Harry's Bar

On May 13, 1931, Giuseppe Cipriani Senior opened Harry’s Bar in Venice. Over the years, Harry’s Bar became the place where writers, painters, artists, aristocrats, kings and queens would meet. Among them there were: Barbara Hutton, Katherine Hepburn, Gary Cooper, Giancarlo Menotti, Peggy Guggenheim, Orson Welles, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joe di Maggio, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. The keys to the success of this tiny Bar were: service, freedom and lack of imposition.

The atmosphere of the restaurant, the warm immediacy of it, the company always of people who know each other, the ease of converse, the somehow knowing attitudes of the staff, all these add up to the club like feeling that all the best European cafés possess. Throughout its 89 years’ history, Harry's Bar has been the witness of the XX century in Venice. Its importance was also acknowledged by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage that declared it a National Landmark in 2001. No other public place in Italy had received the same award in the same Century.