Central Perk

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Central Perk logo

Central Perk is a fictional coffee shop in New York City's Greenwich Village. It is situated near Monica's apartment, one of the focal points of the popular television sitcom Friends. It was one of the show's main sets in which the six main characters spent the majority of their free time talking about their problems. It is based on Cholmondeley's, a coffee shop and lounge in Usen Castle at Brandeis University, the alma mater of the show's creators.

The space was formerly occupied by the gang's old hangout, a bar. Central Perk is owned by a man named Terry (played by Max Wright), who according to Rachel and Phoebe is a 'jerk'. Terry was rarely seen and left most of the running of his coffee shop to Gunther, who became a permanent fixture in the shop. The large sofa on the middle of the shop, the chair on the right (as seen from the main camera angle) and the table and the table and chair on the left are nearly always used as the main setting for any scenes in Central Perk. In the earlier episodes, irrespective of how busy the coffee shop became, those seats were always available. The writers turned this into a joke, and in one episode the six main charcters arrive in the shop, find their seats taken, look at each other puzzled, then walk out.

Both Rachel Green and Joey Tribbiani have worked as a waitress or waiter at Central Perk. This was Rachel's first job. She regularly got orders mixed up, put items in the wrong places, neglected to clean the cappucino machine, and blamed her poor performance on the fact she didn't care about the job. Rachel eventually quit in the third season, in the episode titled The One Where Rachel Quits. Joey and Chandler encouraged her to pursue a career in fashion, and suggested she was likely to become motivated to look for a better job if she quit work and had what they termed as 'the fear'.

Phoebe Buffay was also a regular fixture in Central Perk, and played songs such as Smelly Cat to often bemused audiences. Ross also played keyboard once in the coffee shop.