Is Central Perk a real coffee shop?
Emily Sparks
Updated on May 13, 2026
While Central Perk exists solely on a Los Angeles soundstage, the space that would house the corner-side café below the building where Monica, Rachel, Chandler, and Joey lived is very much real.
Where is Central Perk in real life?
If you ever want to visit the Friends apartment building that's located in NYC, you can find that at 90 Bedford St, New York, NY. The downstairs part of that building that's supposed to be “Central Perk” is a restaurant with some great food!Is there a real Central Perk in New York City?
Any lucky Friends fans who live in NYC can stop by the fully functioning pop-up Central Perk coffee shop at 199 Lafayette Street at the corner of Broome Street in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood.Was Central Perk ever a bar?
It used to be a barIn "The One With The Flashback" (Season 3, Episode 6), the audience learned that in 1993, in a maybe real, maybe imagined time before the pilot, Central Perk was actually a bar.