To Be a Regular at an Iconic Bar
October, 2024
BY AARON GOLDFARB
It was the fall of 2005 the first time Bertrand Duperrin set foot in Harry’s New York Bar. He had just started a new job at a digital recruiting agency in the Saint-Honoré / Triangle d’Or neighborhood of Paris. An old friend wanted to show him the famed bar. He was immediately drawn to the timeless atmosphere: the lack of music in the main room, just the rattle of ice, the buzz of conversation. The ability to connect with people from all around the world was appealing.
Two decades and several jobs later, Duperrin is still going to Harry’s, now anywhere from two to seven times a week, where he typically orders a vodka Negroni or a glass of peated whisky.
Yes, Duperrin is a “regular.”
“I feel lucky,” he says. “Lucky to have discovered this place, lucky to have met great barmen who have introduced me to the world of cocktails and whiskies, lucky to have met so many wonderful people there.”
And when you’ve been around for over a century, in one of the world’s greatest cities, you’re bound to not just have regulars, but countless regulars who have come and gone (and perhaps even come back again) over the years.
While many drinkers are regulars at their local pub or tavern, it’s a bit unusual to be a regular at an iconic bar, the sort of legendary watering hole most people might only visit once or twice in their lives, typically while visiting a city.
Even iconic bars have their regulars, though. And when you’ve been around for over a century, in one of the world’s greatest cities, you’re bound to not just have regulars, but countless regulars who have come and gone (and perhaps even come back again) over the years.
In the early 20th century, post–World War I, Harry’s was frequented by plenty of locals and American expats, but it’s the celebrity regulars from that era that are most often remembered today. Those included George Gershwin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway among others. Perhaps their patronage as regulars is one thing that helped initially make Harry’s iconic.
Though, one need not be famous, nor first start going to Harry’s in the 1920s to become a regular there.
Olivier Omeir only started visiting Harry’s three years ago, initially wanting to have a quiet Old Fashioned in a neighborhood far enough away from his job that he would encounter a whole new group of people. As he started going more and more, he began to see the beauty in becoming a regular and getting to know all the ins and outs of one great spot.
“We always say life is too short,” says Omeir. “So you should sing one song rather than interpret a thousand. I’d rather stick to Harry’s than try to go to a different bar every week.”
Yet, even bartenders who own and work at other bars are willing to make Harry’s their regular spot when off the clock. Daniel Schofield first started visiting Harry’s when he lived in Paris in the mid-2010s. By then, he was already a bartender in the city.
“After making so many cocktails that were created there,” he says, referring to drinks like the Boulevardier, the Sidecar, the Bloody Mary, and the French 75, “I was incredibly excited to see the bar for myself.”
His first visit was such a truly memorable bar experience in his life that Schofield has continued to return to see the magic and feel the inspiration in the century-old Paris bar. Even if he no longer lives in the city. Today, the Englishman Schofield is back in his native land, where he has opened the eponymous Schofield’s Bar, which has become one of the U.K.’s top cocktail spots.
“Harry’s has inspired and become a part of me, and our businesses,” he says, calling Harry’s proprietor Franz MacElhone a friend. He still makes it a point to return to Paris (and Harry’s) several times a year. “I have no shame in saying that one day we hope Schofield’s Bar is in the same conversations as the legendary bars around the world.”
Indeed, Harry’s New York Bar isn’t the only iconic bar across the globe that has attracted regulars over the years. No matter the city, though, to be a regular at such world-renowned places gives one a sense of being a part of something bigger than yourself.
“Sitting down in the deep, cozy chairs, under the image of the Duke of Wellington, you just feel like important things have happened in this room over the years,” says Rohit Amin, who has been coming to Dukes Bar in London, and drinking its iconic house martinis, for over two decades. “You can’t help but think, ‘How many other people throughout history have also drank these same martinis?’”
Other regulars across the globe also love to drink in these famed bars that might best be described as a sort of functional museum.
These are moments when you realize that what seems normal to you is in fact special for lots of people.
Alexandra Stafford is a regular at the Napoleon House, arguably the most famous bar in the U.S., having stood in New Orleans’s French Quarter since 1797. A board member at the nearby The Historic New Orleans Collection museum, Stafford enjoys visiting the patinated bar to enjoy its famous Pimm’s Cups and dine on local delicacies like muffalettas.
“Your first steps into the place just breathe of New Orleans history,” says Stafford. “It makes me proud to have such an important landmark preserved for the city.”
Eventually, it seems, for regulars of iconic bars, being a regular begins to permeate their being even when they are no longer in that bar. It’s something always on their mind, something they are always willing to share, something that, in many ways, starts to define them.
“When I travel and go to bars abroad, many bartenders know Harry’s and its classic creations. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to ask them questions about their cocktails because they ask me a lot of questions about Harry’s,” says Duperrin. “These are moments when you realize that what seems normal to you is in fact special for lots of people.”