Category: Movie Locations

Tavern on the Green from “Ghostbusters”

I adhere to a “more is more” philosophy. There’s nothing wrong with a little extra! So I, of course, was a huge fan of the landmark Central Park restaurant Tavern on the Green during the time that it was run by the LeRoy family. Though many referred to the place as tacky, garish and over-the-top, I found it nothing short of magical and was devastated when it shuttered in 2010, its whimsical décor and furnishings auctioned off to the highest bidders, its famous Crystal Room dismantled piece by sparkling piece. New York, in my mind, would never be the same. When the property was re-opened under new leadership a few years later, I was curious how the space would compare to its prior self and promptly added it to my NYC To- Stalk List. The Grim Cheaper and I finally made it there for cocktails and appetizers, our good friends Kim and Katie in tow, during our April 2016 trip to the Big Apple. While definitely lacking in extra, the revamped Tavern on the Green did not disappoint. So even though I briefly covered the eatery in a 2008 write-up, I figured it was definitely worthy of a repost.

The Victorian Gothic-style building that now houses Tavern on the Green was originally constructed in 1870 (yes, 1870!) as a sheepfold (aka a sheep pen) for the hundreds of sheep that called Central Park home.

In 1934, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses decided the sprawling Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould-designed structure would better serve as a restaurant and set about repurposing it. The sheep were sent to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, their former barn given a massive renovation, and, voilà, Tavern on the Green was born.

Though popular, the moderately-priced pub went through several ownership changes and remodels in the years that followed. Finally, in 1974, it was purchased by Warner LeRoy, son of The Wizard of Oz producer Mervyn LeRoy and Doris Warner (daughter of Warner Bros. founder Harry Warner), who began an extensive $10 million remodel and expansion of the site that took three years to complete. The result of his efforts was a kitschy, fanciful masterpiece that had to be seen to be believed.

Thanks to LeRoy’s vision, everyday at Tavern on the Green was like Christmas. The 27,000-square-foot eatery was marked by Tiffany stained glass, Baccarat crystal chandeliers, topiaries, massive murals, hand-painted ceilings, mirrored walls, and thousands upon thousands of twinkle lights. The site’s most famous dining area, the Crystal Room, a glass-encased space overlooking the restaurant’s terrace and Central Park, was the glittering cherry on top. Sadly, I failed to take any proper photographs of Tavern on the Green during my visits, but you can check out some images of what it looked like during LeRoy’s tenure here.

It did not take long for Tavern on the Green to become an icon – a restaurant synonymous with the city itself and a must-see spot for locals, tourists and celebrities alike. Just a few of the luminaries who dined there over the years include Grace Kelly, John Lennon, Jennifer Aniston, Liza Minnelli, Seth Meyers, Jon Hamm, Christie Brinkley, George Clooney, Liv Tyler, Drew Barrymore, Alec Guinness, Christian Dior, Martha Stewart, Howard Stern, and Beth Ostrosky.

When Warner passed away in 2001, his wife and daughter took over operations and the place remained as popular and profitable as ever. In 2006, Tavern on the Green was one of the highest grossing restaurants in the U.S., second only to Tao Las Vegas. Sadly, the eatery was hit hard by the economy in 2008 and the following year it was announced that the Parks Department had opted not to renew the LeRoys’ lease. The family served their last meal on the premises on New Year’s Eve 2009 and a massive auction was held shortly thereafter in which all of the colorful décor was sold off. The space subsequently served as a visitor center, of all things, until 2012 when it was taken over by Philadelphia restauranteurs Jim Caiola and David Salama, who began a two-year, $20 million renovation. The new Tavern on the Green opened in April 2014.

Though undeniably beautiful, the restaurant is a far cry from its predecessor. Understated and classic, marked by wood detailing and patterned banquettes, the new Tavern is sleeker and more refined than the LeRoy version. While I did enjoy dining there, I couldn’t help but miss the old Tavern, with all of its over-the-top whimsy. Regardless, I am so thankful that the place is once again open to hungry patrons. The Crystal Room may have long since been razed, the twinkle lights removed from the trees, and the paper lanterns cleared away from the terrace, but the site does still retain some of its former magic.

I really think Caiola and Salama need to reinstate the twinkle lights, though. As I said above, there’s nothing wrong with a little extra – and the Edison bulbs currently strung across the patio just aren’t cutting it.

Thanks to Tavern on the Green’s unique beauty, location managers flocked to it during the Warner days. The eatery most famously appeared in Ghostbusters. It is there that Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) runs while being chased by the “terror dog” and unsuccessfully tries to catch the attention of the patrons inside in the 1984 hit.

Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) heads to the bathroom at Tavern on the Green to meet with the FBI and hand over his taped conversation with Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) at the end of 1987’s Wall Street.

CC Bloom (Bette Midler) and John Pierce (John Heard) take Hillary Whitney Essex (Barbara Hershey) and Michael Essex (James Read) to Tavern on the Green for dinner in 1988’s Beaches.

I am 99.9% certain, though, that only the exterior of the restaurant appeared in the movie and that interiors were filmed elsewhere, likely at an eatery in L.A.

That same year, Tavern on the Green was featured in the opening scene of the comedy Arthur 2: On the Rocks. It is there that Linda Marolla Bach (Liza Minnelli) tells Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) that she cannot have children.

In 2001’s Made, Bobby (Jon Favreau) and Ricky (Vince Vaughn) meet up with Ruiz (Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs) at Tavern on the Green to discuss a money drop.

Alfie (Jude Law) picks up Nikki (Sienna Miller) and her friends in his cab outside of Tavern on the Green one lonely Christmas Eve night in the 2004 movie Alfie.

Boy’s (Anton Yelchin) Senior Prom takes place at Tavern on the Green in 2009’s New York, I Love You.

Post-closing, Tavern played a central role in the 2011 comedy Mr. Popper’s Penguins as the restaurant Mr. Popper (Jim Carrey) tried to buy from Mrs. Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury). Only the exterior of the site was utilized in the filming, though.

Because the space had already been transformed into a visitor center and the Crystal Room had long since been dismantled by the time filming took place, the restaurant’s interior was re-imagined on a soundstage for the shoot. According to the movie’s production notes, production designer Stuart Wurtzel, “re-created the wood-paneled front vestibule of the Tavern, the famous Crystal Room with its ornate chandeliers and flower-filled décor, and approximately twelve feet of Central Park so the views outside the plate-glass windows would look authentic. ‘It’s a sort of emotional composite of how people remember it,’ he says.”

Following its 2014 re-opening, Tavern popped up in the Season 1 episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt titled “Kimmy is Bad at Math!” as the spot where Logan Beekman (Adam Campbell) took Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) on a date. While there, she exclaims, “I can’t believe I’m at the Ghostbusters restaurant!”

It was also there that Luann de Lesseps met with ex-boyfriend Jacques Azoulay to discuss their upcoming comedy show in the Season 12 episode of The Real Housewives of New York titled “Just the Sip,” which aired in 2020.

And while I thought that the Tavern’s lantern-strung terrace was the spot where Mr. Big (Chris Noth) and Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dined in the Season 2 episode of Sex and the City titled “The Caste System,” I contacted the episode’s director, Allison Anders, who informed me that filming actually took place on the rear patio of a private house on the Upper West Side that was dressed to look like a restaurant. Of the re-designed space, she said, “I was so thrilled with the result and that all these years later it rang true for you makes me very happy indeed.”

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Tavern on the Green, from Ghostbusters, is located at Central Park West and 67th Street on New York’s Upper West Side. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

June 15, 2018
The Three Clubs from “Swingers”

Besides a great coffee shop, there’s pretty much nothing I love more than an unpretentious bar/restaurant that boasts a retro vibe (as evidenced here, here, here, here, here, and here). Add in a filming location element and I am completely smitten! One that had been on my To-Stalk List for what seemed like eons was The Three Clubs in Hollywood, an onscreen maven most famous for its appearance in the 1996 indie hit Swingers. For whatever reason, though, I kept failing to make it over there – until August 2016, that is, when a good friend who worked on the premises hooked me up with a private tour of the place. I was immediately taken with the bar’s ‘50s aura. Walking inside feels like stepping into a Mad Men episode! Somehow, I never got around to blogging about it, though, which I did not realize until going through my Lightroom library the other day. So I figured it was high time I do so.

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The Three Clubs is a longtime stalwart in the Hollywood bar scene. Established by nightclub impresarios Marc Smith and Matthew Webb on December 27th, 1991 in a former strip mall dive bar near the corner of Santa Monica and Vine, the watering hole has been going strong for more than two and a half decades!

The interior, designed by Marc himself, is largely influenced by Sin City, the Golden Age of Hollywood, and Ol’ Blue Eyes. As Smith told LAist in a 2017 article, “We liked Vegas, we were very into Frank Sinatra. I have to thank the Rat Pack crew for being very pivotal in that world. I had a ’66 T-bird, a ’66 Triumph. We just wanted old things. It was kind of old Hollywood.” With décor elements including tucked-away leather banquettes, wooden wainscoting, and a rock-encrusted doorway, the retro aesthetic is undeniable. The Three Clubs is comprised of two very distinct rooms – the main area, dubbed “the Lounge” (pictured below), is an intimate, low-lit space featuring a large mahogany and leather bar, a black sparkly ceiling, and what the watering hole’s official website calls “casino-style carpeting.”

The Back Bar (pictured below) is a more open space with a small wooden bar, a central stage, raised seating areas, and a disco ball.

Even the cocktail menu was retro-inspired, long before drinking vespers, old fashioneds, and Manhattans was considered cool. As Smith was quoted telling LAist, “I remember talking to a magazine writer about [serving martinis at my lounge] and she was like, ‘What do you mean? That sounds really boring, like [a place] my parents went to. Are you sure?’” The novel concept took, though, and crowds were soon flocking to the place.

The Three Clubs became a celebrity draw from the get-go, as well. Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn were regulars during its early days – which is how the taproom wound up being featured in Swingers – and are still known to pop in today. Renee Zellweger worked for a time as a bar-back there. And Quentin Tarantino, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, Emily Osment, Steven Spielberg, Jay Leno, and Billy Idol have also all been spotted on the premises.

The Three Clubs actually pops up twice, portraying two different spots, in Swingers. Toward the beginning of the movie, the Back Bar masks as the Bamboo Lounge, the tiki-themed watering hole said to be located inside the Stardust Resort and Casino where Mike (Favreau) and Trent (Vaughn) meet up with Lisa (Katherine Kendall) and Christy (Deena Martin) after a night of gambling in Las Vegas. The space looks quite a bit different in the scene than it does in real life thanks to a large amount of Hawaiian-themed set dressing that was brought in for the shoot.

Later in the film, the Lounge appears as the bustling interior of The Room, where Mike, Rob (Ron Livingston), and Charles (Alex Désert) assemble before heading to a party in the hills.

Swingers is hardly the only production to have utilized The Three Clubs over the years.

In the Season 2 finale of Mad Men titled “Meditations in an Emergency,” which aired in 2008, a newly pregnant Betty Draper (January Jones) heads to The Three Clubs after doing some shopping and winds up having a tryst with a stranger in the bar’s back office.

Andy (Josh Cooke) pops into The Three Clubs where he meets singer Vanessa (Odette Annable) at the beginning of the 2010 comedy Group Sex.

Val (Al Pacino) and Doc (Christopher Walken) grab drinks at The Three Clubs in 2012’s Stand Up Guys.

In the Season 6 episode of Castle titled “For Better or Worse,” which aired in 2014, The Three Clubs portrays two spots. The Lounge first pops up as Tildy’s Tavern where Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) goes looking for her college love, Rogan O’Leary (Eddie McClintock), and gets him to sign divorce papers.

The Back Bar later plays the Roadhouse strip club where Kate and Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) track down a stripper named Sapphire (Sarah Karges). Both spaces were dressed heavily for the shoot and are therefore not very recognizable from their appearances in the episode.

Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) and Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) are interviewed by Lorraine (Erica Piccininni) at The Three Clubs in the 2014 biopic Jersey Boys.

The bar also supposedly pops up in Parks and Recreation, How to Get Away with Murder, Angie Tribeca, FlashForward, and Private Practice, but I am unsure of which episodes in particular. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Three Clubs, from Swingers, is located at 1123 Vine Street in Hollywood. You can visit the bar’s official website here. The watering hole is open from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

April 18, 2018
Oliver’s San Francisco House from “A Lot Like Love”

I have made no secret over the years of my obsession with the 2005 romcom A Lot Like Love. And I thought I was quite well-versed in its locations. So I was shocked when fellow stalker Tovangar2 (you may remember him from this post) published a comment on my site in November 2015 alerting me to the fact that the supposed San Francisco house where Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) lived in the flick was actually located in Los Angeles – at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park, to be exact. For the life of me I could not remember the exterior of Oliver’s SF residence being shown in the movie, so I immediately popped my A Lot Like Love DVD into my computer, started scanning, and, sure enough, about 45 minutes in was a shot of Oliver returning to a large Victorian pad after a long day at work. Considering I’ve seen the film about 25 times, I don’t know how I missed it! Fortunately, I happened to be in L.A. just a few days after learning about the locale, so I ran right out to stalk it. Thank you, Tovangar2!

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According to Big Orange Landmarks, the pad, which is known as the Beaudry House in real life, has quite an interesting history. Constructed in the Queen Anne/Eastlake style in 1887, the dwelling was initially located at 1145 Court Street, just west of North Boylston, about seven blocks south of where it currently stands. You can check out a map showing where it was originally situated here.

By the late ‘70s, the Beaudry House had grown severely dilapidated, the result of a downturn in the neighborhood and negligible maintenance. Though the property as well as its neighbor, the Irey House at 1123 Court Street, were rewarded Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status, they both suffered from vandalism, graffiti and age. At around the same time, a group of Carroll Avenue homeowners banded together to form the Carroll Avenue Restoration Foundation in the hopes that they could thwart the development of a large vacant plot of land on their street. Fearing that the addition of a sizeable contemporary residence on the lot would be at odds with the community’s decidedly historic Victorian aesthetic, the organization resolved to purchase the plot and relocate the Beaudry and Irey Houses there. Thanks to some savvy maneuvering and many generous donations, CARF was successful and the two dwellings were moved via flatbed truck to their new street on March 22nd, 1978. You can check out a photo of the drive, which took two hours to complete, here.

Today, the Beaudry House, which is actually classified as a duplex, is a glowing example of preserved Victorian architecture. The 3,201-square-foot property – which consists of a 1-bedroom, 1-bath unit downstairs and a 2-bedroom, 1-bath second-level space, as well a carriage house that has been converted into a studio – boasts pocket doors, period sconces, wood detailing, stained glass windows, a 3-car garage, and 0.28 acres of land.

The residence last sold in December 2015 for $1.2 million. You can check out some interior photos from the listing here. Because the pad is a duplex with a converted carriage house, it oddly has three different kitchens, which is a bit jarring to see.

Here’s hoping the new owners will convert the property back into a single-family home.

The Beaudry House appears only once in A Lot Like Love, in the scene in which Oliver returns home from work to learn that his live-in girlfriend Bridget (Moon Bloodgood) wants to break up with him just minutes before dinner guests are expected to arrive. in the movie, the residence actually belongs to Bridget. As Oliver later explains to his on-again/off-again love Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet), “I’ve been killing myself at work – nights, weekends, even at home. Well, Bridget’s home. See, I moved in with her. That was my big mistake right there. I should have stuck to the plan. I mean, the plan, the plan was working! And the irony of it is that Bridget actually loves plans.”

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the film, as you can see in the screen capture as compared to the MLS photo of the home pictured below.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Tovangar2 for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Oliver’s “San Francisco” house from A Lot Like Love is located at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park. Several other homes in the neighborhood have also appeared onscreen – the Sanders House at 1145 Carroll is where Ola Ray hid from zombies in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 1329 Carroll portrayed the Halliwell sisters’ residence on Charmed, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) grew up at 1355 Carroll on Mad Men, and Holly’s (Amy Ryan) Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is around the corner at 1347 Kellam Avenue.

April 16, 2018
Village Cigars from “Just My Luck”

When planning a trip, my M.O. is to pore over as many area travel guides as possible and highlight spots I think the Grim Cheaper and I might be interested in seeing. I then pass the books along to him and he reads through all the passages I have marked, giving them a yay or a nay. One place that really piqued both our interests prior to our April 2016 NYC vacay was Village Cigars, which we learned about via The Best Things to Do in New York. Though the smoke shop is an institution in and of itself, the GC and I were most interested in stalking it because of a small triangular plaque located on the sidewalk out front.

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Originally established in the early 1900s, Village Cigars moved to its current home – a tiny triangular-shaped space situated at the intersection of 7th Avenue South, Christopher Street, West 4th Street and Grove Street in the heart of Greenwich Village – in 1922. Prior to that, a five-story apartment building known as the Voorhis stood at that site. Owned by Philadelphia-based landlord David Hess and his family, the property was acquired by the city via eminent domain in 1910 in preparation for a large subway expansion project that ultimately destroyed pretty much everything in its path – all in the name of saving a few bucks. In order to avoid the expensive process of deep bore tunneling, which would have preserved the buildings situated above, the government instead chose to use a ‘cut and cover’ procedure, i.e. removing streets to allow for subterranean digging and then replacing them upon project completion. As such, an entire stretch of about 300 city buildings, including the Voorhis, were razed and Seventh Avenue South was extended about a mile. A commenter named Tim on the Scouting New York website explains it best, saying, “Seventh Ave. used to end at Greenwich Ave. The cut to Varick St. was made in 1913 so the subway company didn’t have to spend big on expensive drilling, instead they convinced the City to demolish 9 city blocks worth of buildings – churches, businesses and apartments – anything in the path of the new Seventh Ave. South so they could use the cheaper ‘cut and cover’ method.”

You can read a great write-up on the massive undertaking on the Gothamist website here. Included in the article are the 1897 and 1916 maps pictured below (garnered from The New York Public Library Digital Collections) which provide a better visual of how the Seventh Avenue extension changed the landscape of the area. In 1897, the Voorhis (spelled incorrectly as “Vorhes” on the map) occupied lot #55, situated just southwest of Christopher Park (the green triangle denoted “park”). As you can see, the extension not only cut through that lot, but the ones numbered 51 through 54, as well.

Years after the Seventh Avenue expansion was complete, Hess’ heirs discovered that during the imminent domain process the government had somehow failed to secure ownership of a miniscule triangular portion of their former land. So they quickly claimed the rights to it. In an incredibly nervy move, the city then asked the Hess estate to donate the 500-square-inch section of sidewalk to New York. I’ve doctored the 1897 map below with an overlay showing the current position of Seventh Avenue and an arrow denoting the location of the land in dispute.

Not surprisingly, the Hess family refused to donate the plot and instead adorned it with a tile plaque reading “PROPERTY OF THE HESS ESTATE WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEDICATED FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES.” The black-and-white mosaic was installed on July 26th, 1922. To further drive their point home, the family even erected a fence around the signage at one point.

In 1938, the Hess heirs sold the land, one of the smallest plots still in private ownership in New York, for $1,000 to the proprietors of Village Cigars, who chose to leave the 25.5-inch by 27.5-inch by 27.5-inch plaque intact. Today, the tiny patch is known as “Hess Triangle.” You can read a fabulous accounting of the history of the triangle on the Chris Whong website here and here.

Though the plaque has never appeared in a movie or television show (at least that I know of – if I’m wrong please fill me in!), Village Cigars is a frequent screen star.

The store is visible twice in fave movie Just My Luck. It first pops up toward the beginning of the 2006 film in the scene in which Dana (Bree Turner) and Maggie (Samaire Armstrong) decide to test out Ashley Albright’s (Lindsay Lohan) good fortune by purchasing a lottery ticket for her at a magazine stand located across the street from Village Cigars to see if she wins. Spoiler alert – she does.

Later in the movie, after her luck has run out, Ashley heads to Christopher Park, across the street from Village Cigars, with Jake Hardin (Chris Pine) and accidentally sits on a park bench that has just been painted.

Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) passes by Village Cigars numerous times in the 1976 drama Next Stop, Greenwich Village.

At the beginning of the 1980 comedy Hero at Large, Steve Nichols (John Ritter) is dropped off in front of Village Cigars after a Captain Avenger media promotion.

Alice Detroit (Dyan Cannon) asks Ivan Travalian (Al Pacino) to meet up with her outside of Village Cigars in 1982’s Author! Author!

In the Season 2 episode of NYPD Blue titled “The Final Adjustment,” which aired in 1994, Detective James Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) and Leticia Beltran (Marta Martin) walk through Christopher Park with Village Cigars visible in the background.

Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) grabs a hot dog and “a lot of ketchup” with Julian ‘Frankenstein’ McGrath (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) across the street from Village Cigar in the 1999 comedy Big Daddy.

Village Cigars can also be seen in the background of the 2013 drama Inside Llewyn Davis in the scene in which Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) exits a Greenwich Village subway station with his friend’s cat.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Village Cigars, from Just My Luck, is located at 110 7th Avenue South in New York’s West Village. Hess Triangle can be found in the sidewalk just outside the shop’s front doors.

April 11, 2018
The Los Angeles Theatre Alley from “Coyote Ugly”

You won’t typically find me frequenting back alleys in downtown Los Angeles. But there is one that I just can’t get enough of. My good friend Mike, from MovieShotsLA, pointed it out to me many years ago during a daylong DTLA stalking venture. While driving through the Theatre District, he pulled over near what looked to be a nondescript alcove off West 6th Street and pointed upwards. I literally gasped as my eyes locked upon the towering red marquee reading “Los Angeles Theatre” situated on the back wall of the small urban enclave. It was easily one of the most cinematic vistas I had ever seen! So I was not surprised when Mike informed me that the passageway had been featured onscreen in 2000’s Coyote Ugly, which up until that point I assumed had been shot solely in New York. Mike, of course, knew better. I snapped a ton of photos of the alley that day and have been back several times since, always stopping for a peek when I find myself nearby. Somehow though, I failed to ever blog about it. Cut to last month when I received an email from fellow stalker/Emergency! expert Richard Yokley (you may remember him from this post and this post) asking if I had ever stalked the Los Angeles Theatre alley and informing me of several of its other onscreen cameos. I decided right then and there that I had to dedicate a post to the site pronto!

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Modeled after San Francisco’s now defunct Fox Theater, the Los Angeles Theatre was originally built in 1931 for film exhibitor H.L. Gumbiner. The grand venue was designed in the French Baroque style by S. Charles Lee (who also gave us Temple Israel of Hollywood) and cost over $1 million to complete. And we’re talking 1930’s dollars! To say the site is opulent would be a gross understatement. I had the privilege of seeing it up close and personal a few years back thanks to the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Broadway Historic Theatre and Commercial District Tour. And, let me tell you, it is sensational! From the 80-foot-tall façade . . .

. . . to the gilded two-story lobby . . .

. . . to the elaborate 2,000-seat auditorium . . .

. . . to the oval ballroom – the locale is one of the most captivating in all of L.A.!

I mean, even the bathrooms are dazzling!

It is the theatre’s side alley that sets my heart aflutter, though.

The juxtaposition of the grit of the alley with the glamour of the marquee is just so strikingly cinematic!

Not to mention picturesque!

I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

The space almost looks like a manufactured set piece created on a backlot street at a Hollywood studio. But I assure you it is real.

Situated along the Los Angeles Theatre’s north side, around the corner from its main entrance, the alley is largely tucked away from view. One can easily drive right past without realizing it is there.

So why, you ask, was a large marquee installed in a relatively hidden alcove that would not seen by most patrons venturing through the venue’s front doors on Broadway? I could not even fathom a guess, but, thankfully, found an explanation on the Historic Los Angeles Theatres website.

As I learned, another movie palace, the Paramount Theatre, formerly stood directly across the street from the alley at 323 West 6th Street. (It was torn down in 1960 and the International Jewelry Center was eventually erected in its place.) The Paramount’s main entrance provided a great view of the enclave, so Gumbiner, ever the businessman, decided to install a marquee there in the hopes that it would draw the attention – and patronage – of his competitor’s clientele. Original plans for the space called for a much more elaborate façade with a porticoed doorway and columns flanking the marquee, as you can see on the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation’s Facebook page and the Historic Los Angeles Theatres website.

For whatever reason, though, only the marquee portion of it was completed – which I think makes the site even more dramatic and eye-catching.

Considering its compelling ambience, it is not surprising that the alley has popped up onscreen.

In Coyote Ugly, the locale masks as the entrance to New York’s Fiji Mermaid club.

It is there that Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) introduces herself to Kevin O’Donnell (Adam Garcia), who she thinks is the club’s manager, at the beginning of the film. As you can see in the screen captures above and below, the marquee was changed to read “East Broadway Theatre” for the scene.

As Richard informed me in his email, Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) and Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) retrieve a body from the Los Angeles Theatre alley – and share a rather passionate embrace there while trying to evade the police – in 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Richard also clued me into the alley’s appearance in the original Life on Mars pilot, which never aired, but can be viewed on YouTube here. Written by David E. Kelley, the unaired episode takes place in Los Angeles and centers on LAPD detective Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) who, after getting hit by a car in 2007, wakes up to discover he is stuck in the year 1972. Apparently ABC requested a complete re-do of the show after viewing it. Not only were several roles recast, but the setting was moved from SoCal to New York. The series was then picked up and went on to air 17 episodes before being given the ax – prematurely I might add. My mom and I watched Life on Mars religiously and were heartbroken over its cancellation. As much of a fan as I was, though, I was completely unaware that the pilot had been reshot until Richard’s email. In the episode, Sam witnesses an arrest taking place in the Los Angeles Theater alley shortly after waking up in 1972.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for originally telling me about this location and to Richard Yokley for reminding me of it and informing me of its other onscreen appearances.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Los Angeles Theatre alley, from Coyote Ugly, is located in between 314 and 318 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

April 2, 2018
The “Lady Bird” House

I know I am in the minority when I say I did not like Lady Bird. Besides confusion over the name (up until I actually popped in the DVD and started watching, I thought the movie was a biopic about Lady Bird Johnson) and a storyline that seemed lacking, I found the main character, Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), utterly bratty. She complains constantly about her hometown and claims she will do anything to go to college far away, yet she doesn’t take action to improve her grades, she cheats (on both a test and by lying to her teacher), lets her recently-out-of-work dad mortgage the family home (behind her mom’s back) in order to pay her out-of-state tuition, and throws tantrums on the reg. I honestly could not find one redeemable thing about her. Without a protagonist to root for or at least to sympathize with on some level, my investment in the movie felt like a waste of time. I was intrigued by the locations, though. While set and partially shot in Sacramento, I knew upon watching and recognizing the café where Lady Bird worked as Kaldi Coffee and Tea in South Pasadena that some filming took place in Los Angeles, as well. I was fairly certain that the house where Lady Bird lived with her family – parents Marion (Laurie Metcalf) and Larry (Tracy Letts), brother Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues), and his girlfriend Shelly Yuhan (Marielle Scott) – could also be found in L.A. So I set out to find it.

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One quick stroke of the keypad led me to an Architectural Digest article that stated the McPherson family home was located in Van Nuys. An address number of “6701” was also visible behind Lady Bird in a scene, so I began searching blocks numbered 6700 in Van Nuys and came across the right spot within minutes. Said to be on “the wrong side of the tracks” in SacTown in the movie, Lady Bird’s home can actually be found at 6701 Orion Avenue, just east of the 405.

According to the AD article, Lady Bird’s production team scouted no less than fifty different properties before settling on the traditional 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1952 ranch-style pad pictured below.

Not much of the residence was altered for the shoot, as you can see below.

Even the interior, which was utilized extensively, was a perfect fit for the production. As director/writer Greta Gerwig said to The Sacramento Bee, “I was looking for very specific things and it’s so hard to find a home that’s not been renovated. I had this vision of the kind of California home I wanted, like specific wide colorful tiles in the bathroom and kitchen.”

Prior to securing locales, Gerwig took the production team to her childhood home to give them an idea of the look she was going for. In a lucky and rather eerie twist, the Van Nuys house boasted that aesthetic naturally – and in spades. As production designer Chris Jones explained to Architectural Digest, “It was really bizarre because the kitchen looks almost exactly like Greta’s kitchen growing up. It’s an almost exact match, down to the yellow tiles on the wall.” The space actually reminds me quite a bit of the Arnolds’ kitchen from the pilot episode of The Wonder Years.

Per AD, while most of the furniture seen onscreen was brought in for the shoot, the faux wood paneling was another of the home’s authentic features.

Jones calls the house “a great find” saying it became a “character in the movie.”

The 1,607 square feet of living space did prove rather cramped for cast and crew, though. Jones told Deadline, “Working in the house was tight. Everyone was crammed in this small, square footage house. Fortunately, that house had a back area, which actually ended up being the dorm rooms for when she goes to New York. The whole yard was taken over by the film shoot for a week and a half.” Lady Bird’s dorm is pictured below. From Jones’ words, I am unclear if an actual room in the Van Nuys residence was utilized for the segment (with a New York cityscape splayed across the window) or if the space was a set constructed in the backyard or some other rear portion of the property.

The Lady Bird house also popped up in the Season 6 episode of Californication titled “Blind Faith” as the residence belonging to Faith’s (Maggie Grace) parents.

Quite a bit of the interior was also shown in the episode . . .

. . . including Faith’s childhood bedroom, which was the same room utilized as Lady Bird’s.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The McPherson family home from Lady Bird is located at 6701 Orion Avenue in Van Nuys.

March 21, 2018
30th Street Station from “Trading Places”

If you’re a filming location buff, you really shouldn’t travel to Philadelphia without first seeing Trading Places, the 1983 Dan Aykroyd/Eddie Murphy comedy set in the City of Brotherly Love. And filming location buff or not, you really shouldn’t leave Philly without a visit to 30th Street Station, the city’s main railroad depot which had a brief, but memorable role in the flick. I had never actually watched the movie until just prior to our trip back east in September 2016, but it has always been one of the Grim Cheaper’s favorites, so I knew I had to give it a go. And even though he is not at all into locations, I made sure to add a few of its sites to our stalking itinerary. 30th Street Station was at the top of that list thanks to some photos I had seen of its grandly dramatic interior online. In person, it did not disappoint.

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30th Street Station was originally built by the Pennsylvania Railroad between 1929 and 1934.

Designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the imposing structure was erected out of steel, limestone, granite, and sandstone.

Technologically advanced for its time with a pneumatic tube system, a reinforced roof that allowed for small aircraft landings, and a progressive intercom schematic, the site became the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Railroad shortly after opening.

To say that 30th Street Station is grand would be a vast understatement. From the towering front portico . . .

. . . to the striking main concourse – the depot makes quite an impression.

Though the exterior of the building is Classical in style, the 562,000-square-foot interior is all Art Deco – and it is stunning.

The colossal 290-foot by 135-foot concourse features travertine walls, marble columns, 5-story windows, and gilded detailing.

It is the coffered ceiling, which soars 97 feet above the floor, though, that had me gaping.

Walking into the space, one can’t help but simply marvel.

Situated adjacent to the concourse is the North Waiting Room, another gleaming chamber of travertine and marble.

The room is best known for the massive bas-relief that sits on its rear wall.

Named “Spirit of Transportation,” the 1895 piece was sculpted by Karl Bitter and details evolving modes of transit. Originally displayed at the now defunct Broad Street Station formerly located just a few miles away, the installation was moved to its current home in January 1933.

From 1988 to 1991, 30th Street Station, which according to The Architects Newspaper accommodates 11 million commuters each year, underwent a $100-million revitalization. The area surrounding it is currently set to undergo a massive renovation of its own.

In order to expand the city’s commercial district, 30-million square feet of new space consisting of office and apartment buildings, hotels, parks, shops, and restaurants will be constructed around the depot along the banks of the Schuylkill River. Considering the views are already pretty stellar, I can only imagine how beautiful it is going to be.

30th Street Station pops up at the end of Trading Places in the scene in which Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) and Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) catch a train to New York.

It is there, in the main concourse, that Coleman (Denholm Elliott) and Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) hand over their life savings in order to help Louis and Billy Ray get revenge on scheming brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, respectively). On a Trading Places side-note – while researching for this post, I came across a fabulous oral history of the movie. Those interested can check it out here.

Considering its dramatic architecture, it should come as no surprise that the station has been featured in a plethora of productions over the years.

In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 thriller Marnie, Marnie Edgar (Tippi Hedren) arrives in Philadelphia via 30th Street Station. I am fairly certain that no actual filming took place on the premises, though, and that the depot was solely utilized in an establishing shot.

The station that Marnie is shown exiting from in the movie looks to be nothing more than a studio-built set.

In the 1981 thriller Blow Out, Burke (John Lithgow) stalks a prostitute in 30th Street Station’s North Waiting Room and then kills her in one of the depot’s bathrooms before heading to the concourse to meet up with Sally (Nancy Allen).

Samuel (Lukas Haas) witnesses a murder at 30th Street Station in the 1985 drama Witness.

Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel) and Julian (John Leguizamo) flee Philadelphia via a train at 30th Street Station in the 2008 thriller The Happening.

At the beginning of 2015’s The Visit, Mom (Kathryn Hahn) drops off her kids, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), at 30th Street Station.

In the 2017 thriller Split, Kevin Wendall Crumb (James McAvoy) buys flowers at 30th Street Station, though not much of the site can be seen in the scene.

The site also pops up each week in the opening credits of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which started airing in 2005.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: 30th Street Station, from Trading Places, is located at 2955 Market Street in Philadelphia.

March 19, 2018
The “What Women Want” Coffee Shop

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.” So says Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. I should have heeded her advice because for years I have been searching for the coffee shop from the 2000 comedy What Women Want and as it turns out the answer to my query has been in a box in my closet since before filming even took place. Let me back up a bit and explain.

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A few nights after my parents and I moved to Pasadena in late February 2000, we grabbed dinner at the Il Fornaio restaurant in Old Town. Upon arriving, my mom spotted a notice on the front door stating that the Italian eatery was going to be closed the following day for a film shoot. We, of course, asked our server for further details and he explained that the shoot was for a Mel Gibson movie named What Women Want. So bright and early the next morning, my mom and I headed back over to the restaurant in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the goings-on. To our delight, we were allowed to sit on a bench right outside of Il Fornaio’s entrance (the very same bench the Grim Cheaper and I took our engagement photos on almost ten years later!) and observe pretty much everything. It was my very first experience being on a working set and I couldn’t believe my luck that it was happening within 72 hours of moving to L.A. The crew could not have been nicer to us, letting us hang out for hours. One even gifted me with the day’s call sheet which I’ve kept in a memento box ever since. Flash forward to last month. While helping me unpack after our recent move, my mom noticed how many celebrity autographs I have and suggested I frame them and display them via a gallery wall in my new office. (You can see the finished result here.) So, I promptly began digging all of my autographs out of my plethora of memento boxes and, while doing so, was shocked to come across the What Women Want call sheet. I had completely forgotten I had it! I didn’t think much about it and didn’t even unfold it to take a closer look, in fact, until a lightbulb went off in my head a few minutes later. Though a call sheet chronicles all of the information for a particular day of shooting (location details, call times, scheduling information, key phone numbers, parking maps, etc.), sometimes data for future filming is also noted. Knowing the odds were incredibly slim but with fingers crossed, I opened up the paper to see if the coffee shop scenes happened to be listed and, lo and behold, they were – along with an address, spelled out in black and white! The information I had been seeking for years had been right in my own backyard – or closet, in this case – the whole time! As the call sheet informed me, the What Women Want coffee shop scenes were lensed at 400 South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. (Though the sheet notes the address as “400 Main St” with no north or south designation, being that there is no structure at 400 North Main, it was easy to discern that filming took place at 400 South.)

I just about fell off my chair when I did a Google Street View search for the address and imagery of the San Fernando Building, a very popular filming location, came into focus on my screen. Not only had I stalked the historic site before, but I’d covered it on two separate occasions in articles for other media outlets. More on that in a bit.

The Italian Renaissance Revival-style structure was commissioned by wealthy wheat farmer/landowner James B. Lankershim in 1907 and originally consisted of 6 floors.

Considered the city’s grandest office building at the time of its inception, the luxe John F. Blee-designed property boasted a marble lobby with 22-foot ceilings, a Turkish bath, a café, a billiards room, and a penthouse which Lankershim called home.

In 1911, two additional stories were added to the top of the building by architect R. B Young.

Sadly, by the ‘90s, the property – and the neighborhood surrounding it – had fallen into disrepair. Enter Tom Gilmore of Gilmore Associates. In 1998, the visionary developer purchased the San Fernando, as well as three additional area buildings, and began rehabilitating them. Killefer Flammang Architects was hired for the extensive transformation process, during which the San Fernando office units were converted into 70 modern loft rentals with concrete flooring, open floorplans, tile bathrooms, and high-end kitchens.

The building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Historic-Cultural Monument, began leasing out units in August 2000 and by March of the following year was 93% occupied.

The San Fernando’s ground floor also garnered new tenants, in the form of high-end restaurants, cafés, studios, and shops . It is one of those spaces that was utilized in What Women Want.

The site pops up a couple of times in the movie as the spot where cocky ad exec Nick Marshall (Gibson) grabs his daily cup of joe – and regularly hits on barista Lola (Marisa Tomei).

Purported to be a Dietrich Coffee outpost in the flick (I am unsure of why the call sheet refers to it as a “Starbucks”), the coffee shop was not a real café at all, but a fabrication constructed inside of a vacant storefront for the shoot – a tidbit I learned years ago from the movie’s DVD commentary with director Nancy Meyers and production designer Jon Hutman.

Yep, you read that right! The What Women Want coffee shop was just a set, albeit an extensive one.

As noted in the commentary, the entire coffee shop was a build-out, even the lobby seen in the background. (Another interesting tidbit that I learned from Meyers’ commentary is that Frank Sinatra greatly influenced both the character of Nick and the movie as a whole. Not only was Nick’s apartment based on Sinatra’s apartment in Come Blow Your Horn, but Hutman incorporated orange, Sinatra’s favorite color, as an accent hue in all of the sets. One example is the directory sign visible below, which boasts an orange stripe across the top.)

So, if the whole What Women Want coffee shop was just a set, one that was completely dismantled after shooting wrapped, why was I so fixated on identifying it? I cannot really answer that question. Though I was fully aware that no part of the locale would be recognizable from the flick, I was still obsessed with tracking it down – and spent years trying to do so. I think possibly my intrigue was not in spite of the café being a set, but because of it. Uncovering the reality of the space’s aesthetic as compared to the fantasy that was shown onscreen piqued my interest. What can I say? The magic of Hollywood captivates me.

Today, the storefront where the What Women Want coffee shop was set up houses a Spanish/Mediterranean eatery named Bäco Mercat. (The space is denoted with a pink bracket below.) Founded by Josef Centeno in 2011, the popular restaurant is named for the baco-style bread that is utilized in its sandwiches.

Though Bäco Mercat occupies the entire southern half of the San Fernando Building’s ground level (as was the case with the What Women Want coffee shop), prior to that the space was divided into two separate units with a café named Banquette inhabiting the more northern storefront, as you’ll see in some screen captures to come.

The entrance doors Nick utilizes in the movie are situated on the northern side of Bäco Mercat.

Ironically, while re-stalking the San Fernando Building recently, I was so excited to finally be seeing the What Women Want café site in person that I failed to snap photos of the buildings across the street (the Hellman Building and the Farmers and Merchants Bank), which were visible in one of the coffee shop scenes and are the only recognizable elements that still exists from the film. Thank goodness for Google Street View! As you can see in the collage below, while the windows of the Hellman Building have changed a bit, the column of the Farmers and Merchants Bank pictured behind Nick is easily identifiable.

As is the decorative lip that runs across the top of the Hellman Building. (You can check out a historic image of the Hellman which shows the street level windows in their original form and as they appeared in What Women Want – before they were altered to run all the way down to the sidewalk – here.)

As I mentioned earlier, the San Fernando Building has a prolific film resume. In the Season 1 episode of Police Story titled “Fingerprint,” which aired in 1974, Allen Rich (Tim Matheson) attempts to evade the police by ducking into the structure.

The episode grants us a great glimpse of what the property’s interior looked like at the time.

In 1977, the San Fernando Building popped up in the Season 2 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Huggy Bear and the Turkey” as the site of The Pits bar, where Foxy Baker (Emily Yancy) seeks out Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas) and J.D. Turquet ‘Turkey’ (Dale Robinette) to help her find her missing husband.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve written about the San Fernando on two other occasions. I briefly covered the site and its appearance in the 1983 “Beat It” music video in this Discover Los Angeles article about Michael Jackson’s L.A. that I penned in 2016. While I originally thought that the video’s pool hall segments had been lensed at the Hard Rock Cafe where the bar scenes were shot, back in August 2013 set designer/builder Michael Scaglione, who worked on “Beat It,” was kind enough to give me copies of his original location sheets. As they detailed, filming of the pool hall bits actually occurred at Brunswick Billiard Academy, formerly located in the basement of the San Fernando. Though not much of the space can be seen in the video (which you can watch here) . . .

. . . you can catch some additional glimpses of it in this clip about the making of “Beat It” from Entertainment Tonight’s The Jacksons Exposed! special.

Brunswick Billiard Academy is also where Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) plays pool in 1988’s Bull Durham.

The movie provides us with much wider views of the pool hall than those featured in “Beat It.”

In the 1992 comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Joe Bomowski (Sylvester Stallone) responds to a call about a jumper at the San Fernando, which is said to be located at 486 South Main Street.

The building’s actual interior was also utilized in the scene.

Dick Harper (Jim Carrey), Jane Harper (Téa Leoni) and Frank Bascombe (Richard Jenkins) discuss how to rob Jack McCallister (Alex Baldwin) while sitting in front of Pete’s Cafe and Bar, which formerly occupied the northern half of the San Fernando Building’s lower level, in the 2005 comedy Fun with Dick and Jane. Today that space houses PYT.

Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) hides out – and almost gets arrested – in the San Fernando’s entrance while spying on Sarah Fenn’s (Kate Mara) meeting with Nick Memphis (Michael Pena) at the Barclay Hotel across the street in the 2007 action flick Shooter.

In 2009’s (500) Days of Summer, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) shop twice at Old Bank DVD, which was formerly located next to Banquette on the San Fernando’s lower level.

You can just see the edge of Banquette in the second screen capture below.

In the Season 5 Rear-Window-inspired episode of Castle titled “The Lives of Others,” which aired in 2013, Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) spies on his across-the-street neighbors in the San Fernando Building via a pair of binoculars while holed up in his apartment due to a skiing accident.

A couple of scenes also took place on the sidewalk out of in front the building. (Why an address number of 500 was posted on the San Fernando for the shoot, I am unsure.)

That same year, Anton Zevlos (Jeff Griggs) dined with his family at Pete’s Cafe & Bar in the Season 5 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles titled “Iron Curtain Rising.” You can check out a photo of the eatery’s interior that matches what is shown below here.

As I detailed in this post for Los Angeles magazine, Kate King (Leslie Mann) calls her husband, Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), to remind him about a dinner engagement while standing in front of Bäco Mercat in the 2014 movie The Other Woman.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The coffee shop from What Women Want was created inside of a vacant storefront at the San Fernando Building, which is located at 400 South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. The storefront now houses the restaurant Bäco Mercat. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

March 16, 2018
Hop Louie from “I Love You, Man”

Los Angeles suffered numerous iconic restaurant closures in 2017 – Auntie Em’s Kitchen in Eagle Rock, Happy Trails Catering in Pasadena (I was particularly heartbroken over that one), and the Formosa Cafe in West Hollywood (though it is set to re-open this summer), just to name a few. 2017 also saw the final shuttering of historic Chinatown eatery Hop Louie. Though the kitchen and main dining room of the area landmark and onscreen stalwart shut down in August 2016, the lower level bar had remained in operation – and left Angelinos hopeful over the restaurant’s future. That all changed when the locale closed its doors for good last July. What is to become of the legendary site is anyone’s guess. I stalked Hop Louie way back in 2012 after becoming obsessed with it thanks to its appearance in I Love You, Man, but, sadly, never got to actually dine on the premises (more on that in a bit) and somehow failed to dedicate a blog post to the place. Then, last week, while doing some downtown L.A. stalking, the Grim Cheaper and I happened to drive through Chinatown and when my gaze caught sight of Hop Louie’s unique pagoda-shaped exterior, I decided it was high time I rectify that.

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Hop Louie’s eye-catching edifice, which towers over Chinatown, was originally constructed in 1941 to house a Cantonese eatery named Golden Pagoda Restaurant.

How it became Hop Louie is not really well-documented online, but from what I can gather the site was taken over in 1985 by restauranteurs Hop Louie Woo and Bill Ng, who met while working together at Latitude 20 in Torrance. The duo transformed the locale into a Cantonese/Mandarin eatery named after Woo. Though the fare was never especially noteworthy, the place quickly became a neighborhood staple due largely to its kitschy décor, generous servings, and reasonable prices. The cocktail lounge, situated on the lower level and known for serving stiff, inexpensive libations, was also a big part of Hop Louie’s draw.

Very little of the restaurant was changed throughout its thirty-year history, leaving patrons and online commenters to commonly refer to it as being “frozen in time.” The assessment was not at all far off – the place was a relic! A cigarette vending machine could even still be found on the premises as late as 2007.

Sadly, Hop Louie suffered from lingering profits in recent years, leading the owners to shut down the kitchen in August 2016. Though the bar was left open, everyone in the city, it seemed, mourned the restaurant’s demise, with Eater LA, LA Weekly, LAist, NBC Los Angeles, and TimeOut all lamenting the news.

Oddly, when the cocktail lounge shuttered a little less than a year later and the final nail was essentially put in Hop Louie’s coffin, the lights seemed to go out with no fanfare whatsoever. In fact, had it not been for a couple of mentions on Yelp and Instagram, I would not have even realized that the bar had closed and the historic restaurant was no longer.

When the GC and I visited Hop Louie in 2012, our experience left a bit to be desired. Upon entering, we headed upstairs to the dining area and I snapped the photos below along the way.

As we reached the second level and stood waiting to be seated, I took a picture of the dining room which apparently was a huge no-no because a man immediately ran over to us screaming and yelling that photos were not allowed. It was not the best way to be greeted, so, needless to say, we did not stay for a meal and the images above and below are the only ones I got of Hop Louie’s interior. You can check out some great shots of the inside of the place here, though.

You can also catch a glimpse of the restaurant via its myriad onscreen roles. In the 2009 comedy I Love You, Man, Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones) and Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) host their engagement party at Hop Louie.

In an interesting twist, though, one that I did not realize up until writing this post, only the exterior of Hop Louie was utilized in the engagement party scene. Though the eatery is referred to by name in the movie and said to be Peter’s favorite spot to bring dates, it solely appeared in a brief establishing shot. All interior filming took place at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant located at 18331 Sherman Way in Reseda. You can see some photographs of that site here.

Back in 1978, when the locale still housed the Golden Pagoda, it portrayed the restaurant owned by Miss Choy (France Nuyen) in the Season 7 episode of Columbo titled “Murder Under Glass.”

Once again, only the exterior was utilized in the shoot. Interiors were shot elsewhere.

In 1984, the Golden Pagoda popped up in the Season 2 episode of The A-Team titled “The Maltese Cow.”

As was the case with the previous two productions mentioned, only the exterior of the building appeared onscreen. Interiors were shot, I believe, on a set.

We finally catch a glimpse of Hop Louie’s interior in the 1990 comedy Sibling Rivalry, in the scene in which Marjorie Turner (Kirstie Alley) and her sister Jeanine (Jami Gertz) discuss Jeanine’s new love interest over lunch.

A fight between two rival kick-boxing gangs breaks out near Hop Louie’s entrance in the 1991 action flick Ring of Fire.

Haru (Chris Farley) goes undercover as a teppan chef at Hop Louie in order to spy on Martin Tanley (Nathaniel Parker) in the 1997 comedy Beverly Hills Ninja.

Once again, though, only the exterior of the site was utilized. Interiors were shot on what I believe was a set.

In 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4, Detective Lee Butters (Chris Rock) chases a waiter (Philip Tan) whom he mistakenly thinks is a bad guy through Hop Louie’s dining room.

The waiter winds up jumping out of Hop Louie’s second-story window onto the street below, where he is promptly arrested.

Furious (Ben Stiller) and his team head to Hop Louie to celebrate their first victory in 1999’s Mystery Men. Only the exterior of the site appeared in the movie. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)

Interior filming took place at The Prince, one of my favorite L.A. restaurants.

Hop Louie portrays three different spots in the 2007 comedy Big Stan. The exterior of the restaurant pops up in a couple of scenes as the outside of Master Cho’s Karate studio.

The main dining room is the spot where Big Stan (Rob Schneider) has dinner with The Master (David Carradine) and Lew Popper (M. Emmet Walsh).

And the lower level bar is where Lew meets Madame Foreman (Sally Kirkland).

In the Season 1 episode of Chuck titled “Chuck Versus the Sizzling Shrimp,” which aired in 2007, Hop Louie masks as Bamboo Dragon restaurant where Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) encounters international spy Mei-Ling Cho (Gwendoline Yeo).

G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) parks on the side of Hop Louie while chasing a criminal in the Season 1 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles titled “Chinatown,” which aired in 2010.

In the pilot episode of Stitchers titled “A Stitch in Time,” which aired in 2015, Hop Louie masks as the Chinese restaurant that stands as a cover for the secret headquarters of the Stitchers agency.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hop Louie, from I Love You, Man, is located at 950 Mei Ling Way in downtown L.A.’s Chinatown. The restaurant and bar are both currently closed.

March 14, 2018
Hilton Pasadena from “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training”

I always love it when a filming location sneaks up on me. This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I headed to Pasadena to attend the closing party for my favorite store, Lula Mae. (Yes, you read that right – Lula Mae, my happy place, is, sadly, shuttering later this month. While I am devastated over the closure and will miss the shop and its owner, Marci, more than words can say, I couldn’t be happier for Marc as she embarks upon a new adventure in the Pacific Northwest.) After checking in to the Hilton Pasadena upon arriving in Crown City, I decided to do some Googling to see if anything had been filmed on the premises and was thrilled to come across a Wikipedia mention of the hotel’s appearance in the 1977 comedy The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training. Some further digging revealed that the property had played host to a couple of other productions, as well, throughout the years. While I typically try to only book lodgings that have been featured onscreen for all of my travels, in this case, staying at a filming location was a happy accident! So I decided I just had to blog about the place.

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The Hilton Pasadena originally opened its doors in December 1970.

Since that time, the 13-story property has undergone numerous renovations, the most recent of which was completed in fall 2017.

So it goes without saying that the site looks quite a bit different today than it did in its early years, when it boasted 264 rooms, a 26,000-square-foot shopping arcade, a top-floor restaurant, a two-story lobby, and a dark wood and deep red color palate.

Currently the lodging features 296 rooms and suites, 28,494 square feet of meeting space (including downtown Pasadena’s largest ballroom!), an outdoor pool and hot tub, a health club, a business center, a pantry market, and a bright, open lobby.

The hotel also boasts an onsite restaurant, The Corner Craft Kitchen + Bar.

Hilton Pasadena is a gorgeous property and the GC and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

In The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, the site masquerades as The Houston Hilton, where the Bears are put up while in town to play a charity game at the Astrodome. The exterior of the property is only shown once in the movie and very briefly at that.

I am fairly certain that one of the hotel’s actual hallways and a couple of the rooms were also utilized in the film.

Thanks to the Remington Steele Shrine website, I discovered that the Hilton masks as the Brinkley Hotel, where Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) spies on her sister’s husband in order to determine if he’s having an affair during a dental convention, in the Season 2 episode of Remington Steele titled “Steele Sweet on You,” which aired in 1984. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the site are used extensively in the episode.

Watching it, you really get a sense of how different the property looked during its early days.

It looks so different, in fact, that at first I wasn’t sure if Remington Steele had made use of the Hilton’s interior for the shoot or if the production had utilized another hotel. Thankfully though, after scrutinizing the episode, I am able to say with certainty that it was, indeed, filmed inside the property. As you can see below, in one scene, Remington Steele (Pierce Brosnan) walks by a lobby directory and a listing for “Harry Kamp Clothiers” is visible. Some Googling led me to this 2009 Pasadena Now article which states that the clothing boutique was initially located in the lobby of the Pasadena Hilton. Eureka!

The rooms . . .

. . . and hallway that appeared in the episode were not actual parts of the Hilton, but sets built at CBS Studio Center where the series was lensed.

Thanks to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, I learned that in the Season 8 episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia titled “Frank’s Back in Business,” which aired in 2012, a Pasadena Hilton meeting room is the site of the Atwater Capital shareholders’ meeting. Though the hotel’s ballrooms have since been remodeled, you can check out an old photograph of one of the event spaces in which the carpet matches what appeared in the episode here.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hilton Pasadena, from The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, is located at 168 South Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 7, 2018