Rachel Brosnahan Is a La Bonbonniere Regular on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’

Per most reports, the diminutive diner at 28 8th Ave. was initially established in the 1930s and has rarely closed its doors in the nine decades since. According to the Village Preservation website, as well as a GoFundMe set up to help the eatery remain afloat throughout the pandemic, the café stayed open during 9/11, Hurricane Sandy (during which the place was lit via kerosene lamps) and the 2003 blackout.

French for “candy dish,” the La Bonbonniere name has been around since the place’s inception, though these days you’ll find strictly all-American fare on the menu, including staples like burgers, milkshakes, BLT sandwiches and French toast made with thick slices of challah and smothered in chocolate chips, photographs of which are plastered all over the pages of Yelp and Instagram.

In the late ‘80s or early ‘90s (depending upon which publication you happen to be reading), the cash-only establishment was taken over by its current owners, Marina Cortez Arrieta and Gus Maroulletis, who have left the place largely intact from its early days, sticking to the time-honored tradition of serving up delicious homemade food at affordable prices in a warm, friendly atmosphere. As such, La Bonbonniere has continued to thrive and is now considered a New York institution.

On any given day, you’ll find a mix of tourists and locals, most of whom are regulars, crowded around its small smattering of tables and old-school Formica lunch counter. Celebrities are often known to pop in as well. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted on the premises include Ethan Hawke, Julia Stiles, Molly Shannon, James Gandolfini and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Beanie Feldstein even did a photoshoot there for The Wall Street Journal Magazine, as did Kate Winslet and director Michel Gondry for Entertainment Weekly, and Keith Olbermann for Rolling Stone. Filmmakers Gabriel Nussbaum and his wife, Elizabeth Wood, are such fans of the place that Gabriel told Off the Grid, “This is my office away from my office. They serve the best French toast in the world. We finished a movie recently, and every single meeting took place here.”

With its retro, no-frills aesthetic, the restaurant is something of a dying breed in ever-changing Manhattan, that rare artifact of a coffee shop not touched by time. As described by Condé Nast Traveler, La Bonbonniere looks straight out of central casting as a ‘New York City diner.’” And “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” location managers have certainly taken note!

On the show, the eatery is regularly featured as downtown café The City Spoon. Quite a few changes are made to both the inside and outside of the space each time filming occurs to render it period-appropriate. The New York Times details, “The interior was the simple part — once some photos were removed, it could pass for the era. The hard part? The street outside. ‘We have to take out the parking signs, we have to take out the bus poles, we have to get permission from the M.T.A. to take those down,” [location manager Amanda] Foley said. ‘We have to cover light poles to make them look more 1959. We change light fixtures, we cover signs. We move garbage cans, we move all the cars on the block and replace them with our own cars.’” No detail is overlooked when it comes to creating “Mrs. Maisel’s” retro backdrop, with the production team even going so far as to replace modernized light switches for mid-century versions when shooting on location.

La Bonbonniere first pops up in the series’ second-ever episode titled “Ya Shivu v Bolshom Dome Na Kholme.” It is there that Midge heads to grab breakfast alone in the early morning hours following an eventful evening that included being left by her husband, performing her inaugural stand-up routine, landing in jail and meeting – and bailing out – famed comedian and fellow inmate Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby).

While there, she flashes back to her “perfect” wedding with Joel, after which the couple grabbed breakfast at the diner.

The City Spoon has since gone on to become a significant location in the “Mrs. Maisel” canon, with Joel and Midge returning there time and again for milestone conversations.

In a flashback featured in the season two finale, “All Alone,” Joel asks Midge to marry him while sitting at The City Spoon counter.

Midge tells Joel she is pregnant with their first child while at the eatery in yet another flashback in the season three finale, “A Jewish Girl Walks Into the Apollo,” before the scenery shifts to the present day and sees the two arguing over how to pay for their now five-year-old son’s schooling.

In a fitting turn of events, it is there that a very unenthusiastic Joel tells Midge that his new girlfriend, Mei Lin (Stephanie Hsu), is pregnant in season four’s “Ethan . . . Esther . . . Chaim.”

And in a non-Joel-and-Midge-related scene, Lenny takes Mrs. Maisel to The City Spoon upon bailing her out of jail following her second arrest in season one’s “Because You Left.”

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” isn’t the only production to make use of La Bonbonniere. Hank Moody (David Duchovny) and Karen van der Beek (Natascha McElhone) head to the eatery, which plays itself, for an early morning breakfast shortly after meeting each other in a flashback scene in the season six episode of “Californication” titled “The Unforgiven.”

And actor John Turturro showcases the diner as one of his favorite New York sites in Tribeca Studios’ 2021 ”Getting Back to What You Love” video series. Of the restaurant, he says, “You hear ‘La Bonbonniere’ and you think it’s some French bakery or something. It’s not. It’s like the ultimate dive diner – in a good way.” Midge obviously agrees!