It's Autumn in New York and Romantic Comedies Actually...Are All Around 🍁

The cardigans are cashmere, the lattes are pumpkin-spiced, the golden hours are sepia-toned: it’s autumn on the Upper East Side, and every millennial woman with “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” playing in her AirPods is the star of her very own New York City romantic comedy. But it’s not just the over-priced lattes and stunning selfie lighting that makes us romanticize Autumn in New York (reference to the 2000s film very much intentional), it’s what the city represents: the TV shows and movies imprinted onto every street sign, every path through central park. 

As I stroll uptown off the six train—in search of the intersection of 76th and Madison, where our romantic mystery Burn, Baby plays out—I find myself weaving in and out of my favorite Manhattan stories. On the steps of the MET, with my E.A.T cappuccino in hand, I’m suddenly Blair Waldorf (sorry Serena, I’m team B) with an ostentatious bow in my hair, dreaming of Nate Archibald. After a stroll inside the museum with Harry Burns, I wind through Central Park wearing a ridiculous bowler hat as Sally Albright, flirting atop the crunching leaves. And if you peer across the park to the Upper West Side, you might see me as Kathleen Kelly on my way home from The Shop Around the Corner, smiling to myself about the man behind AOL screen name “NY152.” And back on 5th Ave and down the block, I am Carrie Bradshaw, skipping out of my dream Penthouse Big just bought, where my Manolos will never want for anything.  

I am alive in New York City, I am floating through the Upper East Side and by god: I am in love! In love with the city, in love with myself, in love with every stranger who aggressively shuffles past me on their way to the subway. Even Scarlett Johansson—who I pass on 86th street and quickly google to confirm has a penthouse on Madison Ave—seems in love as she dons a MET cap, clearly in the opening sequence of her own romantic comedy (cue “Suddenly I See” by KT Tunstall). Maybe she’s starring as herself…or maybe like me, she’s Blair, Sally, Kathleen or Carrie. 

So it’s simple rom-com girl-math that at Meet Cute, so many of our stories feature characters in love with and falling in love in New York City: Pauline Chalamet’s titular role in our Signal-Award winning Kerri falls for her best friend in Manhattan, Bennett and Claire catch feelings as they meander the High Line in Baggage, and Kat Tracy in our new romance mystery Burn, Baby finds herself in a love triangle at the Upper East Side’s fictional Highgate Hotel.

And as all of these stories show us—from Gossip Girl to When Harry Met Sally to Burn, Baby—Manhattan is romantic all year round. And yet, there is an extra magic in the air as the leaves turn moody oranges and lipstick reds, making the city more vibrant and visceral: I can smell the fireplace smoke wafting out of million-dollar townhouses, taste the cardamom sprinkled on my foamed oat milk, hear the jazz spilling out of Bemelmans Bar, feel the warmth of my red scarf (thank god you didn’t leave this one in your drawer, even now). And on any given not too hot, not too cold November day on the Upper East Side, I suspect you’ll find that romantic comedies actually…are all around.

Want more Burn, Baby? Listen here and RSVP here for Mysteries & Meet Cutes: A Night at Ace Hotel Brooklyn on December 3rd to try out your detective skills.

Looking for even more juicy stories? Listen to Right Answers Mostly as they spill all the historical tea. After all, history is just gossip. Check out their newest episode on one of history’s juiciest conflicts... The Trojan War.