Happy 100th, Bloody Mary: Paris marks cocktail's birthday

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Harry’s Bar in Paris is celebrating the 100th birthday of the Bloody Mary, the vodka-tomato juice cocktail believed to have been invented in the iconic watering hole in 1921.

The centenary events this week bring a welcome respite from winter gloom and spreading worries about the omicron coronavirus variant.

The bar is carefully checking COVID-19 health passes as visitors from Australia Egypt and beyond gather to sample the famed drink at Harry's, whose patrons over the past century have included writers Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Franz-Arthur MacElhone, great-grandson of bar founder Harry MacElhone, recounted different legends around the reason for the drink's name. According to Harry's Bar history, bartender Fernand Petiot invented the drink and the recipe was first published in a book called “Harry's ABC of Cocktails" in 1921.

Bartender Dante Agnelli demonstrated the technique for making the drink, ingredient by ingredient: Salt and pepper, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and vodka, tomato juice.