Once Synonymous With Wall Street, Harry’s Revamps for New Clientele

After a million-dollar redesign, the storied dining room tries appealing to a new downtown crowd with pasta and cocktails.
Photographer: Stephanie Noritz/Bloomberg

In the 1970s, Harry’s was the only place to go downtown. Steps from the New York Stock Exchange, the restaurant would get so packed after work that traders, no strangers to a scrum, couldn’t push their way past the door. According to legend, the action on a Friday night was like an alcohol-sodden Animal House frat party.

It took almost 40 years for most of Wall Street to forget Harry’s, but some veterans remember.

On a recent weeknight in Harry’s newly renovated dining room, I found one guy who used to be a trader on the floor of the NYSE. “Back in the day, all the traders came here. The listed equity traders would sit near the front. And the over-the-counter traders sat in the back. Because no one liked them,” he chuckled.