Aahana Swrup
The 2002 Adam Sandler starrer film, ‘Mr. Deeds’ follows the narrative of the titular Longfellow Deeds, a small-town Pizzaria owner who becomes the heir to a billion-dollar media conglomerate overnight. After the death of his estranged uncle, Preston Blake, Deeds finds himself carried off to New York in a whirlwind as he prepares to take over the business. However, little does he know, Chuck Cedar, his apparent ally, is actually his worst ill-wisher who wants to pounce on Blake’s company shares.
Worse yet, Deeds’ budding romance with Pam Dawson is also a ploy for cutthroat reporter Babe Bennett to get her hands on the story of the year. Given the various vipers surrounding the protagonist in New York, the safety of his hometown, Mandrake Falls, with his beloved pizza shop, stands in stark contrast. However, is there any real-life relevance to Deeds’ Pizza Shop outside of the film?
The Real New Milford Cafe Behind Deeds’ Pizza Shop
Despite its origins as a remake of the 1963 film, ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,’ Steven Brill’s ‘Mr. Deeds’ possesses certain additional elements that are exclusive to its modern, comedic interpretation. Longfellow Deeds’ profession as a pizza place owner is one such detail. In the original film, the protagonist was a part-time greeting card poet—a skill that became an aspirational hobby for Adam Sandler’s version of the character. Instead, the latter owns his own Pizza Place at Mandrake Falls, cultivating it as a hotspot for the local community.
As such, the change in Deeds’ career path modernizes the character’s professional life while also establishing him as an instrumental and adored part of his community back at Mandrake Falls. His introduction as the owner of the pizzeria instantly compels the viewers to distinguish him as a patent Nice Guy who delivers pizzas to nice old ladies and allows his employees to snooze off if they can come up with a good enough excuse. Consequently, it only serves to add to his salt-of-the-Earth small-town guy person.
Nonetheless, much like the small town that Deeds hails from, his pizza shop is also not an actual place. The film equips the real-life town of New Milford as the backdrop for its on-screen depiction of the fictitious Mandrake Falls. As a result, one of New Milford’s treasured local businesses, The Bistro Cafe, located at Bank Street, became the real-life location for Deeds’ Pizza Shop. According to reports, the restaurant underwent a significant makeover in its physical transformation to the pizzeria during filming. Alongside added signage for Deeds’ Pizza, the Bistro Cafe also saw an interior redesign to match the pizzeria aesthetic.
Thus, it remains evident that the restaurant in New Milford was utilized as the exterior and interior for Deeds’ Pizza. Consequently, the actual Mandrake Falls pizzeria is confined to the narrative of ‘Mr. Deeds,’ without any persisting real-life physical location reflective of its on-screen counterpart. Ultimately, the shop remains an effective character-building tool for Longfellow Deeds, contributing to Mandrake Falls’ world-building. Nonetheless, it holds no connections to reality outside of the same.
Read More: Mr. Deeds: Is Winchestertonfieldville a Real Town in Iowa?
