Take a Look at Bemelmans Bar from ‘On the Rocks’

The fanciful backdrop, featuring suited-up rabbits smoking cigars, elephants ice-skating, a group of giraffes engaged in lively conversation, and “twelve little girls in two straight lines,” certainly makes for a unique place to raise a glass.

With plush banquette seating, a gold-leaf ceiling, a sleek Art Deco bar edging the back of the room, and a pianist tinkling the ivories nightly, the place is a true time capsule of a more elegant era.

The low lighting and intimate setting have attracted celebrities from the get-go. Jackie Kennedy, Harry Truman, Princess Diana, Steve Martin, Robert Redford, Paul McCartney, and Frank Sinatra are just a few of the legends reported to have imbibed on the premises.

Sofia Coppola is a longtime fan of the place, as well, telling Grub Street, “I can’t remember the first time I went. I just feel like it’s always been there.” So it is a no-brainer that it wound up in “On the Rocks.”

In the film, Laura and Felix head to Bemelmans for a consolatory cocktail following a stake-out mission in which they catch Laura’s husband getting into a cab with a female co-worker after a company dinner. The bar, which is even pictured in the movie’s poster, served as a sort of inspiration for the feature. As Coppola told Grub Street, “I imagined Bemelmans – that was one of the first moments in the story. I was thinking about [the characters] over a martini discussing life and relationships.” Oddly, the scene that took place there was rather brief and uneventful, considering. Nevertheless, it looked fabulous onscreen. Bemelmans was definitely ready for her close-up!

In “Sex and the City: The Movie,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) famously takes her assistant, Louise (Jennifer Hudson), to Bemelmans, where she gives her this sage piece of advice, “Enjoy yourself – that’s what your 20s are for. Your 30s are to learn the lessons. Your 40s are to pay for the drinks!” Of the bar, producer John Melfi is quoted in the “Sex and the City: The Movie” companion book as saying, “No one had ever shot there before,” but that’s not actually true.

Back in 1986, Mickey (Woody Allen) walked by Bemelmans after a particularly bad date at the neighboring Café Carlyle in the dramedy “Hannah and Her Sisters.”

Allen then returned to Bemelmans in 2002, this time as Val, a film director who suffers from “hysterical blindness,” in “Hollywood Ending.”

In more recent years, Bemelmans has become something of a fixture onscreen. Post “Sex and the City” credits include the 2011 season one episode of “The Layover” titled “New York,” in which host Anthony Bourdain reads aloud from “Mad About Madeline” while sitting at the bar. During the segment, he also confides that Ludwig Bemelmans’ stories about working in the hospitality industry inspired him to write his 2000 memoir, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.”

Brian Bloom (Anton Yelchin) introduces his new girlfriend, Arielle (Bérénice Marlohe), to his curmudgeonly parents at Bemelmans in the 2014 romance “5 to 7.”

Five years before “On the Rocks” hit the screen, Bill Murray and Sofia Coppola shot portions of their Netflix original holiday special “A Very Murray Christmas” at the bar.

Liza Miller (Sutton Foster) stands up Charles Brooks (Peter Hermann) there in the season three episode of “Younger” titled “A Kiss Is Just a Kiss,” which aired in 2016.

Woody Allen hit up the bar yet again in 2019 to shoot a scene for “A Rainy Day in New York,” in which brokenhearted college student Gatsby Welles (Timothée Chalamet) meets a working girl named Terry (Kelly Rohrbach).

Bradley (Scott McNairy) takes Darby (Anna Kendrick) on a date at the watering hole in the second episode of “Love Life,” titled “Bradley Field,” which aired this past spring. Though Darby doesn’t especially enjoy the caviar Bradley orders, all is not lost as he introduces her as his girlfriend for the first time while there.

Bemelmans also played a major role in a season one episode of the Hulu reboot “High Fidelity,” which aired earlier this year, as well. In “Uptown,” Rob Brooks (Zoë Kravitz) and Clyde (Jake Lacy) head to the bar for a sting operation to suss out if the owner of a prized record collection Rob is interested in buying is as bad a guy as his estranged wife claims. To strike up a conversation with the man in question, Clyde coyly asks about Bemelmans unique “wallpaper.”

Though Bemelmans has, sadly, been shuttered since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is at least alive and well onscreen.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bemelmans Bar is located inside of The Carlyle hotel at 35 E. 76th St. on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

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