Back toward the front of the building is the Harvard Stand-Up Bar, which in the afterwork crush resembles the Union more than Harvard Hall. The U-shaped bar is made of cork and seems similar to most any spot where well-heeled New Yorkers gather, except in one important respect. No money changes hands at the bar, nor anywhere else in the club. In fitting with the club's extreme gentility, all services must be charged and paid for later. Given the milieu, it comes as a surprise that the convivial Harvard Stand-Up Bar was the scene of a controversy splashed on the pages of The New York Times.

In an April 26, 1975, article headlined "Belts Are Tightened At the Harvard Club," the Times announced "the Harvard Club's 8-to-1 martini, a concoction that has befuddled some of the finest minds in the country, has apparently been shrunk, a casualty of red ink."

Bartenders were now instructed to use jigger glasses to measure the drink, instead of the "sense of gentlemanly hospitality," which had previously been their guide.

After four days, the practice proved such a failure that the headline on the May 2 article read, "Harvard Club Bar Dryly Puts Martini Back on Pedestal." Spirits were restored, but The Times kept after the story.

The June 16 story, "2-1 Martini Makes Harvard Crimson," analyzed the controversy from start to finish and concluded with this poem, written by Holger Lundbergh, which appeared in the Harvard Club Bulletin:

How can one act gay and alive

With smaller quantum gin than five?

Much better six, or even seven,

Or maybe eight (that would be heaven)

What is this world coming to,

While Yale and Princeton gaily pour

Their fine libations one to four

Oh, I beseech you, friend of mine,

Bring on martinis, one to nine.

The club does deal with more substantive issues than the proportions of their martinis. Every year, it conducts extensive fundraising for the University, including the annual Harvard Club Scholarships, which are presented separately from the University's usual financial aid. The club offered members highly coveted tickets to the Tutankhamen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this year as part of its fundraising efforts. The club raised $19,437 in scholarship awards for the 1977 - 78 academic year.