Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant from “Why Women Kill”

The Grim Cheaper and I often joke that my friend Lavonna should be in charge of our DVR.  She has recommended countless shows over the years that became fast favorites, including The Goldbergs, Veep, The Office, and Parks and Recreation.  Her latest suggestion, Why Women Kill, hasn’t quite hit the beloved mark for me yet (it’s just a bit too dark and risqué), though its premise – the CBS All Access series centers around a Pasadena mansion and three couples who call it home over various decades – is something I can certainly get behind!  And the locations are fab!  Early in her viewing, before I started to watch, Von texted me a photo of a diner used in the production to see if I recognized it.  Sure enough, I did!  The eatery was none other than Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, a historic Burbank spot I stalked and blogged about back in 2012 after it was prominently featured in fave romcom Larry Crowne.  Since its resume has seriously bulked up since then, I figured a redo was in order.

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Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, which is also known as Frank’s Steak House, was originally established by Frank Kunelis and his wife, Soula, in 1957.

Lined with brown tufted booths and a long wooden counter with swivel stools, the interior looks as if not much has changed since opening day.  And I mean that in a good way.

Pretty much the only thing that has been altered over the years is the fare, thanks to Jose Lopez, a longtime chef from another Burbank eatery named Genio’s, who purchased Frank’s in 2008.  As Lopez told the Los Angeles Times, “I thought I was going to retire there, but when Genio’s closed, and I bought Frank’s, I put the menus together.”  The result is a vast offering of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and traditional American comfort food.

Other than that, though, the restaurant remains much as it was under Kunelis’ tutelage – which is just the way Frank’s customers like it.

  Sadly, the eatery began suffering a decline in patronage in early 2012 and closed its doors in March of that year, shortly after I stalked it.  Sam Patel, owner of the adjacent Portofino Inn, wound up stepping in and purchasing the place.  He kept Jose on as manager and reopened that June much to the delight of locals.  Frank’s is still going strong today – especially when it comes to movie and television appearances!

In the August 2019 pilot episode of Why Women Kill, titled “Murder Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry,” Frank’s masks as the supposed Glendale-area Jansen’s Diner, where Beth Ann Stanton (Ginnifer Goodwin) catches her husband cheating with a waitress named April Warner (Sadie Calvano).

The eatery goes on to appear in subsequent episodes of the series as Beth Ann attempts to befriend April.

Though the chandeliers were swapped out for the shoot, I recognized Frank’s as soon as I laid eyes on the screen captures Lavonna sent me.

Thanks to its retro décor and Anywhere, U.S.A. appeal, the restaurant has long been a favorite of location scouts.

   Frank’s was used for exterior shots of the diner where Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) convinced Ray Pruit (Jamie Walters) to return to Beverly Hills in the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Squash It,” which aired in 1995.  Interiors were filmed elsewhere, though.

The eatery has been featured in no less than five episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation!  It first popped up in Season 6’s “Rashomama,” which aired in 2006, as the supposed Las Vegas, Nevada-area coffee shop where the car belonging to Nick Stokes (George Eads) was stolen (pictured below).  It then went on to appear in Season 7’s “Law of Gravity,” Season 9’s “Mascara,” Season 11’s “The List,” and Season 12’s “Willows in the Wind.”

Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) takes his ex-wife, Tammy Swanson (Megan Mullally), out for lunch at Frank’s in the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Ron and Tammy,” which aired in 2009.

Frank’s serves as the central location in the 2011 romantic comedy Larry Crowne.  It is there that Larry (Tom Hanks) gets a gig as a line cook after losing his job at the local U-Mart store.

The diner is the site of a confrontation between Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns) and Art Mullen (Nick Searcy) in the Season 5 episode of Justified titled “Shot All to Hell,” which aired in 2014.

Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) meets his sister, Margo (Carrie Coon), and his lawyer, Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry), at Frank’s to discuss his case in the 2014 thriller Gone Girl.

Walter O’Brien (Elyes Gabel) and his team commandeer the restaurant in order to save a doomed plane in the pilot episode of Scorpion, which aired in 2014.

Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) presents David Packouz (Miles Teller) with a severance agreement at Frank’s in the 2016 crime drama War Dogs.

In the Season 1 episode of Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. titled “Tupac Amaru Shakur,” which aired in 2018, Detective Greg Kading (Josh Duhamel) and Officer Daryn Dupree (Bokeem Woodbine) meet with an informant named Percy (Amin Joseph) at Frank’s.

The eatery masks as the Denver Diner in the Season 3 episode of Lethal Weapon titled “Panama,” which aired in 2018.

Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) and David Madson (Cody Fern) dine at Frank’s and reminisce about the night they first met in the Season 2 episode of American Crime Story titled “House by the Lake,” which aired in 2018.

In the Season 1 episode of I Am the Night titled “Phenomenon of Interference,” which aired in 2019, Jay Singletary (Chris Pine) meets with an old army buddy at Frank’s.

And Leslie Peterson (David Hornsby) shares a meal with Baby Tyler (Caleb Emery) at the coffee shop just prior to heading to jail in the Season 3 episode of Good Girls titled “Nana,” which aired in 2020.

On a Why Women Kill Side-Note – For those wondering, the stunning “Pasadena” mansion at the center of the series isn’t really in Pasadena at all, but Hancock Park.  It can be found at 113 Fremont Place.  Sadly, it is located in a gated community, so I won’t be blogging about it, but figured I’d provide the info here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, from Why Women Kill, is located at 925 West Olive Avenue in Burbank.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.