NEW YORK, Feb 22 — A Golden Girls tribute café has opened in New York, where fans of the 1980s sitcom can sit down and gab over slice of cheesecake with their pals and their confidants.
Named Rue La Rue Cafe, after one of the show’s stars, Rue McClanahan, the tribute cafe in Manhattan doubles as a museum for the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning series which ran from 1985 to 1992.
The series also starred Betty White, Beatrice Arthur and Estelle Getty, who along with McClanahan played four senior, single women who shared a house together in Florida.
In photos posted on the cafe’s Facebook page, walls are lined with signed and framed photos from the show’s cast.
A display case houses memorabilia from the series, including shoes worn on-set. Mannequins are draped in the flashy dresses and outfits McClanahan wore on the show.
The Emmy McClanahan won in 1987 for Best Actress is on display in its own glass case.
Fans will also appreciate some of the decorating choices, including the instantly recognizable banana leaf wallpaper that papered Blanche’s bedroom and the retro, Florida checkered tiling recreated in the bathroom.
Rue La Rue Cafe is hardly the first TV-themed restaurant to open. But while many were opened by die-hard fans or were short-lived pop-ups like a Saved by the Bell pop-up diner in Chicago and a “Breaking Bad” mobile bar in London, Rue La Rue is a permanent fixture co-owned by McLanahan’s son Mark Bish and the executor of her estate, Michael J. LaRue.
On the menu? Cheesecake, of course, which was stocked regularly in the ladies’ fridge and pulled out routinely in times of crisis on the show.
Other edible tributes from the show include lasagna al forno and Genugenflurgen cake, as well as personal recipes shared by the cast like a chutney from Arthur, White’s angel food cake, and a past salad shared by Getty.
Rue La Rue is located in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. — AFP-Relaxnews
