The Real‑life NYC Cafe Behind The When Harry Met Sally Double Date

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Sometimes film and TV locations are fictionalized on-screen to take the viewer out of real life and into the world of the story. But occasionally real locations are used to break down barriers and make the story more true-to-life, allowing the viewers to easily imagine themselves as part of the story. Director Rob Reiner had an incredible career with "This Is Spinal Tap," "Stand By Me," "Misery," "A Few Good Men," and on and on. But, perhaps his most lasting legacy will be from the movie, "When Harry Met Sally," which is one of the best examples of real restaurants brought to the screen.

While not the most famous dining scene from the movie (see below), the double date scene from "When Harry Met Sally," where Sally (Meg Ryan) and Harry (Billy Crystal) meet each other's friends, Marie (Carrie Fisher) and Jess (Bruno Kirby) was filmed at Cafe Luxembourg, a real-life restaurant on New York's Upper West Side. The double date starts out rough until the two third wheels (Marie and Jess) start to hit it off, with Marie quoting Jess's journalistic work: "Restaurants are to people in the '80s what theater was to people in the '60s." But she didn't know Jess had written it until he told her, eventually saying, "Nobody has ever quoted me back to me before."

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The famous double date scene all happened at Cafe Luxembourg. Luxembourg, opened by Balthazar's Keith McNally and his wife Lynn Wagenknecht in 1983, was possibly at its peak (or just beyond) around the time that "When Harry Met Sally" was released in 1989. In its opening year it was popular with the likes of Mick and Bianca Jagger, Warren Beatty, Kevin Kline, and Teri Garr. That said, it is still going strong, with professional New York City hospitality, a luxe bar with a delicious cocktail program (it's also known as Cafe Lux, btw), and classic French-meets-NYC brasserie menu.

But that's the second most famous dining scene from "When Harry Met Sally." The first, possibly the most famous dining in all of cinema history, took place at Katz's Delicatessen, one of the best delis in the U.S. You know the one — when Sally demonstrates to Harry that not all women experience pleasure exactly as their partners might believe they do, ending with the famous line (performed by none other than Reiner's own mother, Estelle Reiner): "I'll have what she's having." While it may be second place in movie lore, the menu at Cafe Luxembourg will certainly keep you content with a delicious French onion soup, steak frites, and a super solid burger. You may not be screaming out loud, but you might just want to keep it to yourself before it blows up with the superstar elite again.