Year: 2014

Hotel Erwin from “Cougar Town”

I have never been a big fan of Venice Beach, but during my weeklong birthday celebration in L.A. my pals Lavonna, Kim, Katie, and Kaylee wanted to do some shopping, so I suggested hitting up Abbot Kinney Boulevard. While there, Lavonna asked if I had any stalking to do in the area and a light bulb went on in my head. I had long wanted to visit Hotel Erwin, where the Cul-de-Sac Crew stayed in the Season 4 episode of Cougar Town titled “Have Love Will Travel.” Because I typically avoid Venice like the plague, though, I had yet to do so. So the five of us headed right on over there. (That’s Katie and Kaylee, Kim’s daughter and Lavonna’s niece, respectively, in the photo above.)

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Since Angelinos tend to be much friendlier toward tourists than locals (at least when it comes to stalking), I always utilize Lavonna’s thick Southern accent whenever stalking with her. (She jokes that I just use her for her voice. ) This particular venture was no exception. The area of Hotel Erwin that I most wanted to see was its rooftop lounge, High, which was featured in several scenes on Cougar Town, so I promptly sent Lavonna to the front desk to inquire if we could go up there and snap some photos. Upon drawling to the concierge, “Y’all got a rooftop bar?”, Lavonna was informed that the lounge was closed, but that we were more than welcome to head up there to check it out and take pictures. (See, that accent works every time!) So we did just that. And, let me tell you, the place is nothing short of spectacular.

High Rooftop Lounge is absolutely HUGE, encompassing the entire roof of the Erwin.

Glass walls surround the premises, allowing for stunning beach and city views from pretty much every seat.

I mean, check out that scenery! Uh-ma-zing!

Hotel Erwin, which was built in 1967, originally housed the Best Western Marina Pacific Hotel. In 2008, the Joie de Vivre Group took over management of the site and cut its name to the “Marina Pacific Hotel.” A short five months later, management changed once again and an extensive, multimillion-dollar renovation project was begun, during which time an entire floor of ocean-view suites and new rooftop were added to the property. You can check out a photograph of what the structure looked like as the Best Western here. As you can see, the hotel lacked a fifth floor and rooftop lounge at the time and looked quite a bit different than it does in comparison to the pictures below. The site was re-dedicated as the Hotel Erwin, named in honor of owner Erwin Sokol, in mid-2009.

In the “Have Love Will Travel” episode of Cougar Town, which was the Season 4 finale and one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, Jules Cobb (Courteney Cox) and the gang headed to Los Angeles for a short vacation. While there, they stayed at Hotel Erwin. Quite a few areas of the 119-room property were shown in the episode, including High Rooftop Lounge, where the Cul-de-Sac Crew regularly hung out.

A night scene also took place at High. As you can see in the screen captures below, the bar’s views are even gorgeous after the sun sets. Oh, Grim Cheaper, I sense a field trip to Venice on the horizon!

Hotel Erwin’s front entrance was also utilized in the episode.

It was dressed quite a bit differently for the shoot. In real life, there is no furniture or concierge desk in that area.

The entrance does feature a little outdoor lounge, though.

The exterior of Hotel Erwin was also briefly visible in the scene in which Travis Cobb (Dan Byrd) and Laurie Keller (Busy Phillips) discussed the fact that fate seemed to be against them being together.

The interiors of the rooms where the gang stayed in the episode were sets and not actual Hotel Erwin rooms. Photographs of the property’s real life accommodations can be viewed here. As you can see, they do not match up to what appeared onscreen.

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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hotel Erwin, from the “Have Love Will Travel” episode of Cougar Town, is located at 1697 Pacific Avenue in Venice Beach. You can visit the property’s official website here. High Rooftop Lounge is open daily, starting at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

June 18, 2014
Fat Sal’s Deli – Jerry Ferrara’s Restaurant

I’m back, people! To say that last week was a blast would be an understatement. It was honestly one of the best weeks of my life and a really special birthday celebration. There was never a dull moment and I am officially exhausted (and now have a cold), but it was well worth it! A huge THANK YOU to the Grim Cheaper and my friends Lavonna, Kim, Katie and Kaylee for making it all happen. One of our many adventures (and I will be blogging about all of them soon) included hitting up the premiere of How to Train Your Dragon 2 in Westwood. We arrived on the scene bright and early only to learn that the premiere had been postponed from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Yeah, no thank you! After quickly deciding to bail (and after randomly running into fellow stalker Anushika, from the Mike the Fanboy family – that’s her in the above picture), we did some shopping nearby (I got an adorable dress at Brandy Melville) and then I dragged the entire gang over to grab a bite to eat at Fat Sal’s Deli, a place I had wanted to stalk for ages due to the fact that it is owned by cutie Jerry Ferrara, aka Turtle from Entourage.

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Jerry founded Fat Sal’s in 2010, along with his childhood pals Josh Stone and Sal Capek. Frustrated over their inability to find good East Coast-style sandwiches in Los Angeles, the three native New Yorkers decided to open up their own place. Their first outpost was on Gayley Avenue in a walk-up space that formerly housed a sausage stand named Spoc’s. Thanks to its fab food, late night hours (it does not close until 3 a.m. most days) and proximity to UCLA, Fat Sal’s became wildly successful and two sister restaurants were eventually opened – one in Hollywood and one in San Diego. A fourth is set to launch later this year in Austin, Texas.

Fat Sal’s menu is unique to say the least, with such offerings as Pepperoni Pizza Fries (French fries covered in chopped pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce), the Fat Jerry (a hero sandwich comprised of chicken fingers, cheesesteak, fried mozzarella sticks, bacon, eggs, French fries, mayo, ketchup, salt and pepper) and Meat Luv’rz Pizza Rolls (spring rolls filled with pepperoni, ground beef, sweet Italian sausage, provolone, mozzarella and marinara sauce). I played it safe and opted for Fat Sal’s Cheese Dog, which, as you can see below, I was pretty darn excited about. And I am happy to report that the dog did not disappoint. It was delish!

The gang all loved their orders, as well. (That’s our group pictured below.) And while we tried to convince Lavonna to order the Big Fat Fatty, she was having none of it. For those not in the know, the Big Fat Fatty is a 27-inch (!!) hero filled with five cheeseburgers, a pound of pastrami, cheesesteak, chicken fingers, bacon, mozzarella sticks, fried eggs, jalapeno poppers, French fries, onion rings, chili, marinara sauce and fat sauce. The monster sandwich costs a whopping $49.95, but if a patron can eat the whole thing in forty minutes or less, it’s free! If someone does manage to accomplish such a feat, he or she gets to design and name a sandwich that will then be added to Sal’s menu.

In 2011, Fat Sal’s was featured in the pilot of Planet Green’s Suzilla: The Mouth that Roars. In the episode, series star Suzanna French, aka “Suzilla,” who just so happens to be the fourth-ranked competitive eater in the world, attempted to eat a Big Fat Fatty. Spoiler alert – she was not successful.

You can watch the Suzilla: The Mouth that Roars episode by clicking below.

The eatery was also featured in the Season 19 episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives titled “Righteous Bites,” which just aired a couple of weeks ago. You can watch the episode on Amazon, iTunes or Xfinity here.

I was super excited to see Guy Fieri’s autograph on the wall while we were there.

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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The original Fat Sal’s Deli is located at 972 Gayley Avenue in Westwood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 17, 2014
Latest “Los Angeles” Magazine Post – About Chicago Lake Michigan University from “Perception”

Be sure to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the location of the fictional Chicago Lake Michigan University from Perception – here. My columns typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

June 12, 2014
Birthday Visit to L.A.

I am heading to L.A. this week to meet up with my good friends Kim and Lavonna who are visiting from Ohio. (That’s us, along with Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, at Ellen two years ago.) We have about a million fun things planned (hello Disneyland!) and I am extra excited because my birthday is on Tuesday! Needless to say, I will be taking the week off from blogging. Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post on Thursday here and I’ll see y’all next week!

June 9, 2014
Tom’s Bistro from “Parks and Recreation”

A couple of months ago, I asked fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, to assist me in finding Tom’s Bistro from fave show Parks and Recreation. It took him less than a minute to track the place down (thanks to this April 25th tweet). As it turns out, a Hollywood pizzeria named Delancey stood in for the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area restaurant. Once Owen told me the news, I wanted to kick myself as the very same eatery had been used as a location in another of my favorite shows, Dexter. Though I had never stalked it, how I did not recognize the place is absolutely beyond me! So I decided to amend the situation and ran out to visit Delancey last week while I was in L.A. (You can tell from the photograph above that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, was with me when I did so. The pictures I take never turn out that good!)

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Delancey was originally opened by restaurateur George Abou-Daoud (he also founded Bowery, Rosewood Tavern and The Mercantile Wine Bar, as well as several other L.A. eateries) in April 2008. He designed the space, which previously housed Taste of Thai, to resemble a New York bistro.

Delancey’s exterior is marked by red subway tile and wrought-iron detailing and does very much look like a restaurant one would find in the West Village.

The interior boasts much of that same Big-Apple vibe, with dark Cherry hardwood floors, exposed brick arches, pressed-tin ceilings, antique radiators, an oak bar and red leather booths.

Sadly, Mike and I did not get to sample any of Delancey’s fare while we were there (we had just finished a big meal elsewhere), but, from what I’ve read online, the food is superb. I cannot wait to go back there sometime in the near future.

Delancey was first featured in the Season 6 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “New Slogan,” in the scene in which Donna Meagle (Retta) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) took Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) location scouting for his new restaurant. Only the interior of the gastropub appeared in the episode.

The interior actually only appeared in that one episode. According to the super-nice server that we spoke with, a set based on Delancey’s interior was built at CBS Studio Center, where the series is lensed, shortly following the “New Slogan” filming.

Delancey was not featured again until the Season 6 finale of Parks and Rec, which was titled “Moving Up.” This time, the exterior of the eatery was shown in both a daytime shot . . .

. . . and a nighttime shot.

In “Moving Up,” the replica set was used for interior filming.

As you can see below, the interior of Tom’s Bistro is considerably larger than the actual Delancey interior. (This marketing scheme is absolutely amazing, by the way!)

On a random Parks side-note – In the “Moving Up” episode, Aubrey Plaza looked to be wearing Adina Reyter’s Tiny Square Necklace – the very same necklace that my girl Kristin Cavallari regularly wears, which I had a faux gold replica of made a couple of years ago.

As I mentioned earlier, Delancey also appeared in Dexter. In the Season 5 episode titled “My Bad” the restaurant was used in a flashback scene in which Rita Bennett (Julie Benz) and Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) had their first date.

Only the interior of Delancey was shown in the scene.

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: Delancey, aka Tom’s Bistro from Parks and Recreation, is located at 5936 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 6, 2014
New “L.A.” Mag Post – The “Malcolm in the Middle” House

Don’t forget to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the Malcolm in the Middle house – here. My columns typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

June 5, 2014
Phil’s Diner from “The X-Files”

When I was in L.A. last week, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I spent two full days stalking. Our adventures took us from one end of Los Angeles to the other. At one point, while in North Hollywood, we passed by Phil’s Diner at 5230 Lankershim Boulevard and stopped to snap some pics. I figured the historic-looking restaurant had to have appeared onscreen at some time, so I did a quick Google search on my iPhone and just about fell over when I learned that the eatery had been used in my very favorite episode of The X-Files EVER, Season 2’s “Humbug.” (“I’ve seen the future and the future looks just like him!”) Talk about a lucky twist of fate!

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Phil’s Diner was constructed in 1926 for the J.F. Phillip restaurant chain (hence the name). It was designed in a train-car style by Charles Amend and originally stood (according to this article) near the intersection of Ventura and Lankershim Boulevards. The eatery was relocated at some point to 11138 Chandler Boulevard, where it spent the bulk of its years. (There are several online articles which state that the café was moved countless times throughout its history, once sitting on Crenshaw Boulevard, near the corner of West Adams. I am fairly certain that information is incorrect, though. I believe that storefront was a different Phil’s outpost – one that is no longer standing.) You can check out some fabulous early photographs of Phil’s at its Chandler Boulevard location here.

For over two decades, beginning in the 1970s, Phil’s Diner was run by Charles and Wendy Hong, a native Korean couple who served up no-fuss American comfort food with an Asian flair. The restaurant flourished under their leadership. Then, in the mid-90s, nearby MTA Red Line construction and tunneling caused a severe downfall in patronage and in 1997 the couple was forced to shutter the café. While it was purchased by a man named Casey Hallenbeck the next year, it stood abandoned for the following decade. The structure was eventually moved to a vacant lot in 2009, where it sat on blocks in a sad graffiti-covered state.

While sitting abandoned, Phil’s vintage signage was stolen and never ended up being recovered. The sign that currently stands in front of Phil’s is a replica.

In 2011, Phil’s was moved to its current location and plans were made to reopen it as part of the new NoHo Commons complex. After a $1.1-million restoration, the eatery opened in April 2011, but sadly only lasted eight months. By December, the restaurant, which is California’s oldest dining car and the only surviving outpost of the Phil’s chain, was shuttered. It remains closed to this day.

Though closed, I managed to snap a few photographs of Phil’s interior through the windows.

As you can see, despite being out of operation for several years, the eatery is still in great shape. The wood-detailing is simply gorgeous! And what I wouldn’t give to catch a close-up glimpse of those headshots lining the ceiling!

Thanks to its historic look, Phil’s Diner has been featured in numerous productions over the years. Phil Everly, of the Everly Brothers, shot the cover of his 1974 solo album, aptly titled “Phil’s Diner,” in front of the eatery.

The diner was visible in the background of a 1977 informational video for the Emergency Medical Service titled “Life or Death,” which you can watch here.

Phil’s Diner briefly appeared in 1986’s Night of the Creeps, in the scene in which Detective Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins) raced to a death scene.

In the Season 2 episode of The X-Files titled “Humbug,” Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) travel to Gibsonton, Florida to investigate a murder that took place in a rural community of sideshow circus performers. Upon first arriving in town, the duo head to a local café to speak to Sheriff Hamilton (Wayne Grace) about the killing. Phil’s Diner was used for the establishing shot of that café.

Interior filming took place elsewhere, though – somewhere in Vancouver where the series’ first five seasons were lensed. As you can see below, the interior of the diner that was used was substantially larger than the interior of Phil’s.

Phil’s Diner was also featured in episodes of Baretta, The Millionaire Matchmaker, Hart to Hart and The White Shadow, and in one of the Friday the 13th movies. I am unsure of the particulars of those productions, though, but if any of my fellow stalkers have information on the filmings, please fill me in.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Phil’s Diner, from the “Humbug” episode of The X-Files, is located at 5230 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. The restaurant is currently closed.

June 4, 2014
Jason Priestley’s Former Apartment

I haven’t been getting much sleep the past few nights and it’s all Jason Priestley’s fault. His new book, Jason Priestley: A Memoir, has me burning the midnight oil. The chapters are brief (most only a page or two) and begging to be perused. I find myself repeatedly thinking ‘I’ll just read one more,’ and the next thing I know it’s midnight. Ah, well, the fatigue has been worth it. The tome is fabulous and enthralling. I cannot more highly recommend it – especially since JP includes the addresses of quite a few stalking locations, one of which is the apartment building where he lived shortly before landing his life-changing role on Beverly Hills, 90210. So Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I ran right out to stalk the place last week while I was in L.A.

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In the fall of 1987, 18-year-old Jason and his good friend/fellow actor Bernie Coulson moved into a two-bedroom unit at the Klump Regency apartment building located at 5050 Klump Avenue in North Hollywood. JP describes the place as “your basic Valley craphole.” During the eight months that he lived on the premises, JP would vary between traveling back and forth to his native Vancouver for small film and television roles and auditioning in L.A. where he was trying to make it big in Hollywood. On one occasion after returning home from a Canadian shoot, Priestley walked into his bedroom to find a “tall skinny” guy asleep in his bed. That lanky man turned out to be none other than a young Brad Pitt! Brad, whom JP calls “the nicest Midwestern guy imaginable,” Bernie and Jason continued to live in the apartment for the next few months, with Pitt crashing on the couch.

In mid-1988, Brad rented a two-bedroom duplex on La Jolla Avenue in West Hollywood (where he lived for several years afterwards, according to Jason) and invited JP and Bernie to move in with him. Because the Writers Guild of America strike was making roles hard to come by at the time, Jason chose instead to temporarily relocate to Vancouver. It was not long before he returned to L.A., though, and landed the role that would turn him into a household name.

Thanks to Jason’s not-so-keen description of the place, I was expecting Klump Regency to be rather dingy, but it is actually pretty nice. You can check out some interior photographs of one of the building’s two-bedroom apartments here. According to Zillow, the 50-unit complex features a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, gym and laundry facilities. Not too shabby digs for a bunch of struggling actors!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Klump Regency, Jason Priestley’s former apartment building, is located at 5050 Klump Avenue in North Hollywood.

June 3, 2014
Chez Jay from “A Single Man”

The April issue of Los Angeles magazine (for which I wrote my very first print article ever – you can read it here) featured a Time Frame image of one of Santa Monica’s most historic restaurants, Chez Jay, reminding me that while I had stalked the watering hole ages ago, I had yet to blog about it. So here goes!

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Chez Jay was originally founded by a Connecticut-born struggling actor named Jay Fiondella. During the 1950s, Jay was working as a bartender at Sinbad’s on the Santa Monica Pier and, before his shifts, he would often grab a bite to eat at a nearby coffee shop named Dawn’s Cafe. He learned through his regular visits that Dawn’s was struggling financially and one fateful day the owner offered to sell the place to him for the bargain price of $1. Fiondella laid down the bill and the eatery became his. He named the place “Chez Jay,” in honor of Chez Joey, the restaurant owned by Frank Sinatra in the 1957 movie Pal Joey. (In a fateful twist, Sinatra would later become a Chez Jay regular.) The new eatery opened for business on July 4th, 1959. For the grand opening fete, Jay brought in showgirls and an elephant. Yes, an elephant! (You can see a photograph of it here.) Legend has it that the animal slammed its trunk on the bar at one point in the evening, denting it, and that that dent it still visible to this day.

The tiny space, which boasts a scant 10 tables, 12 bar stools and a 150-square-foot kitchen, quickly became popular with everyone from locals to the Hollywood set. Just a few of the luminaries who have dined there over the years include Ava Gardner, Vivien Leigh, Peter Sellers, Angie Dickinson, Chris Penn, Bronson Pinchot, Warren Beatty, Hugh Hefner, Robert Mitchum, my girl Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Jim Morrison, Michael Caine, Fred Astaire, John Belushi, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Dennis Hopper, Steve McQueen, Natalie Wood, Henry Kissinger, Leonard Nimoy, Cher, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger, Kiefer Sutherland, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez, Lee Marvin (legend has it that he once rode his motorcycle right up to the bar and ordered a drink), Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Quentin Tarantino, Drew Barrymore, and Kevin Bacon. Frank Sinatra and other members of the Rat Pack would dine there weekly before their regular poker game. David E. Kelley and Michelle Pfeiffer even met there for the first time during a dinner party. And Matt Damon and Ben Affleck worked on their Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting in the establishment’s back room. Not too shabby of a clientele!

Legend has it that Chez Jay was also the inspiration for the Regal Beagle, local Santa Monica hangout of Jack Tripper (John Ritter) and the gang, on Three’s Company.

Jay Fiondella passed away in 2008 at the age of 82 and the iconic restaurant is now run by his son, Chaz, daughter, Anita, and longtime business partner, Michael Anderson. The eatery’s future became uncertain shortly after Jay’s death when the City of Santa Monica began demolishing an adjoining parking lot to build what is now Tongva Park. During construction, city officials decided that Chez Jay did not fit in with their vision and hoped to demolish the place to make room for an open-air, family-friendly establishment. Thankfully, preservationists stepped in and the historic watering hole was given landmark status in late 2012. Chez Jay’s future is still somewhat uncertain, though, as the restaurant may be forced to undergo a remodel or an add-on. You can read a more in-depth history of the site here and here.

Despite having stalked Chez Jay on more than one occasion, the Grim Cheaper and I have never actually eaten there. It’s not for lack of trying, though. The place is always packed to the gills and typically doesn’t even have any standing-room-only space.

Thanks largely to the fact that little of Chez Jay has been changed over its 55-year history, the place has been featured onscreen several times. In the 1990 film Bad Influence, the restaurant was where Alex (Rob Lowe) took Michael Boll (James Spader) for a beer shortly after meeting him.

The interior of Chez Jay was also shown briefly in the scene.

In the 2009 drama A Single Man, Chez Jay popped up twice as The Starboard Side bar. It first appeared in the flashback scene in which George (Colin Firth) remembered first meeting his longtime boyfriend, Jim (The Good Wife’s Matthew Goode).

While the interior of the bar was also used briefly in the scene, not much of it was visible. The large amount of people shown packed inside it is a pretty accurate depiction of what the place is like in real life, though.

In a later scene, George runs into a student named Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) while at Chez Jay and the two have drinks.

The interior is shown in that scene, as well.

Chez Jay is also where Mark Callan (Wilson Bethel) meets with one of his father’s cronies in the Season 1 episode of All Rise titled “What the Constitution Greens to Me.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chez Jay, from Bad Influence, is located at 1657 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 2, 2014
New “Los Angeles” Magazine Post – The Bluth House from “Arrested Development”

Don’t forget to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the model home from Arrested Development – here. My columns typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

May 29, 2014