Zabar's

Zabar's Is Where I Go to Cosplay

"The reality and mythology of living in New York City rarely overlap, but Zabar's is one of the few places they do. Founded in 1934, this emblematic Jewish appetizing counter is packed with bagels, lox, rugelach, and pastrami, and also serves as a neighborhood grocery store selling all manner of packaged goods, from ground coffee and smoked salt to fancy jams. It is also a portal into a New York City that lives, mostly, in fiction—where Kathleen Kelly runs into Joe Fox in You've Got Mail, and where Ilana guides Abbi "to the mayo-based salads!" in an episode of Broad City. It's a place where tourists and New Yorkers alike can cosplay living in a version of Upper West Side Manhattan that exists mostly in Nora Ephron scripts and Fran Lebowitz quips." - Margaret Eby