The real owner of the cafe Dexter opens in One Day speaks about his experience

The real owner of Dexter’s One Day cafe reveals the reality of it being a filming location

‘We’ve sold out most weekends but we are managing’

2 months ago

The real owner of the cafe that Dexter opens in the mini-series of One Day has shared his experience of his business being featured on a huge Netflix hit.

Mehmet was contacted by Netflix after he bought La Maison in February 2023, just mere months after shooting wrapped with filming on the show. Netflix just wanted to iron out all the post-production details after they had included his new business venture found on Calabria Street in London’s Highbury neighbourhood when it was run by the previous owner.

“Netflix got in touch in December 2022 when the cafe was under the previous owners, it was then delayed and the contract with Netflix was signed when we were given the keys at the start of February 2023, One Day was filmed when the cafe was shut before we took over,” he told Dojo.

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Maybe Mehmet hadn’t read the heartbreaking book by David Nicholls or seen the 2011 movie because he was surprised to see the surge in interest from fans of the Netflix show from all over the world.

Netflix

“We really didn’t expect this to happen, but we have seen a huge increase in customers since One Day came out, people from all over the world, like Australia and America, are messaging the cafe saying they are coming to London just to visit,” Mehmet said before explaining how some just come for the photo op and how much they were struggling due to the cost of living crisis.

He added: “There have been huge queues on the weekend with people trying to get in. Lots of people are just taking pictures and then leaving, but we understand with how long the queues can be.”

“It’s been stressful on the weekends, we’ve even had to get more staff to deal with the amount of customers as we became too short-staffed. We’ve sold out most weekends but we are managing,” Mehmet said.

This trend of wanting to see spots included in films isn’t new, but experts have spotted that the increase in social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram has increased the appetite to actually track them down.

“Series and movie franchises have been using small businesses and locations to film in for a lifetime, but as the world moved into a digital era and platforms like TikTok became popular, avid fans are now making it a mission to discover and enjoy the locations seen on screen. As One Day featured unique filming locations that are all current-day places, this was inevitably going to pique the interest of viewers and drive fans to visit these locations,” a Dojo Customer Insight rep said.

One Day is available to watch on Netflix now. For more like this and all the latest Netflix drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.