Judy Gelman - The Unofficial Girls Guide to New York

JUDY GELMAN

PETER ZHEUTLIN

INSIDE THE CAFS, CLUBS, AND NEIGHBORHOODS OF HBOS GIRLS

JUDY GELMAN

PETER ZHEUTLIN

An Imprint of BenBella Books, Inc.

Dallas, Texas

THIS PUBLICATION IS UNOFFICIAL AND UNAUTHORIZED. IT HAS NOT BEEN PREPARED, APPROVED, AUTHORIZED, LICENSED, OR ENDORSED BY ANY ENTITY THAT CREATED OR PRODUCED THE WELL-KNOWN TELEVISION SHOW GIRLS.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Copyright 2013 by Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin

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All image credits appear adjacent to the images in the text.

First e-book edition: November 2013

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for the Print Edition

Gelman, Judy, 1962

The unofficial Girls guide to New York : inside the cafs, clubs, and neighborhoods of HBOs Girls / Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-939529-34-3 (trade paper)ISBN 978-1-939529-35-0 (electronic) 1. Girls (Television program) 2. RestaurantsNew York (State)-New YorkGuidebooks. 3. Bars (Drinking establishments) New York (State)-New YorkGuidebooks. 4. NeighborhoodsNew York (State)New YorkGuidebooks. I. Zheutlin, Peter. II. Title.

PN1992.77.G5535G48 2013

791.4572dc23

2013026882

Copyediting by Brittany Dowdle, Word Cat Editoral Services

Proofreading by Jenny Bridges and Kristin Vorce

Indexing by WordCo Indexing Services, Inc.

Cover design by Faceout Studio, Emily Weigel

Text design and composition by Faceout Studio, Emily Weigel

Map illustrations by Kristin Krantz

Printed by Versa Press, Inc.

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This is a book aboutGIRLS,but its dedicated to our boys, Danny and Noah, with love.

Girls is a television phenomenon, one of the most written about and talked about new television series in years. The show captures in fine, sometimes painful detail a particular time in its characters livesand one of those characters is New York City, particularly Brooklyn and southern Manhattan.

From the opening scene of Girls, when Hannahs parents gently give her the financial boot in an upscale Manhattan restaurant, to the scene when Marnie and Charlie reconnect at Robertas, a trendy eatery in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, we were drawn to the shows settings. Theres an intimacy with the City that jumps off the screen. Some of the settings are familiar old landmarks such as Peter Luger Steak House and Coney Island Beach, but others were new to us and likely to many viewers, too: the cozy sitting rooms of Manhattans Jane Hotel, once a sailors hostel, or the intimate nooks of the Foundry in Long Island City, the converted industrial space thats been home to many more weddings than just Jessa and Thomas-Johns.

Although we grew up in New Jersey, just minutes from New York City, so much is new or has been transformed in the City in recent years. Once it seemed the only people who lived in Brooklyn were someones grandparents. Now, its home to an enormous community of hipsters, artists, and yuppies who crowd into cafs, coffee houses, and upscale restaurants. And decades from now, Girls will be a veritable time capsule of what New York was like in the early twenty-first century and how people lived in it. All the Millennials we know, recent college graduates who have flocked to Brooklyn and southern Manhattan to write, sing, teach, or work in a start-up, say the show is a deft portrayal of their lives and their world.

Were always interested in the places characters inhabit and enjoy pulling back the curtains and getting a closer look. Girls is filmed mostly on location, and this authenticity helps give life to the characters and dimension to their lives. It also means that just under the surface of Girls is a wealth of history and culture that enriches its scenes, but that can be easy to miss.

With The Unofficial Girls Guide to New York, weve sought to provide more insight into the world Hannah and her friends inhabitand more context. We explored the neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn where the girlsand guysof Girls live, and opened the doors of the cafs where they congregate, the stores where they shop, and the places where they party.

We wanted to provide an authentic experience for readers, so we interviewed locals, establishment owners, bartenders, website editors, DJs, bakers, chefs, and staff at various New York attractions. It gave us the opportunity to revisit famous spots such as Staten Island and Washington Square Park, and to discover lesser-known places such as Spoonbill & Sugartown, Booksellers in Williamsburg, where Hannah and Sandy frolic, and the Little Cupcake Bakeshop in the Nolita section of Manhattan, where Hannah, in a deleted scene, once applied for a job. Sometimes, where it wasnt obvious, we did some digging to figure out where scenes were shot, such as Bamontes, an Italian restaurant in Williamsburg that served as a stand-in for Peter Luger Steak House, where Jessa and Thomas-John have dinner with his parents.

We roamed Brooklyn from Greenpoint to Coney Island, and Manhattan from SoHo to the Upper East Side to understand why all of these distinct neighborhoods are unique and worth visiting. We spoke with residents, journalists, bloggers, and tour guides to find out what makes each of these communities tick. A few virtual side trips were in order, too, from Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, where Shoshanna spent her summers, to the Montclair (New Jersey) Farmers Market, where Marnie once worked, to, of course, Oberlin College, where Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, Charlie, and Elijah met.

If you visit New York and are a fan of Girls, this guide will lead you to the places youve seen in the show and introduce you to people who live and work there.

As cookbook authors, were always curious about what characters in television and film eat and drink because it connects us to their lives and gives us a flavor, literally and figuratively, of the world in which they live. Thats why this guide also includes nearly two dozen recipes connected, in one way or another, to the show. When Elijah complains that he was always paying for Hannahs burrito add-ons in college, we were inspired to contact Agave, the burrito shop in Oberlin, for a recipe. We have two recipes from Caf Grumpy, where Ray and Hannah work: Bundt cake, which Hannah makes for a dinner party, and French press coffee, which Joshua, the recently divorced doctor Hannah spends a weekend with, brews for breakfast. Many