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Pop on in to the Seinfeld apartment pop up – Metro US

Pop on in to the Seinfeld apartment pop up

Window of Seinfeld Pop Up
Megan Fu

“Seinfeld” super fans descended on a pop-up replica of the show’s inconic New York City apartment Wednesday as part of a promotion celebrating the arrival of the hit show on Hulu.

Luckily for this Metro reporter, the assignment was a win-win: I’m a huge “Seinfeld” fan.

By 10 a.m., there was a line around around the block outside of 451 W. 14 St. It turns out some of them had been waiting there since 6 a.m. to get a look inside of Apt. 5A, which to my delight, came equipped with details such as Jerry’s hanging bicycle and a peep-hole into Kramer’s apartment.

I watched several Kramer idolizers reenact the character’s blundering Kramer apartment entrance.

“There are just so many things, I can’t just think of one thing because everything about the show I’m excited about,” said 30-year-old Omar Nurse from East Harlem. “I guess the layout and the living room and the kitchen.”

Nurse’s favorite episode of Seinfeld is “definitely the Soup Nazi.”

“That is one of my all time favorite episodes and people are always referencing it and stuff,” he said.

The pop-up attracted those from across the U.S. including Jamie Harman, 30, and David Masko, 29, who were both visiting from Philadelphia.

“We’ve been talking about it for the last couple of days we are excited to see the apartment and see how close it is to what it is in the show,” Harman said.

After about 50 minutes, I was let inside the building only after the man at the door asked me how many people I was with and then proceeded to look confused when I said “just me” but he nodded, clicked his tally counter and let me in.

Similar to Disney World or the line at any other amusement park, carnival and so on, the inside was truly just a hidden continuation of the line, but it was air conditioned, so I could get behind that.

Fans took pictures with a microphone in front of a velvet red curtain that mimicked that of Jerry himself. Some told jokes, some snapped photos — it was all comedic gold. The “what’s the deal with homework?” joke was the most popular.

Inside, visitors got to see the wall of guest star autographs, including messages from stars like Kathy Griffin, Jerry Stiller and Larry Thomas. One of the workers handed me a free poster with the quotes “You’re gonna be the first pirate!” and “But I don’t want to be a pirate!” written on. Free stuff is always fun.

After almost exactly 60 minutes, I made it to the door. The kind man behind me, software engineer Sam Uong, 30, visiting from San Francisco agreed to let me record him doing the Kramer entrance and run it alongside this story, “as long as he didn’t fall.”

Luckily for me, he did not.

Before entering Apt. 5A you are encouraged to look through the peephole of Kramer’s apartment, Apt. 5B, upon doing so you will be pleasantly surprise and slightly taken aback when you see Kramer looking right back at you.

The replica is almost exactly what someone who has watched Seinfeld would expect. The kitchen is filled with a number of cereal boxes and snack food, stacks of magazines and books on the coffee table and shelves, Jerry’s workspace with the Power PC Desktop and black landline. You are strongly encouraged to walk through the apartment following a specific path, which is logical and understandable efficiency wise but also somewhat restricting viewing wise. By this I mean, I wanted to open the cereal boxes, snap a selfie with them and check the garbage for eclairs but this for good reason was frowned upon. You win some, you lose some.

It was a little bit smaller than I imagined, but then I remind myself that this is an apartment in New York City. Upon leaving Apt. 5A there is a museum-esque section that puts things like the Superman Randy Bowen Statue on display for fans to see.

And finally on my way out, I was handed a mini box of Junior Mints and all was right in the world.

Go get yourself a free poster and a mini box of Junior Mints, Seinfeld: The Apartment is open June 24 to 28 10 a.m to 7 p.m.