When Dunne and his crew first arrived in Coupeville, they painted the buildings on Front Street white to match the Cape Cod aesthetic. After filming, they were reverted back to their original colors, which is how the buildings appear now. Even still, moseying about town is like a Practical Magic scavenger hunt. There’s the fictional Verbena Botanicals shop, which was housed inside the 1866-era Sedge Building. And Toby’s Tavern, which was styled as the Catch and Fry for the movie and occupies the Whidbey Mercantile building circa 1875. What’s now The Beary Scoop was the barbershop in Practical Magic. And fun fact: the hanging ice cream sign outside Kapaw’s Iskreme was built as a movie prop and remains to this day. (Rather devastating: the Owens Victorian home was an architectural shell built by Roman and Williams and was torn down after filming.)
I pop inside the chamber of commerce and explain why I am in town. “Let me show you where the sausage is made,” the woman working says with a grin as she unlocks a cabinet. Tucked inside is a shrine to Practical Magic with original film props, including bottles from Verbena Botanicals. She tells me there have been more like me, traveling to Coupeville in honor of Practical Magic, and that the island’s prized Blue Fox Drive-In theater has already sold out for the September 10th premiere of the sequel. Tickets included chocolate cake, entry to a ‘witchy wardrobe’ contest, and—most crucially—margaritas.
Photo: Teo Crider
That evening, I’m seated below a monastic Noguchi lantern at the hotel’s restaurant, Passage, facing the open kitchen where Michelin-starred chef Johnny Spero and his team prepare a tasting menu that celebrates the region’s forests, waters, and farms. And also: Spero’s newly refreshed garden out front, which smells of sweet alyssum.
