All stills courtesy Comedy Central
The gals of Broad City are back, providing a refreshing anti-dote to Girls. Last season, we charted the NYC film locations of the show and dug into some hard-to-find spots requested by readers of Untapped Cities. Keep checking back regularly as we add new locations as new episodes come in. Bonus: Many of the locations have video clips too!
St. Mark’s Place
For Abbi’s birthday, Alana takes her to the Japanese restaurant Kenka’s on St. Mark’s Place, which as shown, does always have a line. On the street, they experience all the weirdest incidents the two could probably think up, and inside the restaurant they run into ex-theater friends, from whom they have to stage an escape. Alana gets her bag of gifts stolen, leading them on a chase and finally back to St. Mark’s, where they sit on the sidewalk eating a pizza, reminiscing on the past year and plans for the next, underneath a comforter.
The High Line
Still courtesy Comedy Central
After Alana screws up while she and Abbi are working coat check at a charity event and Kelly Ripa’s coat disappears, the two girls reconnect about the situation with the High Line and Chelsea Market, the former Nabisco factory in the background. Abbi feels that returning the coat to Ripa’s apartment will be an “opportunity of a lifetime,” thanks to the fact that Abbi is “such a bobo.” Soon after, they discover empty lounge chairs, which is indeed, a total rarity on the High Line and then go on an expedition to find the coat, leading them to run into orgies and more.
McCarren Park
While at the charity event, Alana bails after meeting Adele, a woman she makes eye contact with coming out of the bathroom. The next day, Alana and Abbi meet Adele in McCarren Park.
Kelly Ripa’s Apartment
Abbi brings Ripa’s coat back to the talk show hosts’ apartment in (allegedly) Soho, where there’s a stack of Bed Bath & Beyond coupons (“It’s my favorite store, both say simultaneously.” Ripa asks Abbi to take of her shows and put on sneakers–”We’re a Shape-Ups family,” she says. They proceed to get wasted, following a bottle of white wine with moonshine. Shenanigans follow whereupon Abbi realizes Ripa is not “America’s Sweetheart.”
Hudson River Park and New York Harbor
To celebrate Jaimé’s naturalization to a US citizen, Abbi, Ilana, Lincoln, Bevers and Jaimé head on a boat around New York harbor that leaves from a pier in Hudson River Park. Bevers, Ilana and Abbi get locked in a storage space while stealing booze, Jaimé and Lincoln bond and re-eanct Titanic, while Bevers gets cold feet about asking his girlfriend to marry him.
Prospect Park, Brooklyn
As Abbi and Ilana aim to disconnect from “The Matrix” of online connectivity, they attempt to take in nature and rollerblade to the dog wedding of Ilana’s brother that’s taking place in the Music Pagoda at the center of the park. Unsurprisingly accidents ensue and Abbi gets stuck in a ditch. Earlier, you see the girls enter Prospect Park through Grand Army Plaza.
The Back Room, LES
After an evening searching for the “Narnia of Partyas,” Abbi and Ilana make it into a Prohibition-era speakeasy, filmed in the authentic speakeasy The Back Room on the Lower East Side. Those familiar with the bar will notice the gate and alleyway entrance first, before blacked out Abbi turns into “Val,” a sassy ’20s era singer. Inside, a pool table and photographs have been added to the space for the shoot.
Star on 18 Diner, Chelsea
Following the “Visit from Val” the girls get hangover grub and milkshakes at Star on 18 Diner on 18th Street and 10th Avenue in Chelsea, where Abbi remembers nothing of the night before. It’s also the location of a JR street piece in Walking New York.
Doyers Street, Chinatown
Still courtesy Comedy Central
Ilana and her mother go Chinatown to get designer handbags in “Knockoff,” and are taken, blindfolded in a van to Doyers Street in Chinatown, where they go into a supposed handbag hideout under a manhole.
Gowanus Street Art Wall
Still courtesy Comedy Central
As Ilana goes searching for Abbi, who has wandered out of the apartment after being accidentally fed a double dose of vicodin, she ends up in Gowanus skipping down the streets with what she hallucinates to be an oversized version of her stuffed animal. At some point, they end up in front of the street art wall by Wallnuts, Werc, Been3, and Trans1 in front of the Lower East Side Ecology eWaste Recycling and ReUse Warehouse on Nevins Street. In these scenes, you’ll also catch glimpses of the Smith-9th Street subway station, the highest subway station in the system, as she crosses the Carroll Street Bridge and the Whole Foods Gowanus, where the below happens:
42 Squirts Fro-Yo
Still courtesy Comedy Central
Jaimé, Ilana’s gay drug dealing roommate is sent to “42 Squirts” for Frozen Yogurt in a flavor that represents Abbi, who is on Ilana’s couch recovering from wisdom teeth surgery. The scene is shot at 16 Handles frozen yogurt shop on North 7th in Williamsburg. The real sign of the store sits higher so for the shoot, they just needed to add a temporary sign above the doorway.
Lincoln Rice’s Dentist Office
The dentist office exterior used for the scene where Abbi gets her wisdom teeth removed is a real dental clinic. Though it’s a stand in for the character Lincoln Rice, the dentist Ilana is dating in the show, the clinic actually belongs to Lawrence Kessler D.M.D. on N. 6th Street and Driggs in Williamsburg.
Shamden Hall at NYU (Fictional)
In the first episode, the girls go back Alana’s college dorm at NYU to take back her the air conditioning unit she had bought for it when in school. The exterior of the dorm is actually filmed at Baruch College on East 25th Street. Shamden Hall, shown behind the security guard, is fictional. The rest of the clip, nicknamed “Underage Bongs,” is history.
Bleecker Street Subway Station
In the opening scene, like many New Yorkers, the girls are running to catch the subway. They run through the Bleecker Street station, home to a great piece of MTA subway art, and high five when they make it onto a subway. They try to make it to the back car (getting squashed in the face by the crowds) and discover that en route the subway is full of people breaking subway etiquette, cutting toe nails, trimming hair, eating a massive sub, hogging the poles, displaying PDA and sexually harassing people. Another car has break dancers, and another is empty but smells horrible with a pile of human poop. In the last car, they encounter it full of Hasidic Jewish men, and on the way out Alana hits one in the ass.
One blip is that they end the ride at Grand Central, which is not on the B/D/F/M line.
Topshop/Topman
Battling the summer heat, they head into Top Shop/Top Man in SoHo. They chat about Colin Farrell’s sex tape in the dressing rooms (which have amazing lighting) among other choice topics, realizing while leaving that there is a group of kids and their moms outside.
Bed Bath & Beyond, Chelsea
Still courtesy Comedy Central
After Abbi “rapes” “Male Stacey” aka Seth Rogen after he passes out from the heat in her apartment, she determines she really needs a fan to prevent this type of crazy behavior. Obviously, they go to Bed Bath & Beyond (who doesn’t go there for some therapy?) in this case the Chelsea location which is the beautiful former Siegal Cooper Dry Goods building on 6th Avenue, where Abbi seems to have a special dance with every employee she runs into.
Union Square Park
After losing the new air conditioner while searching for a taxi, they seek refuge on a bench in Union Square Park where you can just see the neon Coffeeshop sign peaking through the trees.
Read on for NYC film locations in Season 1 of Broad City.
