‘Central Perk’ Slated for NY

An updated version of the “Central Perk” coffee house from the long-running TV series “Friends” will open this fall in New York. This follows on the heels of the first such shop opening in 2023 in Boston’s Back Bay by a team that includes “Top Chef” and James Beard Award Winner Tom Colicchio and architects Glen & Co.

“When we launched the first Central Perk Coffeehouse in Boston, our goal was always to expand to New York City, a place where fans and friends alike could create their own stories in the city where the series was set,” said Paul Landinoof CenPer Holdings LLC, which partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences on the project. “Opening in Times Square, known as the crossroads of the world, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring that vision to life, offering creative coffee drinks and delicious food in a space that is both familiar and refreshingly modern.”

Set at the northeast corner of 7th Avenue and 47th Street, the coffee house’s windows bear the Central Perk logo, and inside, the layout includes an orange sofa room, inspired by the couch in the original-but-fictional Central Perk. (The wall behind the sofa bears an inscription, “The One With…,” a phrase that started the titles of virtually all of the show’s 230-plus episodes.)

In addition to serving as a fully functional coffee house offering six branded coffee blends, the locale based on the hangout for the fictional “Friends” Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Monica and Chandler will offer exclusive, newly created merchandise only available there.