Mapping the New York of ‘American Psycho’

Kerry Hayes/Lions Gate Films

It’s been 20 years since “American Psycho” was published. Ten, since the movie adaptation, with Christian Bale as the eerie personification of Patrick Bateman, a homicidal M.&A. banker, was
in theaters.

To help commemorate the cultural touchstone, Nick Carr of Scouting New York put together an impressive list of the actual restaurants and clubs that Bateman reels off
to his associates, his coworkers and, occasionally, his purported murder victims. (Mr. Carr has even included photos, so you can see just how 150 Wooster looks today. It’s worth checking out his original
post.)

The author of “American Psycho,” Bret Easton Ellis, made up some of the locations, including the infamous Dorsia, a restaurant whose exclusivity caused Bateman endless pain. (Witness how he took care of Paul Allen,
who could get in.)

But Mr. Ellis was known to throw in brand names to lend his books a frisson of reality, and that means that real-life locations like the nightclubs Tunnel and Canal Bar graced the pages of “American Psycho.”
Some of the locales, like the Harvard Club and 21, are around to this day, still catering to hotshot bankers and traders.

Scouting New York even lists the places that have sprung up where some of the once-hot establishments once stood. So yes, that celebrity-packed restaurant is now a showroom for high-end baby strollers.

We’ve gone an extra step and mapped out the locations, so you can see just where Bateman’s travels would have taken him. Yes, even to First Avenue on the Upper East Side.

View Patrick Bateman’s New York City in a larger map

Correction: August 5, 2011
An earlier version of the story incorrectly spelled the name of the author of “American Psycho.” His name is Bret Easton Ellis, not Brett Easton Ellis.