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Map of Seinfeld Tour

The television series Seinfeld featured real-life locations which you can explore on a trip to New York City. Like Cosmo Kramer in "The Muffin Tops", you, too, can see the locations from the small screen with your own eyes.

Filming locations and places featured on the show

New York City

  • 1 22-37 37th St., Astoria, Queens. Home of the neurotic, bickering Frank and Estelle Costanza — and their son George too, for most of Season 5.
  • 2 321 W. 90th St., Upper West Side. The building where George lived from the beginning of the show through Season 5, when he moved in with his parents. (After being hired by the Yankees and moving out, the picture becomes muddied: according to the show, his new place was on 86th Street, but the exterior shots used in filming switched inconsistently between the original 90th St. location and another building on 16th St. in Chelsea, a full 70 blocks south of its supposed location!)
  • 3 Central Park. The setting of many different happenings in the Seinfeld universe: Central Park is where Mr. and Mrs. Ross were taken by Kramer on a disastrous hansom cab ride with a flatulent horse, where George uses a line about manure to awkwardly flirt with a waitress from Monk's Cafe (and later with actress Marisa Tomei much more successfully, at least until she learns he has a fiancée), where George injures Bette Midler during a charity softball game, and where Elaine's Trinidadian houseguest Jean-Paul Jean-Paul loses the New York City Marathon after burning himself on a cup of Kramer's hot tea. Central Park (Q160409) on Wikidata Central Park on Wikipedia
  • 4 H&H Bagels, 2239 Broadway, Upper West Side. The store where Kramer worked until 1985, and briefly again in 1997 after calling off his twelve-year strike (a raise in the minimum wage had made his salary demands moot), was right on the southwest corner of 80th St. and Broadway. Though that location closed in 2012, H&H Midtown Bagels East continues to do business under different ownership at 1551 Second Ave. between 80th and 81st Sts. H&H Bagels on Wikipedia
  • 5 John F. Kennedy International Airport, +1 718 244-4444. Where, while waiting to pick up Jerry from a flight coming in from St. Louis, George taunts a convict under police escort and Kramer confronts an old acquaintance who borrowed money from him 20 years ago and never repaid it — both with disastrous results. John F. Kennedy International Airport (Q8685) on Wikidata John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wikipedia
  • 6 LaGuardia Airport, LaGuardia Rd. and 94th St., East Elmhurst, Queens, +1 718 533-3400. Site of the Diplomat's Club, where Kramer won and then lost thousands of dollars betting on the arrival times of incoming flights (at one point putting up David Berkowitz's mail bag, a keepsake of Newman's, as collateral). LaGuardia Airport (Q319654) on Wikidata LaGuardia Airport on Wikipedia
  • 7 The Larchmont, 448 Central Park West, Manhattan Valley. Elaine lived here? Get out!
  • 8 Mendy's, 208 W. 70th St., Upper West Side. Remember Kenny Bania's favorite restaurant, where Jerry was tricked into buying him dinner repeatedly? Mendy's really exists, but it's not the upstale steak-and-seafood place it was portrayed as on the show: it's actually a chain of kosher delis. The one on W. 70th St. where Jerry and Kenny went is now closed, but if you want a meal like they had, head there anyway; it's now the renowned Lincoln Square Steak. Otherwise, head to one of five Mendy's locations throughout the city — the matzo ball soup is phenomenal, whether you consider it a full meal or not.
  • 9 Metropolitan Opera House, 30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, +1 212 362-6000. Where Elaine attends a performance of Swan Lake with Robert, a gay man whom she agrees to let pose as her boyfriend to appease his homophobic boss, only to fall in love with him and try to get him to "switch teams". Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) on Wikipedia
  • 10 New York Public Library Main Branch, 476 Fifth Ave., Midtown South, +1 917 275-6975. M & Th-Sa 10AM-6PM, Tu-W 10AM-8PM. Where Jerry meets Lieutenant Joe Bookman, an ironically named "library cop" who dresses him down for checking out Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer in 1971 and never returning it — and where Kramer meets Marion, a librarian with whom he kindles a forbidden love affair. New York Public Library Main Branch (Q7013887) on Wikidata New York Public Library Main Branch on Wikipedia
  • 11 The Original Soupman, 259A W. 55th St., Hell's Kitchen, +1 212 956-0900. M-Sa 11AM-8PM, Su 11AM-7PM. The "Soup Nazi" was a real-life person, Ali Yeganeh — and by all accounts, the experience at his restaurant was more or less exactly how it was depicted in the seventh-season episode of the same name. Yeganeh has always resented the fame (or notoriety) that his portrayal on Seinfeld brought him, but after the original restaurant closed in 2004, he somewhat reluctantly parlayed it to relaunch his business as a chain that now counts four locations across the Northeast (including the original). The Original Soupman on Wikipedia
  • 12 Queensboro Plaza Station, 27th St. and Queens Plaza, Long Island City, Queens. Supposedly the home of the best gyros in the New York City subway system — the tzatziki sauce from which stained one of the issues of Frank Costanza's beloved TV Guide magazine collection. Queensboro Plaza (Q2177925) on Wikidata Queensboro Plaza (New York City Subway) on Wikipedia
  • 13 Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, 228 N. 12th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Stand-in for the Latvian Orthodox church where George attempts to convert to win back a woman who left him, and Kramer discovers his kavorka, almost tempting a clergywoman into giving up her faith. Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord (Q2109124) on Wikidata Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on Wikipedia
  • 14 Tom's Restaurant, 2880 Broadway, Morningside Heights, +1 212 864-6137. Tu-Th 7AM-1PM, F-M 24 hours. Repurposed by the show as Monk's Cafe, the gang's favorite hangout. Outside the Seinfeld universe, it's best known as the setting for Suzanne Vega's 1987 hit song, "Tom's Diner". Tom's Restaurant (Q2441394) on Wikidata Tom's Restaurant on Wikipedia
  • 15 West Side YMCA, 5 W. 63rd St., Upper West Side, +1 212 912-2600. M-F 5AM-11PM, Sa 7AM-8PM, Su 8AM-8PM. In the men's locker room, Jerry meets his idol, former New York Mets player Keith Hernandez — who goes on to woo Elaine and get confronted by Kramer and Newman, who accuse him of spitting on them after a crucial game in the 1987 World Series.
  • 16 Yankee Stadium, 161st St. and River Ave., The Bronx. Home of the New York Yankees, George's employer during the sixth, seventh, and most of the eighth season. The Yankee Stadium where George worked was torn down in 2009-10 and is now a park; the baseball team now plays in a new building on the other side of 161st St., also called Yankee Stadium. Yankee Stadium (Q675214) on Wikidata Yankee Stadium (1923) on Wikipedia

California

  • 17 CBS Studio Center, 4024 Radford Ave., Studio City, +1 818 655-5000. This is where the majority of the show was filmed, including interior scenes in Jerry's apartment, Monk's Cafe, workplaces, shops, etc. Filming was on Stage 19 for the first three seasons, and on the much larger Stage 9 thereafter, as the number of different sets (and the popularity of the show) had grown substantially. In addition, many exterior scenes were filmed on the "New York Street" set between Stages 14 and 15. CBS Studio Center (Q5009278) on Wikidata CBS Studio Center on Wikipedia
  • 18 Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, +1 323 956-5000. Another studio with a "New York Street" set that was used occasionally for Seinfeld. Unlike CBS Studios, they offer a two-hour tour where you can see the sets for yourself. Paramount Pictures on Wikipedia
  • 19 The Shelley, 757 S. New Hampshire Ave., Los Angeles. This old brownstone apartment building in L.A.'s Koreatown wouldn't look out of place on the other coast — and indeed, it was the stand-in for exterior shots of Jerry's Upper West Side apartment.

Other places related to Seinfeld

New York City

  • 20 129 W. 81st St., Upper West Side. The exterior shots were filmed in Los Angeles (see above), but this is the address used in the show for Jerry and Kramer's building — and it's the actual address of the apartment where Jerry and Larry David lived as young stand-up comedians working the New York club circuit in the 1980s.
  • 21 The Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St., Theater District, +1 212 997-6661. The real-life Jerry did a stand-up performance here on September 10, 1988. Unbeknownst to him, in the audience were several executives from NBC invited by Seinfeld's manager, George Shapiro, who'd written them a letter several weeks earlier: "Call me a crazy guy, but I feel that Jerry Seinfeld will soon be doing a series on NBC". (This was later reflected in the Season 3 episode "The Pitch", where Jerry's TV alter ego was approached by an NBC talent scout after a comedy set.) The Town Hall (Q1634948) on Wikidata The Town Hall (New York City) on Wikipedia
  • 22 Westway Diner, 614 Ninth Ave., Hell's Kitchen, +1 212 582-7661. Daily 6AM-1AM. The place where, in late 1988, Jerry and Larry David met over lunch to sketch out the premise for the TV sitcom that NBC executives had just offered him: not a "show about nothing", as others would soon dub it, but a show about how minuscule events in the everyday life of a stand-up comedian inspire the material in his act. (This was the inspiration for the scene in Monk's Cafe in the third-season episode "The Pitch", where a conversation between Jerry and George about salsa led to the idea. In fact, it's often thought that the Westway, more than Tom's, was the true inspiration for Monk's.)

California

  • 23 Jerry's Famous Deli, 12655 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, +1 818 980-4245. Su-Th 8AM-1AM, F-Sa 8AM-3AM. After a full week of writing, rehearsing and filming, the cast of Seinfeld were famous for unwinding on Friday evenings at the Studio City location of this famous chain of New York-style Jewish delis, eating, talking, and joking together late into the night. Ask the staff and (if it's not too busy) you can see their favorite booth, now marked with a plaque. Jerry's Famous Deli on Wikipedia

Elsewhere

  • 24 National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. A museum with displays of American cultural history, among them the original puffy shirt which character-Jerry wore on The Today Show, designed by Kramer's low-talking fashion designer girlfriend. National Museum of American History (Q148584) on Wikidata National Museum of American History on Wikipedia
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