Summary

  • The New York Museum of Prehistoric History, where Ross works, is a fictional place filmed on a Hollywood soundstage.
  • The iconic Friends fountain in the opening credits is inspired by the Pulitzer Fountain in New York City.
  • The Friends episode in Las Vegas was filmed on the Central Perk set, which was transformed into Caesar's Palace for the episode.

How you doin’? Or, more to the point, where you goin’? If you’re headed to New York City as a Friends fan, there are some places you just have to visit. But believe it or not, most scenes in Friends were filmed thousands of miles away from the Big Apple on Hollywood soundstages in Los Angeles, California. Friends is a beloved sitcom (duh) about characters living in a fun but fictional version of NYC. Many of the sets were inspired by real New York spaces, and some of the shots even featured authentic New York landmarks, but the show itself was filmed almost entirely in Hollywood. With some of the Friends memorabilia and sets becoming essential Los Angeles stops, it's no shock this sometimes confuses long-time audiences.

So, how can you tell the real thing from the soundstage while watching Friends or traveling the world? A good rule of thumb is that interiors are artificial, while exterior shots are generally the real deal. If you visit LA, you can take Warner Brothers Studio tours and see many of the interior sets constructed for the series. If you take NYC by storm, you can catch glimpses of the real locations in which viewers are led to believe the characters spend time. You might even find yourself in a city with its #FriendsFest, a celebration of all things Friends. Either way, you don’t need unagi to find your way around the sets and real spaces that make up the Friends world. You just need this handy list! Could it BE any more useful? (Let us know if so!)

Without further ado, here are fictional and real places that belong in the Friends universe.

UPDATE: 2023/11/29 11:33 EST BY NOAH STAATS

Let's Focus On The Real Things, People!

This article has been refreshed with two new real spots where Friends was filmed. Although many of our favorite moments from the show aren't *technically* shot at real places, quite a few might surprise you.

Related: Top 10 Destinations From James Bond Movies That Will Inspire You To Travel

22 Ross’ Place Of Work: “The New York Museum of Prehistoric History” (Not Real)

Friends TV show Ross and Rachel on date at museum
Karan Mittal, YouTube
Ross and Rachel on a date at the museum.

When we first meet Ross, he’s an awkward A-type personality going through his first divorce. There aren’t many good things going on in his life–Phoebe even tries to “cleanse his aura” of bad juju in the pilot episode–but he always has his career going for him! Any Friends fan knows that Ross has an impressive career in paleontology.

For the first five seasons, Ross works at “The New York Museum of Prehistoric History.” You may remember this as the place where Ross and Rachel have a romantic date under the planetarium stars, or Joey gets hired as a tour guide and starts a mini-revolution among workers in the cafeteria. Yes, that’s the same cafeteria where Ross had stolen his infamous post-Thanksgiving sandwich (the “Moist Maker”).

The museum has fake life-size figures of prehistoric man, dinosaur skeletons, and fossils galore. You’d think that all that stuff would cost a lot of money to reproduce and that the location scouts would choose to film the museum’s scenes in an actual museum to save money. In reality, Ross’ museum scenes were filmed on a Hollywood soundstage with sets constructed just for filming purposes.

If the series were filmed in New York City, the museum would likely be the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Stop by there if you ever take a Friends-themed trip to NYC and feel like a true Geller!

21 The Fountain (Not Real)

Friends_Water_Fountain
Stuart SevastosCC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Friends Fountain, NYC

So, no one told you life was gonna be this way? (Clap-clap-clap-clap!) When you read those words, you’re certain that a particular tune jumps into your head. Maybe a particular scene does, too. Do you happen to picture six friends wearing black and white, dancing in a fountain, and having the time of their lives? We do! The Friends fountain is as iconic as the theme song itself.

Many NYC tourists pose by fountains in Central Park thinking that they’ve found the Friends fountain, but this is another Friends location that doesn’t exist in the real world. According to a Friends location scout, the Pulitzer Fountain in New York City inspired the fountain in the Friends intro. The Friends fountain was a unique near-replicate built at the California studios, especially for the opening credits, while the Pulitzer Fountain is a real New York City staple. It was built in 1916 to honor the Roman goddess Pomona, who was meant to bring abundance and wealth. It also makes a great dupe for Friends fans looking for the ultimate Insta moment.

Grab five of your closest pals and head to NYC’s Grand Army Square for your own version of the iconic intro. Dragging a retro couch into the park might be too extra, but it’s your call.

20 The Friends’ Las Vegas (Not Real)

Friends visit Las Vegas episode
Friends, YouTube
Friends episode wedding in Las Vegas

Who could forget the Friends’ trip to Vegas? After Joey’s film gets canceled, the struggling actor makes ends meet as a gladiator at the famous Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas. When Phoebe, Monica, and Chandler appear on the scene and try to be supportive, he’s embarrassed and dressed in full gladiator armor. Ross and Rachel show up in Vegas a day later, get into an escalating prank war, and are drunkenly married in a Vegas wedding chapel. This episode features all the wild Vegas shenanigans that the city is known for. It’s like The Hangover before The Hangover. If you want to experience Vegas, go for it! Again, there are many things to do in Sin City, whether you relive iconic Friends moments or make your own.

Unfortunately, the Vegas the friends visit is a constructed set that no longer exists. In fact, when the actors are perusing the Casino, they’re actually walking in the very same place where their Central Perk couch usually sits. The Central Perk set was taken down and turned into Caesar’s Palace for this episode!

This was the only time Central Perk was taken down throughout all ten seasons. Who knew that Joey’s “identical hand twin” of a blackjack dealer was standing in Central Perk all along?

For the ultimate Friends-inspired Vegas trip, definitely hit up the real Caesar’s Palace on the Las Vegas strip. Make up some fake names to use while gambling your hard-earned dollars away (Princess Consuela Banana hammock, anyone?), and maybe even plan a shotgun wedding.

These are also some lesser-known Vegas spots worth considering.

19 Alessandro’s Restaurant (Not Real)

Friends restaurant review episode
TBS, YouTube
Monica's scathing restaurant review of Allesandro's episode.

We’re first introduced to Alessandro’s Restaurant in episode nine of season four, “The One Where They’re Going to a Party.” After Monica gets a gig as a food critic, she eats a “grossly incompetent” meal at Alessandro’s Italian restaurant, a swanky spot in Midtown Manhattan. It’s the kind of place Ross would wear leather pants to. Monica’s ruthless restaurant review calls Alessandro’s food “inedible swill,” particularly the marinara sauce that tastes like tomato juice.

It turns out that Alessandro himself isn’t Italian but Lebanese and in dire need of help from a real Italian food expert like Monica to take the reins. He hires her as his new head chef so she can put her foodie attitude to use. This results in a brief mutiny from the rest of Alessandro’s kitchen staff and plenty of pranks, from burning her chef’s coat to writing down fake specials to even locking her in a freezer! This seemed funny in the moment, but in hindsight, yikes!

Thankfully, the restaurant is not a real place. It’s a complete fabrication to support Monica’s head chef ambitions, which Rachel says she has had “forever.” This restaurant is the first one Monica gets to run by herself, but also the one where she is treated the worst. We wouldn’t go there even if it were real.

18 Lincoln High (Not Real)

Friends sign in Burbank
Chester from Toronto, CanadaCC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Friends TV show sign in Burbank, CA

So, here’s the situation. We are certain there’s a real Lincoln High School somewhere in America. There are multiple real Lincoln High Schools! But the one Ross, Monica, and Rachel’s characters say they have gone to is most definitely fictional. It’s created as part of Rachel and the Gellers’ backstories. A pre-nose job Rachel, lovestruck Ross, and much heavier Monica spent their younger years at this high school in Long Island, New York. (We don't know what it is if that isn’t spin-off series material.)

Superfans will remember other Lincoln High grads that the gang mentioned or met on the show, including Luisa Gianetti, Chip Matthews, Amy Welsh, Roy Gublik, Ta-Taka-Ki-Kek, and of course, Will Colbert (played by Jennifer Aniston’s then-husband, Brad Pitt). The high school is featured heavily in flashback episodes like “The One with the Prom Video,” “The One with the Rumor,” and “The One Where the Stripper Cries.”

Even though Lincoln High was made up, it made for some great moments.

Rachel dressing up in her cheerleader uniform and performing for Ross’ fiancée, Emily, was adorable. She wears the Lincoln High colors of red, black, and white and shakes her pompoms like there’s no tomorrow. Go Bobcats!

Related: These 10 Small Towns In New England Look Like They're From A Hallmark Movie

17 Javu (Not Real)

Javu Restaurant from Friends
MAX, YouTube
Phoebe singing outside the Javu Restaurant 

Unlike Alessandro’s, Javu is a positive work environment for head chef Monica. It’s a chic spot that is especially appealing to Monica because of its squeaky-clean kitchen. “It’s not just Health Department clean, it’s Monica clean!” she explains to Chandler after her first day. Even her co-workers are cool. One of them is a bit too cool for Chandler, who gets super jealous when Monica calls him “the funniest man” she has ever met. Alas, that coworker and all of Javu are completely fictional and built for scene-filming purposes only.

You know, scenes like when Phoebe is singing for change to the line of Javu customers waiting to eat. She left her regular place at Central Perk for Javu because it became popular, with Monica leading its kitchen. Of course, Phoebe’s taste in music doesn’t vibe with most of the Javu crowd, including Monica herself. That’s because Javu is classy or, as Phoebe describes it, “pretentious-comma-garlicky.” Maybe it’s not the best atmosphere for hits like Smelly Cat, Sticky Shoes, Trapped in the Hospital Closet, and Crusty Old Man.

If Javu were real, you could visit it and eat lobster with your “lobster!” It’s probably for the best, though. Lobster isn’t great when it’s too garlicky.

16 The Friends In Barbados (Not Real)

Friends episode trip to Barbados
Minh Khang, YouTube
Monica's crazy hair, trip to Barbados

The whole gang of friends and their significant others head to Barbados for the finale episode of season nine. Ross gets them all passes to his paleontology conference.

And who could turn down a vacation in Barbados, right? With tropical sunshine, beaches, palm trees, and Caribbean waves, Barbados is a paradise. It’s not true, however, that the Friends cast visited the island on the show.

They used the same Warner Brothers soundstages to film the scenes in Ross’ conference hotel and surrounding resort. The actors didn’t have to go further than Dijon Street and Stage 24 at the Warner Brothers’ Burbank Studios.

Some Friends fans have taken to online forums when planning their Barbados vacations to find out where their friends stayed during the Barbados episodes. How cool would it be if you could stay at the same resort where Phoebe and Mike were reunited after David’s proposal, right? It would be so fun to get drinks at the bar near where Joey and Rachel had their first kiss (which nobody asked for) or to stay in the suite where Ross and Joey’s date, Charlie, find romance while rewriting his keynote speech. Unfortunately, you can’t walk in the footsteps of Friends characters in the Bahamas. You’ll have to visit the real Bahamas, separate from the Friends universe. Just bring some heavy-duty conditioner so you don’t end up like Monica. (“IT’S THE HUMIDITY!”)

15 Joey And Chandler’s Apartment (Not Real)

Joey and Chandler's apartment
TBS, YouTube
Joey and Chandler's apartment in NYC

What we wouldn’t do to watch Baywatch and play a game of Fireball in this famous bachelor pad. It saw so many roommates move through it over the years, but it will always belong to Chandler and Joey in our eyes. It breaks our hearts to say it, but Joey and Chandler’s apartment never existed. The ceramic dog, the Laurel and Hardy poster, and the La-Z Boy chairs were absolutely real. The chick and the duck? Real. The pizzas they all ate? Very real. But the apartment itself–the walls, doors, and rooms–were not. The Hollywood soundstage strikes again!

This apartment was built as part of the original set in California. If you’ve watched the series closely, you’ll notice that the number signs on the outside of the doors even changed from 4 and 5 to 19 and 20 as the series went on, with the assumption that viewers wouldn’t be bothered by the inconsistency. Despite what the hallway suggests, the apartment was on the ground floor because it was a simple ground floor set with an open fourth wall where cameras, crew members, and the occasional live audience watched.

This set was taken down after the series wrapped in 2004, so you can’t even visit it on a trip to LA. It will always live on in our memories of the guys’ shenanigans, though! That Foosball table is forever in our hearts.

14 Monica’s Apartment (Not Real)

Monica and Rachel's apartment
Friends Scenes, YouTube
Rachel and Monica lose the apartment episode

Monica’s awesome apartment is any 90’s kid’s dream home. Eclectic style but somehow always squeaky clean with plenty of space for friends at parties, Monica’s place had it going on. The balcony itself was an NYC dream come true! The window seat overlooking it also made the perfect place for wallowing in tears and looking out at the rain. What more could a romantic twenty-something ask for?

Like Chandler and Joey’s place, Monica’s apartment was a complete construction in a Warner Brothers studio, which you can visit if you’re ever in Hollywood. The kitchen and living room are fully formed, but the entrances to the bedrooms and bathroom are fake.

The doorways to Monica and Rachel’s bedrooms have never actually led to their bedrooms. Those rooms were only built on a need-to-be-used basis. When characters walk into them, the footage has been cut and pasted between completely different locations!

What lay behind the wall where those bedroom doors were positioned was even more shocking. The CENTRAL PERK SET was on the other side of that wall! Yes, the wall the friends all watched TV on while sitting on Monica’s couch was Gunther’s coffee bar on its reverse side.

One thing that was real about Monica’s place? Apparently, when the episodes were being filmed, her apartment set was always stocked with snacks and drinks for the cast and crew, while Chandler and Joey’s fridge was usually empty. Totally fitting.

13 Central Perk (Not Real)

Central Perk Cafe
Krzysztof Stefaniak, Shuttertsock
Central Perk Cafe from the TV series, Friends

If you’re a true Friends fan, you might give your left phalange to step inside Central Perk for a day. With the way the show makes it seem, you would think Central Perk is just down the road from the friends’ apartments in NYC’s Greenwich Village. In one episode, Joey counts 97 steps from their apartment building to the entrance of Central Perk. That might have been an accurate count, considering the guys’ apartment was just a stone’s throw away in the same studio.

No need to go outdoors; these actors could easily jump from one set to the other as needed. The illusion of a New York City street is strong, but this set is still in California.

This was just another constructed set, but perhaps it is the most famous one. That’s why after the show finished filming, the Central Perk set was preserved by Warner Brothers and moved into a lot next to the studio’s Prop House. If you ever get a chance to take the Warner Bros. VIP Tour, you’ll get an up-close and personal view of this iconic set. Look out for Phoebe’s guitar propped up by the little stage area!

We recommend heading to New York City and finding a little independent coffee shop instead. You could get lucky. WB has sold the copyright to the Central Perk logo and concept with the rumor that real Central Perks will someday fully function in New York! So far, we know that there’s no Gunther included, but we’ll keep our ears out for any more news.

12 Vasquez Rocks (Real)

Vasquez_Rocks_County_Park
Thomas from USACC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Vasquez Rocks in Santa Clarita, California, USA

One of the funnier episodes in the series was "The One With Joey's Big Break." The filming scene for his defunct movie was shot in Santa Clarita, California, and was meant to feel like a far-out desert scene for the movie Joey believed would be legit and hit the big screen. Unfortunately for Joey, in the episode, the production company runs out of cash, stops the filming, and he's forced back to his reality in the Big Apple. The real location of the desert movie backdrop in Friends is rather stunning and can be visited by tourists. For anyone wanting to pretend to shoot a movie here (much like Joey), you'll want to head to northern Los Angeles County, toward Santa Clarita, and enter the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park.

This expansive park has 932 acres of sand, stone, and adventure. Although not the most popular thing to do in Los Angeles, CA, this is a neat spot to take some photos and pretend you're on Mars. Movies like Star Trek have been filmed here: it's legit. It's one of the many natural attractions to check out in the Los Angeles area.

These historic hotels in Los Angeles also make for a perfect vacation backdrop.

11 Leo Carrillo Beach (Real)

The ocean and cliffside at Leo Carrillo Beach in Malibu California
Photo by Cam Adams on Unsplash
The ocean and cliffside at Leo Carrillo Beach in Malibu California

Another genuine location where Friends was shot includes Leo Carrillo Beach, just outside of Los Angeles, California. In the episode "The One With The Jellyfish," Leo Carrillo Beach is shot to resemble a location in Montauk, which would be more appropriately fitting for their location (NYC). This beach is where Joey builds his infamous hole, Monica gets stung by a jellyfish, and the day quickly turns hectic when it was planned to be relaxing. Shocker. Leo Carrillo Beach has been shown in other TV and movie projects and tends to be a more ambiguous beach to use for East Coast and West Coast show filming. Again, Friends took place mainly in Los Angeles, so this area was closer to the studio than actually heading to Montauk or The Hamptons.

10 Lucille Lortel Theater (Real)

Lucille_Lortel_Theatre
Beyond My KenCC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Lucy Lortel Theatre in New York City

Now, it’s time for the ten locations on Friends that you can actually visit in the real world. At number ten, the Lucille Lortel Theater is a real New York staple in the city’s West Village. In season three, the characters see Joey perform at Lucille Lortel throughout three episodes.

You might remember him falling in love with his co-star Kate while they shared the stage in the off-broadway play “Boxing Day.” The critics liked it just as much as his friends did! Read: not at all. In the same episode, Ben Stiller guest stars as Tommy, the guy Rachel has just started dating. He famously yells his head off at an elderly couple who sits in his and Rachel’s assigned theater seats.

Those theater seats are REAL, baby! Lucille Lortel Theatre is a totally iconic landmark in New York City and has been since its opening in the 1920s. Its marquis reads “New York’s Foremost Off-Broadway Theatre.” That makes it quite the high point of Joey’s acting career at that point in the series, as his agent Estelle reminds him. These days, the Lucille Lortel Theatre is still going strong. There are even the Lucille Lortel Awards for excellence in off-broadway performance. Stop by the theater to see this season’s best off-broadway shows and feel like a true Tribbiani superfan.

9 New York University (Real)

Kaufman Management Ctr. at the Stern School of New York University in Manhattan, NYC, New York City, USA
littlenySTOCK / Shutterstock
Kaufman Management Ctr. at the Stern School of New York University in Manhattan, NYC, New York City, USA

Ross worked at NYU after his stint at the (aforementioned and fictional) New York Museum of Prehistoric History. You might remember this stretch of his career, including a relationship with Elizabeth, one of his young and ultra-hip students. He got off to a rocky start in his role as professor, with a few awkward chalkboard moments and a total lack of confidence while standing in front of a lecture hall. However, he improved over the years and continued his (fictional) rise to the top of the paleontological research world.

Even though Ross was never a real professor at NYU, that didn’t stop real NYU students from rating him on a RateMyProfessor page with fake reviews of his teaching style and course load. The ratings are high! If only Dr. Geller were a real person alive to accept them.

If you ever take New York by storm, you’ll definitely notice NYU banners throughout its central downtown campus. It’s a great college. Famous alumni include Cole Sprouse, Dakota Fanning, Angelina Jolie, the Olsen twins, and James Franco.

As a bonus, it’s near Washington Square Park, which Phoebe regularly references as a good street performance spot.

Drop a dollar in somebody’s guitar case as you pass through! Phoebe would be proud.

Related: 14 Real-Life Destinations Where Disney Movies Were Set

8 Chandler’s Office Building (Real)

West 57th Street
Tdorante10CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
West 57th Street in New York City, NY, USA

Oh. My. God! Janice’s on-again-off-again boyfriend actually “worked” in a real New York City building. It’s a pretty iconic one, too. The Solow Building is so architecturally eye-catching that you’d probably notice it even without trying to. It’s on West 57th Street, stretching 50 floors high with an impressive curved-out base. This skyscraper was also featured in Sex and the City, along with films like Zoolander and recent Superman movies.

Chandler worked in this building throughout his character’s time on Friends. He was briefly joined by Joey, who took on the acting persona of “Joseph” for the job. It turned out that Joseph wasn’t a great co-worker, so Chandler had to take on the persona of “Chandy” to fire him.

Major points if you can remember what Chandler did for a living! If you can’t quite name it, you’re not alone. Rachel and Monica lost their apartment to Chandler and Joey after guessing incorrectly in the lightning round of the gang’s high-stakes trivia game. Their guess: a transponster (“That’s not even a word!”). The right answer: is an IT procurement manager. The Solow Building houses marketing and equity management workers in the real world. It's just as dull, in our humble opinion.

7 The Moondance Diner (Real)

Friends cast at the Moondance Diner
Friends, YouTube
The cast of friends at Monica's new job: Moondance Diner

Do you remember when Monica had to wear a horribly tacky vintage getup for her 50s diner job? She put up with everything from a blonde Marilyn Monroe wig to an overstuffed bra, poodle skirt, and roller skates, which might have been the worst part. Rollerskating waitresses might sound far-fetched for a restaurant in 90s-era New York City, but this diner was actually 100% real.

The Moondance Diner opened all the way back in 1933. It could seat just 34 people and measured about 36 feet by 16 feet. It didn’t exist in its SoHo (the region of Manhattan just South of Houston Street) until later, and by the 90s, it was a major tourist attraction.

It also drew a lot of pop culture attention beyond its appearance on Friends. You might recognize it from its appearances in Sex and the City, Miami Vice, and even Reading Rainbow. In 2002’s Spider-Man, the character of Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is a waitress at this very diner.

If it was 2007 right now, you could walk in and order a milkshake at the Moondance Diner on your next trip to NYC. Unfortunately, since that year, it has been closed to the public. We’ve rounded up some of the city’s best places to get your foodie fix.

6 The Plaza (Real)

 The Plaza Hotel and other buildings viewed from Central Park, New York City, NY
Cheburashka007


Wikimedia Commons 
 The Plaza Hotel and other buildings viewed from Central Park, New York City, NY

The opening episode of season seven is all about the friends celebrating Monica and Chandler’s engagement at a big party in the Plaza Hotel. Every true New Yorker and New York lover knows the Plaza Hotel. It’s in almost every great movie set in NYC, from The Great Gatsby to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. You can also see it in scenes from movies like Eloise at The Plaza, Serendipity, Sleepless in Seattle, and Moonstruck. I mean, could it BE any more famous?

The Plaza was built in 1907 in the popular French Chateau style of the time. Originally, it was a residential building for the wealthiest New Yorkers. That explains its perfect downtown location by Central Park, the city’s main museums, and more. Inside, you can tell that this place was made to suit the most luxurious residents of the 20th century. It has gold, marble, and crystal details that fit any socialite or, in Monica’s case, head chef.

Fun fact: Monica originally put herself and Chandler on the waiting list for a wedding at the Morgan Chase Museum (another real New York City location). Chandler’s discovery of this fact and love of that venue prompted him to finally pop the question. But when their wedding day comes, it’s clear that it is being held in a hotel, not the museum viewers expected. Fans explain this because the museum had a two-year waiting list, while Monica and Chandler’s love couldn’t wait that long. Aw, you guys!

5 London’s Main Attractions (Real)

Friends trip to England
Friends TV Series, YouTube
FRIENDS | Joey and Chandler go to London for ross's marriage

In Joey’s words, “London, baby!” Unlike the friends’ trip to Barbados or Vegas, they actually traveled to London for the episodes set in London, England. It’s easy to tell! All the landmarks they explore and pose in front of can’t be faked.

If you want a Friends-inspired London vacation, follow these tips. Stay at the London Marriott Hotel on Grosvenor Square. Every time you leave the hotel, put your London map on the ground and step into it. You’ll be doing what Joe did, exactly where he did it.

Then check out all the main tourist attractions like Buckingham Palace, the Thames, Big Ben, the Tower of London, and Westminster Abbey. Joey calls it “hands down the best abbey I’ve ever seen,” and Prince William and Kate Middleton have since been married there! For pics outside where Ross and Emily held their wedding, visit St. John’s Church in Wapping. Then head to Trinity Square and buy yourself a classy Union Jack hat, just like Joey did (to Chandler’s disappointment). Maybe you’ll get lucky and buy it from Richard Branson himself!

Celebrity cameos are huge in the London episodes of Friends. Sarah Ferguson, the original Duchess Fergie, runs into a London-loving Joey. Hugh Laurie even appears as Rachel’s seatmate on her plane ride to Ross’ wedding, and he does a hilarious job of pretending to care about her relationship drama. Long live the (drama) queen!

4 Saks Fifth Avenue (Real)

The statue of Liberty and Manhattan, New York City
Shutterstock
The statue of Liberty and Manhattan, New York City

Rachel Green is a role model for many reasons. The biggest one might actually be her glow-up from café barista to high-flying fashion executive without so much as a college apprenticeship. Get it, girl! Rachel always had ambitions involving work in the fashion industry, and landing work at Saks Fifth Avenue was one of her biggest goals. She was interviewed here early in the series and was devastated to be passed over by another candidate in the end.

Saks is a world-famous name-brand shopping destination in Manhattan. It’s the ultimate upscale department store in the city, where you’re likely to find A-list stylists and celebs shopping any day of the week. It’s easy to see why Rachel would dream of working for this status symbol of a store. After shopping in it for so many years with her daddy’s credit card and trust-funded friends, earning her place among Saks’ most powerful people would have been so liberating. Alas, the only friend to work here ended up being Joey. A lucky break lands Joey a job as a perfume tester at Saks Fifth Avenue for one fun episode.

Related: Los Alamos History Tour: The Perfect Vacation For Fans Of The Oppenheimer Movie

3 Bloomingdale’s (Real)

Did You Go With Her To Bloomingdales? Episode
Friends, YouTube
The episode, 'Did You Go With Her To Bloomingdales?' Friends

Rachel’s fashionista dreams come true when she actually gets herself a job at Bloomingdale’s, another Manhattan shopping mecca. You’d probably recognize Bloomingdale’s from the bags its customers carry out, labeled as everything from “little brown bag” to “big brown bag.” By season three, Rachel gets her fashionably-shoed foot in the door of this massive NYC retailer when she works as an assistant in its offices. After realizing she’s back to serving coffee regularly, she earns her place as an assistant buyer before being unluckily demoted to a personal shopper.

At Bloomingdale’s, Rachel is able to work closely with all the top brands this department store sells. Her hard work and time paid off, and she eventually got hired by Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton in Paris. Talk about #CareerGoals.

Bloomingdale’s has several locations in Manhattan, but if you want the authentic Friends experience, you need to check out the original store on Third Avenue. It’s a spectacular nine-story building (think: nine floors of shopping) that maintains its original art decor exterior and will fill you with the passion for fashion that helped Rachel’s career soar.

Bonus: It’s also a great place for modern-day celebrity spotting.