Lemon Drop is a cocktail that falls under the family of mixed drinks invented in the Tiffany-lamp and greenery-filled world of the 1970s fern bar, drinks that include blended Daiquiris, wine spritzers, and the Harvey Wallbanger. The Lemon Drop was invented in San Francisco by Norman Hobday, owner of Henry Africa’s—arguably the first, and certainly one of the quintessential, genre-defining fern bars of the day.
Though later devolving to a simple chilled vodka shot served with a sugar-coated lemon wedge, the original Lemon Drop was a more elegant affair, served up in a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass. Henry Africa’s distinguished itself by using premium spirits and fresh juices to order, meaning that the lemon drops served there would have undoubtedly included freshly squeezed lemon juice. The Lemon Drop later became a staple of the legendary bar Harry Denton’s Starlight Room in San Francisco, owned by former Henry Africa’s bartender Harry Denton.
Recipe: Shake 60 ml vodka (or citrus vodka), 30 ml simple syrup, and 45 ml fresh lemon juice with ice and strain into a sugar-rimmed cocktail coupe.
See also Henry Africa’s and fern bars.
Hobday, Norman and Denton, Harry. Interviews, 2010.
Walker, Judy. “Tales of the Cocktail of ‘Fern Bars’ Seminar is a Trip down Memory Lane.” Times-Picayune, July 26, 2010. http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2010/07/fernbarsseminarisatripdo.html (accessed February 18, 2021).
Whiting, Sam. “Henry Africa-Dies.” San Francisco Chronicle, March 2, 2011.
By: Martin Cate
Henry Africa, aka Norman Hobday, in Henry Africa’s, home of the Lemon Drop, in 1983. Source: Courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.