The Gainesville community is responding to recent controversy about a cocktail from The Top that referenced lynching.
On Monday, The Top, located at 30 N. Main St., posted an apology on its Facebook page after naming a drink for Billie Holiday’s emotional anti-lynching ballad “Strange Fruit.”
The $11 drink, which was made with bourbon, raspberry and lime cordials, club soda and garnished with lemon and lime, was described on the menu as: “This is for all you Billie Holliday fans out there. You will be met with a balance of tanginess, fruitiness, and (unbearable) lightness (of being).”
The menu misspelled Holiday’s last name by using two L’s.
Heather Halak, owner of Third House Books, located at 113 N. Main St., said taking the drink off the menu and posting an apology on Facebook is a start, but this is one facet of a larger issue.
“My issue lies with white business owners who notoriously almost exclusively hire white staff members with maybe five exceptions,” Halak said.
The Top declined to comment.
“It could have said that this is a drink to raise awareness about the gruesome events that black people and people of color have undergone in this country and the effects of colonialism in general,” Halak said.
She said she would feel better about the situation if The Top had a larger staff of people of color and was a more accessible place for marginalized people in general, but she notes the vast majority of its patrons are white college students and their visiting parents.
“I keep thinking about possible future interactions where like, you’re sitting at a bar and you hear white sorority girls ordering ‘Strange Fruit’ and laughing about it,” Halak said. “I would hate that.”
This isn’t the first time a business has gotten into trouble for using this name for a product. A diner near Boston was slammed for having a drink with the name, and a restaurant PR firm that was named “Strange Fruit PR” both caught heat and changed their names.
Wallace Mazon, 24, commented on The Top’s apology Facebook post to express his displeasure with the drink. He said he did not think the bar’s apology addressed the real issue: a lack of diversity within downtown establishments themselves.
“The Gainesville [downtown] scene isn’t really as woke as it might appear,” Mazon said. “You have to search really hard to find a black employee.”
Customers of The Top, located at 30 N. Main St., stand outside and wait to be seated Wednesday night.
