{"id":57333,"date":"2025-07-11T16:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57333\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:51:12","slug":"materialists-director-celine-song-talks-about-nyc-date-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57333\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Materialists\u2019 Director Celine Song Talks About NYC Date Restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do L\u2019Ab\u00e9ille, Joseph Leonard, Birdy\u2019s, Nobu, and Altro Paradiso have in common? The New York City restaurants and bars say volumes about the taste of the characters in the Materialists<\/a>, a modern romantic dramedy from writer and director Celine Song, starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans.<\/p>\n

Materialists centers on a trio (Song is fond of exploring love triangles<\/a>): matchmaker Lucy is caught between her paramour, debonair private equity partner Harry, and her ex, struggling actor-slash-cater waiter John. Her suitors\u2019 economic statuses are starkly different: one woos her with expensive peonies and takes her to omakases; the other intuitively knows her go-to drink order of a Coke and beer<\/a> and prefers halal carts. Eater interviewed Song about her film, NYC restaurants, and dating culture.<\/p>\n

The economic contrasts<\/a> between the two men are best seen through restaurants, Song explains. The perfect first date restaurant is somewhere conducive to talking, not necessarily the best new restaurant. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to hot, cool restaurants, but I\u2019ve not enjoyed myself because I can\u2019t hear the person I\u2019m there with, and we have to shout, and then my voice is gone,\u201d Song says. \u201cIt should be a place where you can have a conversation.\u201d While the quality of the food is important, what trumps that is a setting conducive to connection. \u201cAn ideal restaurant is where the food is fucking awesome,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you\u2019re on a first date, you might even want to sacrifice a little bit of the food for a quieter room.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Harry and Lucy\u2019s first meal together takes place at Altro Paradiso<\/a>, \u201can amazing restaurant that\u2019s a great place to go on a date,\u201d Song says. \u201cThe vibe is important, but the more important thing is how good the food tastes. I don\u2019t care about restaurants where the food isn\u2019t good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucy, for her part, is seen meeting clients at Joseph Leonard<\/a>, an easygoing oyster bar in the West Village. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucy walking in Manhattan. Atsushi Nishijima<\/p>\n

Those restaurant choices show a person\u2019s core: For Pascal\u2019s character development, Song knew he\u2019d do so much research on knowing everything about dining out, especially because he can afford it. \u201cHarry\u2019s somebody who will read the New York Times best restaurants list or even Eater,\u201d Song says. His predilections veer lavish, which shows in the rest of his dates, including French Japanese tasting menu L\u2019Abeille<\/a>, and the two-person omakase at Sushi Ichumura<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Evans\u2019 character is more savvy and smart with his limited funds. \u201cJohn is somebody who will just know where he can get a really good meal for a certain budget level,\u201d Song says. \u201cHe\u2019ll know all of the deals in his neighborhood. There\u2019s a banh mi place where he can get something for 12 dollars, and it\u2019s awesome. He knows the places that are really delicious and very no-frills.\u201d In one scene at the afterparty for John\u2019s play, the group, including Lucy and Harry, goes back to Birdy\u2019s<\/a>, an if-you-know dive bar in Bushwick. She has her two love interests in one space, requiring her to navigate her two sides at the same time.<\/p>\n

During the shoot, Song and<\/strong> location manager Joseph Mullaney had to balance selecting restaurants that were good while also showing how luxe they were through film. \u201cSome restaurants are more photogenic, and some restaurants are better when you\u2019re just there in person,\u201d she explains. \u201cYou walk into some amazing space, but then you put a camera on it and it doesn\u2019t shoot well. It\u2019s because it\u2019s the energy that you can\u2019t feel in film. You have to feel the textures and the depth, or that color doesn\u2019t quite read in the way we want it. Some spaces are really photogenic. It just has to make sense as a character, but also has to look good.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Song\u2019s favorite places is Italian restaurant I Sodi<\/a>, where she, Johnson, Pascal, and Evans had what could be called their first dinner date before rehearsals. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing restaurant,\u201d she says, but \u201cyou cannot enter into every shot and explain what the menu costs or what Eater said about it.\u201d There have to be visual cues to show how fancy these places were. \u201cIt\u2019s a balance of what photographs well and where somebody would taste would take you,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucy and John (played by Chris Evans). Atsushi Nishijima<\/p>\n

So while the team didn\u2019t film at I Sodi, they selected high-end Japanese restaurant Nobu<\/a> to film a scene that was crucial to Song. Lucy and Harry are having a conversation where she asks him if a romantic date needs to be expensive, and he answers, \u201cDoesn\u2019t it?\u2019 She breaks the fourth wall and looks at the camera, which then pans to the deluxe setting. To Harry, these four-dollar-sign category restaurants are an everyday occurrence, but Lucy is not used to it. s. The juxtaposition points out how out of place she inherently is because she\u2019s more practical. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed something in a clear way to express luxury,\u201d Song explains. \u201cThen that joke works because the interior is so spectacular. It\u2019s always a balance of what\u2019s actually a classy place that a rich person goes to and photographs well in a way that\u2019s going to be understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the New York of it all, and needing a restaurant to read well in a high-level city way. \u201cI think about this all the time,\u201d Song says. \u201cBecause of The Bachelor and these reality TV shows, luxurious restaurants have a certain look that we\u2019re all used to: a lot of space, everything\u2019s a little shiny.\u201d But that doesn\u2019t necessarily make for an interesting setting. She gives Italian restaurant Via Carota<\/a> as an example. It\u2019s a well-known celebrity magne<\/a>t that is widely known, but it doesn\u2019t show up well on camera. <\/p>\n

Dining and drinking together is a through-line in most romantic comedies, but the setting doesn\u2019t matter. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my favorite dates have been at diners, McDonald\u2019s, or bars,\u201d Song says. \u201cThe point is to eat together and talk and eat. That\u2019s really what the most romantic thing about it is.\u201d<\/p>\n