One Sunday afternoon in early March, Washington Square Park in New York City was packed with dozens of tall, brown-haired men who appeared to be in their 30s, many of them on Rollerblades or wearing backward newsboy caps. Some with both. The occasion? A John F. Kennedy Jr. look-alike contest.
This spectacle is largely thanks to “Love Story,” a show about Mr. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette that FX, which airs the series, says amassed 40 million hours of viewing time over the first six episodes alone — with the ninth episode finale set to air Thursday.
Created by Connor Hines and executive produced by Ryan Murphy, the show focuses on the early days of the tragic relationship between Ms. Bessette, played by Sarah Pidgeon, and Mr. Kennedy, played by Paul Anthony Kelly.
While the online discourse about the mini-series seems to be equally divided between vitriol and adoration, “Love Story” has undeniably rekindled a fascination with the Kennedys, especially among young people. And for a certain subset, it seems fixated on inhabiting a fantasy recreation of 1990s Downtown Manhattan.
This has proved happily confounding for a number of establishments that suddenly find themselves in demand after decades of relative anonymity.
Panna II, a tiny Indian restaurant in the East Village where Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Bessette have their first date in episode 1, suddenly has lines out the door.
Bubby’s, a reliable brunch spot in TriBeCa, is experiencing renewed interest. And C.O. Bigelow, a pharmacy that was established in 1838, has been positively besieged by young women who are looking to have a “Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy-coded weekend in New York.”
“Inside, it was just mayhem — girls everywhere,” said Cassie Hom, a 36-year-old restaurant host who visited C.O. Bigelow with a friend after attending the Kennedy Jr. look-alike contest. They were curious about the tortoiseshell headbands that Ms. Bessette was known for wearing. They weren’t the only ones with that idea.
Ms. Hom approached a case of headbands, where a small crowd had formed. “There was actually a salesperson there,” she recounted, “and I overheard her talking to a girl about J.F.K. and Carolyn and how she knew them.”
Intrigued, Ms. Hom asked a few questions of her own. She said the saleswoman told her that she has worked there for more than 30 years. “She said they were pretty quiet, but down to earth and very nice,” Ms. Hom said. “It was interesting to hear from someone who actually had firsthand encounters with them.”
Ron Silver, who opened Bubby’s in 1990 and still runs it, has a number of such encounters. He said he was there the day Mr. Kennedy ate at the restaurant for the first time, and that the couple became regulars during their years living in TriBeCa.
“John came in on the second day that we were open,” Mr. Silver said. “He ate at Bubby’s all the time, so I knew him before he met Carolyn, when he started dating her, and when they got married.”
Regardless, Mr. Silver still has no plans to watch the show himself. He has no nostalgia for the paparazzi of that era who hounded the couple, though he does appreciate the ’90s as “the last moments of an analog world.”
Jean-Marc Houmard, who has been a co-owner of the NoHo restaurant Indochine since 1992, said it’s “funny” to hear customers talk about the show.
When Indochine was at its peak, he points out, most of the new customers weren’t even born. The restaurant’s current revival was inspired by a moment Ms. Bessette and Mr. Kennedy shared during a private party at the restaurant hosted by the designer Calvin Klein and his wife Kelly Klein.
For Mr. Houmard, the memory resonates for more mysterious reasons.
“I remember Calvin had white calla lilies all over the room, because that was, you know, his signature,” he said. “I don’t know why I have this memory of her, but when Calvin threw a birthday party for his wife Kelly — that was in the mid-90s, I guess — I remember Carolyn being really chic, sitting on a stool at the bar, waiting for the party to start.”
At the time, Mr. Houmard was thrilled to have Mr. Klein’s endorsement. The restaurant has managed to preserve its favored status among elites over the decades.
It may be harder to account for the long lines to get into Panna II, which in the ’90s was one of the more charming Indian restaurants that propagated around East Sixth Street in the East Village.
The restaurant has been all over social media, and the owner, Boshir Khan, said there has been a 30 percent increase in overall earnings during a time of year that’s usually slow. Though it can be hard to snag a reservation, Natalie Bosu, a 26-year-old publicist, managed to get in with her fiancé.
“The show inspired me to go,” she said. “The lights were really quite something.”
For many people, seeing the New York City of the ’90s also carries with it a certain allure. Whether viewers of the show are taking a trip down memory lane or experiencing aspects of the city that existed before they were born, “Love Story” has managed to encapsulate a moment in time that — if the renewed interest in longstanding establishments is any indication — appears to be worth remembering.
“I think I’ve had better Indian food in New York,” Ms. Bosu said, “but it was just for the overall experience.”
The post ‘Love Story’ Has People Falling for ’90s New York City Again appeared first on New York Times.
