Be sure to check out my latest post for L.A.mag.com today, about the apartment building from Perfect Strangers. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
Year: 2015
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Latest Discover Los Angeles Post – Movie and TV Restaurants
Be sure to head over to Discover Los Angeles today to check out my latest article, about restaurants featured in movies and television shows.
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Vickie’s Diner from “Lucky You”
This year is literally flying by! It seems like just yesterday that the Grim Cheaper and I headed to Las Vegas, but in actuality our mini work trip/vacay took place over two months ago! And I still have yet to post all of the stalking sites we visited while there, including today’s locale, which comes courtesy of my friend/Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, of The Drewseum website. A few years back, Ashley posted pictures of Tiffany’s Café, a small Sin City restaurant that was featured in Drew’s 2007 flick Lucky You. One of Ashley’s photos showed a poster prominently displayed on the restaurant’s wall that had been signed by the movie’s cast. Once I saw that, I was, of course, chomping at the bit to see the place in person, so I dragged the GC right on over there to grab lunch while we were in town.
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Tiffany’s Café was originally founded in 1955 (or 1960, depending on which website you’re reading) inside of White Cross Drugs pharmacy. The 1,200-square-foot eatery was so named for the vintage Tiffany-style lamps that dot the ceiling above its central lunch counter.
When White Cross Drugs (where Elvis Presley and members of the Rat Pat regularly had prescriptions filled in the ’50s and ’60s) was shuttered in March 2012, people assumed that Tiffany’s had closed down as well, and the restaurant suffered from a decline in patronage. When longtime owner Teddy Pappas eventually decided to retire, the place was acquired by Vickie Kelesis, a Tiffany’s waitress since 2006. She re-opened the eatery, changing its name to Vickie’s Diner, but the menu (which offers homemade, preservative-free fare), was left the same, aside from a few additions. White Cross Drugs was also re-opened as White Cross Market, an upscale grocery store, in 2013 and, when we were there, business appeared to be on an upswing.
The food at Vickie’s is fabulous! I opted for the chicken strips (natch), which were divine.
The GC ordered a chicken pita, which I sampled and liked almost as much as the chicken strips!
In Lucky You, Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) accompanies Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) to Tiffany’s Café for breakfast after agreeing to give him a second chance.
While there, they run into Eric’s father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall).
The scene was filmed towards the front of the restaurant, in the bank of booths located near Vickie’s entrance door. The exact booth used in the movie is denoted with a pink arrow in the photograph below.
White Cross Drugs was also visible in the scene.
Vickie’s Diner looks a bit different today, but is still recognizable from its onscreen appearance.
Sadly, the poster that the cast signed during the filming has faded and Robert Duvall’s autograph is the only one still visible. You can see what the autographs originally looked like on Ashley’s site here.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to Ashley, of The Drewseum website, for finding this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Vickie’s Diner, aka the former Tiffany’s Café from from Lucky You, is located at 1700 South Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here and its Facebook page here.
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New L.A. Mag Post – Seattle Grace Hospital from “Grey’s Anatomy”
Don’t forget to head over to L.A.mag.com today to read my latest post, about Seattle Grace Hospital from Grey’s Anatomy. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours
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Having a Carrie Bradshaw Moment
I have three pretty big articles due in the coming days for both Discover Los Angeles and L.A. Magazine, and am having a bit of a Carrie Bradshaw moment. I can finally utter her famous words, “I’m on deadline!” Because of said deadline(s), and an upcoming trip to L.A. – the trip is actually for one of the articles and I will be getting to do something really, really exciting that will be divulged at a later date – I will be unable to write any new posts for this week, but will be back next week, I promise. (Image above via the SJPCollection Instagram.)
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Golden Gate Fields from “Metro” – And a Special Fundraising Event for the Alzheimer’s Association
My BFF since the age of 9, Natalie, will be hosting a charity event in honor of her grandfather, Ed Lingsch, on June 14th in the San Francisco area. Ed passed away just shy of his 98th birthday on November 12th, 2011 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Nat worked for Ed’s real estate company, eventually taking over the business, and cared for her beloved “Gramps” for the last decade of his life. During that time, she penned a blog called Laugh or Cry which chronicled the heartbreaking and sometimes funny trials and tribulations of dealing with an Alzheimer’s patient. This particular post about Gramps’ plans to run away, armed solely with a briefcase full of pilfered Starbucks gift cards, is one of my favorites. A man after my own heart! Ed was a longtime fan of horseracing and even owned several winning steeds during his lifetime. I remember attending one of his winning races with Nat and watching with glee as he stepped into the winner’s circle to pose for photographs. So when Nat decided to host a fundraising event in his honor, she figured what better place to do it than at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley. As fate would have it, Golden Gate Fields just so happens to be a filming location! But more on that in a bit.
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The Ed Lingsch Derby Day Alzheimer’s Benefit will consist of an afternoon at the races, a buffet lunch, and a silent auction for such items as a week-long stay in Tahoe, gifts from my favorite store Lula Mae, cooking lessons, a Producer of the Day spot on the Sarah & Vinnie Morning Show on Alice 97.3, 49ers tickets, as well as many more. All proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association. So the purpose of today’s blog post is not just to chronicle a filming location, but to inform my San Francisco-based readers about the event (tickets are $46 and can be purchased here) and to ask any fellow stalkers who feel so inclined to donate an item for the silent auction (you can find our more information on donating to the auction by emailing Nat at info@alzderbyday.com). You can also donate directly to the Alzheimer’s Association in Ed Lingsch’s name here. (That’s Nat dancing with Gramps at her wedding in 2006.)
Golden Gate Fields is Northern California’s last remaining major racetrack. [Bay Meadows (where I would often accompany Nat and her family to watch Ed’s horses race) was shuttered in May 2008.] The 140-acre site, which originally opened to the public on February 1st, 1941, boasts two tracks – a one-mile synthetic track and a 9/10-mile turf course.
The site also features an 8,000-seat grandstand, a club house, a turf club, simulcast rooms and stunning views of San Francisco Bay and and the Berkeley Hills.
Golden Gate Fields has many claims to fame. Russell Baze, the winningest jockey in the world, won 27 titles there. The location was also the home track of the celebrated horses Silky Sullivan and Lost in the Fog. Silky is now buried on the premises, beneath the yellow and white marker visible in the photograph below.
As I mentioned, Golden Gate Fields is also a filming location. Shortly before it opened to the public, it was utilized briefly for the 1941 comedy Shadow of a Thin Man.
It was at Golden Gate Fields that hostage negotiator Scott Roper (Eddie Murphy) taught Kevin McCall (Michael Rapaport) the intricacies of racing in the 1997 action comedy Metro.
While there, Roper explains that the reason he likes the races is, “The multitude of possibilities. Everything is here for you to see if you just know what conditions to look for, just like a hostage situation.”
A portion of Rancid’s 2009 “Last One To Die” music video was also shot at Golden Gate Fields.
Don’t forget, you can visit the Alzheimer’s Derby Day website here, purchase tickets to the event and/or donate to the Alzheimer’s Association on Eventbrite here, make a donation to the silent auction by emailing info@alzderbyday.com, and follow the event on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here. Any help my fellow stalkers can give would be much appreciated!
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Golden Gate Fields, from Metro, is located at 1100 Eastshore Highway in Berkeley. You can visit the Fields’ official website here.
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New “L.A.” Mag Post – About “The Gambler”
Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about Villa de Leon and other L.A. locations featured in The Gambler. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
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Liz’s House from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
There are two kinds of people in this world – those who can watch movies over and over and over again and those who cannot. I am in the former category. During my teens and twenties, my parents owned a condominium in Hawaii. We would vacation there every summer, along with other families who owned units in the same community. Our condo was the kids’ hang-out spot (we had a VCR and large movie library) and, for reasons that no longer remain known to me, somehow a tradition began in which all of the youngsters would gather (usually a good four of five of us piled into the pull-out sofa bed) to watch Jumpin’ Jack Flash our first night together in Hawaii each and every year. (Our second night’s viewing was always Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.) Because of this, the film holds a very special place in my heart. So when my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me recently to let me know that one of his readers had asked for some help in tracking down the house where Liz Carlson (Annie Potts) lived in the movie, I ecstatically offered to lend a hand.
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He wound up not needing my help. While watching Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Owen spotted an address number of “515” on the curb in front of Liz’s house. Though the 1986 comedy was lensed in both New York and Los Angeles, he decided to start his hunt in L.A. and did Google Images searches for numerous permutations and combinations of “515” and “Los Angeles.” When he eventually got to “515 Dr. Los Angeles, CA,” the very first picture to pop up was of Liz’s house! The photo was attached to a Redfin page which listed the address as 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood. Prior to finding the dwelling, Owen had asked me if I thought it was in California or New York, and I told him that my inclination was New York. Ironically though, I kept having a nagging thought that the home looked a lot like Casa Walsh from the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. I should have listened to my gut because the two properties turned out to be located about a mile away from each other.
In real life, the 1938 home was designed by Welton Becket, the prolific L.A. architect who also gave us the Cinerama Dome, the Capital Records Building, the Los Angeles Music Center and the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport. Becket used the property as his primary residence through the 1940s.
The property boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,800 square feet, a 0.28-acre lot, 4 fireplaces, beamed ceilings, wood built-ins, French doors, a bonus art studio space and a kitchen with both a dining area and an office.
The residence appears twice in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (which just so happens to be the first movie Penny Marshall ever directed). It first pops up in the scene in which Liz explains to Terri Dolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) that the man she is trying to save is being chased by the KGB.
In a later scene, Terri goes to Liz’s house to ask her for more help, only to find the place vacant.
Thanks to the photos posted on Redfin, I learned that the real life interior of the home was also used in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Though the kitchen has since been updated, it is still recognizable from its appearance. (That’s Life Goes On’s Kellie Martin in her big screen debut pictured below.)
The living room was also featured in the movie (love those built-ins!).
The Dutch doors are also pretty amazing!
The dining room also made a brief appearance in the film.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Liz’s house from Jumpin’ Jack Flash is located at 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood.
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24/7 Restaurant
All stalkers have those locations – the ones that, despite years of searching, remain on our unfound list. Miraculously (and thanks to an insane amount of good fortune), I managed to track down one of mine recently, after over a decade of hunting for it!
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During the early 2000s, I had major girl crushes on both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. (Truth be told, I still love their movies, as evidenced in this post.) In 2003, I came across the image below in a magazine (though I can’t for the life of me remember which magazine), thought it was adorable, cut it out and pasted it to the front of my acting class notebook. Every time I looked at it, I wondered at which diner the photograph had been taken. From time to time, I would search for the place, but because I had so little to go on (I wasn’t even sure if it was in L.A.), I figured it would never be found. Flash forward to this past January when I randomly got inspired to do some sleuthing. I happened to spot the picture, as well as other images from the shoot, on the Mary-Kate and Ashley Fan website and was floored to see that the name of the photographer, Gail Albert, was mentioned. I did a Google search to see if I could find contact information for Gail, came across her website and emailed her.
That email was sent with feeble hope. For one, I never thought that Gail would get back to me and, if she did, I never thought she’d recall the diner’s location and, if by some miracle she did remember, never did I believe the place would still be in operation! Well, not only did she reply (within just a few hours, no less!), but she informed me that the shoot had taken place at the 24/7 Restaurant at The Standard hotel in West Hollywood, which, miraculously, is still in existence! My mind was absolutely BLOWN over the news and I could NOT have been more excited to get out there to see the restaurant for myself!
I have been to The Standard many times over the years (and even blogged about it back in 2008), but, for whatever reason, had never ventured inside 27/7 Restaurant.
The Standard was originally built in 1962 as the Thunderbird Motel. For a time it operated as the Hollywood Sunset Hotel and then as a retirement home before being taken over by hotelier Andre Balazs in 1998.
Balazs hired production designer Shawn Hausman to remodel the interior of the property and the result of her efforts is spectacularly unique. The lobby’s most famous feature is the glass display case located behind the front desk, which exhibits live performance art (usually of the nude variety).
The lobby also features shag-carpeted ceilings and walls;
hanging bubble chairs;
and a pool flanked by royal blue AstroTurf.
The property opened as The Standard, Hollywood Hotel in 1999 and, thanks to its retro-modern aesthetic and celebrity investors, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Cameron Diaz and The Smashing Pumpkins’ D’arcy Wretzky and James Iha, the place became an instant hit with the It Crowd.
27/7 Restaurant, which originally had no name but was simply referred to as “the restaurant,” is located off of The Standard’s lobby.
I was absolutely floored to see that virtually nothing about the place had been changed since Mary-Kate and Ashley’s 2003 photo shoot.
Unfortunately though, my server did inform me that a remodel might be occurring in the near future, so if you would like to see the restaurant in its current state, I would get out there quickly.
I cannot express how nice the wait staff at 24/7 Restaurant were! Their friendliness was such a welcome change from what I had experienced just a few hours prior at the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica. Not only did my server tell me that I was welcome to take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted, but when I asked if he could take a picture of me in the same booth where MK & A sat, not only did he happily oblige, but he snapped about a dozen pics just to make sure he had captured the correct angle!
For those fellow stalkers who also want to re-create the photo, Mary-Kate and Ashley posed in the fifth booth from 24/7’s entrance during the shoot.
The Standard, Hollywood Hotel is also a filming location. In the Season 3 episodes of Sex and the City titled “Escape from New York” and “Sex and Another City,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and the girls stayed at The Standard while vacationing in L.A.
The hotel was used quite extensively in the episodes.
If only I had a pair of different colored shoes!
In the episodes, Carrie stayed in one of The Standard’s real life rooms – Room 322.
The spot where Carrie had some trouble navigating up a hill in her rented stick shift can be found on the eastern side of the hotel, on North Sweetzer Avenue.
The Standard was also featured in the Season 3 episode of Entourage titled “I Wanna Be Sedated,” in the scene in which Turtle (cutie Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon) search for Saigon, who played himself.
Things do not quite go as planned and Drama winds up being hung upside-down from one of The Standard’s balconies.
The Standard was also where Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) threw a rather raucous hotel party at the beginning of the 2011 flick The Green Hornet.
Ally Hilfiger and Jaime Gleicher stayed at The Standard while visiting L.A. in the 8th episode of the MTV reality series Rich Girls, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the episode anywhere with which to make screen captures.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: 24/7 Restaurant is located inside of The Standard, Hollywood Hotel at 8300 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.
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New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the “Three’s Company” Building
Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the apartment building from Three’s Company. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
