Who wants to take a (virtual) walk through Pop Tate’s Chock’lit Shoppe in Riverdale?
Back during a set visit in November, ComicBook.com took a whole slew of photos, with an eye toward being able to walk fans through certain key sets from shows like Riverdale, Supergirl, and The Flash.
Videos by ComicBook.com
This is the first one we’ve had the chance to actually try and put together, and since it’s a relatively small space, we figured it’s as good a place to start as any since it’s a fairly simple one.
So walk inside with us, order up an imaginary milk shake, and try to ignore the creepy redheaded twins drinking from the same cup. Here’s a walk through Riverdale‘s take on a classic Archie Comics locale.
MORE: Madelaine Petsch on Cheryl’s Motivation and Jason Flashbacks / Sabrina the Teenage Witch Could Come to Riverdale / Madelaine Petsch Explains Riverdale’s Cheryl Blossom / Riverdale’s Ashleigh Murray and Madelaine Petsch On the Importance Of Strong Women Who Aren’t Part of a Couple / Riverdale’s Ashleigh Murray: Josie Sees Archie As A Threat / New Riverdale Photo Spotlights Famous Love Triangle / Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist Visits Riverdale, Hangs Out With Archie and Jughead / Ashleigh Murray Shows Off Riverdale’s Josie and the Pussycats on Twitter
Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
WELCOME TO RIVERDALE
Yep, that’s right: just like Gotham City and Metropolis have done in the past, Riverdale avoids telling us what state Riverdale is actually in by giving its residents local license plates.
We won’t lie: we kind of wanted to steal that license plate.
You’ll notice, too, the kind of “used” aesthetic here, with a 30-year-old truck in front of Pop’s. This isn’t quite as dramatic on Riverdale as it is on a show like Gotham — after all, the Riverdale gang are kids, and so it would be weird if they didn’t have mobile phones or Jughead’s laptop when he’s working on his novel.
Still, the overall look and feel of Riverdale is largely something that could be “anytime in the recent past.”
THE SIGN
This sign is apparently easy to spot from the road: while we were visiting the set of Riverdale, one of the production people regaled reporters with the story of a trucker who pulled in off of a nearby road and walked right into Pop’s, thinking that it was a place where he could actually sit down and order.
(To be fair, the diner itself is fully functional, and when you see people cooking on Riverdale, they’re probably making real food rather than just making busywork. But there wasn’t anybody there to take his order or his money, since all the waitresses were actors.)
While most of Riverdale is shot on a sound stage — so big parts of the town only exist as kind of 3/4-finished rooms — Pop’s is the exception. Driving up to the studio lot where Riverdale is filmed, you can’t miss this big, exterior set with its distinctive look, bright lights, and small-town neon all around.
THE EXTERIOR
As far as set visits go, this is a pretty perfect way to start the day.
Yeah, this might not be exactly the way Pop’s has been drawn in every comic you’ve ever read — but it’s exactly the way it’s been drawn in plenty of them, and it utterly nails the look, feel, and mood that you think of when you think of Pop’s (and, for that matter, Riverdale).
From the logo to the lighting to the fact that it looks like a 40-year-old double-wide, walking up on Pop’s feels authentic, and that entry point is key to selling the interior.
THE BOOTHS
You could mistake these tables for a Johnny Rocket’s (at least as of five or ten years ago when they were still going for the retro/’50s motif), but what sells it as an authentic small town diner is the fact that there aren’t that many tchotchkes on the walls and the wood paneling isn’t something that the faux-retro people ever got to.
The wood paneling also sells that ’70s mobile home vibe we were talking about earlier.
THE MUSIC
Obviously, music is a big part of Riverdale.
Josie and the Pussycats singing “Sugar, Sugar” was one of the greatest things this longtime Archie fan has seen in a long time on television, after all.
Bobby Vinton, Jimmy Dean, Bobby Darin and Nat King Cole do a lot to sell the ’50s aesthetic here. You might remember that even ’50s theme restaurants used to slip ’70s and ’80s hits into the jukebox just to drive people to toss a few quarters in. But there’s basically nothing in here that wouldn’t have been at home in pretty much any era of Archie Comics.
We’ll add that “Stranger on the Shore” seems a creepily appropriate song for this show.
THE VIEW
txt
Looking at the set from this angle, it’s basically impossible to tell it’s a set. It looks as much like a small town diner as anything else, and it has the same basic aesthetic as something like the Tick Tock Diner in New York (except for the layout).
Shooting in this room when it’s crowded must be kind of a pain in the neck, though; it really is just a functional diner, and not something you can easily move a crew around in if there are more than a handful of tables full.
BEHIND THE COUNTER
Condiments: real. Coffee: real. Fruit: real. Those pies?
Well, we think the pies are props. They wouldn’t let us try to taste them.
We’re going to go ahead and assume that with Alice Cooper (Madchen Amick) on this show, any actual edible pie on set is contractually required to be damn good.
DINER
Here, we get the second of two neon “diner” signs, which might be one of the only things that really kind of makes the place feel like a set (those seem expensive to get two for such a small space).
You also get a photo of Pop Tate, an old-school cash revister, and look at the general layout of the behind-the-counter/bar area, which we haven’t really spent a lot of time with yet.
…but we will…!
