Central Park Boathouse

One of the first things newly indoctrinated New Yorkers learn is that the Manhattan sold to them by cinema is a lie. The many alleyways characters dash through are really just Cortland Alley over and over again. Carrie Bradshaw’s rent-controlled Upper East Side pad is in Greenwich Village (and the owner is so sick of influencers vamping in their Manolos that it’s blocked off). And Patrick Bateman’s murderous rampage was mostly shot in Toronto. 

But if you’re looking to briefly inhabit that fantasy—one in which the girls from Girls and the friends from Friends could afford those apartments—you could do a whole lot worse than a visit to the Central Park Boathouse. First opened in the 1870s for well-heeled Victorians looking a post-gondola lunch, the Loeb Boathouse was completely redesigned as part of Robert Moses’ overhaul of the park in the 1950s. It fully reopened to diners in 2024, with its handsome limestone and red-brick walls and copper roof intact.

While it’s undeniably touristy, it’s a far superior option to a horse-driven buggy ride around Central Park. And even though the sun-drenched terrace would be packed in summer if they were serving cat food, the menu here is admirably solid. The Parkerhouse rolls are warm, accompanied by whipped butter with plenty of flaky salt and the shrimp in the shrimp cocktail, while pricey, are suitably large. For dessert, the pavlova is lovely.

Your best bet is to order a half-dozen oysters—raw or Rockefeller—and a glass of something cold, then pop on your sepia-toned sunnies and pretend you're sitting across from Meg Ryan in a Nora Ephron production. After all, even real New Yorkers deserve a break from reality sometimes.