O’Hara’s Pub from “Bad Santa”

I realize that Christmas has passed, but I have one more holiday locale to write about before bidding adieu to the Yuletide season.  Two Fridays ago, after reading my post on Footsies bar from Bad Santa, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, miraculously managed to track down the exterior of O’Hara’s Pub from the 2003 comedy.  Being that I had been trying to find that darn bar for what seemed like eons, I could NOT have been more excited to learn the news.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it while the two of us were in Los Angeles this past weekend.  (And yes, I do realize that my outfit in the above photograph is slightly ridiculous, being that the weather was a sunny 75 degrees at the time.  I had been dying for a pair of red Hunter rain boots for ages, though, and finally received them from the GC this Christmas.  I don’t care that I live in the desert where it never rains, I am in love with the boots and am determined to wear them as often as possible – rain or shine.  So !)

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During his search for the Bad Santa bar, Owen managed to contact a couple of the flick’s crew members, one of whom told him, “The exterior front was a built and dressed empty storefront in Venice.”  With that information in hand, Owen did a Google image search for “Venice California store,” as he said, “hoping that by some minor miracle I’d recognize a building.”  Thankfully, fate took hold.  He went on to say, “Well, a minor miracle occurred.  In the fifth row of images, I saw this picture.  It was brick and had that white brick trim, so I opened the page and learned it was an antique store on Abbot Kinney.  I figured perhaps the building you were after, because it shared similar elements, would be nearby.  I went to Google Maps, put in ‘Abbot Kinney Blvd., Los Angeles’ and — GET THIS! — I grabbed the little yellow/orange ‘street view’ man and the very first place I dropped him on Abbot Kinney was literally right in front of the bar.  And the camera was even facing the right way.  Talk about luck!  It must be a Christmas miracle.”  Not only was it a Christmas miracle, but it was one of the best gifts I received this year!  Thank you, Owen!

As the crew member had mentioned, the storefront was dressed heavily for the shoot, with an “O’Hara’s Pub” neon sign added to the exterior and a fake green façade constructed over the space’s windows and doors.  Even with the changes, though, the place is still very recognizable.

I accidentally took my photos from a slightly wrong angle, so the street light in front of the bar exterior appears to be a bit farther east than it did in Bad Santa.  If you take a look at Google Street View, though, you can see a correctly-angled view of the space.

Today, the O’Hara’s Pub storefront houses a clothing boutique named Heist.  As the crew member told Owen, the space was vacant at the time that Bad Santa was filmed in 2003.

As I mentioned in my Footsies bar post, I am also dying to locate the interior of O’Hara’s Pub.  I may have found it, too, but I need to do some more research to be sure, so stay tuned!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.  And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Heist boutique, aka the exterior of O’Hara’s Pub from Bad Santa, is located at 1100 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.