America is famous for its old-school diners – charming spots where you can perch at the counter eating a slice of pie while sipping bottomless cups of coffee. But when it comes to cherry pie, in particular, there’s one joint that has become a foodie mecca for TV (and food) fans around the world.
Click or scroll to discover the amazing story of this unassuming roadside diner, and how its cherry pie and coffee became world famous.
From the outside, Twede’s Café in North Bend, Washington, USA, looks like any other roadside diner. But fans of David Lynch’s surreal TV show, Twin Peaks, would easily recognise it as one of the most memorable locations from the show: the Double R Diner. Customers still flock here for a slice of its famous cherry pie, best served with a 'damn fine cup of coffee'.
Pie played a starring role in the cult TV show, which first aired in 1990 and was revived for a third series in 2017. Not least, it injected some much-needed lightness into an otherwise dark drama. Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan, pictured in a scene with Sherilyn Fenn) famously falls in love with the cherry pie served at the fictional Double R Diner. David Lynch was charmed by the small-town feel and scenic location of Twede’s Café (then called the Mar-T Cafe). Since then, the diner has been visited by cherry pie fans from all over the world.
Built in 1941, this much-loved roadside diner has changed hands (and names) a few times over the years but has always been a family-owned spot. Its stunning retro decor – complete with wood panelling, a horseshoe lunch counter, and chrome and vinyl counter stools – appeared in the Twin Peaks pilot, and also served as inspiration for the Hollywood sound stage where interior shots were filmed. In 2000, the building suffered severe fire damage from a suspected arson. It was quickly rebuilt, though fans were disappointed that the new interior looked nothing like the Double R Diner.
Happily, another refurb in 2015 – as part of the production of the revived Twin Peaks series – returned Twede’s Café to its former retro glory. Nowadays, the moody interior features hand-painted wallpaper, red velvet curtains and walls lined with Twin Peaks memorabilia. Patrons still flock for a taste of that renowned cherry pie and an excellent cup of coffee, but the menu also has more substantial fare such as all-day breakfasts, burgers, chicken-fried steak and hearty sandwiches.
Read on for more food and drink made famous by films and TV – how many of these delicious scenes do you remember?
FX series The Bear follows the life of chef Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto (played by Jeremy Allen White), who inherits a sandwich shop after his brother Michael unexpectedly passes away. Spaghetti plays a significant role in the evolution of the show, Carmy’s grief and, ultimately, the season finale, leaving viewers desperate to recreate the dish: a simple recipe with San Marzano tomatoes, basil, olive oil, hot pepper flakes, onion and lots of butter. 'The Bear spaghetti' was among Google's top 10 recipe searches of 2022.
The Martini has been a fixture of Bond movies from the beginning, but it was Casino Royale that introduced this particular take on the classic drink to the franchise. The 2006 film showed Daniel Craig as Bond requesting a mix of gin, vodka and Lillet – similar to vermouth – and echoed the drink ordered by 007 in Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel. It’s even named after a Bond character, Vesper Lynd – the only woman the fearless agent ever truly loved.
The popularity of these peanut and chocolate treats is inextricably linked with a certain movie about an extra-terrestrial just trying to get home. In E.T., Elliott lures the creature into the house with a trail of the colourful candy – the result of a unique cross-promotional deal between Universal Studios and Hershey Chocolate. Sales, which had been falling, increased by 65% in the weeks following the movie’s release in 1982. It could have been a different story: director Steven Spielberg first approached Mars, who apparently passed on the opportunity of having M&M’s featured.
Netflix series Stranger Things is all about nostalgia and retro references, and perhaps none are so tangible as main character Eleven’s obsession with Eggo Waffles. Played by Millie Bobby Brown, Eleven devours the frozen breakfast waffles by the packet – and sales of the Kellogg’s product rocketed. In October 2017, when series two landed, consumption was up by 14% year-on-year and the product achieved its highest ever number of social media mentions in a single month.
Who hasn’t craved a bite of Turkish delight when watching (or reading) the famous scene with Edmund and the Snow Queen in CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Whether or not we actually like the sweet, slightly soapy cubes of confectionary, typically buried in icing sugar, there’s something about the 'Narnia effect' that gets us every time. It translates to sales too, with reports of surges up to 200% for Fry’s Turkish delight bars in the UK in anticipation of the 2005 movie version.
Sharp suits, clever slogans, pregnant pauses – and whisky for breakfast. Mad Men took viewers back to the 1950s and beyond, and crystal decanters filled with whisky or Scotch were all part of the glamour. Don Draper particularly loved his drinks 'big and brown', whether a glass of neat alcohol or an old fashioned. The American TV series seriously boosted whisky sales, with a 13.4% increase in one year to 2011 and US consumers accounting for a $372 million share. Draper’s favoured brand, Canadian Club, reported boosted sales up to 23.2% in 2012.
Arguably the ultimate wine movie, Sideways – starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church as friends on an ill-fated California road trip – had an incredible impact on wine tastes following its 2004 release. Pinot Noir was the big winner, with Giamatti’s character Miles declaring his love for the grape several times throughout the film. Production in California reportedly increased by roughly 170% in the following decade, while sales increased around 16% in the first three years after the film came out.
Disney’s 2009 film The Princess and The Frog made viewers long to visit New Orleans but even more than that, it made us drool for a taste of a particular sweet treat. The main character Princess Tiana, who was inspired by real-life late chef Leah Chase, is a talented cook who dreams of opening her own restaurant – and serving up her delicious beignets. The film had audiences longing to bite into one of the small, pillowy doughnut-like fritters, which are a Louisiana classic and usually served in a mound of powdered sugar. It also inspired countless online recipes.
The Coen Brothers’ 1998 movie The Big Lebowski arguably made hanging out in a tatty dressing gown cool and definitely helped to revive this retro cocktail. The Dude, played with inimitable insouciance by Jeff Bridges, is regularly seen slurping on a white Russian, made with vodka, coffee liqueur and milk or cream. The drink sprang up on trendy cocktail bar menus and, during a 'Lebowski Fest' in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, milk sold out within a mile radius. Jeff Bridges even appeared in a short film about the cocktail for Mexican coffee liqueur brand Kahlúa.
We defy anyone to watch the 2014 movie Chef and not crave a Cubano – or, in fact, long to hit the road with their own food truck. It’s hard to pinpoint the impact the movie had on sales of the sandwich, made with soft Cuban bread and packed with layers of meat and cheese, but it proved tempting enough to spark many recipes for people to recreate it at home. Even the movie’s writer, director and star Jon Favreau shared his favourite recipe.
Classic food film Big Night, starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as immigrant brothers struggling to keep their New Jersey restaurant afloat, is credited with changing the way Americans view Italian food by revealing a whole world beyond spaghetti and meatballs. The true star of the 1996 movie is arguably the show-stopping timpano. The layered, baked pasta dish, which can take days to make, apparently returned to many restaurant menus as a result of the film.
Let them eat cake? No – let them eat macarons. Specifically, the prettiest, most perfect, pastel-hued macarons produced by legendary French bakery Ladurée. Sofia Coppola’s 2006 movie Marie Antoinette was especially notable for its gorgeous aesthetics – and star Kirsten Dunst’s ability to mainline patisserie while barely smudging her make-up. The film about the French Revolution is a legendary example of 'pastry porn' and is credited with making the sweets – and the bakery – globally famous and 'America’s new cupcake'. As Dunst has said: “We made macarons hot again.”
Specifically, English tea. The pomp and glamour of Downton Abbey created a thirst for all things British, with even China seeing a rise in popularity of afternoon tea. In the UK, a range of Downton Estate teas in tins emblazoned with images of the cast took advantage of the trend, while the English Cream Tea Company reported its sales had risen 500% in the few years since the TV show first aired in 2010. It’s also believed the show’s popularity in the US sparked new trends for tea parties and tea shops.
In American comedy-drama Gilmore Girls, first aired in 2000, mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory Gilmore became known for their terrifically terrible diet of cheeseburgers, jelly beans and Pop-Tarts, the latter being their lazy breakfast of choice. While there’s no specific data on how the show may have boosted their popularity, Kellogg’s reported US sales of around two billion of the toaster pockets per year in the early 2000s. The latest data suggests Americans ate three billion of them in 2022.
Wensleydale cheese not only features in Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit series – it was saved by the animated shorts. Sales of the mild, crumbly cheese, produced in North Yorkshire, England, had fallen so dramatically by the early 1990s that one of its biggest producers from the region, Wensleydale Creamery, closed. Then, in 1995 film A Close Shave, cheese-loving Wallace proclaimed it his favourite of all – and sales reportedly increased four-fold. The company now employs 200 people and features the series’ characters on one of its labels.
The Wallace and Gromit effect struck again a decade later. Only, this time, the maker of small-production Stinking Bishop cheese wasn't as pleased. The 2005 feature-length movie The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which mentions the washed-rind cheese, sparked such a spike in demand that the maker, Charles Martell and Son, struggled to meet orders from their dairy in Gloucestershire, England. There were reports of people buying the empty wooden boxes and the cheeses being sold on eBay for up to £60 ($75).
This Levantine Arab dish – marinated meat that’s slowly roasted and served in thin slices – doesn’t exactly have a starring role in 2012 movie The Avengers but it only took a mere mention in the hugely popular franchise for it to benefit. Tony Stark (also known as Iron Man) mentions shawarma in the film and there’s also a scene of the assembled superheroes eating the tender meat after the credits (pictured). Lebanese restaurants in Los Angeles, California, USA reported up to an 80% spike in sales in its wake.
Owners of Middle Eastern restaurants also reported an increase in people asking for baba ganoush after Adam Sandler movie You Don't Mess With The Zohan came out in 2008. The comedy didn’t exactly receive critical acclaim but its many scenes featuring hummus and this smoky, aubergine-based dip clearly had some impact with audiences.
This retro-classic ice cream was pretty much unheard of outside the UK when Shaun of the Dead hit cinemas in 2004. And Cornettos only made it into the movie, written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, because they were Wright’s favourite hangover cure. The ice creams, in chocolate-dipped sugar cones, appear in two other films in what’s jokingly become known as 'the Cornetto Trilogy', which also includes Hot Fuzz and World’s End. Wall’s was apparently 'very pleased' with the namecheck.
Pixar’s 2007 movie Ratatouille had audiences rooting for a rat let loose in a Paris kitchen – and made us crave a simple, often underrated peasant dish. The classic tomato-based stew features beyond the animated film’s name when the talented chef (who happens to be a rat) Remy serves his own twist on it to a snobbish food critic. The moment Anton Ego takes a bite – and is transported back to his childhood – encapsulates a reaction all chefs must surely dream of.
What food do they serve in heaven? According to The Good Place, the answer is frozen yogurt. Fro-yo features prominently in the US TV series, which premiered in 2016 and stars Kristen Bell as a self-confessed sinner who appears to be mistakenly admitted into the 'good' afterlife. Where, obviously, there’s a frozen yogurt shop serving an infinite number of flavour combinations from raspberry sorbet to Maine lobster.
Those Golden Girls loved a slice of cheesecake. According to IMDb, the feisty foursome scoffed more than 100 of them during the US TV show’s run from 1985 to 1992. It’s not known whether seeing the ladies huddle over plates of plain, chocolate or double-fudge cheesecake had any direct influence on sales or eating habits, but the Cheesecake Factory’s dessert sales rose dramatically over the same period. And the pudding was as synonymous with the show as cosmos were with a later foursome of friends in Sex and the City.
Anyone who’s ever watched a Popeye cartoon or seen one of the many movie versions must know one thing: he’s 'strong to the finish' 'cause he eats his spinach. The vegetable did feature in the original comic strip but it was the animated shorts produced by Fleischer Studios from 1933 that really made the sailor man and his cohorts household names. According to some theories, they also helped to save the spinach industry during the Great Depression – growers credited Popeye with increasing spinach consumption by 33% in the 1930s.
If there were ever any doubts about how committed fans of The Twilight Saga are, the film series’ impact on mushroom ravioli should dispel them. Bella orders the dish on her first date with Edward at Bella Italia in the first movie, Twilight, released in 2008. People then flocked to the chain's Port Angeles, Washington, USA restaurant to recreate that fated date. According to reports, fans ordered around 4,500 bowls of ravioli in the year following the film’s release. The restaurant also released a ready-meal version.
How many foods get to star in their very own movie? Feel-good flick Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café weaves its characters’ stories through food – specifically, a side dish of unripe tomatoes coated with cornmeal and fried. For viewers outside the US, the 1991 movie was perhaps the first time they’d heard of fried green tomatoes. It’s even been claimed the movie was responsible for turning the dish into the Southern classic it’s considered today.
The Godfather trilogy might be better known for a different, more macabre and far less appetising red 'sauce', but there is one scene that really had audiences drooling – and longing for a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. In the first movie, Peter Clemenza reels off what’s pretty much a full recipe for Italian red sauce or 'Sunday gravy'. His top tip? Add 'a little bit of wine, and a little bit of sugar' to the bubbling pot of tomato-rich sauce. People are still talking about it – and following his advice – today.
Kronk was the foodie of 2000 Disney animated movie The Emperor's New Groove and we reckon it’s the tasty treats he served up that earned him a starring role in the 2005 sequel, Kronk’s New Groove. In particular, these spinach puffs which he nearly burns in one scene and is generally quite precious about. We can see why – the combination of tender spinach and cream cheese encased in buttery puff pastry sounds pretty delicious. There are numerous recipes inspired by them online.
The fab four who formed the heart of TV phenomenon Sex and the City seemed to be forever quaffing lipstick-pink cosmopolitans and they had viewers thirsty to sip one too. The cocktail, made with a slightly sweet and lip-puckeringly sour mix of vodka, triple sec and cranberry juice, dates from the 1970s and was all but forgotten when SATC burst onto screens at the end of the 20th century. After that, it popped up on cocktail menus everywhere.
Had anyone even heard of red velvet cupcakes before they were scoffed by Carrie and Miranda in series three of Sex and the City? Perhaps, but it certainly increased the number of people craving one. Magnolia, the New York City bakery where the friends purchase their delicious-looking cakes, reported 'a frenzy' in the episode’s wake and one that hasn’t stopped. It’s even a stop on food tours thanks to its association with the TV show, and inspired the launch of UK bakery Hummingbird in 2004.
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Last updated by Natasha Lovell-Smith