If you see a parade of diners in Kangol flat caps at Bubby’s this week, don’t be too surprised: It’s all part of the renewed interest in the late John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, thanks to Love Story, the new Hulu/FX capsule series about the famous (and at times, infamous) couple.
Fans in New York City who are hungry for even more immersion have also started going to the restaurants and bars featured in the show and other spots that are seminal to JFK Jr. and CBK lore. Bubby’s was a known go-to spot for the couple, who were often photographed by the Tribeca restaurant (it was just up the block from their former penthouse apartment, and JFK Jr. apparently loved the pancakes). Bubby’s tells Eater, “It was a fun moment to see the restaurant featured in the show. The buzz has been great, and we’ve loved welcoming both regulars and new guests who stop by after seeing it.” As a bartender at Walker’s bar and restaurant (just next door) also told Eater, there has also been an influx of fans who either clocked the bar from the show or came to see the apartment facade.
The Odeon was also featured on the show, although a representative of the iconic brasserie told me that it normally “witnesses substantial sales increases [around] Valentine’s Day” (the day the show also premiered), making it “challenging to accurately measure the impact.” Michael’s New York was featured in a scene with the character of John F. Kennedy, and general manager Steve Millington tells Eater that the increase in traffic has been not only noticeable, but sentimental. “As someone who used to know John and see him here often, it’s been wonderful,” he explained, adding that the space represents a specific moment in time for the New York City dining scene. “For the fans of the show,” he says, “it’s a place where history comes to hang its hat.”
Then there’s Panna II, the string-light-laden Indian restaurant prominently featured in the show as the spot of the couple’s fictionalized first date. Apparently, JFK Jr. and CBK were frequent diners there in the ’90s, and owner Boshir Khan told me the restaurant has been receiving nearly double the reservations per night since the show premiered — a welcome boost, he adds, during a particularly rough New York City winter. “Normally we would get around 20, or 22 [reservations] a night. Now it’s around 40.”
The glow seems to mostly be impacting the restaurants with screen time: Mudville, another Tribeca bar and restaurant that was a known favorite of the couple, has not been featured on the show and told me that they “have not seen any change in bookings or traffic compared to last year.”
At the time of their much-papped courtship, JFK Jr. and CBK set the tone of ’90s nonchalance that has now crystallized as the image of a bygone, more intriguingly offline New York City — no smartphones, no complicated reservation platforms, just riding a bike to a Lower East Side Indian restaurant or pulling up to Odeon in your calfskin boots and Aldo shades. “This show somehow captured the spirit of the ’90s — a feeling many of us who lived through that decade haven’t experienced in years,” a fan of the show wrote on Reddit; another user chimed in, “I was going to say that. The late-90s to 2001, prior to 9/11, have such a specific feeling and vibe.” As author and former friend of the couple, Carole Radziwill (the widow of JFK Jr.’s cousin Anthony Radziwill), explained on a podcast about the breezy but intentional NYC restaurant culture of the ’90s, “There was no canceling. Sometimes you could call the number of the restaurant [and] speak to the maitre d’ … there was an ease to it. You also had neighborhood restaurants. You could just walk in.” Reservation culture, she adds, has “taken a bit of the spark out of what New York nightlife should be, which is a little bit more spontaneous. Even the restaurants that aren’t private clubs run like private clubs.”
Love Story, however, offers viewers — and now, diners — a seat at the table.
