TikTok is finally over Saltburn, and it's been replaced by the Netflix cry-athon One Day. It's became a full blown obsession on the social media app. And some viewers are so determined to stay in a world where episode 13 doesn’t exist, that they’ve been taking a TikTok pilgrimage to a small cafe in Highbury, north London, that doubled up as Dexter’s cafe in the show.
One Day – adapted from the 2009 David Nicholls book of the same name – has been one of the biggest hits for the streamer so far in 2024. It follows the rocky romantic road of soulmates Dexter (Leo Woodall) and Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) over the course of almost 20 years. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t end well, and now fans have been trauma-bonding over a latte on the site of Dexter’s fictional eaterie, Cafe Belleville, IRL.
At the end of February, one TikTok user posted her visit to the real cafe, called La Maison, on Calabria Road, and it’s currently clocked up more than 44,000 hearts:
Captioned “coffee dates with Dexter”, commentators swing between the “let’s go!” type to the altogether more dramatic: “I couldn't...I'd be in there choking with crying over my cappuccino...I think I'd scare people.”
Not since the Blue Door from Notting Hill has a London landmark on screen attracted such real world interest, and another TikTok user, while munching on a tasty-looking rhubarb danish pastry, noted that on his visit “everyone single person around us was talking about the show” but that “sadly no Leo Woodall there, but a boy can dream”:
Come the summer, the small cafe could see itself even more swamped with Dex ‘n’ Em stans, as the series takes place every year on the same date, July 15, otherwise known as St Swithin’s Day. While plans are also being made by fans for a mass meet-up at the other key location in the series – Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, where the couple go the morning after the night before they first hooked up – others think La Maison is the best place to pay their regards to the fictional couple, and to Emma. “I’ll be there July 15th on St Swithin’s Day”, said one TikToker, while another added: “I’m watching this for the third time. I keep hoping for a different outcome.”
