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Stumbling upon filmings used to be a regular occurrence when I lived in L.A. Sadly, that is not the case in Palm Springs. So I was thrilled – and shocked – to happen upon A Star Is Born being shot at desert eatery Tacos Jalisco while on a Windmill Tour with the Grim Cheaper and our friends Nat and Tony back in April 2017. Though I had no intention of ever seeing the flick due to its sad storyline, I made a mental note to do a proper stalk of the restaurant once it came out. After a few failed attempts in which I showed up only to find the place closed, I was finally able to do so this past week.
Sitting adjacent to Jalisco Tires auto repair shop, Tacos Jalisco is located quite a ways off the beaten path on a sleepy road in North Palm Springs.
If not for the Windmill Tour, I never would have known the place existed.
And that is a shame because it serves up uh-ma-zing food. The GC and I, of course, partook while there and he quickly proclaimed the tacos some of the best he’s ever had.
The small, casual eatery consists of two rooms – a main dining area and a bar.
Surprisingly, I could not find much information about the place’s history online aside from the fact that it formerly housed a market.
In A Star Is Born (which is out on DVD now!), Tacos Jalisco masks as the roadside eatery where Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) and Ally (Lady Gaga) stop to grab a bite to eat upon arriving in Jackson’s hometown of Arizona.
While there, Ally jots down lyrics for a song she is writing titled “Look What I’ve Found” and Jack discusses the fact that he doesn’t return home very often.
The restaurant’s interior was changed a bit for the shoot, with the booths that usually sit along the side wall moved to the middle of the dining area.
Otherwise, the place looks much as it did onscreen.
The exterior of Tacos Jalisco also appears in A Star Is Born – and is the site of a rather large gaffe. Notice below that as Ally walks up to Jack outside of the restaurant, she does not have a jacket on . . .
. . . but seconds later, as she embraces him, she magically does!
It was that portion of the scene that we saw being shot during our Windmill Tour. I was even able to snap a few pics of the production as we drove by. (I believe that is Bradley Cooper standing in the forefront of the top image below as the outfit seems to match what he was wearing onscreen – but don’t quote me on that as it could just as easily be his stand-in.)
Interestingly, prop gas pumps were brought in for the shoot to make Tacos Jalisco and the adjoining Jalisco Tires appear to be a service station. Because I had never seen the locale prior to the filming, I assumed the tanks were real and was shocked when I showed up to stalk the place and discovered there were no pumps to be found anywhere on the premises!
The scene that follows that of the roadside diner, in which Jack discovers that his childhood ranch has been sold and turned into a wind farm, was shot just around the corner on Dillon Road, about half a mile west of where it intersects with North Indian Canyon Drive. (I did not realize that when I stalked the restaurant and, as such, failed to take any photographs, so the Street View image below will have to do for now.)
In the interest of being thorough, I’ve denoted exactly where Ally and Jack were standing in the segment in the aerial view below. Ally’s position, in the bare patch of dirt, is marked with a pink “X,” while Jack’s, which is slightly west in the nearby foliage, is denoted with a blue “X.”
While stalking Tacos Jalisco, I happened to chat with its super-nice owner who informed me that the restaurant also appeared in the 2005 thriller Constantine as the spot where Manuel (Jesse Ramirez) stole a car in what was supposed to be the Mexican desert.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Tacos Jalisco, from A Star Is Born, is located at 17725 North Indian Canyon Drive in North Palm Springs. You can visit the restaurant'”‘”‘s official website here. Jack’s childhood-ranch-turned-windmill-farm from the movie can be found just around the corner on Dillon Road, about half a mile west of where it intersects with North Indian Canyon Drive.
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