‘Golden Girls’ cafe Rue La Rue has soft opening in Washington Heights

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• La Rue says this small stage at his cafe will soon host Broadway performers.

  “We’re going to see some big-name Broadway performers, but I’m not announcing it all,” La Rue said. “They’re just going to show up and belt some tunes.” ” data-id=”113082223″ data-link=”https://amnewyork.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/8518_image.jpg” class=”wp-image-1.13082223″/>

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• only about McClanahan — her cast mates also make cameos throughout the space, including this homage to Bea Arthur. ” data-id=”113082212″ data-link=”https://amnewyork.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/image-131.jpg” class=”wp-image-1.13082212″/>

• The sole surviving “Golden Girl,” Betty White, is also well-represented — here with a note she sent to her cast mate. La Rue is hopeful she’ll make it to New York in the spring (she won’t travel to the city in the winter, he said, and who could blame her?) for a more formal ribbon cutting. He met with White, who recently turned 95, a while back and noticed a picture of White’s late husband in a pink marble picture frame that McClanahan had also had.

  “Without missing a beat, this 94-year-old woman goes: ‘She better not have a picture of my husband in it.'”

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🎼If you threw a party, invited “Golden Girls” fans you knew, you would see the best spot to meet would be at the new cafe Rue La Rue.🎼

“Golden Girls” devotees can begin making the pilgrimage uptown to Washington Heights, to sample Rue La Rue, which is both a cafe and a love letter to one of the show’s stars, Rue McClanahan.

The restaurant, which is now serving breakfast and lunch during a soft opening phase, is owned by the fortuitously named Michael J. La Rue – a friend of McClanahan’s who inherited her belongings when she died in 2010.

The show chronicled the friendships and love lives of three retirees in Miami: McClanahan’s saucy Southern dame, Blanche Devereaux; Betty White’s sweet and innocent Minnesota native, Rose Nyland; and Bea Arthur’s tough, sarcastic New Yorker, Dorothy Zbornak. They’re joined by Dorothy’s critical Sicilian mother, Estelle Getty’s Sophia Petrillo.

The space is decorated with memorabilia and homages to the series – the wallpaper and the bathroom tiling will be recognizable to any fan – as well as more personal items of McClanahan’s, like her upright piano. A television hanging above it plays episodes of “Golden Girls,” and items on the menu are named with its characters in mind.

The overwhelming emphasis is on McClanahan – who also had memorable roles on “Maude” and “Mama’s Family,” in addition to turns on Broadway – but her cast mates also make appearances, as do photographs of her husbands.

“Rue said she was nothing like the character Blanche,” La Rue said. “So I put her six husbands up here so people could see she’s exactly like Blanche.”

Here’s a look inside Rue La Rue, which is at 4394 Broadway.