Central Perk
December 26, 2007 by Narayanan Aier
Yesterday me and my friends finally went to Central Perk. You might remember Central Perk to be the coffee shop from Friends, the hit sitcom that aired its last episode in 2004. We went with the expectation of seeing a lot of friends posters and mementos around. It was all fine till we opened the door. The squeaking of the door (characteristic of the Central Perk in Friends) excited us. But that was it. Once inside, we were in for a rude shock. Although the two couches resembled the ones in friends, the rest of the setup was just like a normal coffee house. We were completely disappointed. But that disappointment lasted only for a few more minutes.
After placing our orders with the expectation of spending a boring half hour in the coffee shop, we sat down at our table. My eyes scanned the room for something, anything that had anything to do with friends. Guess how surprised I must have been to see a box of Monopoly and several boxes of chess! I asked the waiter about this. I was half expecting him to say that they were left behind by customers. They weren’t! They were for us, customers, to play with! Ha! Something different from a normal cafe. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Monopoly. Was good fun, even though I lost horribly.
Prices at Central Perk are reasonable. A tall iced mocha cost me Dhs. 16 and the fudge cake was around Dhs. 10. You should go and visit it, if you haven’t already. But don’t go with the expectation of seeing a lot of “Friends like” characteristics at Central Perk. That doesn’t mean that you won’t have a good time there. Like the tag line of the cafe says, it’s “where friends meet”.
The photograph shown above was taken by me outside Central Perk, Dubai. For more information and to locate a Central Perk near you go to www.central-perk.com.
