“Mad Men” has been one of the most New York City-centric TV shows to ever run, in our opinion. And because it was set in the past, the tumultuous 60s, New Yorkers of today could watch and relive, or in most cases, imagine what old NYC was actually like.
Today, “old New York” is disappearing at an alarming rate, so “Mad Men” is that much more intoxicating and exciting. While many of us don’t remember, we can pretend.
The “Mad Men” series finale airs Sunday on AMC.
Take a tour of Mad Men’s NYC:
Minetta Tavern
Abe and Peggy meet for dinner at Minetta Tavern and Peggy thinks Abe is planning to propose. Instead, he proposes they move in together.
Algonquin
Don meets a client for a drink at the Algonquin Hotel lounge in Season 6.
P.J. Clarke’s
Peggy dances with co-workers (though really for Pete) in this episode from Season 1, and in one of the saddest moments in the show he tells her, as she dances freely, having fun, “I don’t like you like this.”
Time & Life Building
The offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Price, on the 37th floor.
Don’s West Village apartment
Don’s bachelor pad is very downtown-cool. At 104 Waverly Pl., #3R, it’s not an actual address.
St. Mark’s Place
Betty goes looking for Sally’s friend Sandy, the 15-year-old violin prodigy after Sandy tells her over a late-night cigarette: “All I wanted to do was go to New York. There are people in the Village… I read about it, and I even visited them. I visited this building right off St. Mark’s Place, and the kids are just living, and it’s beautiful. You know?”
Grand Central Oyster Bar
Site of the infamous martini and oyster lunch had by Don and Roger, followed by Roger’s vomiting in front of some clients.
Sardi’s
Don and Bobbie Barrett meet for a drink. She orders steak tartar, which is still on the menu and prepared in classic fashion: tableside.
American Museum of Natural History
Sally gets her period while on a date with Glen, the Ossining neighbor who once asked Betty for a lock of her hair. (She gave it to him!)
Jimmy’s La Grange
Don takes post-Betty rebound Bethany Van Nuys to Jimmy’s. “They have Chicken Kiev,” says Roger Sterling. “Butter squirts everywhere.” The New York Times investigated after the episode ran.
Waldorf Astoria
Don meets Conrad “Connie” Hilton in the Penthouse for a meeting after meeting Hilton at a country club.
Benihana
While courting Honda, Don visits Benihana for a dose of Japanese culture. Again, with Bethany Van Nuys, who is a friend of Jane Sterling, Roger’s younger, second wife. (Who also happened to work at Sterling Cooper!)
The Pierre
The Pierre Hotel appeared multiple times on “Mad Men,” perhaps most memorably as the place where Peggy and Duck met for some fooling around. It’s also where Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce first set up shop and where Don meets Rachel Menken for lunch in Season 1.
Barbizon Hotel for Women
Bethany Van Nuys lived at the Barbizon, a quite large boarding house just for women that was home to many females who came to New York City for careers and life but still wanted a safe haven to call home. Today it’s condominiums and is called the Barbizon 63.
New York Athletic Club
Don swims laps here when he is single.
La Grenouille
Joan made a reservation here for executives from Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe.
Barbetta
Don takes Bethany Van Nuys to dinner at Barbetta, the theatre district restaurant that looks much the same today. Betty and Henry Francis were also there, setting Betty aflame.
Keens
Don and Pete Campbell go to Keens to entertain Pete’s friend Horace Cook.
The Stork Club
The famous East Side club, now demolished, was the site of an infamous flare up between Betty and Jimmy Barrett, the comedian (“Take it from a nut, Utz is nuts!”). In so many words he tells Betty that Don is having an affair with his wife, Bobbie, which of course is the truth. “You people are ugly and crude,” Betty says. “What people? You mean comedians?” Jimmy jokes back.
The Palm
Also used in the show multiple times, the original Palm location on Third Avenue was where some of the Sterling Cooper staff, along with Trudy Campbell, went to eat before the Ali v. Liston fight. As Trudy says, “I want a rare steak and to see two men pound each other.”
Lutece
Don and Betty, Bobbie and Jimmy Barrett and the Utz potato chip moguls the Shillings dine at Lutece in Season 2. The French restaurant was very popular at that time. This is also the site of one of the more crass moments in “Mad Men,” when Don threatens Bobbie sexually, and both enjoy it.
Bloomingdale’s
Who can forget Pete’s wedding gift, the “Chip ‘n’ Dip”? He heads to Bloomie’s to return it in Season 1.
El Morocco
Don meets Rachel Menken here for a drink in Season 1. She amazes him with her brain, and he falls for her.
The Gaslight Cafe
Don’s Village girlfriend Midge has a friend performing at the Gaslight and she invites Don to come along. He is very much out of place in beatnik-heavy Greenwich Village.
Toots Shor’s
In Season 1, Roger and Mona dine at Toots Shor’s with Don and Betty. They are getting to know each other. Roger has too many martinis and Betty’s hands don’t work. Mona must apply her lipstick in the bathroom. The episode is titled “Ladies Room.”
Jones Beach
One of the just-outside-NYC locations on the show, Jones Beach is visited by Peggy and her friend Joyce Ramsey (in addition to a few others). It’s also where she meets soon-to-be-boyfriend Abe.
New York Playboy Club
Lane Pryce fell in love with an African-American playgirl that worked at the club, visiting on several occasions.
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