ET got an exclusive look at the restaurant before its opening on July 30.
Golden Girls fans, this one's for you! A Golden Girls pop-up restaurant, Golden Girls Kitchen, is opening in Beverly Hills, and ET got an exclusive first look at the show-themed spot that you'll want to bring your friends, pals, confidants to!
ET's Matt Cohen spoke to Golden Girls super-fan and expert, Jim Colucci, at the pop-up, about celebrating the show by bringing a little piece of it to fans not only in Los Angeles, but Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and New York City.
"It was shot obviously here, we're in Beverly Hills, we're a stone’s throw from where Bea [Arthur] and Betty [White] lived," Colucci shared. "So, it's like we're celebrating the girls in their hometown. I love it."
As far as how the cast -- Betty White (Rose), Bea Arthur (Dorothy), Rue McClanahan (Blanche) and Estelle Getty (Sophia) -- would feel about the pop-up, Colucci said the ladies would love it.
"There's a story that one of the set designers from the Golden Girls told me that says it all, I think," Colucci began. "When you talk about a physical space like this, there's one restaurant set that they used to use on the Golden Girls, that if you watch the show, you'll recognize it because it's got these arched windows -- a series of arched windows, and so it was very recognizable."
The Golden Girls Forever author continued, "And they would just repaint it and make it a different restaurant from week-to-week, but that set -- sets don’t usually survive for very long because they’re fragile -- but that set for some reason, it's like a miracle, because it has survived for like 30 or 40 years and it’s still used over and over."
So much so, that it made its way to another show White was a part of -- Hot in Cleveland.
"So, the set designer from Golden Girls also worked on Hot in Cleveland, and he put that restaurant up on Hot in Cleveland and he led Betty in by the hand 30 years later, and said to her, 'Does this look familiar?' And she started to cry," Colucci continued. "Because she recognized, 'Here's a literal piece. I could go touch the wall that I once touched as a member of the Golden Girls,' and that just again, anything physical like that, can be so moving."
Golden Girls Kitchen will not only serve delicious eats and drinks, or libations, as Blanche famously called them, but give fans the ultimate Golden Girls experience.
In addition to a sign that says, "Cheesecake Fixes Everything," the pop-up is decorated in memorabilia from the show that will have any viewer feeling nostalgic.
"All of these photos are memories, and that's what is great," Colucci said. "There are so many little details in here. Everybody loves the 'Henny Penny' episode. It was a musical episode they did, and here is actually this is Golden Palace when they finally reunited after Dorothy had left the show, but she came back for one more great appearance, and like, little silly things. Rose tries on those vacuum pants for her job working for a consumer advocate, Enrique Mas. I mean, just little -- there are so many fun little details and I love the sheet music too, from 'Thank You for Being a Friend' sheet music."
And, of course, it wouldn't be the Golden Girls Kitchen without the infamous kitchen from the show, where the ladies spent many a night talking through their dilemmas over a slice of cheesecake.
"This is the heart and the home, and this wallpaper actually got changed for the second season of the show, but this is the wallpaper everyone knows and remembers," Colucci explained.
"The kitchen was of course the heart of the Golden Girls home, it's where all those cheesecake scenes took place, where they really had their heart to hearts and delivered some of their funniest lines," he added.
Fans will also get a peek at Blanche's boudoir, her bedroom that became famous for the many suitors she had coming and going on the show, complete with pink shag carpet, banana leaf wallpaper and a custom-made bedspread fit to her signature, seductive style.
"It's got all of the elements that remind you of Blanche," Colucci gushed. "And the green and pink color scheme is so typical of the '80s and typical of her, it's perfect."
See it all when the Golden Girls Kitchen opens on National Golden Girls Day, July 30, in Beverly Hills.
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