One of the most anticipated biopics has transformed one of Jersey City’s oldest neighborhoods into a retro version of Greenwich Village as the Timothée Chalamet-led “A Complete Unknown” continues to shoot throughout New Jersey.
Last weekend, a shoot for the movie transformed Moran’s Pub in Hoboken into McAnn’s. Bob Dylan frequented the New York City spot during his rise to fame in the 1960s, which serves as the setting for the upcoming film.
More Greenwich Village spots have been recreated as part of the film shoot, which has moved south to Jersey City. The space at 517 Jersey Avenue usually occupied by Wonder Bagels is now a stand-in for Cafe Borgia, which once stood at the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker Streets. According to the New York Times, the café closed in 2001 after a 42-year run.
Local favorite The Kitchen Step is serving this week as Minetta Tavern, a French restaurant on MacDougal Street. The eatery served as an unofficial Beat Generation celebrity hangout in the early 1950s for writers and poets including Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O’Neill, Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound and E.E. Cummings
Elsewhere along the movie set, a space along Wayne Street has been mocked up as Cafe Bizarre. Per Village Preservation.org, the former spot was located on West 3rd Street and was one of the early Greenwich Village folk clubs upon opening in 1957.
A nail salon on Jersey Avenue has been morphed into Cafe Wha?, a business that still exists along the real-life MacDougal Street. Other storefront transformations along the stretch include an old-school NYC bodega complete with a roasted nuts stand and some retro product signs placed in the windows at Norman’s Pharmacy.
Searchlight Pictures, who are distributing the upcoming move, brought in several old cars for the shoot including vintage New York City taxis and a historic Pepperidge Farm Bread truck.
“A Complete Unknown” is being written and directed by James Mangold, who helmed the Oscar-winning film “Ford v Ferrari” and led last year’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Besides Chalamet, the movie also stars Oscar nominee Edward Norton as folk singer Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning, and Nick Offerman.
The production has been busy around the Garden State in recent weeks and will continue to shoot in New Jersey through June. A release date for the movie has not been announced.
