PrintThe Real-Life Restaurants in New York City from 'Grand Theft Auto IV'
Or, 'Where to Eat in Liberty City'
After much anticipation from millions of gamers, Grand Theft Auto 4 debuted worldwide today. This being Serious Eats, we did some digging around on the game's website for any food- or restaurant-related material inside the game, which takes place in "Liberty City," a metropolis loosely modeled on New York City. Here's what we found.
If you're not familiar, you pilot a character around a virtual city on mayhem-filled missions. Previous incarnations of the game have been praised for the incredibly detailed and vast cities that your character roams. We were surprised to see some (somewhat familiar) sights in the screenshots.
'Steinway Beer Garden,' aka The Bohemian Beer Garden
The "Steinway Beer Garden" is obviously a stand-in for the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria, Queens, where neighborhood locals and packs of roving hipsters swarm to swill grog on warm weekend afternoons. The virtual version even shares a name with nearby Steinway Street.
And here's what the place looks like in real life:
Photograph from Josh Bousel on Flickr
'Sprunk' Cola Sign, aka The Pepsi Cola Sign
I haven't played much GTA, so I'm not familiar with the mock brands that inhabit its world, but I'm assuming from the virtual sign below that "Sprunk" is some sort of cola. I think it's a safe assumption, since the in-game billboard is totally based on the Pepsi-Cola sign in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City, just across the East River from Manhattan.
Long Island City is an up-and-coming neighborhood full of gritty warehouses and disused factories, but developers are trying to lure folks there with new waterfront recreation and luxury co-op buildings. The fake version captures this mix nicely, as you can see above.
Here's the real-world version of the Pepsi sign, in all its night-glow glory:
Photograph from Ritwikdey on Flickr
And here's that same sign from the back. I took this a couple years ago, before they were very far along on building a public space around the sign:
The Domino Sugar Refinery
Update: Looking a bit more closely at the Sprunk sign screenshot just now, I noticed that the building in the background bore a resemblance to the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg. Doncha think?
Domino photograph from Nautical2k on Flickr
'The Bean Machine' at a Faux Rockefeller Center
The Bean Machine coffee shop here (above) doesn't really register immediately as a specific location, but its surroundings bear a striking resemblance to the plaza and shops at Rockefeller Center. From the architecture to the shop signage to the paving stones, it's almost a dead ringer, and it kinda has the feel of the Dean and Deluca shop there.
Photograph from Branille on Flickr
'Superstar Cafe,' aka Spotlight Live?
I have no idea what place this one is modeled after, if any. Could it be one of the hokey tourist traps in Times Square? Maybe. Though it does kinda look like the stage from American Idol. Would I want to get my coffee drink in a talent-show setting? No. I truly hope there's no real-world equivalent to the Superstar Cafe.
Update: Serious Eats reader Charm City Cupcakes points out that the Superstar Cafe may indeed be Spotlight Live, a mega-karaoke/performance/dining venue in Times Square. Not a direct comparison, in the photo below, but looking at the Spotlight Live website, I'd say it's a safe bet.
BurgerShot
This one could be based on any number of third-tier burger chains and probably doesn't map to a specific location or shop, either. (As CasperOne points out in the comments here, "there is not always a real-world counterpart to the things that they put in the game.") It lies in one of the outer boroughs of Liberty City, at least according to the Liberty City map on the game publisher's website. Even if you didn't have the map, you could tell it's outer-borough because stand-alone fast-food joints in Manhattan are as rare as steak tartare.
I think "BurgerShot" is a weird name for a burger joint.
'69th Street Diner,' aka Air Line / Jackson Hole Diner?
And what about the photo this post opened with?
Is there a real-world analog? Turning to the best source of old-school New York info, Forgotten NY, I'm guessing it's an amalgam of a few classic NYC diners, though it most closely resembles a mashup of the Air Line/Jackson Hole diner near LaGuardia Airport (the diner you've seen in Goodfellas) and the now defunct Bluebird Diner near Utica Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn. I say this based on the fact that it has horizontal banding on its lower half and has a sort of double roof:
Check out the NYC Classic Diners page on Forgotten NY for a better view of the Air Line/Jackson Hole.
Double-checking with DinerCity.com yields no specific real-world diner, either.
Related
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17 Comments:
Ed, I think that the Superstar Cafe might be Spotlight Live - it's a restaurant in Times Square that has a stage for karaoke and is sort of like American Idol gone wrong. For the record, I've never been there.
charm city cupcake at 6:37PM on 04/29/08
Adam, I had a feeling you'd do a post about this... or was at least hoping. I was watching a NY1 segment and they showed some of the game, some part in Dumbo --- about a block from Grimaldis but I couldn't tell if they'd put it in the game or not.
-bill
SoundBitesNYC at 10:01PM on 04/29/08
For those that haven't played GTA, there is not always a real-world counterpart to the things that they put in the game. However, the names that they make up are always meant to be over-the-top (and more-often-than-not, filled with sexual innuendo, i.e. the 69th Street Diner) and usually a parody of commercialization in general.
casperOne at 10:27AM on 04/30/08
@SoundBitesNYC/Bill: Am I that predictable? I want to get my hands on this game to look for pizzerias.
@casperOne: Thanks for that. Yes. I should have pointed out that they're not creating a direct one-to-one version of the cities in the games. Kinda like Metropolis or Gotham City are based on but not 100 percent faithful to NYC.
Adam Kuban at 10:36AM on 04/30/08
Burger Shot is SO the White Castle off the Graham Ave stop on the L in Brooklyn.
poingly at 10:51AM on 04/30/08
I agree with poingly about the Burger Shot looking like the White Castle on Graham Ave. It wouldn't surprise me because I know that a bunch of the Rockstar Games developers live, or used to, in the Williamsburg area.
Also, The Bean Machine looks like a coffee shop that is either at Wall St. and Broadway, or a block or two north of it. Can't remember the name or exactly where, but it's on the west side of Broadway and sunken below the sideway.
brooklynbs at 1:48PM on 04/30/08
69th street diner reminds me of Empire Diner. Empire Diner is in Chelsea though
tinkle at 2:24PM on 04/30/08
It's not in Gotham but you can't beat this for a match for the 69th street diner. It's Mickey's Diner in downtown St. Paul, MN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mickey%27s_Diner.jpg
selch at 5:10PM on 04/30/08
I know nothing about this game or any of these games, but I do know that there is a section in Miami, FL named Liberty City...unfortunately, Grand Theft Auto could happen there. Are any of the creators from Miami?
elaine nan at 5:12PM on 04/30/08
I heard Megan Fox was the inspiration behind the leading woman (hot pic):
http://www.derober.com/2008/04/23/fhms-sexiest-women-in-the-world-leaked/
michael1 at 5:26PM on 04/30/08
I think that the 69th street diner is based on the "Brooklyn Diner" that is on 57th street between broadway and 7th Ave. Check out this pic:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/165cf5/
hipporeaper at 12:40AM on 05/01/08
The Bean Machine is a parody of Starbucks actually. I learned that while listening to NPR on the way back from work.
meaningoflife at 11:13AM on 05/01/08
I forgot to add the link of the interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90041944
meaningoflife at 11:14AM on 05/01/08
Incidentally, there is a diner on W. 69th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side in NYC. But it's called the "West Side Restaurant", and it doesn't have the vintage aluminum exterior.
wholovesboo at 1:57PM on 05/01/08
In light of the other Queens references, and of course the name, the BurgerShot could be the Wendy's on Queens Blvd, site of the "Wendy's massacre" in 2000.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E5D7113DF934A15756C0A9669C8B63
alexdj at 12:14PM on 05/02/08
It seems like 69th Street Diner is based on Relish Diner in Brooklyn.
Here's a pic:
http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/restaurants/archives/relish_williamsburg2.jpg
McKibbin at 12:56AM on 05/14/08
@McKibbin: That's the most plausible real-world analog yet. Thanks!
Adam Kuban at 1:41AM on 05/14/08