On the Upper West Side, you can visit the real-life Shop Around the Corner from ‘You’ve Got Mail’
Credit: Lauren Fleming
This weekend, The Sunshinery is hosting two “You’ve Got Mail” walking tours that sold out within hours. But you can still play Kathleen Kelly by shopping at the locally owned gift shop that served as The Shop Around the Corner in the film.
Victoria Manoli, the events manager for The Sunshinery, calls fall in New York City a “softening.”
“Summer can be pretty harsh in the city … (in the fall), the colors change, the weather cools off; it’s this softening of the city getting ready for the new season — the start of school, being cozy, warm, being a little bit connected again. It’s the romance of it, really,” she said. “The holidays are very special in New York and it’s the opening of that. The city puts its jewels on.”
It’s perhaps all of this that has people romanticizing autumn in New York each year and coming back to one film that captures that essence: “You’ve Got Mail.”
The 1998 Nora Ephron film starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks has become synonymous with cozy season. And The Sunshinery gift store on 69th Street on the Upper West Side has a particularly strong connection to the film. It’s the actual Shop Around the Corner.
While most interior shots at the fictional The Shop Around the Corner were shot in a studio, The Sunshinery’s facade served as the exterior.
In the movie, Ryan’s character, Kathleen Kelly, owns an independent bookshop on the Upper West Side that she fights to keep alive when a big box bookstore opens nearby. Kelly’s mother opened The Shop Around the Corner, and Kelly sees it as a valuable part of the fabric of the neighborhood, bringing the community together.
According to Manoli, the real-life store that inhabits this space was opened in that same spirit.
The owner, Jen, is an Upper West Side native who saw a need for a local gift shop. “I think after Covid changed the neighborhood so much, it was really lovely to bring something special,” said Manoli. The first location opened on 86th Street, followed by the second spot on 69th.
Previously a laundromat, when the 69th Street space opened up, it was the perfect location for a second, larger store. And the owner was a fan of “You’ve Got Mail.” The store sells nicknacks and gifts, baby clothes, books, decor, and “You’ve Got Mail”-themed accessories.
“Jen wanted a sense of community and to contribute to the neighborhood with events,” said Manoli, who organizes a book club, craft classes, partnerships with other local businesses, and fundraisers for the store. Most of the participants, she said, are local to the neighborhood, but because of the “You’ve Got Mail” connection, they get some tourists too.
This weekend, The Sunshinery is putting on its first ever “You’ve Got Mail” walking tour in partnership with Nora Ephron tour guide Katie Orenstein.
On Oct. 4, two groups of about 16 people will meet at The Sunshinery and travel to stops including Cafe Lalo’s location (which is no longer open), Zabars, and Kathleen Kelly’s apartment. The tour ends at 91st and Riverside, where the last scene of the movie was shot.
The tour sold out within an hour, so the store added a second time slot, which sold out in 24 hours. For those wishing they had gotten tickets, Manoli hopes to host tours with Orenstein again in the spring.
“She’s wonderful at what she does,” Manoli said of Orenstein, who hosts Nora Ephron tours in the city. They connected one day when Orenstein was stopped in front of The Sunshinery on one of her tours, and they decided to partner up.
Part of the proceeds from the $75 ticket fees are going to St. Agnes Library on Amsterdam, a branch of the New York Public Library.
“We were looking for somewhere with literacy in mind because the movie is about book shops, so we thought it would be sweet to find something that involved reading or literacy, and we love to contribute to organizations on the Upper West Side,” said Manoli.
“From working with children, I’ve taken so many kids there to share the joy of books. That’s what Kathleen Kelly does. It’s a lovely connection to the film and supports free reading.”
