Diksha Sundriyal
Peacock’s ‘The Paper’ follows a dying newspaper’s struggle to revive itself. As all odds seem stacked against it, the team, led by its new editor-in-chief, Ned Sampson, starts to turn things around. However, this journey is more difficult than imagined, and apart from chasing stories around Toledo, it also leads them to do some reflection about their own place in the world. While most of the events unfold in the office of the Toledo Truth Teller, the team also turns towards places like Macaroni Barn to unwind, especially after a hard day. While the bar appears a couple of times in the show, it is not open to the public in real life. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Macaroni Barn is a Fictional But Important Location in The Paper
After following the Dunder Mifflin paper company in Scranton, the documentary crew moves to Toledo, Ohio, to follow the Toledo Truth Teller newspaper. The story focuses on the local issues of Toledo, but the filming for the show did not take place there. In fact, the show is almost entirely filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California. The creators of the show visited Toledo and some of its most popular places to get a vibe of the city and incorporated it into the sets to give a more realistic look to the location. However, almost every location that we see in the show is in California, and this includes Macaroni Barn.
The bar comes into the picture in the fifth episode, where Mare and Nicole decide to take Esmeraldo out, when the latter is heartbroken over the discovery that the man she had been in a long-distance relationship with was actually catfishing her. While Mare and Nicole, and even the other employees, generally prefer to keep their distance from Esmeralda, mainly due to her unpredictable behaviour and her history of sabotaging others for her personal and professional gains, they sympathise with her in this situation. They think that taking her out for a couple of drinks will lighten her mood, and sure enough, she takes to the dance floor, as if she has forgotten that she had her heart broken by a catfish.
The next time Macaroni Bar factors into the story is when Mare and Esmeralda chase a story about public toilets being demolished to be turned into something else. They follow the person in charge of the project to prove that he did not attend the public meeting where the case was supposed to be heard. The man ends up at Macaroni Bar, where Esmeralda makes Mare dress up and seduce him into spilling the details that they can use for the newspaper. Scenes like these establish Macaroni Bar as an important location. It is expected to feature more into the story as things get more difficult for the Truth Teller team, both on personal and professional fronts, and the bar might become their regular haunt, especially as the bonds between them develop into strong friendships, and for some, into a romance.
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