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Boston to gain second gathering spot based on a TV show, but this time a show about New Yorkers
By adamg on Thu, 10/05/2023 - 2:03pm
The Boston Licensing Board yesterday approved plans for a Newbury Street coffee-like shop based on a fictional New York coffeehouse whose name is a play on that of a famous New York park.
Central Perk will open at 205-207 Newbury St., formerly home to a Caffe Nero, and will be able to serve beer and wine to go with its bean-based offerings, because it has a deal to buy the beer-and-wine license from the recently closed North Station Tasty Burger. The location is a little less than a mile walk from the Cheers at Beacon and Charles streets.
The Newbury Street Central Perk is the very first of what is planned to be a national chain of coffeehouses based on the coffeehouse that was a focus of friends who sat there on couches having wacky hijinks or singing about smelly cats, when not sitting on couches in their large New York apartment having wacky hijinks or singing about smelly cats.
The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay issued a formal letter of non-opposition - which is as close as the group ever gets to supporting anything.
City Councilor Sharon Durkan (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, Misssion Hill), however, enthused about the replacement of an Italian-like coffeehouse with a New York-like coffeehouse with beer and wine. At the board's hearing on the proposal, her aide, Jake Werner, said: "She wanted to note for the record that the restaurant's namesake is a show that's all about friendship and community and that it's wonderful to see that there's going to be a new space that's been inspired by that show, that has been designed for friends to gather and enjoy each other's company."
He added that Durkan is looking forward to watching the coffeehouse become "an iconic addition to Newbury Street" - but also that she is hoping Central Perk will do as good a job as Caffe Nero did at keeping its exterior spaces clean.
Watch the hearing:
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Comments
wrong sitcom
If they had just seen fit to make a coffee shop inspired by Friends and Lovers, the 1974 sitcom starring Paul Sand as a Boston Symphony Orchestra player, it would be a lot more place appropriate.
(Seriously, check out the Wikipedia page for that show; for a major flop, it had a real lineup of talent in front of and behind the camera. My mom liked it, but I think mainly because of the setting.)
I believe the title was
‘Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers’.
great program
I loved that show. I remember one scene where Dick Schaal is banging on an apartment door and shouts "Police!" Not getting a reaction, he bangs again and says, more forcefully, "BOSTON Police!" I thought that was hilarious. Never forgot it.
Why?
No really.
Thank you G-d
for creating Lisa Kudrow.
Friends was a show made by
Friends was a show made by boomers about what they thought genx life was like, without consulting anyone who wasn't a boomer.
And genx...
...strikes up the eternal chorus of "we're genx, no one pays attention to us!"
If there is a defining characteristic of genx, that's it.
Eh, not really
I mean, they obviously had Gen-X actors, who presumably had some input. Regardless, as a Gen-X viewer of that show, I thought it wasn't particularly less accurate than most other shows about most other topics. That is to say, it was quite inaccurate in certain ways, but all shows are. And the inaccuracies weren't so much about Gen-X as they were about life in general, TV apartment size vs actual apartment size in New York, as an obvious example.
Would be even better
if a soup place opened next door.
"No soup for you!"
"No soup for you!"
Wrong method
I want drip/pour over ir French press coffee.
AND the look of the living room set of Alf.
Another detour on the road to
Another detour on the road to world class.
To each his own
There are shows that I never got to see and feel like I missed something . This is not one of them.
yup
same. I was a teen when this was popular. I never saw the fascination people had with it.
It just didnt look interesting
Same
I know Friends was popular based on ratings but I can't think of a single person who watched it or cared about it in the slightest. But that could be said for basically all sitcoms apart from Seinfeld.
If I didn't see stories about "Central Perk" being based on the show, I'd probably walk past the physical store when it opens and just assume it's another generic coffee chain. (And keep going to Pavement or another shop I know has better coffee.)
I couldn’t stand the show.
I couldn’t stand the show. Every single joke was the group making fun of one of its members for being stupid. The theme song was catchy though.
Finally!
A reason to go on living...
An insult to Dr. Crane
Frasier finally moves back to Boston and we get a Central Perk, not a Café Nervosa?!