Blossom Restaurant from “The Morning Show”

I have had to venture out to downtown L.A. several times over the past few months due to some medical issues my dad is having (his main doctor is there).  The silver lining during this stressful time (besides the fact that things seem to be progressing in the right direction for him now, knock on wood!) is that the Millennium Biltmore, the hotel we booked for each of our stays, is within walking distance to the vast majority of filming locations from The Morning Show!  Needless to say, I did a lot of stalking while in town!  One spot I stopped by on our most recent visit was Blossom restaurant, which masked as the New York deli where Claire Conway (Bel Powley) called Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) to apologize in the freshman series'”‘”‘ Season 1 finale, titled “The Interview.”

Blossom was founded by Vietnamese-born restaurateur Duc Pham in March 2006.  Growing up in Anaheim (his family fled their native land following the war, which is a story in and of itself), Duc regularly helped his mom in the kitchen, where he learned how to prepare all of her favorite meals.  Though a love of food and cooking was infused in him at a young age, his route to the restaurant industry was rather circuitous, with detours that included studying literature at Oxford and a brief foray into advertising.  He ultimately left the business world in 2000 to help his sister establish a new eatery in Chinatown named Via Café.  Six years later, he was ready to branch out on his own and opened Blossom.

For this new endeavor, Pham leased the street level corner unit of downtown L.A.'”‘”‘s Canadian Building, a 1904 structure that originally served as the local Canadian Consulate.  Designed by the Parkinson & Bergstrom architecture firm, the property was abandoned in the 1960s and sat vacant for 15 years before being resurrected as a mixed-use residential complex.  Prior to Blossom'”‘”‘s open, the corner space, which fronts Main and Winston Streets, housed an electronics store.

Directly involved with all aspects of his new eatery, Pham designed the contemporary interior himself, even going so far as to handcraft its wooden tables!  Though Blossom was, unfortunately, closed when we showed up to stalk it, the inside was visible through the front windows and it is nothing short of charming.  You can check out some photos of it here.

Popular from the get-go, the eatery soon underwent a series of expansions, a sister restaurant in Silver Lake was born, and Pham eventually took over Via Café, transforming it into his third Blossom location.

I first learned about the restaurant last May while poking around the area on Google Street View amid doing research for my post on the Western Union office from The Sting.  I noticed Blossom, situated half a block away, immediately thanks to its decidedly New York feel.  Figuring the place was a coffee shop, I made a mental note to stop by the next time I was in town.  Further digging informed me Blossom was actually a full-service Vietnamese restaurant which intrigued me further.  So when it popped up on The Morning Show a few months later, I recognized it straight away.

The blue street sign visible behind Claire in the scene was also a dead giveaway that the segment was shot in downtown L.A. and not NYC as purported on the show.

Blossom was dressed up a bit for the shoot, with large trees placed on either side of the front door.  An enclosed area with sidewalk seating was also apparent in the scene.  Though no longer intact, per Google Street View that patio was a real feature of the restaurant that has since, for whatever reason, been removed.

The Blossom space actually has quite the onscreen pedigree.

Paul Kimbrough (Max Kleven) lives in the Canadian Building and walks by the corner storefront in the Season 1 episode of Kojak titled “Requiem for a Cop,” which aired in 1973.  At the time, the Blossom space was divided into two units, an eatery named The Red Apple and a jewelry repair store.

Though renumbered “3424,” the Blossom site appears twice in Devil in a Blue Dress – first in the 1995 drama'”‘”‘s opening sequence.

Later in the movie, Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) parks in front of the storefront while on his way to confront Joppy (Mel Winkler).

The locale portrays Waters & Sons Record Shop in an establishing shot of 1950′”‘”‘s Los Angeles in the 2004 biopic  Ray.  Look closely, though, and you'”‘”‘ll see that the image is actually re-used footage from Devil in a Blue Dress, interestingly enough.

In the 2009 dramedy (500) Days of Summer, Tom (Joseph Gordan-Levitt) lives in the Canadian Building, though the Blossom space is not seen.

And Blossom'”‘”‘s sister restaurant in Chinatown (the former Via Café space) has also appeared onscreen.  It is there that Mia (Emma Stone) emails out invitations to her one-woman show in the 2016 musical La La Land.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Blossom restaurant, from “The Interview” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 426 South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.  The Western Union office from The Sting is right around the corner at 118 Winston Street.  The Blossom outpost featured in La La Land can be found at 451 Gin Ling Way in Chinatown.

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