Try all you want. Search Yelp, Open Table, Zagat…you won’t find them. They exist to serve a story, a scene, an actor. Their intangibility, however, doesn’t make them any less appetizing. This is why for years I’ve salivated over the pastries Bill Murray stuffs into his mouth at the Tip Top Cafe in Groundhog Day. Why I’ve dreamt about ordering tequila shots with George Clooney at From Dusk Til Dawn’s Titty Twister. Or why I would totally eat the other half of Steve Guttenberg’s sandwich at whatever diner they spent all that time at in Diner. So, let’s begin with the countdown of 10 Classic Fictional Movie Eateries.
The Criteria:
- Be an Eatery. Serve food — the loosest of the bullet points as you’ll see.
- Be Fictional. So don’t exist in the real world.
- Be somewhere I’d actually want to go for one reason or another. Sorry, Office Space’s Chotchkie’s, but there is no amount of flair that would lure me into your restaurant. I’ve been to TGI Friday’s, and I’ll pass.
1 – Jack Rabbit Slim’s – Pulp Fiction
2 countdowns on Food Republic thus far. 2 appearances by Quentin Tarantino (perhaps he deserves his own list.) The most visually arresting thematic restaurant in cinema history, complete with a wait staff in iconic costumes and dinner entertainment of dance moves that would be spoofed time and time again. Vincent Vega describes it perfectly as a “wax museum with a pulse.” They cook their meat in terms like “bloody as hell!” They seat you at tables designed as convertibles! And they describe $5 shakes in the most questionable terms possible — Martin and Lewis means vanilla, Amos and Andy means chocolate. Greasy food, waiters with personality, and the most dynamic Twist contest I’ve ever seen. If only such a wax museum existed.
Watch this clip
