From Swinging Singles to Slinging Potato Skins: The History of the Fern Bar [Something Interesting #31]

One of the strongest memories that feels alien to me was how many restaurants during my childhood had the same kind of décor: checkerboard floors, hanging plants, and Tiffany lamps everywhere. Some places were local - especially the ones I remember from Virginia Beach, ca. 1994 - but most were part of chains. It's strange looking back how a Pizzeria Uno could look a lot like a Bennigan's or a Ruby Tuesday but that's how it was with that particular design choice. It wasn't until I was much older that I found out why they went with that direction and, more importantly, what it was called retroactively: the "fern bar" aesthetic.

Yancey’s Saloon, found in this article from Hoodline San Francisco

Fern Bar: American slang for an upscale preppy/yuppie bar or tavern usually decorated with ferns as well as fixtures and furniture such as retro sofas and fake Tiffany lamps. They were popular meeting places for young singles. The phrase came into common use in the late 1970s and early 1980s. - Urban Dictionary

If you've never been to one of these, an easier description could be calling them "'Yacht Rock' restaurants."

There are a lot of articles written about the evolution of the fern bar, much of which touches on the divisive viewpoints either reminiscing about the kitschy 70s vibe or being glad that it faded into the past. There have been several times when it looked like it would make a possible comeback, especially during the early 2010s, but it holds a sort of small cult appreciation rather than anything that could bring it roaring back into the mainstream. Because of my recent nostalgia for my childhood, it appears that I might be part of that particular cult...

To summarize the articles posted below, the history of the fern bar plays out like this: the concept was roughly born with the singles bar, the first being the original T.G.I. Fridays in New York City 1965. Long before it became what many of us millennials knew of it, Fridays was meant to attract the single young women who had been coming to work and live in New York but were turned off by the dingy state of bars and clubs at the time. To do that, founder and promoter Alan Stillman hit upon the idea of borrowing from the then-current trends of early 1900s décor and leaned heavily on bright colors, plants, and Tiffany glass while serving heap bar food and sweet cocktails like piña coladas and lemon drops. Fridays supposedly became a success from day one and (as mentioned in several of the articles below) wherever the single women went, the single men followed. This, of course, led to copycats and followers including Fridays' chief rival Maxwell's Plum and innovators like Henry Africa in San Francisco.

While the singles bar became more popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s due to the Sexual Revolution and yuppies, the fern bar look started to lose its coolness by the mid-1970s as places like Fridays began turning into national chains and drifted into family-friendliness while the singles bars focused more on decadence and changing trends. By the time I was born and growing up, this all became seen as chintzy and dated. I would be hard-pressed to know if there are any original-style fern bars out there these days, let alone how many of the newer ones that popped up here and there have survived everything that's been thrown at us. It's an interesting design choice regardless and one with a fascinating history as evidenced by how much has been written about it in passing.

From Swinging Singles to Slinging Potato Skins: The History of the Fern Bar [Something Interesting #31]

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