“You know what I love about these guys?” Selena Gomez once joked about filming alongside her Only Murders in the Building co-stars Martin Short and Steve Martin. “No paparazzi—ever!” It wasn’t just a punch line, however—for a show filmed on location on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, there are indeed surprisingly few paparazzi shots. The show, which centers on the murders, murderesses, and murderers, unfolding in a historic UWS apartment complex, is heavily rooted in its location. If there are three stars of the show, let’s consider the Upper West Side the fourth. (Though, that’s not to say there hasn’t been a constellation of stars who have made cameos throughout OMITB’s three seasons.)
To ensure that the neighborhood gets its due, Vogue has compiled a guide to the Upper West Side—a slice of Manhattan sandwiched between Central Park West and Riverside Drive that wonderfully holds up to its cliché as a neighborhood for bookish thinkers who prefer their avenues lined with bagel shops over fashion flagships.
Vogue’s Guide to the Upper West Side
Onscreen, the “building” in OMITB is referred to as the Arconia; in reality, it’s The Belnord, a sprawling and historic apartment complex occupying a full block on Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and 86th and 87th Streets. Built between 1908 and 1909, The Belnord is part of a group of Upper West Side luxury apartment complexes that sprung up in the late 19th century and lured the wealthy into apartments versus stand-alone mansions. The trend began with the Dakota (more on that below), but the Belnord could claim it occupied an entire city block, and at the time of construction, its interior courtyard was one of the largest in the world. Over the decades, luminaries like Lee Strasberg, Sophie Braslau, and Lillian Genth (an artsy lot, not unlike the fictional characters on the show) called The Belnord home, and clearly, the building remains a desirable address: earlier this year, Martha Stewart even moved in.
The Upper West Side contains one of Manhattan’s greatest treasures, Lincoln Center—a complex housing The New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Juilliard School, and more, built by architects like Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen, Wallace K. Harrison, Max Abramovitz, and more. In season one of OMITH, Charles-Hayden Savage (Steve Martin) takes up with a bassoonist (played by Amy Ryan) and attends one of her concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.
Technically, this theater is not located in the UWS but in Washington Heights—however it features heavily in Season 3 of OMITB as the location for Death Rattle Dazzle!, the zany musical show Oliver Putnam (Martin Short’s character) is producing at the fictional Goosebury Theater. The United Palace, which opened in 1930, was one of five of Loew’s Wonder Theatres, which were built as movie palaces. Stylistically speaking, the United Palace Theater is a mish-mash of Moorish, Byzantine, Rococo, Hindu, and Art Deco architecture (The New York Times dubbed it a “kitchen-sink masterpiece.”) The theatre still screens films along with other programming ranging from dance to musical performances.
Months after its opening in 1983, Vogue sent its restaurant critic to review Cafe Luxembourg; the writer, Barbara Kafka, stated the restaurant “seems assured of a long life”— and indeed she was right. Over 40 years later, the French-American bistro on 70th Street and Broadway still reigns over the UWS by avoiding what the city around is known for: change. Though the OMITB cast haven’t visited—at least, not yet!—Cafe Luxembourg, it does feature in another Manhattan-set story of When Harry Met Sally.
Central Park isn’t the only park Upper West Siders can enjoy. Located along the Hudon River is a narrow public park known as Riverside Park. With piers, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial, and Grant’s Tomb, the park was designed in part by Frederick Law Olmsted and comes with river views. Much of the filming of OMITB takes place in a building located just off the park at 270 Riverside Drive.
Opened over 40 years ago is Westsider Books, the type of local bookstore that’s all but extinct in New York and that inspired the likes of You’ve Got Mail. (For the record, the film’s Shop Around the Corner was a fictional book store, but Westsider Books has all the charm of a Nora Ephron film location.) Buying and selling rare and used books, the poky store teems with books packed like sardines on its wooden bookshelves.
New York’s oldest flea market can be experienced each Sunday, rain or shine, on West 77th Street and Columbus Avenue. The Grand Bazaar dates back to 1979 as a yard sale organized by a group of parents hoping to raise funds for their children’s schools. Today, it has evolved into a sprawling indoor-outdoor fair across 43,000 square feet and 200-plus vendors offering vintage and antique wares spanning from fashion to furniture to crockery and other collectible bits and bobs. Best of all? It’s stayed true to its mission with 100% of the profits collected by Grand Bazaar going to four public schools: P.S. 87, The Computer School, P.S. 334 Anderson School, and M.S. 247 Dual Language Middle School.
Dubbed the Sturgeon King, Barney Greengrass is a Jewish deli institution that opened in 1908. It’s known for smoked fish and classic deli staples like black and white cookies, babka, and bagels. The New Yorker editor-in-chief David Remnick waxed poetic on the joint for Bon Appétit back in 2019: “How to describe the place? It is the past regained. The original was in Harlem; the family moved downtown in 1929. The investment in interior decoration has been minimalist, and not in the Philippe Starck, skinny-assed chairs sense. More in the sense that I don’t think they have spent a dime on the nonessentials since the Truman Administration.” Our only tip? When you go, leave your credit card at home. Cash is king at the Sturgeon King.
Sure, the most famous building on the UWS is the Arconia, but second to that is The Dakota. The neo-gothic meets German Renaissance building was completed in 1884 and famously got its name as it was so far removed from the then-center of Manhattan, the UWS building might as well have been in the Dakotas. In terms of pop culture, the likes of Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, and Leonard Bernstein have all called the building home—and it’s also become a spot of pilgrimage for The Beatles fans wanting to commemorate John Lenon, who was shot outside the building in 1980.
The famous ancestor of The Leopard at des Artistes is Café des Artistes, which is what lands this spot on our list. Opened in 1917, the Italian restaurant (as its name suggests) lured artists for power lunches or late-night conversations ensconced in the Howard Chandler Christy murals that surround the room. Café des Artistes famously made appearances in The First Wives Club, 9 1/2 Weeks, and Manhattan Murder Mystery. In 2011, the restaurant was reopened under new management and christened The Leopard at des Artistes. The Christy murals remain (they’ve been cleaned up and no longer have a nicotine sepia) but the space is now bright and airy.
The Upper East Side may have Museum Mile, but the West Side has a few museums of its own. Top of the list is the American Museum of Natural History which sits proudly on Central Park West between 77th and 81st Streets. Founded in 1869, the museum is considered one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institutions. Take in one of the only T. rex skeletons, stand beneath a life-size model of the blue whale in the Hall of Ocean Life, travel through the Hayden Planetarium, or check out the new Studio Gang-designed Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation.
It doesn’t get more New York than Zabar’s. Founded in 1934 by Louis and Lillian Zabar, the grocery store and Jewish delicatessen specializes in smoked fish, cheese, and bagels. Per Zabar’s own website, in the 1960s, the emporium introduced New York to brie, sun-dried tomatoes; in the ’70s, it began stocking gnocchi; and in the ’80s, helped set off a caviar craze. If you fancy venturing further afield, Louis and Lillian’s youngest son, Eli Zabar, has a collection of cafés and markets (mostly on the Upper East Side) that are also worth visiting.
