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Paris, France
The City of Lights wasn't as bright a beacon for Ernest Hemingway in the early - mid 1920's when he was just starting his career. Friends of Hemingway have indicated that he regularly went to the parks to catch pigeons which he and his family would eat for dinner due to a lack of money. Hemingway first arrived in Paris in December 1921 as the first foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star newspaper. He lived at 113 Rue Notre-Dame des Champs and claimed that the nearby La Closerie des Lilas was "one of the best cafes in Paris" to dine and work in solitude. This cafe is featured in his first acclaimed novel "The Sun Also Rises". Hemingway enjoyed the relative privacy of the cafe (compared to the bustling spots nearby), but was also joined on occasion by other literary giants, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, John dos Passos and Ezra Pound. Today the cafe has become an upscale brasserie with nightly jazz.
Another Hemingway watering hole was the Hotel Ritz, which the author claimed to have "liberated" as the Allies were driving the Germans from the region in 1945 in the waning days of World War II. Hemingway was working as a foreign correspondent and enjoyed numerous rounds of martinis and magnums of champagne with his buddies at what then was called Le Petit Bar. Now renamed the Hemingway Bar, the oak paneled room with leather club chairs has been restored to its mid-20th century decor.
Venice, Italy
Harry's Bar in Venice is immortalized in the less well known Hemingway novel "Across the River and Into the Trees", in which the character Colonel Richard Cantwell downs martinis while falling in love with the young Venetian countess Renata. The novel has autobiographical content, as it was published in 1950 when Hemingway (who had experienced two World Wars) had fallen in love with a young Italian girl, Adriana Ivancich, 30 years his junior. Hemingway discovered Harry's Bar in 1949 and quickly became its most famous customer. The author enjoyed "The Montgomery", a "15-to-1" martini modeled on the famous British General Bernard Montgomery, who would often hesitate to attack unless he outnumbered his opponent by 15-to-one. The 15-to-one ratio is the Hemingway preferred ratio of gin to vermouth in the martini. The Montgomery is still a House special at Harry's Bar, where they currently prefer a 10-to-one ratio.
Hemingway also enjoyed the superb duck hunting near Venice in the lagoon of the island of Torcella. The author took several hunting trips to the area, often staying at the home of Guiseppe Cipriani- the owner of Harry's Bar. There is today "The Harry's Bar Cookbook", which features "Anita Arrosto" (roast duckling), much as Hemingway would have liked it. Equally as well known in Venice is the Gritti Palace Hotel, where Hemingway and his fourth wife Mary enjoyed a third floor room with a magnificent view of the Grand Canal. The hotel, with its world class restaurant, is also mentioned in "Across the River and Into the Trees", with Colonel Cantwell and Renata dining in luxury after passionate encounters.
The Bahamas
In the 1930's- 1950's, the 700-island chain which encompasses the Bahamas had yet to become a tourist mecca- but it did offer good deep-sea fishing nearby, which attracted Hemingway. While conducting several fishing expeditions to nearby Key West and Cuba, Hemingway worked on a novel which would be posthumously published as "Island in the Stream". The novel contains a lengthy section of deep-sea fishing with artist Thomas Hudson (modeled after Hemingway) enjoying a long day of fishing with his three sons. The most popular watering hole on Bimini (one of the Bahama islands) at the time was the Compleat Angler, where Hemingway enjoyed many nights of cocktails after long hours on the open ocean fighting giant marlin, bluefin tuna and other monsters of the deep. Hemingway's favorite open ocean drink was called the Green Island, which was a mixture of coconut water, lime juice, Angostura bitters and Gordon's gin over shaved ice, one which he called "a damn good drink".Tragically, the Compleat Angler burned down in the late 1990's, but flyers from the establishment mention it as one of the favorite Hemingway watering holes.
