In his depression, he jumped out of the window of an upper floor room at his hotel, the Rue Volney.īut before he took the extra express elevator, Henry was said to have invented the mixture that made its way to Harry’s, possibly resulting in Harry’s New York Bar receiving undue credit for its invention. In 1918, he broke down due to the stress of the war and his declining health. Sadly, things didn’t end well for the genial bartender.
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The old vet sure knew how to spend his last days! It was said he camped at the bar morning, noon, and night. Until the Colonel’s death, not long after the war began, he was a frequent patron of Henry’s. He was so fond of Henry, the Colonel gave him the money to start up his own bar in Paris, which became a big success with Parisians and Americans alike. Starting out as a bartender at Chatham Bar and Hotel, Henry became a hit with patrons like Col. He was close friends with a man called Colonel Young of Alabama-a veteran of the American Civil War. Henry’s life consisted of jubilant highs and steep lows. Henry’s Bar in Paris (easily confused with Harry’s) was run by Henry Tepe, a bartender and hotel owner. Nothing like having your priorities straight, but if any group of people in the 20th century needed a drink, it was World War I soldiers.īut even if Harry’s New York Bar in Paris wasn’t the birthplace of the drink, another bar around the corner from Harry’s is said to be responsible for the first French 75. The Washington Herald clip adds another mystery to the origin tale: Did this original recipe come directly from the frontlines? As the story goes, officers during the war drank a mix of gin, grenadine, applejack, and lemon juice in empty cartridge shells.Īpparently the men had plenty of booze but no glasses. It is one-third gin, one-third grenadine, one-third applejack and a dash of lemon juice. Alexander Powell the Soixante-Quinze cocktail-the French Seventy-five. The excerpt reads: There has been brought back to Broadway from the front by War Correspondent E. The earliest written reference to the French 75 actually comes from The Washington Herald in 1915-and MacElhone’s name isn’t even mentioned. And WW1-era barman, Harry MacElhone, concurred that it packed a wallop.Īllegedly, in 1915, at the New York Bar in Paris (patronized by Ernest Hemingway and other notable figures), MacElhone came up with a strong mixture of gin, absinthe, calvados, and grenadine.Īs a fighter pilot during the war, we can bet that MacElhone could put together a cocktail that even the toughest of guys would feel comfortable knocking back.īut even though he’s often credited with its invention, it’s likely that MacElhone came up with only one variant of the cocktail, and probably not the first. Known in France as the soixante-quinze, the famed field gun received much praise in its day for its admirable simplicity and reliability-qualities that no doubt transfer to the equally simple but potent cocktail. Charles Dickens served a proto-French 75 at his 1867 parties.A 1920s satirist published the most popular recipe.One of its inventors committed suicide due to war-related stress.Was imbibed by officers on the frontlines of WW1.And when we look closer at its history and recipe, we learn that the military moniker is more apt than it initially seems. This French 75 was the 21 gun salute of cocktails in its day. The French 75 cocktail bears a fascinating, but hazy origin-which only fuels intrigue for this delectable drink.īut what is the French 75? The liquid mercenary is often served in a Collins glass and consists of gin, champagne, lemon juice, and sugar-a combination that may sound too mild and simple to be compared to weaponry of any kind, but appearances can be deceiving. Not just any field gun, but one lauded as “merciless” by the Chicago Tribune in 1914. Imagine a cocktail that packs such a strong punch that it was named after a French field gun.
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