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The best cheesecake east of St. Olaf

A new “Golden Girls” cafe pays homage to the classic sitcom

"Golden Girls"- related memorabilia on display in Rue La Rue Cafe. Christopher Muther/Globe Staff

NEW YORK — On a warm June morning, it seemed that no one inside Rue La Rue Café was having a conversation. Certainly no one was interested in sitting outside. Instead, all eyes were fixed on a large flat screen TV, which was showing the beloved sitcom “The Golden Girls.” There was even a small sing-along each time a new episode began.

“Thank you for being a friend!”

Think of this café as “The Golden Girls” promised land. Rue La Rue opened earlier this year and is dedicated to all things “Golden Girls,” and, more specifically, to Rue McClanahan, who played the man-hungry vixen Blanche Devereaux on the show. The sitcom about four women of a certain age sharing a home in Miami was a Saturday night staple from 1985 through 1992.

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Rue La Rue is the best kind of “Golden Girls” experience. Not only can you sit near the banana leaf wallpaper, the same wallpaper that hung in Blanche’s bedroom, you can also feast upon a Stan “The Putz” Turkey Club, Sophia Petrillo’s famous lasagna al forno, and, most importantly, cheesecake. Even the bathroom tile looks like the bathroom on the show.

“I’m here first and foremost because I’m a huge fan of the show,” said William Peterson, who was visiting New York from London. “I watch ‘The Golden Girls’ whenever I’m feeling a bit down, it always cheers me up. I also came because I wanted to try the cheesecake.”

“I see a lot of people come through the door and they’ll actually be crying,” said Michael LaRue, co-owner of the café. “I’m able to go up to them and say, ‘Who did you watch the show with?’ I find a lot of people have this emotional connection, not just to the show, but to the person they used to watch the show with, be it a grandmother or mother. So, when they come in here those memories flood back.”

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Many of the recipes served here come from, or are inspired by, McClanahan’s personal cookbooks and recipe collections, and those of her costars, including the Orange Poppy Seed Cake.

“It’s an Oklahoma recipe McClanahan made her entire life,” LaRue said. “It’s Duncan Hines yellow cake mix, a package of Jell-O instant pudding, Tropicana orange juice, orange peel and poppy seeds. You won’t believe me, but it’s delicious.”

(Reporter’s note: It was delicious.)

The memorabilia on display, much of which comes from McClanahan’s estate, includes her 1987 Emmy for lead actress along with the ensemble she wore that night, several scripts, “Golden Girls” merchandise that has come out over the years, and even a shrine dedicated to the Girls’ yellow kitchen telephone.

Michael J. LaRue, co-owner of Rue La Rue Cafe, a "Golden Girls"-themed cafe in New York. Christopher Muther/Globe Staff

More than 30 years after “The Golden Girls” debuted on NBC, love for the show does not appear to be abating. “The Golden Girls” runs in syndication in 50 countries. According to LaRue, there is always an episode of “The Golden Girls” airing somewhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The show set the stage for female ensemble casts later found in “Sex and the City” and “Girls.” But unlike the cosmo-swilling gals of “Sex and the City,” or the self-absorbed and occasionally maddening “Girls,” “The Golden Girls” was relatable across a broader audience, even for those who don’t qualify for an AARP card.

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“Personally I think the reason that it crosses all sorts of boundaries is that it speaks to this universal thing that we all share, which is a fear that as we age we’re going to become irrelevant and invisible,” LaRue said. “This show combats that fear by showing that you can have joy with your friends. I think it really gives people this sort of soothing balm when they have that fear of aging and being alone.”

LaRue has a lot of memories around the show, specifically with McClanahan. He met her at a fund-raiser for an animal charity 17 years ago, and the two quickly bonded.

“Over the years we got closer and closer,” he said. “I ended up becoming her producer. I wrote and produced the musical adaptation of her memoir, ‘My First Five Husbands . . . and the Ones Who Got Away.’”

"Golden Girls"- related memorabilia on display in Rue La Rue Cafe. Christopher Muther/Globe Staff

After McClanahan passed away in 2010, the day-to-day responsibilities of running her estate went to LaRue. McClanahan has a son, Mark Bish, who is co-owner of the café.

LaRue said the most daunting task he faced after McClanahan’s death was going through everything that she left behind.

“Although she was known as a collector, in reality she was a hoarder with enough closets to hide everything,” he said. “One of the first things I found was a folder with notes that she passed to her girlfriends in grade school in the 1930s. I knew I was in trouble when I found her prom dress.”

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He inventoried all of her possessions and then stored them in four 18-wheeler cargo containers. He said the café will rotate the displays of scripts, costumes, jewelry, adding that there’s enough material for “about 300 years.”

"Golden Girls" coffee flavors inspired characters from the show. Credit: Christopher Muther/Globe Staff

Customers inevitably ask about the quality of the cheesecake. Fans know that all problems could be solved with a slice of cheesecake and perhaps accompanied by a nonsensical tale from St. Olaf.

“Our cheesecake is made by a bakery in the Bronx, and it’s a wonderful New York classic cheesecake,” LaRue said. “The man who made all the cheesecakes for ‘The Golden Girls’ reached out to me recently. I’m going to try to get his recipe so we can make the original cheesecake that the girls were eating on the show. Now more than ever, the world could use a good cheesecake.”

RUE LA RUE CAFÉ 4394 Broadway, New York, 917-521-0820.


Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Muther.