{"id":650878,"date":"2026-03-12T18:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/650878\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T18:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:39:16","slug":"love-story-fans-are-mobbing-panna-ii-and-c-o-bigelow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/650878\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Love Story\u2019 Fans Are Mobbing Panna II and C.O. Bigelow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Photo: Clio Chang\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were ten people here already this morning,\u201d says Dean, a doorman who works across from 20 North Moore Street. It\u2019s around 11 a.m. on one of the first warm days in months, on one of the loveliest blocks in Tribeca, as we stand there together, staring uneventfully at the co-op where John F. Kennedy Jr. bought a loft in 1994. \u201cThey come with their cameras and they\u2019re all dressed like that woman.\u201d Dean means, of course, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, who lived there with Kennedy until their deaths in 1999. There had always been a few Kennedy acolytes hanging around the block, Dean says, but that number has ballooned since Ryan Murphy\u2019s Love Story premiered in February. Most of the people making the pilgrimage are women in their 30s and 40s, he adds, and the attention on the address now rivals the street\u2019s other attraction \u2014\u00a0the Ghostbusters firehouse.<\/p>\n

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\n 20 North Moore Street in Love Story.
\n Photo: Hulu\n <\/p>\n

It seems the city is caught up in Love Story mania. In addition to the look-alike<\/a> contests, Hulu account holders have been flocking to each of the show\u2019s locations to take pictures or just gawk, whether it\u2019s the lightsmaxxing Indian restaurant Panna II where on the show the couple have their first date, or Bubby\u2019s, which, on the show and in real life, happens to be around the corner from where I\u2019m chatting with Dean, so I head there next.<\/p>\n

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While Love Story seems to take some wild liberties, the couple did frequent the diner on Hudson Street. A server working that morning tells me that more people have definitely started coming in since the show first aired \u2014\u00a0the weekends are especially busy. \u201cA husband told me he was bringing his wife to eat here because she loved the show,\u201d she says of recent traffic.<\/p>\n

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\n The Odeon in Love Story.
\n Photo: Hulu\n <\/p>\n

A few blocks away, at the Odeon, the two hosts I talk to are less sure of an impact. They\u2019re usually booked at all times anyway, they say. \u201cWe\u2019re as famous as JFK Jr.,\u201d one adds. What they have seen, though, is more people writing notes in their reservation requests to be seated at the same table that John and Carolyn preferred. (Neither host knows what table that might be, if it even exists.) Before moving on, I ask if they like the show. \u201cWhen I saw it I was like, It\u2019s not crowded enough,\u201d one says. \u201cIt was empty in front of the host stand but usually we have 50 people standing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On to C.O. Bigelow, the 187-year-old apothecary that has apparently been mobbed<\/a> with a particular kind of buyer since a 2023 TikTok post<\/a> claimed that this was where Bessette got her French tortoiseshell headbands. When I arrive, it\u2019s early, but there\u2019s still a steady stream of customers, though nothing crazy. The employees working there say there has definitely been an influx, and like at Bubby\u2019s, the weekends are especially bad. Sometimes the headbands, which go for $36, sell out. \u201cBut there\u2019s always people here for CBK,\u201d one of the workers tells me, \u201cso it\u2019s hard to tell if it\u2019s because of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I spot and subsequently profile a pair of women holding iced coffees as headband-seeking types. Indeed they are. \u201cI\u2019m obsessed with history in general and the Kennedys and all of that,\u201d says Jennifer Spillane, dark haired and wearing a green quilted coat. \u201cCarolyn is iconic.\u201d Spillane and her friend \u2014 both born in the \u201990s, both living in New York \u2014\u00a0stopped in to look at headbands during a shopping excursion. \u201cI\u2019m learning so much more, especially about her as a person,\u201d Spillane says of the show\u2019s influence. \u201cI loved how private she was, that\u2019s sort of her brand. I\u2019m doing a deep dive on Pinterest and TikTok and all that.\u201d A lady in a walker seems annoyed as she squeezes past us, which is understandable because in addition to being a fantasy location for people who follow Lost J.Crew on Instagram, this is also a working pharmacy.<\/p>\n

Panna II on First Avenue, it seems, is where the real crowds<\/a> are. The longtime NYU haunt (and possibly made-up<\/a> date destination for the couple) has always been popular among people who location tag themselves on social media thanks to its lights-strewn dining room, but it has seen an especially big bump because of the show.<\/p>\n

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\n Panna II in Love Story.
\n Photo: Hulu\n <\/p>\n

When I arrive right at opening, owner Boshir Khan is standing outside. \u201cOh yes, we\u2019ve had lines,\u201d Khan says. \u201cThere were people waiting all the way up to that tree over there,\u201d he says, gesturing down the block. Panna II is the last surviving<\/a> South Asian restaurant on the block from the 1980s and Khan says every little bit of business helps. He estimates they\u2019ve gotten a 10 to 25 percent boost since Love Story came out. (He insists that the couple did frequent the restaurant back when his parents owned it.) \u201cLast weekend, people came from Dallas just because of the show,\u201d he says. \u201cI have a couple reservations at the end of this month from people who made them from out of state.\u201d Are his new customers perhaps wearing camel coats and oval sunglasses, I ask? Khan pauses to think. \u201cOn the weekends, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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