Back to the Real Lower East Side

Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Dear Diary:

Hipsters seeking Sel Rrose restaurant last month were startled to see Orchard Street restored to its natural state, courtesy of Steven Soderbergh’s circa-1900 set for “The Knick.”

Clothing retailers, textile merchants, kosher shops and a bar, “The Stag’s Head,” where “No Spitting is Allowed,” lined the former retail mecca.

While they stomped out their ciggy butts on the fresh “dirt road” replacing pavements, some huffed and puffed about their preference for the set of “New Girl.” Tourists exiting the Lower East Side Tenement Museum were overjoyed that they had stumbled onto the real thing. “I can’t believe we almost missed this,” said one. ” I wouldn’t have noticed if so many people weren’t stopping for pictures.”

One child asked her mom, “What’s a pawnshop?” outside of T. Lichenstein Pawnbroker, where period furniture pieces were stacked out front. Mom taught Eco 101: People sold their furniture for money. Other children posed for pictures in empty buggies and dug their heels deep in the dirt to peer at the peppermint candies in pushcarts.

The most popular film shooting since “The Ten Commandments” - at least on the Lower East Side.

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