Earlier this month when we were done chaperoning this year's band trip (where we saw the Naked Cowboy) and before we headed up to Cambridge, we needed to get one more meal in New York. Since we were at the Ground Zero site, I decided we would head for Katz’s Deli in the Lower East Side. Katz’s is a famous restaurant immortalized in the movie When Harry Met Sally.
The ordering system for the food is confusing to say the least. When you enter, they hand you a ticket. You then find a line to stand in and a deli-slicer prepares your order. He writes what you owe on the ticket. On your way out, you settle at the exit. If you don’t have a ticket, they charge you fifty bucks on the assumption you ate that much and are trying to weasel out of paying.
It wouldn’t be hard to spend that much. The Rueben is fourteen dollars all by itself. Fortunately, it’s big enough for two. My son said his roast beef sandwich was the rarest he has ever eaten. And the potato latkes are divine. Truly great food.
As luck would have it, we snagged a table right next to the one where Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan sat in the movie. How did we know it was that table? Because they have a big sign over it saying so. I've always thought that scene needed one more line:
ROB REINER'S MOM: I'll have what she's having.
SALLY: I'm having to fake it. Mind your own business.
To get back to our car, we had to cross Delancey Street, which reminded me of the Amy Irving movie. Just for the visual pun of it, I staged a photo of me Crossing Delancey. Get it? I’m sorry, that is just the way my mind works.
My favorite place on the Lower East Side is Guss’ Pickles which is a homemade pickle vendor still on Orchard Street. They pack pickles right out of giant barrels and sell four levels of sour. I go for the full effect. And of course, they have a Crossing Delancey poster in the window.When in New York, we like visiting sites made famous by movies (someday I’ll tell about the Serendipity trip) and this was a great side trip where we got to experience some authentic New York atmosphere and eat some great deli and pickles.
This post has gotten me so hungry I went and ate the last of the pickles I had brought back from New York. Time to go back for more.
Blatant Comment Whoring™: Where have you been that was used in a movie?
11 comments:
Since I grew up in SoCal, I've been to tons of places that have been used in movies. The main street of my home town gets used all the time, as do a number of older homes in the city.
Myrtle Avenue was in a number of Hallmark Hall of Fame productions as well as Grosse Pointe Blank. As for being in actual structures, I knew a girl whose house was used for the 70s remake of East of Eden and our German Club had their Christmas party there my senior year.
I also went to UC, San Diego, where what is today the Theodore Geisel Library gets used all the time when a futuristic looking building is needed.
It's not movie, but they were filming The Wire up the street from me last weekend. Which I realize makes me sound like I'm some sort of bad-ass in the ghetto, but it was actually just the cute little commercial strip a block away from Hopkins Homewood campus, where they just put in some new condos and retail (Starbucks! Cold Stone Creamery! Oh boy!)
Also, the first apartment building I lived in in Baltimore was write across the street from the sidewalk where Divine ate dog shit in Pink Flamingos.
Josh
The Exorcist was filmed in Georgetown while I was there - pretty spooky because it was supposedly based on a true incident. I remember the stairs very well.
My sister's little town in PA was used for filming The Mothman Prophecies. It was very exciting for the whole town - she still has a pic of Richard Gere on her fridge. And she was an extra - in the Christmas tree lighting scene. It's a dreadful movie, though.
mostlylurking
SoCal would be the motherlode for film locations. I would love to spend a month just hunting them down.
That other Meg Ryan classic Sleepless In Seattle has several scenes filmed in Baltimore. It's fun to try to spot them.
Well. Former New Yorker, so I've been a few places that have wound up on film. Perhaps you've heard of the Empire State Building?
Most recently, though, would be Boro Hall in Brooklyn, which is the building they use for the exterior courthouse scenes on Law and Order (because the real courthouses look like office buildings). Once in awhile I'd go down there on my lunch break and watch them shoot a scene.
My parents are from Punxsutawney, PA -- so I've been to Groundhog Day about a thousand times. Unfortunately, the movie used a town in Indiana to stand in for Punxsy, so I can't say that I've been to the movie site. Just the real site.
Let's see, what movies were made in Pittsburgh...I dj'd a wedding in the building (Soldiers & Sailors Hall) where Hannibal Lecter is held in a big wire cage in Silence of the Lambs. Been at, in or around about two dozen sites from The Deer Hunter. I've never seen Flashdance, but I know from the "Maniac" video that there's a scene shot in Carnegie Museum, so I've been there many times.
If the upcoming "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" follows the book even remotely, I will have been in just about every locale in the movie.
Oh -- "Dawn of the Dead?" That's Monroeville Mall, about 1 mile from where I grew up. I was too young, but lots of the older kids in my neighborhood were zombies.
Both "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh" and "Sudden Death" were filmed in the Pgh. Civic Arena, where I've not only attended events, but also worked for a few months.
I can't remember any of the locations used in the movies, but I dj'd the wrap parties for both Diabolique and Roommates, so that should count for something. (Kathy Bates was nice, Chaz Palmientieri spoke only to the young production assistant he was hitting on all night, Sharon Stone was a no-show, and Isabelle Adjani may well be the dumbest person I've ever met.)
Oh god, I think I just triple-posted. So sorry!
Ha, Bob - I'm from a town near Punxsutawney - and you reminded me that Night of the Living Dead was set around where I grew up, although I guess it was filmed a bit northwest of there. Wonder Boys is another movie that was filmed in Pittsburgh, I believe.
mostlylurking
I used to work in Hollywood in the Capitol Records tower at Hollywood and Vine. That particular place is used in a huge number of movies, as are the surrounding business district and neighborhoods. There's a hotel right near there that's in a bunch, and the Pantages Theater is right there, which is in a bunch.
Also, though Grosse Pointe Blank wasn't shot in Grosse Pointe, the opening and closing shots were shot on Lakeshore Boulevard, which I drove almost every day for years.
If I remember correctly, the Capitol Records building is the one the woman takes a nosedive off of at the beginning of Lethal Weapon.
I remembered that I have also been to a lot of games at the Big A, where the Angels play. It has been in several movies, too, like the Naked Gun.
To my mind everyone may read it.
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