On the corner of Wayne Street and Jersey Avenue, a pound of coffee is $1.69 and a dozen eggs are 80 cents this morning. At least that’s what the signs say in the new corner grocery store occupying what was, until a few days ago, the restaurant Kitchen Step. The 1980s pricing goes nicely with the Chevy Citation and Plymouth Fury parked nearby.
The props came along with a small army of cinematographers, grips, gaffers, make-up artists and production assistants helping to film the upcoming Netflix series “Eric.”
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch — best known for hits like Sherlock and The Power of the Dog — the six-part thriller tells the story of a father whose nine-year-old son disappears one morning on the way to school. According to the Netflix synopsis, as Cumberbatch’s character, a famous puppeteer, struggles to cope with the loss of his son, “he relies on his son’s drawings of a blue monster puppet, ERIC, convinced that if he can get ERIC on TV then [his son] will come home.”
Directed by Lucy Forbes, the cast includes Gaby Hoffmann, McKinley Belcher III, Dan Fogler, Clarke Peters, Ivan Howe, Phoebe Nicholls, David Denman, Bamar Kane, Adepero Oduye, Alexis Molnar and Roberta Colindrez.
Downtown Jersey City has become a popular location for film shoots. In 2022, Terrence Howard filmed scenes for The Best Man: The Final Chapters. In 2020, Queen Latifah filmed scenes for the Equalizer along Jersey Avenue.
