Fern bar is an American slang term for an upscale or

preppy Preppy (also spelled as preppie, or prep), is an American subculture associated with the alumni of college-preparatory schools in the Northeastern United States. The term, which is an abbreviation of "preparatory", is used to denote a person ...

(or

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

) bar or tavern catering to singles, usually decorated with

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

s or other greenery, as well as such decor as fake Tiffany lamps. The phrase came into common regional usage in the late 1970s.

History

One of the first fern bars was the original

T.G.I. Friday's TGI Fridays Franchisor, LLC, doing business as TGI Fridays, is an American casual dining List of restaurant chains, restaurant chain focusing primarily on American cuisine. The restaurant's name stands for "Thank God It's Friday". TGI Fridays op ...

on the corner of 63rd Street and First Avenue in a neighborhood on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

of New York City, where many young single adults lived at the time. The founder, Alan Stillman, borrowed several thousand dollars from his mother, leased a saloon and remodeled it, converting the ambience to one that he thought might be attractive to young single women. The bar opened on March 15, 1965 and was soon copied by other restaurants in the neighborhood. Another early fern bar, also thought to be the original birthplace of the Lemon Drop martini, was Henry Africa's in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The bar opened in 1969 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 Eddie Rickenbackers, another eclectic bar, the next year.

Description

Typical drinks served included wine spritzers, lemon drop martinis, frozen daiquirís, Harvey Wallbangers, and

piña colada The piña colada (; , "pineapple", and , "strained") is a cocktail made with rum, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with either a pineapple wedge, maraschino cherry, o ...

s. Franchises sometimes labeled "fern bars" include T.G.I. Friday's, Bennigan's, and

Houlihan's Houlihan's is an American casual restaurant and bar chain with locations operating throughout the country, 60% of which are franchised. It is headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. The first Houlihan's opened on April 1, 1972, in Kansas City's Count ...

. Fern bars were gathering places for well-dressed "upscale" young men and women, initially during the

sexual revolution The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the late 1950s to the early 1 ...

of the 1970s and later the yuppie era of the 1980s. Fern bars were frequently talked of disparagingly as singles bars where individuals would go to hit on men or women for sexual hookups. This image was common in the 1980s despite the fact that many people attended these bars for after-work occasions, parties or in groups.

References

{{Bartend Types of drinking establishment bars

History

Description

See also

References