The Real Restaurants Where The SATC Ladies Eat In And Just Like That...
Even if you never watched a single episode of "Sex and the City," you could hardly have escaped the enormous impact this late 90s/early 00s hit TV show had. Even if you don't know Jimmy Choos from Chuck Taylors or Manolos from mukluks, chances are you've ordered a cosmo in a bar (or at least googled the ingredients) just to see what all the fuss was about. Even if you were too young to drink then, you may have caught wind of the whole mid-00s cupcake mania that all began at Magnolia Bakery (no relation to Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Table).
If you were an SATC super fan, though, you may have visited the titular City for a bus tour of the numerous bars, coffee shops, and restaurants frequented by Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha. 17 years after the series went off the air, a few of those businesses have closed their doors. According to Eater, two spots sorely missed by SATC fans and New Yorkers alike are Union Square's Coffee Shop and City Bakery.
Though some of its culinary institutions have closed, "Sex and the City," has returned for another go-round (sans Samantha) with the modern-day reboot "And Just Like That..." We're hoping the show will introduce us to a new crop of New York restaurants as well as revisit old favorites. Although the series is still in its early days, here's a list of spots the ladies have dined so far — or at least knocked back (or knocked over) a drink or two.
The Whitney Café (Clee)
"And Just Like That...," the first episode of 2021's take on SATC kicked off with ¾ of the gang back together again, grabbing a bite at a trendy little bistro called Clee. While there's no listing for a restaurant with that name in New York City, The Ringer did a little sleuthing and found out that the Clee scene was filmed in the café at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The Whitney Cafe is a fairly casual spot –- for a Manhattan art museum eatery, at least. The menu consists mostly of sandwiches like Brie with fig jam and roast beef with truffled mushroom aioli, plus a few salads and soups. They also offer a small selection of pastries including a salted caramel tart and an oat currant scone as well as a standard selection of coffee and tea drinks. You can also get kombucha, and should you need a little pick-me-up — as the SATC ladies so often seem to — you can choose from beer, wine, or a mimosa. The Whitney notes that this café, which offers both takeout and dine-in, is open to non-museum guests. That means you won't need to fork over an admission fee to check it out.
Smith's Bar & Restaurant
One of the major plot points in "And Just Like That..." revolves around Miranda's mid-life career change. Fed up with her corporate lawyering (and no doubt sitting on a hefty nest egg of earnings), she's decided to pack it in and earn a master's degree in human rights from Columbia University. It's tough to go back to school as an older student, though, so on the way to her first day of classes Miranda swings by Hell's Kitchen's Smith's Bar & Restaurant to pre-game with what People calls out as a morning glass of Chablis.
As to why Miranda chose to visit Smith's, we're not entirely sure, since there are numerous bars around the Columbia campus. Perhaps it's because, as per the Columbia Spectator, many of them don't appear to open until somewhat later in the day. Smith's, a bar that one of its patron described as "the last vestige of pre-Giuliani New York City," closed down in 2014, per The New York Times, but that closure didn't seem to stick. As its Facebook page indicates, the bar has been up and running again for several years now. It appears that the food may take a back seat to booze at Smith's Bar & Restaurant, but this Manhattan dive does offer burgers, fries, and assorted bar snacks.
The East Pole
Back in July when "And Just Like That..." was being filmed, Page Six spotted the cast at an Upper East Side restaurant called The East Pole. The restaurant confirmed the rumor on its Instagram page, noting that "We don't normally serve brunch on Monday's [sic] but for Carrie Bradshaw we made an exception." (Even the most upscale of restaurants are not immune from the curse of the superfluous apostrophe.) As per Eater, The East Pole has a brief cameo in Episode 2, and the trio of SATC ladies reconvene here in Episode 3 to do lunch with their pal Stanford.
Should you wish to experience an East Pole brunch (weekends only, the restaurant's website clarifies), be prepared to shell out. On the Upper East Side, even a simple omelet is likely to run you close to $20. The East Pole also does dinner 7 days a week, offering such fare as tagliatelle with wild boar Bolognese and brined Amish chicken with Castelfranco radicchio. (Whether the chicken arrived by horse and buggy, the menu does not disclose.) They also offer a selection of craft cocktails as well as bar snacks of the fancy (and pricey) variety, including $12 garam masala-spiced nuts and $18 avocado and Jonah crab toast.
Starbucks
In the original "Sex and the City," the characters were known to visit Starbucks a time or two. In the early 00s, this coffee chain had yet to become synonymous with all things basic — it was even considered somewhat bougie. (To be fair, the SATC gang has also patronized their fair share of not-so-upscale eateries, even Mickey D's.) The I Am Not a Stalker blog chronicles a visit to the 16th Street and Eighth Avenue Starbucks after being tipped off by a cab driver who'd seen a SATC episode being filmed there.
In Episode 3 of "And Just Like That...," Miranda and Charlotte pay a visit to a different Starbucks, at 72 Spring Street. This is a Starbucks much like all the other 12 trillion Starbucks locations on the planet, so there's no need to go in-depth about the menu. Eater, though, points out that the Spring Street Starbucks is typically far more crowded than was shown on TV, and the chances you'll be served a muffin on a plate, as Miranda was, are slightly less than that of Mr. Big coming back from the dead as a vampire couch potato.
Chalait Matcha
Starbucks isn't the only coffee shop to be featured in Episode 3 of "And Just Like That...," although technically Chalait Matcha is more of a tea shop. It's not the quaint kind of place you'd take your Aunt Agatha for a plate of scones and a pot of Lapsang Souchong — it's more of a place for health-conscious hipsters looking to grab a green "Superfood Smoothie" made with ashwagandha or a nutritious quinoa bowl. Chalait was trendy long before its TV debut, and Jessica Seinfeld lists it as one of her Uptown faves.
Even though Chalait specializes in matcha drinks, Carrie orders a black coffee there. She also engineers an awkward encounter with the late Mr. Big's previous ex, Natasha, who's inexplicably forgotten to lock the door while using the bathroom. Eater, however, expresses some doubt that Chalait (or any other Upper West Side establishment) would even allow access to their sanitary facilities without requiring a passcode or a key of some sort. Well, you've got to suspend a little disbelief sometimes for entertainment's sake, but if you do go to Chalait, be sure you don't repeat Carrie's mistake of spilling a hot drink on yourself! If you're a fashionista like she is, that's likely to result in an expensive trip to the dry cleaners.