marcus Oswald Hornby Lecky Birley, known as Mark Birley, was a British entrepreneur known for his investments in the hospitality industry.

India Jane Birley is a British artist and businesswoman. Her father, Mark Birley, opened the private member's club Annabel's, named after her mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, in the early 1960s and Birley ran the club with her brother, Robin Birley, during her father's ill health in the 2000s. She later became estranged from her brother, and her father's estate was left to her to be placed in trust for her son.

Harry's Bar may refer to:

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 simple, traditional Italian food.

Siegi Sessler was a prominent London restaurateur and club owner in the mid-20th century. He started club life after the Second World War, and opened Siegi's Club in 1950 at 46 Charles Street in London's Mayfair area. Siegi's became the first of the Mayfair establishments, later among Claremont Club, Annabel's, Tramp, Harry's Bar and The Colony Club. It was well known to be the 'home away from home' for Hollywood stars, such as Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Crosby, Niven, Brando, Monroe, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Doris Day, Joan Crawford, Ingrid Bergman and Elizabeth Taylor. It was described as "a sort of Madame Tussauds for live people... a safe haven for the friendless and a place impossible to leave, without a pocketful of introductions, for all four corners of the globe. You may not have wanted to lunch with Brando in LA, or safari with William Holden, at his Mt. Kenya Safari Club, however once out of the door, you were committed and often compelled to be their house guests, although a stranger...and you may have only popped in for a night cap before bed!" by columnist Marjorie Proops.

Richard Allan Caring is a British businessman. He initially built a business, International Clothing Designs, supplying Hong Kong-manufactured fashion to UK retailers. In 2004 he diversified his business interest into property, restaurants and nightclubs. He is the chairman of Caprice Holdings, which owns and operates The Ivy chain of restaurants.

Jamie Barber is a British restaurateur, founder and CEO of Hush restaurant in Mayfair, London, the Hache Burgers chain and the Cabana Brasilian Barbecue group. He also founded and co-owned restaurants including Villandry, Japanese restaurant Sake No Hana, and Italian casual dining brand, Kitchen Italia.

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.

Sexy Fish is a restaurant at Berkeley Square House, Mayfair in London, United Kingdom, on the south-east corner of Berkeley Square. The restaurant is part of the Caprice Holdings group, whose chairman is Richard Caring. Sexy Fish opened to the public on 19 October 2015. The restaurant serves Asian fish and seafood and seats up to 200 people in the main restaurant on ground level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5 Hertford Street</span> Private members club in Mayfair, London

5 Hertford Street (5HS) is a private members' club in Mayfair, London, which was described in a 2017 Observer article as London's most secretive club. It has annual membership costs of £3,500 and is owned by the English businessman Robin Birley. Its interior design is by the Turkish-born fashion designer Rifat Ozbek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bath & Racquets Club</span> Private members gym and squash club in Mayfair, London

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 sold the club with his four other Mayfair clubs, Annabel's, Harry's Bar, Mark's Club, and George, to Richard Caring in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George (club)</span> Club in London

George is a private members club at 87-88 Mount Street in London's Mayfair district. It was established by Mark Birley in 2001. Birley sold the club with his four other Mayfair clubs, Annabel's, Mark's Club, Harry's Bar, and the Bath & Racquets Club, to Richard Caring in 2007. The club is dog friendly.

<i>Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom is a 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso. It hangs in the main reception area of the private member's club Annabel's in Berkeley Square in London's Mayfair district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oswald's</span> Private members club in Mayfair, London

Oswald's is a private members club located at 25 Albemarle Street in London's Mayfair district. It was established by Robin Birley in May 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">46 Berkeley Square</span>

46 Berkeley Square is a house on Berkeley Square in the Mayfair district of London, England. It was used as offices, including the London headquarters of the Chase Manhattan Bank, for several decades and has been the site of the private member's club Annabel's since 2018.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Goldman, Lawrence (2009). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN   978-0-19-967154-0. OCLC   257555548.
  2. ↑ Brandreth, Gyles (2006). Charles & Camilla : portrait of a love affair. Arrow Books. ISBN   978-0-09-949087-6. OCLC   68770056.
  3. ↑ "When playing the game means following the dress code". The Times . No. 63383. 2 May 1989. p. 21. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Obituary: Mark Birley". The Times . No. 69101. 27 August 2007. p. 43. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ward, Vicky (12 October 2005). "Wild About Harry's". Vanity Fair . Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  6. ↑ Bantham, Matthew (14 June 2006). "Orient-Express sells stake in Harry's Bar to Birley family". The Caterer . Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
  7. 1 2 Anderson, Susan Heller (12 December 1979). "The London That Comes to Life at Midnight". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Soames, Emma (13 October 1990). "Beyond the trat". The Times . No. 63836. p. 23. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 Meades, Jonathan (21 March 1998). "Jonathan Meades at Harry's Bar". The Times . No. 66155. p. 244. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  10. 1 2 Frankel, Claire (22 January 1989). "Private Enclaves For London Epicures". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  11. ↑ "Spears 500 NHW Essentials: Bath & Racquets Club". Spear's Wealth Management Survey. Archived from the original on 30 May 2018. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  12. ↑ Coleridge, Nicholas (1988). The Fashion Conspiracy : A Remarkable Journey Through the Empires of Fashion. Random House. ISBN   978-1-4481-4987-2. OCLC   964663119.
  13. ↑ Loewenstein, Rupert (14 February 2013). A Prince Among Stones : That business with the Rolling Stones and other adventures. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 157. ISBN   978-1-4088-2122-0. OCLC   1100701573.
  14. ↑ Feaver, William (3 September 2020). The Lives of Lucian Freud: Fame 1968–2011. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-5266-0356-2. OCLC   1130669108.
  15. ↑ Mostrous, Alexi (12 July 2012). "The party-giver with a gift for landing guests on the generous side". The Times . No. 70623. p. 15. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  16. ↑ Harry's Bar, London. London: Harley Publishing Ltd. 2005. ISBN   0-9550109-0-X. OCLC   76819137.
  17. ↑ Dove, Rachel (10 December 2019). "Georgio Armani's My London". The Evening Standard . Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  18. ↑ Nathanson, Hannah (27 March 2014). "Valentino's My London". The Evening Standard . Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  19. ↑ Williamson, Charlotte (12 April 2012). "Matt Le Blanc's My London". The Evening Standard . Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Duff, Oliver (30 March 2006). "Waitress awarded £124,000 in sexual harassment case". The Independent . Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  21. ↑ "Gamble at Aspinalls". The Evening Standard . 28 September 2012. Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  22. ↑ Kakar, Arun (30 August 2019). "Inside the Bath & Racquets club: How to climb the world's most exclusive squash ladder". Spear's Wealth Management Survey . Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  23. ↑ Armitage, Jim; Hutchinson, Clare (2 May 1989). "Old enemies Richard Caring and Robin Birley square up in glitzy battle of London's clubs". The Evening Standard . No. 63383. p. 21. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  24. ↑ "The Birley Clubs". Annabel's. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  25. ↑ Lee, Grace (December 2017). "What's On London: Harry's Dolce Vita Restaurant Opening". Country & Townhouse. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  26. ↑ Prynn, Jonathan (24 September 2018). "Harry's Bar to open new Oxford Street site". Evening Standard . Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  27. ↑ Duff, Oliver (7 October 2021). "Londoner's Diary: Dowden's drinks do turns into a knock, knock joke". The Evening Standard . Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.