I’ve Got the Hippy Hippy Shake!

I have been a fan of

ever since my early teens and during that time

was, of course, one of my very favorite movies. So I was floored when I found the address of the bar Tom Cruise first worked at in the movie in a book I picked up just before my recent New York trip called

. So, while in New York last month, I of course dragged my boyfriend out to stalk the

bar – also known as Baker Street Pub and Restaurant. 🙂

At the time

was filmed back in 1988, the space was occupied by a T.G.I. Friday’s Restaurant – the very first T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant, actually. Friday’s was opened up in 1965 by Alan Stillman, a single New York perfume salesman and wannabe singer who was dying to meet the many stewardesses and models who lived in his Upper East Side neighborhood. The solution to his single woes? Buy an old dive bar on the corner of 1st Avenue and 63rd Street, dress it up with what would come to be known as the typical Friday’s decor, and hope that the ladies would follow. The bar would soon became a smashing success. So much so that only a week after its grand opening police had to be called in to control the lines outside! The original Friday’s moved out of the space on 1st Avenue and 63rd Street about thirty years later and an Irish bar named Baker Street Pub and Restaurant moved in.

Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to grab a drink while we were stalking Baker Street, but I did poke my head inside for a quick peek and it looks like a very cool place to grab a drink and a bite to eat. 🙂 And amazingly, even though

was filmed over twenty years ago and the bar has since changed hands, it still looks almost exactly the same today as it did during filming – minus, of course, all of the T.G.I. Friday’s “flair”. 🙂 You can

. Supposedly an exact replica of the interior of the bar was built on a Toronto soundstage and all of the filming of

took place there, but after watching the movie earlier today it is obvious that at least some filming did actually take place in the real Manhattan bar. Interestingly enough, the bar named Cell Block that Tommy Boy worked at towards the middle of the movie was an actual Toronto jail that was dressed up to look like a Manhattan Night Club. You can

. Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

: Baker Street and Restaurant is located at 1152 1st Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit their website here.