Super A Foods from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

It’s not every day a location is featured in back-to-back Oscar frontrunners, but such was the case with Glassell Park’s Super A Foods!  The small mid-century market made appearances in both 2018’s A Star Is Born and 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  Neither movie wound up locking down the Best Picture prize, but Super A Foods became a household name among fans, not to mention a popular stalking venue, nonetheless.  I had long been familiar with the grocery store thanks to its cameo in the 2002 Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads and even blogged about it in 2011.  It sure has come a long way since then, though, so I figured it was definitely time for a redo and ran right out to re-stalk it.

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Built in 1967, the one-story grocer was designed by architect Robert H. Peterson and originally housed a Food Fair market.

In 1975, Super A moved in and never looked back.  The chain, which today boasts 8 outposts, was founded in 1971 by Lou Amen, who sadly passed away two weeks ago at the age of 90 after miraculously recovering from a case of COVID-19.  He was still actively working for the family-run company until just a few days before his death.

Per the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Glassell Park Super A Foods “is significant as a largely intact example of a postwar-era grocery market.”  The building features fabulous mid-century detailing including glazed glass, a geometric sign, and a canted ceiling.

That roofline, though!

It is at Super A that Pussycat (Margaret Qualley) and other Manson Family members dumpster-dive for food toward the beginning of Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.  The segment was shot on the market’s west side, along Cypress Avenue.

The signage visible behind the women in the scene is authentic to the store, painted there long before filming took place.

The James Dean mural the group walks by upon leaving Super A is not, though.  It was created specifically for the shoot on the western side of S & S Pharmacy, directly across the street from the market.

Sadly, the mural was painted over after filming wrapped and there are no vestiges of it left today.

As I mentioned above, Super A was also featured in Crossroads.  It is at the supposed Alabama store that Lucy (Britney Spears), Mimi (Taryn Manning), Kit (Zoe Saldana), and Ben (Anson Mount) make a pit stop for snacks during their road trip from Georgia to California.

And in A Star Is Born, Ally (Lady Gaga) and Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) stop by Super A for frozen peas after Ally gets into a bit of a scuffle, punching someone at a bar.  While sitting in the market’s parking lot nursing her swollen hand, Ally begins to write “Shallow,” the song that eventually makes her famous.  Of the location, cinematographer Matthew Libatique told radio station KPCC, “If a grocery store can possibly be cinematic, it’s this one.”  He also considered the site pretty central to the movie.  As Libatique expressed to LAist in a 2018 interview, “It was meant to root [Ally’s] existence on the Eastside of Los Angeles.  It was very important for [production designer Karen Murphy], as a designer, to make sure the character had an identity through her environment.”

Yellowcard’s 2003 “Way Away “ music video was shot at the market, as well.

And in 2019 Cuco filmed his “Keeping Tabs” music video at Super A.

The Glassell Park Super A Foods is not the chain’s only claim to fame.  The former Eagle Park outpost at 2245 Yosemite Drive, which today houses a Sprouts Famers Market, made several appearances in the 1981 comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman.

The Eagle Rock store was also featured in Travis’ 2007 “Closer” music video.

And the 2008 comedy Over Her Dead Body filmed a couple of scenes at the Highland Park Super A, located at 5250 York Avenue.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Super A Foods, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is located at 2925 Division Street in Glassell Park.