There are certain New York experiences you know from movies long before you ever experience them yourself. Breakfast at Tiffany’s may be one of the most famous.

So when my husband and I had a 12:15 PM brunch date at Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue (we scored the slot because the pair before us had cancelled), I was curious to see what happens when one of those iconic movie moments becomes something you can actually put on your calendar.

First, you have to make it to the restaurant and this involves walking through 5th Avenue’s Tiffany & Co., past an impressive quantity of diamonds, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and other sparkly objects that seem strategically positioned between hungry people and their lunch.

I assume this is intentional. You can’t simply walk into Tiffany’s and eat. You must first demonstrate the strength of your marriage and your credit card, by successfully navigating several floors of jewelry. We survived and made our way to the fourth floor.

The Blue Box Cafe is exactly where – and how – you would expect Tiffany’s to serve brunch. The famous Tiffany turquoise is everywhere. The walls, the furnishings, the details. Look up and you’ll even find those unmistakable Tiffany boxes incorporated into the decor overhead. It is whimsical, elegant, and slightly surreal, especially when you remember that you are sitting inside one of the most famous jewelry stores in the world.

And yes, you can actually have breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The Blue Box Cafe first opened in 2017, finally giving people a chance to turn the title of the classic Audrey Hepburn movie into an actual dining experience. Today, the restaurant is run by celebrated chef Daniel Boulud, whose name certainly raises expectations when the food starts arriving.

We ordered several dishes so we could sample our way through the menu, which is generally my preferred approach when trying someplace new.

The food was good, although I’ll admit that it wasn’t my favorite Daniel Boulud dining experience. I’ve eaten at some of his other restaurants and have come away far more excited about what was on the plate. Here, the real star of brunch is the room itself.

And I think that’s perfectly fine.

There are restaurants you visit because you cannot stop thinking about something you ate there. There are others that give you a very particular experience, one tied to a place, a mood, or a story. The Blue Box Cafe falls into that second category for me.

You’re on Fifth Avenue. You have just walked through Tiffany & Co. You are surrounded by that unmistakable shade of blue. Tiffany boxes are floating above your head. Somewhere in the back of your mind, Audrey Hepburn is standing on the sidewalk in a black Givenchy dress, holding a coffee and pastry.

It is wonderfully, unapologetically New York. Our “breakfast” happened at 12:15 in the afternoon, which technically makes the whole thing brunch at Tiffany’s. Somehow, that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Still, I’m glad we did it. New York is filled with places where you can eat an excellent meal. What makes exploring the city so much fun are the experiences you can only really have here. Sometimes the setting, history, people watching, and sheer novelty of where you are become part of the meal.

The Blue Box Cafe gave us that. We ate. We explored. We took in an extraordinary amount of turquoise. And then we headed back downstairs through the jewelry.

Which, frankly, may be Tiffany’s most brilliant business decision of all.