Fern bar is an American slang term for an upscale or preppy (or yuppie) bar or tavern catering to singles usually decorated with ferns or other "fussy" plants, as well as such decor as fake Tiffany lamps. The phrase came into common use in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
An early establishment that many consider the world's first fern bar, not to mention the birthplace of the lemon drop martini, was Henry Africa's in San Francisco, California. The...
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Fern bar is an American slang term for an upscale or preppy (or yuppie) bar or tavern catering to singles usually decorated with ferns or other "fussy" plants, as well as such decor as fake Tiffany lamps. The phrase came into common use in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
An early establishment that many consider the world's first fern bar, not to mention the birthplace of the lemon drop martini, was Henry Africa's in San Francisco, California. The bar was started in 1970 at Broadway and Polk Streets by out-of-work veteran Norman Hobday, who by his own account "took the opium-den atmosphere out of the saloons" in favor of "antique lamps and Grandma's living-room furniture." By some accounts Hobday copied the concept from another restaurant, Perry's, which opened several months earlier and was made famous as a singles "meet market" by Armistead Maupin's novel, Tales of the City.
Hobday closed the establishment in 1986, and opened up another eclectic bar the next year.
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