Television shows and films are designed to transport us to places we’ve never been, where we can vicariously experience things we’ve never known. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to visit that cool little dive in “When Harry Met Sally” and ‘have what she’s having’?
While you might not ever have the chance to hang out in the Mos Eisley Cantina (you know, the place where Luke Skywalker met Han Solo in Star Wars), there are plenty of bars and restaurants made famous by TV and the movies, that you don’t need a space ship to visit. Here are a few that have capitalized on the movie-tourism trend.
- Cheers – Arguably the most famous TV bar in the nation, if not the world, is Cheers Beacon Hill. The bar, located at 84 Beacon St. in Boston, Massachusetts, began its life in 1969 as the Bull & Finch Pub, and gained national recognition when its exterior was used as the establishing shot for NBC’s popular and long-running sitcom, “Cheers,” (although the interior of the bar was never used as a set for the show). The bar was rechristened “Cheers Beacon Hill” in 2002, and the owners opened a 2nd replica bar called Cheers Faneuil Hall to give fans of the show a more authentic TV “Cheers” experience.
- Katz Delicatessen – If you ‘want to have what she’s having’ you might need to go where she went. Of course, we’re talking about Meg Ryan’s famous, um, ‘moment’ scene in “When Harry Met Sally.” Katz Deli was an iconic establishment in New York’s Lower East Side long before Rob Reiner’s classic romantic comedy, having been established in 1888. Today you can visit the deli located at 205 East Houston Street in New York City, and you can even sit in the same booth where Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal sat; and if your lucky, you can have what she had. Which, of course was a turkey sandwich. Wait…what did you think we were talking about?
- The Bluebird Café – Long before the network nighttime soap opera “Nashville” made The Bluebird Café a tourist destination, this little restaurant-bar was famous to locals as a place where big name stars and unknown wannabe singer-songwriters performed acoustic sets, side by side. You can catch a show every night of the week at 4104 Hillsboro Pike in Nashville, Tennessee; but don’t bother stopping by too early. The Bluebird is closed for lunch.
- Coyote Ugly – It all started with a girl and a dream and a little bit of Wild Turkey. And having a movie named after the bar didn’t hurt. Only the exterior of the original New York location was used in the film, which starred Piper Perabo and John Goodman, so chances are you’ll get the same experience at any one of the bar’s 14 U.S. franchise locations. Or if you happen to be vacationing abroad, you might check out a Coyote Ugly franchise in Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Wales, Japan, Canada or Mexico.