Category: TV Locations

Papagayos Mexican Restaurant & Cantina from "Vanderpump Rules"

It has been hot in Palm Springs lately. Granted, it is always hot here, but the past few months have been unseasonably sweltering. Two weeks ago, my parents, the Grim Cheaper and I decided to chill out a bit by heading to Lake Arrowhead for a short getaway. Just prior to our trip, the GC and I started watching Vanderpump Rules over again from the beginning and, as fate would have it, one of the reality series’ Season 2 episodes was shot in the mountain town, which is located about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. So I, of course, had to get in some VP stalking while I was there.

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In Season 2’s “Only the Lonely,” Stassi Schroeder, Jax Taylor, and the rest of the Sur gang journeyed to Lake Arrowhead for the weekend to catch Tom Sandoval’s band’s show. Several area sites appeared in the episode and I stalked pretty much all of them, excluding the beach where Jax showed Stassi his new tattoo, which I maddeningly did not manage to track down until after I had already returned home.

One of the most prominent locales featured was the Lake Arrowhead Village eatery Papagayos Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, where the group headed for drinks shortly after arriving in town. So the GC and I, of course, had to do the same!

During their visit, Stassi and co. hung out mainly in the restaurant’s bar area.

Drama, of course, ensued while there, as it always does with the Sur gang. During this particular venture, Sandoval and then girlfriend Kristen Doute got into a heated dustup over whether or not Tom wore his pair of steampunk glasses regularly. I’m not joking – that is actually what their fight was about. Ah, the important things in life. The girls wound up splitting off from the guys during the argument and both genders gave Sandoval and Kristen the same advice – break up, and fast!

Our lunch at Papagayos was much less eventful. (The GC does not own a pair of steampunk glasses, so what was there to fight about, really?)

Like the Vanderpump gang, we ate in the bar area and I can honestly say that the eatery served up one of the best Mexican meals I’ve ever had.

It’s no wonder the place was absolutely jam-packed, even though it was 3 p.m. on a Saturday.

If you’re in the area, I cannot recommend Papagayos more.

The building housing the eatery has quite an interesting history. Lake Arrowhead Village was the brainchild of the Arrowhead Lake Company, an L.A.-based development group that purchased a 4,800-acre plot in the San Bernardino Mountains in 1920 with the intention of turning it into a resort town. Roadwork, 3 hotels, a 9-hole golf course, and a quaint Norman-style shopping center named Lake Arrowhead Village were soon completed at the sprawling site. The center consisted of boutiques, an outdoor movie theatre, restaurants, a beach, and a 12-sided dance pavilion that was designed by McNeal Swasey. The lakeside town quickly became a getaway for Hollywood’s elite, attracting such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Jules Stein, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Doris Day, Liberace, Frankie Avalon, and Rock Hudson.

By the late ‘70s, the Village had fallen into a state of decline. When new developers purchased it in 1978, they decided it would be more cost-effective to demolish the center and build a new one in its place, rather than do repairs. So in 1979, Lake Arrowhead Village was burned to the ground as part of a “burn to learn” exercise conducted by the Lake Arrowhead Fire Protection District and a few other city agencies. Only a couple of the site’s original buildings were kept out of the blaze, including the post office, the bank, a real estate office, and the circular dance pavilion. The later was restored and revitalized and today houses Papagayos, as well as a few other shops. You can see a photograph of the exterior of the pavilion in its original state here and here, and an image of the interior here.

According to More Magnificent Mountain Movies, the pavilion was featured prominently in A Swingin’ Summer. I scanned through the 1965 film, though, and the venue said to be the dance pavilion in it is the single-story outdoor bandstand pictured below, which I believe may have been a set created for the shoot. It looks nothing like the Village’s actual dance pavilion, which, from what I saw, never made an appearance in the movie.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Papagayos Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, from the “Only the Lonely” episode of Vanderpump Rules, is located at 28200 Highway 189, Building P-100, in Lake Arrowhead. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

April 10, 2017
A Round-Up of “Big Little Lies” Filming Locations

I’ve decided to break with tradition a bit for this post. My latest small screen obsession, Big Little Lies, came to an end on Sunday night and, though the finale was excellent, I am bummed to say the least that the HBO miniseries is now over. During its seven-episode run, I tracked down most of the L.A.-area locales, as well as a few of the Monterey spots, featured in it and I thought it would be fun to chronicle them here. Because I have not visited many of the sites in person, I am relying on screen captures instead of photos for this post’s imagery.

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1. Madeline’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Though I already wrote an in-depth post on the gorgeous Cape Cod-style home belonging to Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) on the series, I would be remiss if I did not include information about it here for those who missed the article. Madeline’s beachfront pad, by far my favorite of all of the residences featured on the show, is an oft-filmed gem that has also appeared on Models Inc., Diagnosis Murder, and Hannah Montana.

2. Jane’s House (161 North Chester Avenue, Pasadena) – The bungalow where Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) lives is another spot I’ve already covered, but, again, I thought I should include its information here.

3. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – The architectural masterpiece belonging to Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and her husband, Perry (Alexander Skarsgård), ranks a close second when it comes to my favorite residence on the series. Only the exterior and bottom floor of the clifftop stunner were utilized on Big Little Lies. The Wright’s bedroom, bathroom and massive walk-in closet were part of a studio-built set. In real life, the dwelling, which was originally built in 1988, serves as a vacation rental.

4. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – The massive contemporary home where Renata Klein (Laura Dern) and her husband, Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling), reside is another oft-filmed property that can be found on a private road in Malibu. The 10,000-square-foot residence’s onscreen resume (which includes appearances on 90210, Brothers & Sisters, and Revenge) almost led to it not being featured in Big Little Lies. As location manager Gregory Albert told Vulture, “I was resisting, even showing it to [director] Jean-Marc [Vallée] because of that, but we presented it and he picked it and then I was kicking myself. I felt in some way it was doing a disservice to the show. But then I remember watching the first episode and there’s Renata standing at the edge of the world, glass of wine in her hand. The [director of photography] had shot it in a way that I’ve never seen the house shot before and I thought, That’s why Jean-Marc’s the auteur and visionary that he is.” I actually find Albert’s statement kind of funny because I recognized the pad instantly when watching the scene described.

5. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – The bohemian compound where Madeline’s ex, Nathan Carlson (James Tupper), lives with his new wife, Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), sits tucked off the road in a wooded part of Calabasas near Malibu Creek State Park. The secluded residence, which Albert says, “feels like it is part of the environment,” is situated on 1.12 acres of lush, forested land.

6. Otter Bay Elementary School – Kenter Canyon Elementary School (645 North Kenter Avenue in Brentwood) – Otter Bay, the elementary school attended by all of the characters’ children on the series, is actually Brentwood’s Kenter Canyon Elementary. Both the interior and exterior of the site appeared on the show.

7. Side Door Café – Happy Trails Garden (207 South Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena) – While Blue Blues, the supposed Fisherman’s Wharf coffee shop where Madeline, Celeste, and Jane often hang out, is not a real place but a studio-built set, the other eatery frequented by the group is authentic. Or, at least, it was. The picturesque outdoor restaurant referred to as Side Door Café on the show, which is very reminiscent of Carmel’s popular Hog’s Breath Inn, was known as Happy Trails Garden in real life. Sadly, it shuttered in 2018 and currently sits vacant. The bucolic site was featured three times on the series. It first showed up in “Serious Mothering” as the place where Madeline and Celeste meet for drinks and get into a confrontation with Renata. Then in “Push Comes to Shove,” it appeared as both the spot where Madeline and Nathan discuss co-parenting Abigail and where Jane meets with Ms. Barnes (Virginia Kull). You can read a more in-depth post on the eatery here.

8. Studio City Recreation Center (12621 Rye Street, Studio City) – Jane’s son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), tries out Tee-ball for the first time – and hits a home run – at Studio City Recreation Center, which is also known as Beeman Park. I wrote about the oft-filmed site last year, detailing its appearances in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Scrubs, Role Models, and Parks and Recreation. You can read that post here.

9. Interior Design Office (1035 East Green Street, Pasadena) – Madeline tracks down (Spoiler alert!) Jane’s possible rapist, Saxon Baker (Stephen Graybill), to an interior design office in San Louis Obispo. In reality, the office is part of Invicta Fitness, a workout studio located in a quaint brick building where Albert Einstein once worked on Green Street in Pasadena.

10. Celeste’s Apartment (1 Surf Way, Monterey) – The apartment Celeste leases in “Burning Love” is another Monterey-area location. Situated on the sand overlooking Del Monte Beach, the complex is made up of condos in real life and is known as “1 Surf Way.”

11. Community Theatre – Barnsdall Art Park (4800 Hollywood Boulevard, East Hollywood) – The community theatre where Madeline works, as well as the constantly under-repair stairs that lead up to it, are both parts of Barnsdall Art Park in East Hollywood. The stairs can be found on Lower Road in the southeast portion of the park, just north of and adjacent to the Art Center. The theatre itself is actually a mash-up of two Barnsdall spots – interiors were shot at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre (which you can see photos of here), situated north of the Art Center, and exteriors were filmed at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, which sits adjacent to it. Barnsdall Art Park is also where the Trivia Night event was held in the final episode, “You Get What You Need.” You can read an in-depth post about the park’s use on the series here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

April 5, 2017
Madeline Garden Bistro & Venue from “Mad Men”

I have had many different stalking notebooks over the years. My latest is a gorgeous white Moleskin that I picked up during my Switzerland vacation back in June 2013. One locale that has been listed in it since I started using it almost four years ago (it’s one of the very first entries), but had never been checked off until recently is Madeline Garden Bistro & Venue, which was featured in a Season 4 episode of Mad Men. I had seen photos of the darling Pasadena restaurant/tea room on several websites, walked by it dozens of times over the years, and knew of its onscreen appearance thanks to my buddy E.J.’s The Movieland Directory website. Due to the place’s formerly spotty hours, though, I had never been able to stalk it. The opportunity finally arose two weeks ago when the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves wandering Green Street just as Madeline was opening, so we headed on in.

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While the exterior of Madeline Garden Bistro is incredibly idyllic . . .

– I mean, even the signage looks like something from a movie set –

. . . what awaited us as we stepped through the front doors was nothing short of breathtaking.

Madeline Garden Bistro is easily one of the prettiest places I have ever laid eyes on . . .

. . . which I guess should come as no surprise being that it is located inside of the Cheesewright Studios Building, or the Cheesewright Building, one of Pasadena’s most historic and prominent sites.

Per The Architecture of Entertainment by Robert Winter, the French Quarter-style property was designed in 1927 by Louis du Puget Millar as a studio/office/workshop for renown interior decorator Edgar J. Cheesewright.

At the time of its inception, the 2-story, 42-room, 35,000-square-foot complex boasted 3 street-level boutiques, 8 sales rooms, several workshops and offices, a reception hall with a curved staircase, an entrance courtyard with a fountain, a rear garden, leaded glass windows, wrought iron balconies, and a 2-story atrium . You can see photos of the building during its early days here and here.

Cheesewright’s business suffered financially during the Great Depression and he eventually sold the property. During World War II, the complex was acquired by the U.S. Naval Research Bureau and was utilized to conduct secret military testing. A basement lab was constructed for Albert Einstein during that time, complete with a tunnel that linked it to the California Institute of Technology located about a half a mile away, so that the scientist could venture there and back unseen. In 1983, the Navy relinquished the building and it was transformed into retail/office space once again. Today, the second floor houses apartments known as the Pasadena Green Plaza Apartments. Miraculously, despite its different incarnations over the years, much of the site’s original detailing and beauty has been retained.

I was able to chronicle the history of the ground level space that now houses Madeline Garden Bistro back to 2001, at which time it was opened as an upscale eatery named Restaurant Halie.

Halie was shuttered in 2006 and shortly thereafter Madeleine’s Restaurant & Wine Bistro moved in.

Though I lived in Pasadena at the time and heard great things about the place (especially its décor), on every single occasion that the GC and I attempted to eat there or grab a cocktail, we would invariably walk up only to find it closed.

I guess other people had a hard time getting in, as well, because Madeleine’s Restaurant & Wine Bistro closed in 2010. The space remained vacant for a few years before re-opening as the similarly named Madeline Garden Bistro & Venue in 2013.

Though closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, the eatery has a much better operating schedule than its predecessor.

Madeline Garden Bistro has been called “a maze of a restaurant” by several websites and that is the perfect description of the place.

The massive site is comprised of a seemingly endless array of rooms, hallways and tucked-away spaces, each one more beautiful than the next.

The bistro features a lovely main dining room replete with jewel tones;

a towering fireplace;

poufy couches;

arched windows and crystal chandeliers. (And yes, I’m fully aware that I got a little picture happy while stalking Madeline!)

The back bar is just as gorgeous.

Decorated in deep greens and dark purples . . .

. . . the space has the feel of a Parisian watering hole of yesteryear.

There’s a gorgeous brick and flagstone courtyard . . .

. . . perfect for whiling away a sunny afternoon.

Just off the courtyard is the High Tea Room, a grand space marked by French doors, teal walls and an elaborate fireplace.

It was in the High Tea Room that Mad Men was filmed.

In the Season 4 episode titled “Public Relations,” which aired in 2010, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) took an opera supernumerary named Bethany Van Nuys (Anna Camp) on a first date there.

Though the site was operating as Madeleine’s Restaurant & Wine Bistro at the time of the filming, as you can see that room still looks very much the same today.

The Cheesewright Studios Buildings was also featured in a 2015 “The Season of Audi Sales Event” commercial, which you can watch here.

On a side-note – my Google Photo app “stylized” one of the pictures I took of Madeline Garden Bistro and I absolutely love how it turned out. I’m honestly thinking of framing it and had to include it 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: Madeline Garden Bistro & Venue, from the “Public Relations” episode of Mad Men, is located at 1030 East Green Street in Pasadena. The eatery is only open Wednesday through Sunday, so plan accordingly. You can visit the tea room’s official website here.

April 3, 2017
Jane’s House from “Big Little Lies”

I am extremely biased when it comes to my former stomping ground of Pasadena, where I lived for close to 15 years. Though I’ve heard on more than one occasion from L.A. denizens that the city is too suburban and too far removed from the hustle and bustle of urban life, I think it is one of the best places in the world and miss it so much at times it almost breaks my heart. So whenever I hear of a movie or TV show that has done some filming in Crown City, I get a wee bit obsessed with tracking down the exact location or locations used – well, more obsessed than I usually do when it comes to locales. Such was the case with the bungalow where Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) and her son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), live on the HBO miniseries Big Little Lies, which ends its run next week (oh, say it ain’t so!). I learned the home could be found in Pasadena via this recent Travel + Leisure article and immediately started trying to track it down.

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Though the exterior of Jane’s rental wasn’t featured very much in the first two episodes of Big Little Lies, thankfully, in the third, titled “Living the Dream,” a good view of the property and the street it is located on was shown. While watching, I noticed that Jane’s street not only abutted a one-way road, but also that it formed a “T” with another street two blocks away. Because of my familiarity with the city, I knew straight away that the residence had to be situated somewhere just north of Union Street in East Pasadena. Armed with that knowledge, I began searching aerial views of the area and found Jane’s house within minutes at 161 North Chester Avenue.

In person, Jane’s red and brown bungalow looks exactly as it does onscreen in Big Little Lies.

The only notable difference is the lack of a front yard light post in real life.

Outside of that, nothing was changed for the production. The place so resembles its onscreen self that, while there, I half expected Jane to coming walking outside in full running gear!

I mean, even the skewed address placard remains unaltered!

According to a recent Vulture article, only the exterior of the pad was utilized in Big Little Lies. For interior scenes, a set partially modeled upon the home was built because, as location manager Gregory Alpert stated, the property’s real interior “looked better on film than it actually was.”

The Vulture article also mentions that the residence landed its onscreen role thanks partially to “the canopy of trees on the street.” As you can see in the images below, as well as the other images in this post, the trees situated outside of the house and nearby are absolutely magical.

Per Zillow, the 1917 bungalow boasts 1,075 square feet of living space (though Redfin measures it at 928 square feet), 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, a fireplace, a garden, a 0.17-acre lot, a detached 1-car garage, and a large front porch.

The front porch has been utilized several times on Big Little Lies.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jane’s house from Big Little Lies is located at 161 North Chester Avenue in Pasadena.

March 29, 2017
Madeline’s House from “Big Little Lies”

Every once in a while a show comes along that absolutely grips me. Granted, I watch – and get hooked on – a lot of series, but among them are certain standouts. The Hills, Vanderpump Rules, and Beverly Hills, 90210 come to mind, though my obsession with the latter was admittedly next-level. My latest fixation is Big Little Lies, the murder-mystery miniseries based on the book of the same name currently airing on HBO. Besides a scintillating premise, well-drawn characters, and a dynamic timeline (the story is told mainly through flashbacks), the show is real estate porn at its finest! I am thoroughly consumed with each of the main character’s homes and was thrilled to learn via this fabulous People magazine article that all but one is located in the Los Angeles area and not in Monterey where BLL is set.

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Out of the four principal residences used on the series, the beachfront Cape Cod belonging to Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) is my favorite. So I recently set about tracking it down. As it turns out, the place is an onscreen regular that I had actually already stalked!

My initial thought upon first seeing Madeline’s house in the pilot episode of Big Little Lies was that it looked like a modernized version of the gray shingled pad where Sarah Owens (Cassidy Rae) and her fellow models lived in the 1994 Melrose Place spin-off, Models Inc. (Man, that was a great show! I am still flabbergasted over the fact that it only lasted one season.) I stalked that property, which can be found at 30760 Broad Beach Road in Malibu, back in March 2013. In no way did I think the two places were one and the same, though, so I did not give the subject further attention. Thanks to the People article, I knew that Madeline’s home was also located in Malibu and started perusing beachfront dwellings in the area via aerial views, but, frustratingly, came up empty-handed. Circling back to my Models Inc. inclination, I decided to pull up some screen captures from the show and just about fell over! The reason I thought Madeline’s residence looked like a modernized version of the Models Inc. house is because it is a modernized version of the Models Inc. house! Apparently, the property was given a bit of a facelift in recent years. As you can see in comparing the images above and below, the renovation included a change in paint color, the removal of several awnings, and opening up the second floor deck.

I actually stalked the property post-remodel, but only visited its street side. While I had every intention of heading around to the rear of the home, while walking there, I somehow stepped into some tar (like a bunch of it – my feet were covered for days!) and had to turn back.

Ironically, that wasn’t my only visit to the house. Later that year (October 27th, to be exact), Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, married Keith Coogan, of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead fame, at the Malibu West Beach Club, which is located next door to Madeline’s pad. Because I am seriously directionally-challenged and because I had parked near public beach access – which is a ways away from the residence – during my initial stalk, I did not realize the venue’s proximity to the home until looking at it recently via aerial views. D’oh! As soon I put two and two together, I remembered that the bridesmaids (including myself) and Keith had climbed onto a bluff adjacent to the club to pose for a wedding photo. I had an inkling that Madeline’s residence was likely visible in the shot and, sure enough, I was right! In the image below, which Pinky was nice enough to let me post here, you can see it on the left-hand side!

In real life, the 1979 property features a 6,000-square-foot main house with 6 bedrooms (2 of which are master suites), 7 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces, a Jacuzzi, a deck, a rock sauna, a family room with a bar, a wine cellar, and a large chef’s kitchen with 3 ovens, 2 dishwashers, and Viking appliances. The detached 2-story, 950-square-foot guest pad boasts 1 bedroom, 1.5 baths, and a full kitchen.

The pad, which sits on a 0.6-acre lot featuring 80 feet of beachfront land, is currently available as a vacation rental with rates running from $3,000 to $5,000 a night.

Interestingly, only the rear side of the property is shown on Big Little Lies. A different home is used as the front of Madeline’s residence and, unfortunately, I have not yet tracked that location down.

The dwelling’s actual interior also appears on the show – and it is nothing short of idyllic.

The kitchen area is uh-ma-zing! I find it quite ironic that, according to the People article, Madeline’s house is intended to be the least fabulous of the bunch – excluding Jane Chapman’s (Shailene Woodley) – and “represents her lower economic standing.” Like, huh? Madeline’s residence is pretty much my dream pad! I would give my eye teeth to live there!

Besides being featured in Models Inc., Madeline’s residence also portrayed the home of Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) and his son, Steve (Barry Van Dyke), during Seasons 3 through 8 of the television series Diagnosis Murder.

The pad was also where the Stewart family lived from Seasons 1 through 3 on the Disney series Hannah Montana.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Madeline’s house from Big Little Lies is located at 30760 Broad Beach Road in Malibu. You can visit the residence’s vacation rental website here.

March 27, 2017
The Villa Del Sol from “Rosewood”

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon is a term used to describe the experience of coming across an obscure word, thing, or piece of information for the first time and then subsequently happening upon references to that same word, thing, or piece of information on a regular basis. I had never heard of it until fellow stalker/guest poster extraordinaire Michael (you can read the many articles he has written for IAMNOTASTALKER here) mentioned it to me while discussing Haskell’s Ice Cream Hut from The Brady Bunch, a locale he tracked down back in 2014 that he has since seen pop up in several other productions. We have encountered so many instances of Baader-Meinhof lately that Michael recently suggested we rename the phenomenon after the two of us in regard to filming locations. Case in point – while watching the Season 2 episode of Rosewood titled “Half-Life and Havana Nights” in early December, I became a bit fixated with the supposed “Cuba” courtyard where Dr. Beaumont Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) and Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz) interrogated a suspect. After a bit of research, I discovered that the courtyard was part of a historic building known as The Villa Del Sol in Fullerton. I had never heard of the place, but quickly added it to my To-Stalk List. Well, not 48 hours later, I was poring over the December issue of Westways magazine and was shocked to see The Villa Del Sol featured in a Local Outings blurb. The article made me even more obsessed with seeing the site in person, so when I found out that my dad had a doctor’s appointment in Orange County last week, I informed the Grim Cheaper that we would be tagging along in order to do some Rosewood stalking.

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The Villa Del Sol was originally built as a luxury lodging known as the California Hotel. Construction on the three-story property took place from January 1922 to January 1923.

The Spanish Colonial-style hotel was designed by architects Frank Benchley and Morien Eugene Durfee.

At its inception, California Hotel consisted of ground-level shops, 22 suites, 55 single rooms, and a courtyard that opened to what was then Spadra Road (today it’s Harbor Boulevard). You can see some photographs of what the picturesque site looked like during its early days here and here.

In 1964, the hotel underwent a renovation, was expanded, transformed into a commercial building, and re-named The Villa Del Sol. During the remodel much of the structure’s Spanish Revival detailing was removed. The building’s courtyard was also closed off from the street, creating a peaceful little oasis shaded by tall palm trees.

In 1992, the property was remodeled once again after being purchased by Dunlap Real Estate Investments. The group revitalized the site, bringing back much of its original design.

Today, the marketplace houses restaurants, boutiques, and office space. One of the eateries, The Cellar, is not only reportedly haunted, but was designed by the same people who were responsible for The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland! Sadly, it was closed when we were there, but it’s on my list for a re-stalk.

The Villa Del Sol is absolutely idyllic. It comes as no surprise that the quaint site is one of the O.C.’s most popular wedding venues. What is rather surprising is that, outside of Rosewood, I could find no other instance of filming on the premises.

In “Half-Life and Havana Nights,” Rosewood and Villa head to Cuba to get information from a fake I.D. maker named Lorenzo ‘Lo Down’ Veras (Roberto Sanchez).

They wind up encountering him in The Villa Del Sol’s courtyard, which masked as a busy Cuban marketplace.

In the scene, Lo Down was holding court in the southern section of the courtyard, near the entrance to Green Bliss cafe.

The Villa Del Sol’s second floor also appeared in the episode, portraying the Cuban apartment building where Michelle Kelly (Joy Brunson) lived.

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 Villa Del Sol, from the “Half-Life and Havana Nights” episode of Rosewood, is located at 305 North Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.

March 24, 2017
Palindrome Healing Center from “Flaked”

Some images just stay with you. When I came across these MLS photos of a Venice Beach home on Curbed Los Angeles back in 2008, I practically started drooling and the words “real estate porn” immediately came to mind. The pictures of the dramatically unique Moroccan-inspired dwelling, especially the ones of the meandering pool, seared themselves into my brain. So I was thrilled to spot the pad when scanning through episodes of Flaked early last year while writing this Los Angeles magazine post about the Netflix series’ locations. Though I added the abode to my To-Stalk List right then and there, it was not until just recently that I was finally able to get out to Venice to see it in person.

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The residence’s flat, boxy, concrete exterior belies nothing of its interior beauty. From the outside, the place almost looks like a warehouse.

But hidden behind the dwelling’s drab exterior walls is a magical Moorish- and Moroccan-style oasis, marked by lush greenery, rooms that traverse both indoor and outdoor space, a meandering pool that moves throughout the property, and sleek, sharp lines. (Pictured below are two of the MLS images from Curbed that so enthralled me. You can see some more fabulous photos of the home’s interior here and here.)

Thanks to Curbed commenter spinsLPs, I learned that the extraordinary residence belongs to Phillip Dixon. The prolific photographer purchased the site in 1978, when it consisted solely of a wooden cottage and a vacant former market that Phillip turned into his studio. He eventually tore down the house, leaving the studio intact, and, per spinsLPs, commissioned architect Brian Murphy of BAM Construction/Design, Inc. to build a modern residence in its in place. You can see what that structure looked like here. In 1993, the pad was re-designed once more, this time by Dixon himself, as well as (and this is once again per spinsLPs) architect Charles Ward. Of the design, Dixon said in a C Home article, “In architecture, everything designs itself based on what you want. You have to look at where the light comes from; you have to look where the wind comes from. And then you have to know how you want to live. And the way I wanted to live was with the pool and the garden and the house all incorporated into one.”

I’d say Dixon achieved his goal. The residence seamlessly meshes indoor and outdoor space to the point that, when looking at pictures, you almost don’t know which is which.

Philip also designed all of the home’s furniture and furnishings, which are built-in. Of the artful concept, Philip said, “For me, normal furniture and paintings and all of that stuff is just jewelry. When a place is done, you shouldn’t have to put anything in it or on the walls. It’s already decorated; it’s already furnished. And also, it flows. So you have the seats, the tables, everything works together. And you just put the cushion on it and it’s easy maintenance.” The result of his efforts is an aesthetic that is both minimalist and baroque at the same time. Or as a different Curbed commenter described it, “Tatooine chic.” (If you don’t get the reference, Google it. )

I mean, even the garage is spectacular!

The 4,380-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 3-bath property was put up for sale in January 2008 for a cool $13 million, but there were apparently no bites as the price was dropped to $10 million in May of that year and then slashed again to $8.295 million in July before being taken off the market altogether. The home has since been the site of numerous special events, as well as filmings.

In the Season 1 episode of Flaked titled “Palms,” the residence masked as Palindrome Healing Center, the Palm Springs-area holistic spa that Chip (Will Arnett), London (Ruth Kearney), Dennis (David Sullivan), and Jackie (Kirstie Alley) visited.

Several areas of the home were featured in the episode . . .

. . . but it is the pool that was showcased most beautifully. I mean, can you even imagine this being your actual residence?

The property also portrayed the Los Angeles home where Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) lived in the 2010 comedy Get Him to the Greek.

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 fictional Palindrome Healing Center from Flaked is actually a private home located at 418 Westminster Avenue in Venice.

March 20, 2017
The “Last Man Standing” House

The Grim Cheaper and I watch a lot of TV. Like a lot. So I am always surprised when I receive an email from a reader asking about a location from a show I am not familiar with. Such was the case in January, when fellow stalker Marjorie reached out to ask for my assistance in tracking down the house where the Baxter family lives on Last Man Standing. Though I had never seen even one episode of the CBS series, I am always up for a good hunt, so I asked Marjorie to send me some screen captures of the residence. When she did, I was shocked to see that it was a virtual carbon copy of a home that has been featured on The Goldbergs numerous times – one that I will be blogging about soon. I had tracked down that pad – it’s at 2822 Forrester Drive in Cheviot Hills – just a few weeks prior and, due to the similarities, figured the Last Man Standing dwelling had to be located nearby. So I began poking around the area. After a few hours of futile searching, I decided to set my sights on Hancock Park and its environs instead, and hit pay dirt rather quickly.

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Said to be located at 9504 Dublin Street in downtown Denver on the series, the Baxter family home can actually be found at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square.

In real life, the 1923 Tudor boasts 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 4,680 square feet, a library, several fireplaces, a butler’s pantry, a formal dining room, a breakfast room, a detached garage, a covered patio, maid’s quarters, and a 0.33-acre lot.

Per real estate website Zillow, the two-story residence, which was designed by architect Preston Wright, last sold in October 2013 for $2.7 million.

As you can see, the property looks much the same in person as it does on Last Man Standing.

At some point, a flagpole with a brick base was added to the home’s front yard on the show.

The flagpole is not there in real life, though, and I am guessing it is not a set piece, but something that is superimposed digitally into each image of the house featured on the series.

The handsome brick pad appears regularly each week in establishing shots on Last Man Standing, though no actual filming takes place there.

The series is instead lensed on a set constructed on Stage 9 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City.

The set of the Baxter family’s home does not resemble the interior of the actual residence, which is much larger and much more grand. You can check out what the real inside of the property looks like here.

During my search for the Last Man Standing house, I came across a 2011 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin article that mentioned the series’ regular use of the Bass Pro Shops in Rancho Cucamonga. I was thrilled upon learning the news being that the massive sporting goods emporium is one of my dad’s favorite places in the entire world. I’m not kidding – when we lived in Pasadena and friends would visit from out of town, he would invariably drive them the 35 miles to Rancho Cucamonga to see Bass Pro. Not that I blame him. The 180,000-square-foot site, which boasts waterfalls, an 8,000-gallon fish tank, a shooting gallery, a 2-story lobby with a fireplace and a 60-foot clerestory, murals, museum-like dioramas, and a restaurant (yes, a restaurant!), is not your average sporting goods store. It’s pretty darn unique. You can check out some photos of it here. On Last Man Standing, Bass Pro, which is located at 7777 Victoria Gardens Lane, masks as Outdoor Man, where Baxter patriarch Mike (Tim Allen) works as a marketing director. Only the exterior of the shop is utilized on the series. The inside of Outdoor Man is a set that exists at CBS Studio Center and, unlike the Baxter house, it was closely modeled after Bass Pro’s real life interior. In an interesting twist, as the Daily Bulletin points out, a green truck is visible parked outside of the store in the establishing shots featured on the show. That truck is an actual décor fixture of Bass Pro. Producers must have liked the look of it because it somehow made its way on to Last Man Standing as Mike’s car. If you scroll up, you can see an identical green pick-up parked in the driveway in several establishing shots of the Baxter home.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Marjorie for asking me to find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Baxter residence from Last Man Standing is located at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square. Bass Pro Shops, aka Outdoor Man from the series, is located at 7777 Victoria Gardens Lane in Rancho Cucamonga.

March 17, 2017
The Tate Mansion from “Soap”

I have a pretty amazing memory, especially when it comes to things most people find useless, such as filming locations and movie quotes. I’m like a vault. Or an elephant. Once something enters my brain, it locks in and I don’t forget it. So I was shocked when I received an email a couple of weeks back from a fellow stalker named Andrew who wanted some assistance in tracking down the mansion belonging to the Tate family on Soap. My parents and I watched the 1977 ABC series religiously during my childhood years and The Major (Arthur Peterson) is still one of my favorite television characters of all time. I mean, a guy who regularly walks around with a stuffed dog that he thinks is still alive tends to stay with you. Somewhere along the way, though, I inexplicably forgot about the show and upon moving to L.A., never thought to look for any of its locations. So I was thrilled to receive Andrew’s email and immediately told him I was up to the task!

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At the time I began the hunt, I had no recollection whatsoever of what the Tate residence looked like, so I did a Google search for “the Soap mansion” and was led to this image of a Tudor-style dwelling that someone had snapped on the Dearly Departed tour. Now Dearly Departed is run by my friend Scott Michaels and while I could have easily emailed him for the address, I figured finding the pad on my own would be a snap due to the fact that, because of its stately appearance, I was 99.9% certain it was located in Hancock Park. After quite a bit of time poking around the area, though, I came up completely empty-handed and started to doubt my instincts. So I sent a message to Scott and he wrote back immediately with an answer. As it turns out, the Soap mansion is located in Hancock Park – at 511 South Muirfield Road to be exact. While I was glad to know my hunch was correct, I was at a loss as to how I missed the place during my searching. So thank you, Scott, for leading me to the right spot!

The Grim Cheaper and I headed over to stalk the manse while visiting L.A. two weeks ago and I could not have been more excited to see it in person.

I was floored to discover that very little of the 8-bedroom, 6-bath, 7,426-square-foot property, which sits on 0.41 acres, has been altered in the 36 years since Soap has been off the air. (Please pardon the low-res screen captures featured in this post. I purchased the series on DVD, but unfortunately the discs will not play on my computer. They will play on my regular DVD player, though, so I was forced to snap photographs of my television screen in lieu of making screen grabs. Guerilla blogging at its finest!)

As you can see, the 1929 estate, which was said to be located in Dunn’s River, Connecticut on the series, aka a “neighborhood known as ‘Rich’,” looks exactly the same today as it did onscreen when the show first premiered in 1977.

Soap is not the only production to have been lensed at the handsome brick property. The site portrayed the home of Olivia McKenna (Melissa Newman) in the 1982 horror film One Dark Night. (Huge thank you to Scott Michaels for providing the screen captures below.)

Ian Gallagher (Cameron Monaghan) and Mickey Milkovich (Noel Fisher) robbed the residence in the Season 3 episode of Shameless titled “The Sins of my Caretaker,” which aired in 2012. The Tate mansion was only used for exterior shots in the episode, though. A house around the corner at 434 South Rossmore was utilized for interiors. You can check out what the inside of the Tate dwelling actually looks like here.

The property masked as a church in the Season 1 episode of Grace and Frankie titled “The Funeral,” which aired in 2015.

The residence’s interior was also featured quite extensively in the episode.

The interior of the mansion appeared very briefly as the home of Rose Brady (Rosemarie DeWitt) in the pilot of the new Amazon series The Last Tycoon, which is the only episode of the show that has yet to air.

According to OnLocationVacations, The Last Tycoon has filmed at the residence several times over the past few months, so you can expect to see it pop up regularly as future episodes are released.

In the Season 2 episode of the Netflix series Love titled “Back in Town,” which aired in 2017, one of the mansion’s rooms masqueraded as a therapist’s office.

The estate portrayed Denny’s (Donal Logue) house in the Season 1 episode of The Unicorn titled “The Client,” which aired in 2020.

And it is currently being featured as the home of Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) and her family on Little Fires Everywhere. Of choosing the property for the Hulu series, production designer Jessica Kender told Architectural Digest, “We saw this big beautiful Tudor-esque house built in the 1920s. It was in this little pocket on top of a hill with a fountain in the middle. Everything about it read very old money, it has this beautifully moneyed perfection type of vibe.” And don’t worry – the mansion wasn’t really burned down for the shoot. Instead, producers had the facade re-created inside of a soundstage for the fire scenes.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Andrew for asking me to track down this location and to Scott Michaels, of the Find a Death website and the Dearly Departed tour company, for finding it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Tate mansion from Soap is located at 511 South Muirfield Road in Hancock Park.

March 15, 2017
Màs Malo from “Scandal”

Los Angeles is often ridiculed for having no history – or no appreciation of its history. Demolition of the Ambassador Hotel aside, I don’t find that to be true. There is history – well-preserved history – around pretty much ever corner. You just have to know where to look. Case in point – Màs Malo, a downtown L.A. Cal-Mex eatery that is situated inside of a gorgeous former 1920s jewelry emporium. The site first hit my radar while I was researching DTLA watering holes for my Double Shot: Two Downtown Bar Crawls article for the June 2016 issue of Los Angeles magazine. As I mentioned in the piece, Màs Malo’s second-floor lounge was featured in a Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation. I became completely enamored of the gorgeous space after perusing photos of it online and added it to my To-Stalk List, but somehow never made it out there. Then when I spotted the restaurant pop up on a recent episode of Scandal, I decided I had to head over there stat and finally did, Grim Cheaper in tow, two weeks ago.

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The 1922 building that Màs Malo calls home was initially constructed as the headquarters and flagship store of Brock & Company Jewelers, one of the city’s most prominent jewelry shops at the time. Originally founded in the 1880s by George A. Brock, Brock & Co. was often referred to as the “Tiffany of the West.”

The Spanish Colonial Revival-style property, which boasts Churrigueresque elements, was designed by William James Dodd and William Richards of the Dodd & Richards architecture firm.

The structure’s highly ornate exterior was assembled out of terra cotta.

Though the building’s façade is undeniably beautiful and definitely picture-worthy, it is the interior that had me so intrigued.

The ground floor of the property, which served as the watch and jewelry showroom during Brock & Co.’s tenure, boasts a stunningly intricate and sweeping vaulted ceiling.

The ornamental carvings are nothing short of breathtaking. In fact, pictures don’t do them justice – they are even more spectacular in person.

Brock & Co. was eventually taken over by George’s son, George C. Brock, who had no children. With no one to leave the company to upon retiring in 1964, he sold it to real estate developer Ben Weingart, who continued to operate the site as a jewelry store for a few years before eventually shuttering it. In 1975, the grand space was leased to the Clinton family, owners of the popular Clifton’s Cafeteria chain.

The Clintons modified the former jewelry store in order to transform it into another Clifton’s outpost, this one named Clifton’s Silver Spoon Cafeteria, which operated from 1975 to 1997. Thankfully, the modifications were minor and the building’s baroque ceiling was left intact, as were the handmade Mahogany display cases that lined the interior. You can see some images of the building during the Clifton Silver Spoon days here, here, and here.

After Clifton’s was shuttered, the Brock & Co. building, which is a Los Angeles Cultural-Historic Monument, remained vacant for close to a decade. In 2007, 213 Nightlife Group founder Cedd Moses set his sights on the property’s second floor, which the jewelry company had utilized as a silver, china and crystal department. He revamped the space into Seven Grand, a dimly-lit, wood-paneled whiskey bar festooned with mounted buck heads. Moses even made use of Brock & Co.’s original display cases to store the watering hole’s extensive liquor collection. Seven Grand became an immediate hit and though the bar is also a popular filming location (it has popped up on The Office, Lie to Me, Body of Proof, and Modern Family, just to name a few), I have yet to stalk it. But don’t worry, it’s on my list.

In 2010, Brock & Co.’s lower level was leased by Mitchell Frank and Jeff Ellermeyer. Along with interior designer Tracy Beckmann and restoration expert Amy Higgins, the two renovated and reimagined the former jewelry showroom, transforming it into Màs Malo, a sister restaurant to their Silver Lake eatery, Malo. The site opened to the public in January 2011. You can check out some fabulous photographs of Amy’s restoration work on the ceiling here.

Màs Malo is hands down one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. Even if the food was bad, I’d recommend the place for the ambiance alone. Thankfully, that’s not the case, though.

As the GC and I came to find out, the fare at Màs Malo is out of this world! I opted for the Ground Beef & Pickle Tacos, which were recommended by the bartender. Pickles on a taco? I was skeptical, too. The entrée was actually created by chef Robert Luna’s mother. As he explained to The Huffington Post, “I was twelve years old and my mom was prepping for hamburgers when she realized she had no bread. She took a tortilla and turned it into a hard taco with the beef and the pickles. Since then I haven’t wanted hamburgers any other way.” Countless Angelinos agree. The dish quickly became a signature item. While the pickles add a unique and altogether pleasant touch, for me, the taco’s real pièce de résistance is the tortilla shell, which is the perfect blend of crispy and chewy.

Considering its gorgeous aesthetic, it is no surprise that the Brock & Co. space has been featured in several productions.

In the Season 6 episode of Scandal titled “Hardball,” Màs Malo masked as the supposed Washington, D.C. bar where Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) took FBI Director Angela Webster (Saycon Sengbloh) for drinks to distract her so that Huck (Guillermo Diaz) could search her car. The scene was shot in the restaurant’s mezzanine area.

Shortly after Clifton’s Silver Spoon Cafeteria closed, the then vacant space appeared in the 1999 film Fight Club as the spot where The Narrator (Edward Norton) ate for free while warning Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) that she needed to leave the city. As you can see, the site looked quite a bit different at the time due to a huge wooden partition that was set up around the ground floor.

In the Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Animal Control,” which aired in 2013, Màs Malo’s mezzanine masked as the Pawnee Smokehouse, where Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) gave a Sweetums charity pitch to perfume mogul Dennis Feinstein (Jason Mantzoukas).

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Màs Malo, from the “Hardball” episode of Scandal, is located at 515 West 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

March 10, 2017