Bar Keeper – aka Upon Gallery from “A Lot Like Love”

Back in December, shortly before Christmas, the Grim Cheaper and I headed out to Silver Lake to do some gift shopping for his father at one of the most unique, quirky and whimsical stores in all of Los Angeles – Sunset Junction’s Bar Keeper, the very same spot that stood in for Upon Gallery in fave movie A Lot Like Love.  And even though I have actually already blogged about this location once before – way back in January of 2008, during the early days of my site – because it was not only a very brief write-up, but also lumped together with a few other A Lot Like Love locations, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a re-post.  So here goes.

On its website, Bar Keeper is described as being a “head shop for those who want to prepare and serve their cocktails with style”.  Specializing in everything from vintage glassware to bar collectibles to hard-to-find liquor,  the place is truly one-of-a-kind.  The store, which first opened its doors on April 4th, 2006, is the brainchild of former reality TV producer Joe Keeper, hence the “Keeper” in the name.  Joe designed the entire shop himself, doing everything from laying down the flooring to constructing the L-shaped wooden bar from which he rings up customers’ purchases.

The walls of the unique shop are decorated with a larger-than-life periodic table of the elements, photographs of bartenders from local watering holes, over 70 vintage bar signs, and floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves which hold small-production bottles of liquor.  Keeper scours the U.S. to find his unique stock of vintage barware and rare-label libations, traveling everywhere from the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena to such far-flung locales as Antique Alley, a 33-mile section of Old National Road in Indiana that boasts over 900 different antique dealers. In a December 2008 Los Angeles Times article, Keeper states, “In my heart of hearts, I realize I’m a gift shop, but really, what I feel like I sell is ritual, the art of drinking.”  Well, whatever Joe is selling, people are definitely buying as the store has been extremely popular ever since it first opened.  Some of Bar Keeper’s customers even include set designers from Mad Men who stop by regularly to pick up vintage pieces to feature on the show. Um, love it!

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In A Lot Like Love, Bar Keeper stood in for Upon Gallery, the art gallery where Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) stumbled upon the nude photograph that he and longtime on-again/off-again girlfriend Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet) had taken a few years prior.  At the time of the filming, the storefront, which formerly housed a vintage record shop, was vacant.  The space pops up twice in the movie – first in the scene in which Olive spots his photograph and later when he returns there in the hopes of running into Emily.  Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the store were featured in the flick.

The laundromat located across the street from Upon Gallery, where Oliver waited for Emily in A Lot Like Love, was actually a real life laundromat named Sunset LaunderLand.

Sadly though, according to the Eastsider LA website, the place closed its doors a couple of years ago and it looks to still be vacant and awaiting a new tenant.

The exterior of Bar Keeper also showed up very briefly in last week’s episode of fave show 90210, which was titled “Babes In Toyland”, in an establishing shot for the scene in which Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) and Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) waited at a café for the VP of A&R for Def Jam Records.  The actual café where filming took place, though, was the Coffee Pot located at 2201 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, a location that I will surely be stalking very soon. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Bar Keeper, aka Upon Gallery from A Lot Like Love, is located at 3910 West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake.  You can visit the store’s official website here.  Sunset LaunderLand, where Oliver waited for Emily in the movie, was formerly located across the street from Bar Keeper at 3903 West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake.  That site is currently vacant.