You've Got Mail: a Visit to the Upper West Side

One of my favorite movies to watch come fall is You've Got Mail. New York looks so beautiful in the film, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are just the cutest, there's that great opening sequence with The Cranberries playing that can't help but put you in a good mood, and oh yeah, the movie is about books! Okay fine, maybe not about books, but the book industry plays a huge part in the film. In any case, the movie has almost all my favorite things in it--including Mr. Darcy :)

(doesn't this just make you hopeful and ready to take on the day? The Cranberries-- Dream)

The other day, my co-worker and I were chatting and realized that we both love the movie. After a bout of gushing, she told me that I should do a You've Got Mail self-guided tour of the upper west side. I am ashamed to think that I've live in New York for this long and the thought never crossed my mind. Excited and armed with directions to different set locations for the film, I made my way uptown on the 1 to the 86th street stop.

1. Cafe Lalo: 83rd street between Broadway and Amsterdam 

movieland:

Out of all the set locations, I wanted to visit Cafe Lalo the most because it just looks like the perfect cafe, both inside and out. The twinkle/ fairy/ Christmas lights, which can look gaudy in the wrong hands, come across as being utterly charming. For all my expectations, the cafe looked so so similar to the way it did in the movie, I was expecting Tom Hanks to walk in any minute.

in real life:

"She had to be! She had to be!"

Sad to say that I didn't have my copy of Pride & Prejudice with me, nor did NY152 approach my table, but I did enjoy a few hours of reading in the cafe while partaking in their amazing desserts. Watching the scene again, I find it funny that the cafe is so quiet, because in real life it is bustling and busy with the ever present din of its patrons. TIP: they serve their brunch menu everyday until 4pm!

2. Zabar's : on Broadway in between 80th and 81st street

I've heard wonderful, bordering on legendary, things about Zabar's. Just wandering the aisles, I was sorely tempted to buy wedges of cheese, fresh pasta, and about 10 pounds of coffeecake. Everything looked delicious, and it made me wish I didn't so far away from this super duper grocery store.

movieland:

in real life:

"zip, zip." 

3. Starbucks: on the corner of 81st street and Broadway

Yes, by now that novelty of Starbucks has well-worn away, but this Starbiz' involvement in the movie somehow made it seem more magical than the rest of the thousands of locations in NY. 

movieland:

(how amazing does Meg Ryan dress in this movie? this simple & clean white button down <3)

in real ife:

"Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino."

I wanted to visit was Riverside park, where Joe and Kathleen meet near the end of the film (no spoilers for those of you who haven't seen it, lol), and Kathleen's apartment, but I got caught up in two bookstores on my way over than by the time I left the second store, it was already dark. Oops. 

(Went to B&N, and found this section: teen paranormal romance. I don't know what the world is coming to.)

And I didn't want to visit every location for different reasons--the FOX Books exterior isn't located on the upper west side, but rather in Chelsea, and I've heard that the exterior of The Shop Around the Corner is now a dry cleaners and if that isn't the most depressing thing ever then I don't know what is. I'll have to wait another day to visit other locations--and another trip to Lalo! 

 When I was speaking with my co-worker, we both reminisced about logging onto AOL, dial-up connection and all, and the novelty of AIM. And how You've Got Mail is, in many ways, so dated now but when the movie came out (15 years ago in 1998!), it was when connecting with people online was all the newest rage. We got to thinking about if it were possible for something like Joe and Kathleen's online romance could even happen nowadays, when everyone is just so connected and everything is available online. Sadly, we came to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't happen--or that it couldn't happen. The way people communicate has changed, where they are more likely to text or snapchat than email, and having an anonymous internet pen pal is more creepy than unique. And although people message each other all the time on OKCupid and the like, those conversations always happen under the understanding that they are communicating with each other for dating purposes. Ahh, long gone are the days of chat rooms and a/s/l.

Still, I love You've Got Mail and visiting the set locations made me giddy. I love that almost all locations are actually in the upper west side (New York is beautifullll). Now I can't wait to settle in for the night and watch the movie, because really, after all that, how could I not?