When you think of Scranton, PA you may think of the Electric City, you may think of The Office, or you may put the two together and think of Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute rapping ‘Scranton, what!? The Electric City!’
The Office is one of the pillars of my relationship with Tyler – when he found out I hadn’t seen The Office, we spent every waking moment at his apartment watching every episode while shoveling back some Pad Thai.
This past winter, Tyler and I took a holiday road trip from Florida to Pittsburgh to New York and back to Florida – with every city in between. When we first started our plans we instantly knew we had to stop in Scranton, PA. The tricky part was finding the places that are truly in Scranton and not just made up for the show or recreated in LA for shooting.
We found three spots to hit up during our stop in Scranton.
Our first stop had to be Poor Richard’s Pub – a staple to The Office cast. We got there right at dinner time so we took a seat at the bar and started ordering up some beers, burgers, and apps.
When we arrived we were surprised to see that the pub was actually within the walls of the bowling alley. While the pub had it’s own space, we were confused when our phone brought us to the bowling alley.
Once you walk into the doors of the bowling alley you see the entrance to Poor Richard’s and then comes the pictures of cast members entering the pub and pub swag and then it’s just the pub you’ve learned to love through the camera lens.
Poor Richard’s is a Scranton hang out spot, once the game turned on that night there wasn’t an empty seat in sight!
Our next stop in Scranton was The Marketplace at Steamtown – which we believe is the Steamtown Mall mentioned in the show.
The mall was a very small shopping center and very empty – but it was a late night between Christmas and New Years. The mall has a complex past which is worth a read itself including foreclosure scares and renamings.
We only shopped at one place – the Library Express Bookstore, which was a really cool library and bookstore concept! We bought a book then headed out to our final stop in Scranton.
We HAD to see the Electric City sign. We drove into downtown and parked our car to look up and see the giant electricity staring down at us. We took our obligatory photos and made all of our friends jealous we were in the home of our favorite show.
We still had two and a half hours to go until we hit my home in New York so we packed up after seeing the sign and headed east but if you’re looking to hit more of The Office spots in Scranton, see below to see some other real places from the hit show.
- Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe
- Lake Wallenpaupack
- Lake Scranton
- Scranton Welcomes You sign – within the Marketplace at Steamtown
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Like what you see? Email me at travelwithrachie@gmail.com or DM on Instagram to set up your own adventure!
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