"You've Got Mail" is a quarter-century old, but some of its themes resonate more than ever – for better and for worse.
The 1998 rom-com "You've Got Mail" is the most recent onscreen retelling of a story based on the 1937 Hungarian play "Parfumerie" that was later adapted into 1940's "The Shop Around the Corner" and 1949's "In the Good Old Summertime. Nora Ephron's take on the tale follows Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), two anonymous online friends who instant message through AOL. But what they don't realize is that they are enemies in real life because Joe runs the mega book store Fox Books (modeled after Barnes & Noble) that is putting Kathleen's independent book store The Shop Around the Corner out of business.
On one hand, the Nora Ephron classic that turned the affable Hanks into a greedy, capitalistic suit and embraced personal computer use is as dated as its AOL-centered premise. On the other hand, Ephron's sharp script hits on some crucial cultural conversations surrounding connections and capitalism that we still discuss today.
To celebrate the anniversary of the beloved Ephron movie, I took a walking tour of all the film's major New York City locations and learned some surprising things about the movie that uses the bustling city as its backdrop and about the city itself. The tour was both entertaining and bittersweet, as the realities of filming in New York were made apparent from what we could and couldn't see.
Kathleen's Upper West Side apartment
The Upper West Side is at the center of the world in "You've Got Mail," so I traveled an hour on the train to get to West 89th Street which is where Kathleen's spacious and airy apartment exteriors were filmed. Most of the film's online chat scenes with Joe and Kathleen supposedly took place in that very brownstone – although the interiors were actually filmed on a New Jersey sound stage.
"There's also a [multi-]generational element to this neighborhood, which you can see in 'You've Got Mail' where Kathleen's mom owns the store."
When I arrived at the apartment, I was met by Grace Briskman, a tour guide for On Location tours. In her first run of this "You've Got Mail" tour with real guests, she's dressed in a red peacoat with a dozen red roses in her tote bag. She's a big Meg Ryan and Nora Ephron fan and looks the part too.
When I asked Briskman why the Upper West Side is the perfect place for the film's setting and why we never leave the neighborhood in the movie, she said: "They say it's a sleepy Upper West Side. I think this neighborhood, specifically compared to other neighborhoods in New York City, really has a small community feel with the brownstones and the local schools."
She nannied in the neighborhood and said the kids "would always recognize their neighbors and their classmates. I think that's unique to this part of Manhattan as well. Also, we tend to find that the people that live in the Upper West Side stay in the Upper West Side.". "So there's also a [multi-]generational element to this neighborhood, which you can see in 'You've Got Mail' where Kathleen's mom owns the store. They have regulars and they recognize all of the people in this community."
But most importantly, Ephron chose the neighborhood "because it felt like a small village." She saw "the Upper West Side as a small community. In the same way that the village and shop around the corner was a small community to establish this, Ephron showed scenes at the beginning of the film of bread being dropped off outside of these close little stores to feel like a village even though they're in a huge city of New York," Briskman said.
Fox Books was filmed in a now-closed Barney's
As five women including myself bopped around the Upper West Side on that brisk December afternoon, we stopped by the restaurant Barney's Greengrass. The Jewish deli institution opened in 1908 in Harlem but moved to the Upper West and has been a neighborhood staple ever since. As the group stopped by the deli to take pictures around lunchtime, the eatery was filled with locals of all ages. It looked exactly like the scene in the movie when Kathleen had a lunch date with her mother's close friend Birdie (Jean Stapleton).
As we continued the tour, Briskman told us that the movie's villain, the capitalistic Fox Books, modeled after Barnes & Noble, denied the production access to film in the mega bookstore's Upper West Side location. The movie's intent to vilify the bookstore was a no-go for Barnes & Noble so the Fox Books seen in the movie was filmed in the now-closed 7th Avenue Barney’s department store. Unexpectedly, one of the members of the tour, Marisa Kavas said, "That’s where my parents met!”
When I asked her if her parents' meet-cute was in that exact Barney’s she replied, “Yeah! My mom was working there and my dad came in and that’s how they met. Like another rom-com layer! I can't wait to tell them.”
Sharing in that real-life rom-com moment added to the poignant nostalgia we all had for "You've Got Mail," but we'd soon discover that the closed Barney's department store wasn't the only location that no longer existed or wasn't available to enter on the tour.
Cafe Lalo: ShopGirl and NY152's first meeting
Cafe Lalo in Cafe Lalo in You've Got Mail You've Got Mail" (Nardos Haile)"You've Got Mail" takes a turn when Kathleen as the AOL user ShopGirl finally asks Joe as user NY152 to finally meet in person. Like a scene out of an episode of MTV's "Catfish" or a first date off of Tinder or Hinge, she plans to meet him at Cafe Lalo, where she'll be seated with a copy of "Pride & Prejudice" and a single red rose. Joe, a bumbling nervous wreck, shows up but he brings along his best friend Kevin (Dave Chapelle) while staying out of sight. He's so nervous he can't even bring himself to look into the cafe to see if she's there. So Kevin looks instead and reveals that Joe is there to meet none other than his bookstore rival Kathleen Kelly.
More than two decades ago, Ephron lived across the street from the cafe, which is likely why she chose that location for that fated first meeting. Briskman said it was the right location to have Joe and Kathleen's real-life counterparts meet because "The vibe of this place feels very first date. It feels intimate, but it still feels a little more public than perhaps like a real hole-in-the-wall location."
When we arrive outside the cafe, it is dark inside and there is a sign plastered to the front door that says it is closed for renovations. One of the members of the tour said it was closed because of back rent. Another said it closed during COVID-19 times. But online sleuthing revealed that the cafe is facing a lawsuit that was filed last year for missing rent. The owners of the famous cafe at the heart of "You've Got Mail" faces potential eviction if it loses the suit.
Longingly looking at the vacant cafe, two of the members of our group said they both used to visit all the time. Fox News reporter Tonya Powers said she lives 20 blocks from the cafe and used to visit the cafe with her daughter. “My daughter went to school down the street we used to come here for the desserts. The desserts were amazing," she said.
“I used to work around the corner,” another group member, Melissa Bamgart said. “One of my friends came from Tulsa, and 'You've Got Mail' is her favorite movie so I took her here on my own walking tour.”
H&H Bagels no longer exists
While Cafe Lalo is vacant, it is still standing, unlike the 80th Street H&H Bagels location.
"We were gonna be passing by some places where this was a location but now it's a Verizon store," Briskman said highlighting the ever-changing nature of commercial franchises taking over independently owned locations in the city. "Now unrecognizable as such but we recognize it either way," Briskman added.
This specific H&H Bagel location was one that Joe regularly visited almost daily with his golden retriever Brinkley. It closed down in 2011. Now a Verizon store sits where H&H once stood, much like how Fox Books thrived while the Shop Around the Corner closed. The former H&H location is also a few doors from the Starbucks where Joe and Kathleen had many fateful meetings but also missed connections.
All hope for H&H Bagels isn't lost though. There are other locations in the city even though that specific Upper West Side shop closed down. Last year, the bagel shop reopened on Columbus Avenue between 85th and 86th Street. So while the city is changing, thankfully some of its staples are still around, just at a different location.
The iconic Zabar's
Zabar's in "You've Got Mail" (Nardos Haile)The one and only Zabar's is another Upper West Side multi-generational institution. Opened in 1934, the family store is basically anything you want it to be. It's a grocery store filled with gourmet items, a deli, a coffee shop — it's got all that you need. When we arrive at the location it takes up most of the block of the corner of Broadway and 80th Street. Its large orange-colored storefront name is unmissable.
"You just order from Zabar's for them to cook for Passover," Briskman joked. But also she shared that "You've Got Mail" has been the only movie that has been filmed in the busy grocery store. The scene between Joe and Kathleen shopping in the store illustrated their tension as rival bookstore owners as they purposefully ignored each other in the small circle surrounding their little Upper West Side neighborhood.
But the famous store hasn't just been mentioned and shown in "You've Got Mail," it's been named-dropped in NYC-centered shows like "Sex and the City," "Seinfeld" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Masiel."
As we neared the end of the tour, we stopped through Verdi Square, the irregularly shaped traffic island named for the Italian opera composer. Right by it was the hot dog shop Gray's Papaya where Joe and Kathleen's newly formed friendship began to flourish, even though Fox Books aided in the demise of her family bookstore. This location a part of the city that is fast-moving and doesn't ever show signs of slowing down.
Gray's Papaya in "You've Got Mail" (Nardos Haile)
The Shop Around the Corner is now a Magnolia Bakery
"The Shop Around the Corner very much represents Kathleen's late mother, and with her dying, the bookstore dies."
When we finally reached the location of Kathleen's bookstore, 100 W 69th Street, we found the location is actually now a famous NYC bakery, Magnolia Bakery. Briskman said that the interiors of The Shop Around the Corner were shot on a set inspired by the interiors of another store called Books of Wonder which is located in Chelsea. The Shop Around the Corner's exterior shots used to be a cheese and antique shop named Shaper Cheese and Antiques, which had closed in 2009.
"By making [the bookstore] its own personification, we feel the loss as Kathleen feels the loss during that sequence where she's crying and missing her mom. I think the Shop Around the Corner very much represents Kathleen's late mother, and with her dying, the bookstore dies," Briskman shared. One couldn't help but relate to Kathleen's loss as more of New York's more unique locations no longer existed except on film.
We ended the tour at 70th Street and Briskman gave each one of us a rose just like Kathleen's rose at Cafe Lalo. It symbolized the end of something but also the beginning of an eternal love story between Joe and Kathleen in the sleepy corners of the Upper West Side that started online.
Verdi Square in "You've Got Mail" (Nardos Haile)
[CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the interiors of The Shop Around the Corner bookstore were shot inside Books of Wonder, but they were in fact sets designed to mimic those interiors.]
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