TV Locations – Page 6 – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 4, 2020March 3, 2020

The “You” Party House

The second season of You certainly did a stunning job of showcasing Los Angeles. From the fabulously chic Anavrin grocery store to the striking Victorian rented by Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers), the city has never looked better onscreen! One spot that majorly intrigued me was the pad where Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) attempted to acquire $50,000 from a stranger named Rufus (Jeremy Kent Jackson), but instead found himself at “a party . . . at noon . . . on a Tuesday” in the episode titled “Just the Tip.” The ranch-style property boasted several unique design elements – namely a tree growing through its living room and a window looking into the backyard pool – that had me drooling. So I promptly set out to find it.

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A tree growing through the middle of a living room is certainly a rarity and I figured would likely be the key in helping me to pinpoint the locale. So I did a Google search for “house with tree growing through it” and “Los Angeles” and the first result kicked back was this CurbedLA feature titled “Burbank A-Frame With a Big Tree Growing Through It.” One look at the images linked told me it was the spot where Joe partied with Henderson (Chris D’Elia) and Delilah Alves (Carmela Zumbado) – and got mistaken for John Mayer. Said to be at 311 Heartwood in Van Nuys in the episode, the home can actually be found at 630 South Parish Place in Burbank’s Rancho Equestrian neighborhood.

Upon first approaching the pad, Joe says, “Hell – I’ve arrived. It’s called the San Fernando Valley, at the borders of which anyone with an architect’s degree is denied entry.” While most of Joe’s musings about Los Angeles rather comically ring true, I’ve gotta disagree with him on this one. The party house might indeed be in the San Fernando Valley, but it is quite extraordinary, architecturally speaking – though I will admit some aspects of its interior are a bit skeezy. (That orange shag carpeting and tiled bathtub?!? Shudder!)

But the rest of the place is pretty darn exceptional!

And it looks much the same in real life as it did on You, as evidenced by the screen captures and MLS images pictured above and below.

I was thrilled to see that the peek-a-boo window looking into the pool was a real element of the house!

Along with that pool window and the living room tree, the 1940 post-and-beam structure boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,420 square feet, floor-to-ceiling windows, a sunken den, countless mid-century details, a whopping 5 fireplaces (the one in the kitchen even has a BBQ!), cathedral ceilings, a master bedroom with a private patio, a pool with a waterfall, a hot tub, a garden, a 2-story guest house, a 0.31-acre lot, and a 2-stall horse barn with a tack room and office space.

Though it was on the market when I popped by (as indicated by the “For Sale” sign in the front yard), some lucky buyer has since snatched the place up. Per Redfin, it sold just last week for $2 million.

Considering its many architectural anomalies, I’d assume the house would be a location manager favorite, but I was unable to unearth any additional big or small screen cameos.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The party house from the “Just the Tip” episode of You is located at 630 South Parish Place in Burbank.

February 5, 2020February 3, 2020

Lanie’s House(s) from “Truth Be Told”

I am pretty darn good at recognizing actors in the various roles they play (I am a stalker, after all!), but I watched the new Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told almost the entire way through before realizing that Lanie Buhrman and her estranged twin, Josie, were both portrayed by Lizzy Caplan, aka Mean Girls’ Janis Ian herself! In my defense, the star is virtually unrecognizable today from her snarky 2004 high school character, as you can see above. It didn’t help that she played a set of twins with very differing appearances on Truth Be Told, either – Lanie sports a short brown bob, while Josie’s hair is long and blonde. Lanie’s house on the series is also somewhat of an enigma being that two different dwellings were used to depict it – a tidbit I didn’t realize until I actually sat down to write this post, which meant I had to run out to do some last-minute stalking before hitting publish.

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In Truth Be Told’s premiere episode, “Monster,” Lanie, the daughter of a famous author who was murdered twenty years prior, is shown to be living in a dark peaked-roof Craftsman.

An address number of “229” was visible next to the front door in the episode, which, along with the home’s style, central walkway, and stairs leading down to the sidewalk, led me to believe it was likely in the Windsor Square area. So I began my search there, working my way outward until I found it at 229 South Gramercy Place in Koreatown. I ran out to see the place shortly thereafter.

The charming 1911 pad, which looks much as it did onscreen, boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,060 square feet, and a 0.18-acre lot. Though the interior was not utilized in the episode, you can check out some photos of it here.

In a bizarre twist, the next time the home appeared, in episode 4 “No Cross, No Crown,” it was a different property entirely – one that did not resemble the original in the slightest. Somehow (and I am going to blame the seven days in between the episodes airing), I did not realize the change – even though I had already tracked down the initial house by that point! It was not until I started making screen captures for this post that I noticed the swap and was flabbergasted, to say the least! While location change-ups are fairly common after a pilot is picked up due to the purchasing networks wanting to make certain adjustments, Truth Be Told was developed straight-to-series, meaning Apple TV+ optioned an entire season before the pilot was even lensed. A location alteration made in that scenario is odd. And while I have seen productions switch locales from season to season (I’m looking at you Wilson house from 90210!), it’s a pretty rare circumstance and I can’t ever recall it occurring on a series with a scant eight-episode run like Truth Be Told.

Fortunately, an address number was also visible on Lanie’s second house – “5131” above the front porch. Thanks to that four-digit address and the home’s Anywhere, U.S.A.-style, I figured it was likely in Eagle Rock. Sure enough, I IDed it fairly quickly as 5131 North Maywood Avenue.

Google Street View imagery of the pad shows it in a rather beaten-down state – a far cry from how it looks today. Per Zillow, the abode was completely restored in 2012 – and it is now nothing short of adorable!

The charming property boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,612 square feet, a formal dining room with coffered ceilings, original oak wood flooring throughout, a parlor, wood-beamed ceilings, a modern kitchen, and a large 0.28-acre plot of land.

The gorgeous restored interior, which you can see photos of here, also appeared on Truth Be Told.

The home is no stranger to the screen – it is also where Brett (Mark Duplass) and Michelle Pierson (Melanie Lynskey) lived on the HBO series Togetherness.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lanie’s house from the first episode of Truth Be Told is located at 229 South Gramercy Place in Koreatown. The pad used as Lanie’s in subsequent episodes can be found at 5131 North Maywood Avenue in Eagle Rock.

February 3, 2020January 31, 2020

Melanie’s House from “Truth Be Told”

Apple TV+ sure has hit the ground running! Everything released on the new platform thus far seems to be television gold! I’ve made no secret of the fact that I consider The Morning Show one of the best series to ever grace the small screen and was thrilled to find For All Mankind and Truth Be Told just as gripping. The latter, based on Kathleen Barber’s 2017 novel Are You Sleeping, centers around a journalist-turned-podcaster named Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) who begins re-investigating a decades-old murder to make sure the right man is behind bars, à la Serial. Obviously, as soon as I read the synopsis, I had to tune in! And my crime-loving heart wasn’t disappointed. Minutes after the end credits for episode one started rolling, I, of course, began hunting for locales and was ecstatic to learn that, while set in Northern California, filming largely took place in L.A. During my perusing, I came across a 2018 Backstage article which noted that some footage was shot at a house at 509 North June Street in Hancock Park. From there it wasn’t hard to piece together that the site portrayed the supposed Menlo Park abode belonging to Melanie Cave (Elizabeth Perkins), mother of convicted killer Warren Cave (Aaron Paul), on the series. So I ran right out to stalk it shortly thereafter.

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Melanie’s house is featured throughout Truth Be Told’s eight-episode run. Though we only get a limited view of it, the place first shows up in the pilot, titled “Monster,” in the scene in which Poppy bombards Melanie in her driveway in the hopes of securing an interview with Warren.

I obviously couldn’t get images matching what was shown in the scene, but the driveway is pictured below.

We don’t actually see the full exterior of the pad until episode 3, “Even Salt Looks Like Sugar.”

I have to say that producers did a great job in choosing the residence because while watching the scene below from episode 2, “Black People in the Neighborhood,” the Grim Cheaper, a native San Franciscan, turned to me and said, “I can pretty much guarantee that home actually is in the Bay Area.” I had already read the Backstage article by that time and when I informed him that it was actually in Hancock Park, he refused to believe me. Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

The adorable little property is just as charming in person as it appeared on the series. With its peaked roof and rounded front door overhang, it reminds me quite a bit of Denise’s house from I Love You, Man as well as the Lawrence residence from the 1976 series Family, so it is not at all hard to see how it made its way to the screen.

I believe that the inside of the dwelling was also utilized on the series, but could not find any interior images with which to verify that.

It appears that the actual backyard was used briefly, as well.

In real life, the 1925 pad boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,236 square feet, 2 stories, and a 0.18-acre lot.

With it’s charmingly idyllic Anywhere, U.S.A. appeal, I am shocked it hasn’t appeared in more productions, but I was unable to dig any up.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Melanie’s house from Truth Be Told is located at 509 North June Street in Hancock Park.

January 31, 2020January 31, 2020

Joe’s Apartment from the Second Season of “You”

The second season of You couldn’t have been more quintessentially L.A.! Nowhere is that more evident than in the apartment building that served as Joe Goldberg’s (Penn Badgley) new West Coast home. As a reader commented about the place to me last week on Facebook, “It seems like I’ve passed it 284739484 times in my travels.” I’m guessing that was by design. Producers likely picked the building based on its universal Los Angeles appeal. It literally looks like almost every other apartment complex in the city – and is exactly the sort of spot Joe would have selected in his attempt to blend in while hiding out in La La Land. Despite its ubiquitousness, though, thankfully the place was a cinch to track down!

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In the first episode of the season, titled “A Fresh Start,” an address number of “1830” was visible above the stairwell leading up to Joe’s apartment in several scenes. Being that much of the episode was shot in Los Feliz, I decided to start my search there and, voila, it wasn’t long before I found Joe’s new building at 1830 Winona Boulevard. I ran out to stalk it shortly thereafter.

Along with Anavrin, the Streamline Moderne complex was Season 2’s most prominent locale.

In real life, the 1953 building looks much the same as it did onscreen.

A few minor changes were made for the production, though, including the addition of a courtyard fountain . . .

. . . which, as you can see, is not a real element of the building.

Some fake drought-resistant foliage was also draped over the second-floor railings for the shoot.

Though my photos don’t show it well, nothing adorns the railings in actuality.

Addressed 1824 to 1834 Winona Boulevard, the complex is also quite a bit larger than it appeared on You, which only showcased its central courtyard area.

In real life, the property features covered parking, an onsite manager, and 25 units with hardwood flooring and crown moldings throughout.

The building also boasts some fabulous mid-century flourishes.

On You, Joe lived in the rear northernmost second-floor unit overlooking the courtyard.

That apartment is numbered 3 in real life.

I am fairly certain that only the exterior of Unit 3 was used in the filming and that the inside of Joe’s apartment was a set, though it does bear a resemblance to the interior of other units in the building, one of which you can see here. While Joe calls the place “Home, sweet prison,” it’s actually pretty darn nice – and so very L.A.! In fact, it is pretty much a carbon copy of the apartment the Grim Cheaper called home when we first met.

I believe the laundry room shown on the series also may have been a set, though, per this rental listing, the building does boast laundry facilities in real life.

The only substantial discrepancy between the real building and its onscreen counterpart is the fact that the house belonging to Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) isn’t situated directly behind it as is purported on the series. Love’s residence can instead be found a good three miles away at 3022 Windsor Avenue in Silver Lake. You can check out some photos of it here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Joe’s apartment from Season 2 of You is located at 1830 Winona Boulevard in Los Feliz.

January 29, 2020January 27, 2020

The Adamson House from “You”

The second season of You had me feeling like an inadequate Angelino! (Yes, even though I now live in Palm Springs, I still consider myself an L.A. denizen.) In episode 6, “Farewell, My Bunny,” Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) and her friends teach Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) about Los Angeles’ “seven totems,” which, once seen, render a person an official Angelino. Those totems are as follows – 1. A rollerblader in booty shorts, 2. A “ghetto bird”, aka police helicopter, 3. Two starlets wearing the same dress, 4. A pack of coyotes, 5. A dog in a stroller, 6. An off-brand superhero, “but out of context, not in front of Grauman’s, because that’s too easy,” and 7. A palm tree on fire. In my almost fifteen years of living in the City of Angels, I only encountered three of the seven (#1, 2, and 5, for those wondering). But I did immediately recognize the spot where the wedding of Lucy (Marielle Scott) and Sunrise (Melanie Field) took place in the series’ Season 2 finale, so I’m thinking that restores at least a bit of my L.A. cred! The Adamson House in Malibu is a site I am very familiar with and even blogged about back in 2009. Since my post on the place was written so long ago, though, I figured it was high time for a redo.

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Though I covered the history of the Adamson House in my original post, I’ll provide a brief recap here. The estate was built by Rhoda Agatha Rindge Adamson and her husband, Merritt Adamson, in 1929 on a 13-acre parcel of land given to them by Rindge’s mother, Rhoda May Knight Rindge. At the time, Rhoda May owned 17,000 acres of bucolic coastal land that today is known as Malibu. She and her late husband, Frederick Hastings Rindge, had purchased the seaside enclave in 1892 and their family remained its only occupants for the following forty years.

To build their new home, Rhoda Agatha and Merritt commissioned architect Stiles O. Clement, who also designed the Pasadena residence where some of Twilight’s prom scenes were filmed and the El Capitan Theatre.

The Mediterranean-style estate took a year and a half to complete.

Rhoda and Merritt spared no expense on construction of the home which boasted 5,000 square feet of living space, 5 bedrooms (all en suite), 2 servants’ quarters, a 5-car garage, hand-carved doors, a myriad of fireplaces, plaster-molded ceilings, elaborate friezes, arched windows, frescoes, a swimming pool complete with a pool house, a patio with a sprawling lawn and fountain, and furnishings custom-made by interior decorator John Holtzclaw. Oh, and views for days!

Clement even included a luxurious outdoor tub for the bathing of the Adamsons’ many pets.

By now, you’ve likely noticed the property’s elaborate tile work. It was commissioned by Rhoda May, who owned her own tile company, Malibu Potteries, which sourced clay directly from the Rindges’ land.

The colorful hand-painted pieces are a sight to behold and are, in fact, the reason the Adamson House stands to this day. In 1966, the State of California declared eminent domain on the property with the plan to raze it to make way for a – wait for it! – parking lot! Thankfully, the Malibu Historical Society and Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation stepped in, waging a ten-year battle to save the historic home. They were ultimately victorious and in 1983, after a lengthy restoration, the site was opened as a museum. It also became available for weddings and special events and, of course, filming.

It is at the Adamson House that Sunrise and Lucy tie the knot in the Season 2 finale of You, titled “Love, Actually.”

The episode made use of the property’s expansive lawn and rear patio, both of which you can see via a docent-led tour.

The Adamson House has long been a favorite of location managers.

Way back in 1976, the pad portrayed the estate of Frank Bartone (Cesare Danova) in the Season 1 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “The Mexican Connection.”

The Adamson House served as the home of Wally Windham (John Larch) in the Season 8 episode of Dallas titled “Deeds and Misdeeds,” which aired in 1985.

Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent) and Marilyn Kelsy (Wendy Schaal) hid out from assassins at a party taking place at the house in the Season 3 episode of Airwolf titled “Hawke’s Run,” which aired in 1986.

That same year, the property played the home of actress Gigi Dolores (Deborah Walley) in the Season 6 episode of Simon & Simon titled “The Last Big Break.”

As I detailed in my 2009 post, the Adamson House masqueraded as the Baja cantina where Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) took Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) during their secret weekend getaway to Mexico in the Season 2 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Mexican Standoff,” which aired in 1992.

After getting into an epic fight and then making up over a mariachi band’s rendition of “Feelings,” Dylan and Brenda dance the night away on the patio where the outdoor bathtub is located, which can be found on the Adamson House’s north side.

That area, pictured below, is not part of the official Adamson House tour, but can easily be viewed while venturing around the property beforehand or afterward.

The house pops up as a Mexican restaurant on Beverly Hills, 90210 once again in the Season 9 episode titled “Marathon Man,” which aired in 1998. On that occasion, it portrayed Mariscos San Lucas, the Cabo San Lucas eatery where Dylan took Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) after flying her to Mexico on a private jet as a surprise.

The Adamson House was also utilized as the town square where the two later shopped in the episode and where Dylan, unbeknownst to Kelly, scored some drugs.

And in 2018, the Adamson House masked as a beachside restaurant in the Season 3 episode of Lucifer titled “City of Angels?”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Adamson House, where Lucy and Sunrise got married in the Season 2 finale of You, is located at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. You can visit the home’s official website here. Tours of the property are given Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

January 22, 2020April 27, 2020

Mitch’s New York Condo from “The Morning Show”

It’s been a minute (literally) since I’ve blogged about a location from The Morning Show, but, don’t worry, I’ve still got a few more up my sleeve – namely the modern building that served as beleaguered television host Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) New York pied-à-terre. I had a hunch that the property was most likely in the downtown L.A. area (though set in NYC, the vast majority of the new Apple TV+ series was lensed in Los Angeles) and that hunch turned out to be correct. And I have my beloved Starbucks to thank for leading me to it!

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While scrutinizing one of the scenes featuring Mitch’s building, I noticed a Starbucks situated diagonally across from it (it’s denoted with a yellow arrow below, though the signage is a bit tough to make out due to some rather frenetic camera movement in the segment). The Starbucks is actually one I know well as it is a frequent stop whenever the Grim Cheaper and I are in the area. In fact, we even once randomly ran into Chas, of the Its Filmed There website, at the café, so it seems to be a popular sojourn spot for many stalkers! Once I recognized the place, I simply used Google Street View to head over to its location at the corner of 11th Street and South Grand Avenue and then rotated the screen around until I landed on the building kitty-corner from it. As it turns out, Mitch’s New York home can be found at 1050 South Grand.

Known as Ten50 in real life, the 25-story property, developed by Trumark Urban and designed by HansonLA, was completed in 2016.

The contemporary building is made up of 151 one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and penthouse condos.

Just about as upscale as it gets, Ten50’s amenities include concierge service, a fitness studio with an outdoor yoga deck, meeting space, gated parking with over thirty spots for electric vehicles, a screening room, a business center, a club lounge, and a fifth-floor sun deck with a pool, spa, cabanas, BBQs, indoor/outdoor kitchens, and a fireplace.

The building also boasts the city’s first landing pad made especially for drone deliveries. (I’m guessing that feature doesn’t get utilized much.)

Mitch’s building does not show up until the ninth episode of The Morning Show, titled “Play the Queen,” in which the fallen anchor returns to New York to try to orchestrate an interview with Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon). The lobby of Ten50, which you can see photos of here and here, is featured early in the episode.

Hannah Schoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) also later confronts Mitch about her assault outside of the building.

And I was thrilled to discover while poking around images of various Ten50 units I found online that the actual interior of Penthouse 2 was used as Mitch’s condo! Per a recent real estate listing, in which the unit was offered for a whopping $5,699,000, the 2-level space was custom–built by the Brown Design Group and boasts 2 bedrooms, 4 baths, 30-foot ceilings, 3,930 square feet, a whiskey den, floor-to-ceiling windows, a galley kitchen with Wolf and Sub Zero appliances, a large wrap-around balcony, a bonus balcony off the master bedroom, and an upper-level terrace. Worth every penny, I say! The place is pretty much my ideal living space. You can check out a video of the absolutely exquisite interior here.

As you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS photos above and below, it appears that The Morning Show made use of some of the condo’s actual furnishings including the kitchen island bar stools and the dining table.

The unit also appeared in the Season 1 finale of The Morning Show, titled “The Interview.” Not only do Mitch, Bradley, Chip Black (Mark Duplass), and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) powwow about Mitch’s upcoming secret interview in Penthouse 2’s living room . . .

. . . but Cory also later has a come-to-Jesus meeting with Mitch in the same spot and, in one of my favorite monologues from the series, very profoundly advises Mitch to confess to his assaults.

And it is in Ten50’s lobby that Mitch and Chip get into a fistfight at the end of the episode.

Thanks to fellow stalker Brett, I learned that Mitch’s penthouse is also where Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) lived in the recently-aired Season 3 episode of Westworld titled “The Absence of Field.”

And thanks to fellow stalker Tyler, I learned that the penthouse played the Moscow condo where Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin) resided in the series finale of Homeland, titled “Prisoners of War.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile
Stalk It: Ten50, aka Mitch’s “New York” building from The Morning Show, is located at 1050 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the property’s official website here.

January 17, 2020January 17, 2020

Candace’s Rental from “You”

Though Anavrin was by far my favorite locale from the second season of the Netflix series You, I was also pretty darn smitten with the charming Victorian that Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers) rented during her stay in Los Angeles while posing as Amy Adam. I was struck by the picturesque property as soon as it came onscreen in episode 6, “Farewell, My Bunny,” and though its appearance was all-too-brief, it stuck with me. I set out to find it just as soon as the closing credits began to roll and, thankfully, it was not a long hunt. Global Film Locations pinpointed the home right where I thought it would be – in the heart of Angelino Heights, the Echo Park neighborhood that boasts the largest concentration of Victorian homes in Los Angeles. So I ran right out there while in the area a few weeks back. (I would be completely remiss if I did not note here that Ambyr Childers is the first wife of Randall Emmett, Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent’s fiancé. Let that sink in for a minute!)

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Known as the Collins Residence in real life, the stunning Eastlake-style property was originally built in 1888 for Santa Fe Railroad agent Michael T. Collins.

Per Flickr member Michael Locke, the pad was initially located on Whittier Boulevard, but was moved to its current home at 890-892 West Kensington Road in 1987.

Despite that unique provenance and the fact that the place is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 266, I could find virtually no additional information about it online.

According to Redfin, the three-story residence boasts 1 bedroom (though I believe that to be incorrect), 2 baths, 2,272 square feet, and a 0.21-acre plot of land.

It is quite the quintessential historic Los Angeles home, so it is no surprise that it wound up as Candace’s rental on You.

In “Farewell, My Bunny,” Forty Quinn (James Scully) informs Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) that his ex, Candace, aka “Amy,” is leasing a home somewhere on Loma Vista Lane in Echo Park. Joe then searches the fictional “BnB” website for rentals on Loma Vista and comes across a listing for a “fully-furnished” “historic Victorian in Angelino Heights” with a private bathroom, balcony and “tee-pee access” (whatever that means).

Describing the pad as a “Gothic Barbie dreamhouse,” Joe surmises it must be the spot Candace leased.

He promptly breaks into the home later that night, toting a backpack filled with duct tape and rope, to presumably kill Candace. But the property’s owner, the Krav Maga-trained Superhost Rachel (Madeline Zima), thwarts his devious plan, knocking him out with a quick fist to the face and then hog-tieing him in her living room. In a thoroughly head-scratching move, though, she ultimately lets Joe go, believing his claim that Candace hired him to enact a “rape fantasy.”

I am fairly certain that the actual inside of the home was also utilized in the episode, though I could find no interior photographs with which to verify that.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Collins Residence, aka Candace’s rental from You, is located at 890-892 West Kensington Road in Echo Park. Several other homes in the neighborhood have also appeared onscreen – Jesse (John Stamos) and Becky’s (Lori Loughlin) honeymoon send-off from Full House can be found at 1320 Carroll Avenue, Oliver’s “San Francisco” house from A Lot Like Love is located at 1321 Carroll, 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 at 1347 Kellam Avenue.

January 15, 2020January 16, 2020

Anavrin from “You”

I loved Season 1 of You, but Season 2 was even more gripping, engrossing and enjoyable! I think a large part of that had to do with Anavrin (pronounced “uh-nah-vrin”), the impossibly idyllic grocery store where Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) landed a job in episode 1, “A Fresh Start,” and worked throughout. The charming market is Season 2’s central locale, one that I wanted to fully immerse myself in. The place is so inviting, in fact, that I was convinced it was purely the stuff of a production designer’s imagination, a picturesque set created inside of a vacant warehouse solely for the show. So I was shocked to learn via a Backstage article that filming had actually taken place at a real downtown L.A. grocery store named Urban Radish! To the top of my To-Stalk List the market went and I headed right on over there while in the area the first week of January.

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Opened in summer 2013, Urban Radish is the brainchild of business partners Carol Paxton and Keri Aivazis. Housed in a former glass factory in downtown’s Arts District, the whimsical 8,200-square-foot market was designed by Creative Space and Linear City Development. The transformation from former warehouse to upscale grocery store took nine months and $1.7 million to complete.

And it was worth every penny!

Along with the typical grocery store trappings, the specialty market boasts a gourmet deli, onsite butcher (who makes all sausage offerings in-house!), outdoor grill and patio, wine alcove, and espresso bar.

I can’t think of a prettier place to shop!

That produce section, amirite?

It isn’t very hard to see how the place came to be chosen for You.

Of the market, Joe, dripping with sarcasm, says, “In Los Angeles, grocery stores aren’t just the place you buy carrots. They’re a pristine, non-GMO Disneyland. And king among these is Anavrin. Come for the spring lettuce mix, stay for the perfect life that could be yours if you just spend enough and quit gluten, you f*cking *sshole! And yeah, obviously Anavrin is – wait for it – Nirvana spelled backwards.”

Joe might not have been able to hide his disdain for the shop, but I, understandably, fell in love with it upon sight.

Urban Radish was dressed pretty significantly for the You shoot. Per Google Street View imagery, the outside of the market was light gray up until March 2019, smack dab in the middle of the filming of the show’s second season. So it appears that the royal blue paint that now graces the exterior was a production decision that the owners chose to leave intact after the shoot wrapped. A pergola-shaded patio draped with flowers was also added to the premises . . .

. . . as was a florist stand. Sadly, both of those elements were dismantled when filming concluded.

Even without all the bells and whistles, though, Urban Radish is pretty darn special and entirely recognizable.

Though I would have loved to see it in its dressed state.

While Urban Radish’s exterior was used extensively throughout Season 2, the interior only appeared in “A Fresh Start.” It is in the market’s actual produce section that Joe orchestrates a meet-cute with Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti). Love also shops there prior to making a meal for Joe later in the episode. As you can see in Yelp photos taken pre-2019, the shop’s signage was formerly very different, so it appears the chic reclaimed wood display boards that now adorn the walls were another production decision the owners chose to leave intact post-filming.

Urban Radish’s deli area also appeared in “A Fresh Start,” though it was modified a bit with the rear exit door and metal wall paneling covered over.

The bulk of the Anavrin scenes, though, were shot on a studio-built set. Yes, sadly, the magical light-filled new-age café, book alcove and kitchen, where most of the action took place, are not actual elements of Urban Radish.

While the market does have an open kitchen in real life, it is less central, situated off the wine aisle, and much smaller than its onscreen counterpart.

Considering its fabulously unique aesthetic, I am surprised that Urban Radish has not been featured in countless other productions, but I could find no record of any additional cinematic appearances.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Urban Radish, aka Anavrin from You, is located at 661 Imperial Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the market’s official website here.

January 13, 2020January 10, 2020

Blossom Restaurant from “The Morning Show”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Blossom space actually has quite the onscreen pedigree.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

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

January 10, 2020January 3, 2020

Ugo Café from “The Morning Show”

The Season 1 finale of The Morning Show might have been one of the finest hours of television ever created! It left me equal parts heartbroken, disgusted, and hopeful, with the last few minutes propelling me out of my seat, literally jumping for joy and teeming with spit and vinegar, ready to take on the world! It was a whirlwind of emotion, to say the least. I was also ecstatic to see Ugo café, yet another location I previously stalked, pop up onscreen. I learned of the DTLA eatery’s use on the freshman Apple TV+ series a while back thanks to an anonymous reader who works in the area and witnessed the filming. So I, of course, had to pop by while in town for a doctor appointment for my dad shortly before Thanksgiving.

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Ugo is a relative newcomer to the DTLA restaurant scene.

The charming coffee shop opened in early 2016 in a West 6th Street space that formerly housed a casual diner named Bruno Cafe.

Its sister eatery in Culver City has been an area staple since 2006, though. Per Ugo’s website, that location is “the only Italian restaurant on the westside of Los Angeles that is VPN certified for authentic Neapolitan pizza.” For those not well-versed in all things Neapolitan, such certification has only been granted to 94 spots in the entire U.S. and guarantees the pizza offerings are “prepared and served according to traditional standards with authentic ingredients. The same way the first pizza was created hundreds of years ago in Naples, Italy.”

The DTLA outpost offers Italian-inspired bites, including fresh-baked pastries, paninis made in-house, salads, pasta (they even have gluten-free noodles!), pizza, soups, coffees, teas, and homemade gelato, which is crafted daily on the premises.

Though I only popped by for a quick looksie and did not get to sample any of the fare, Ugo is an adorable little spot that seems a perfect addition to the neighborhood. Just steps from several hotels, including the Millennium Biltmore, Hilton Checkers, and Westin Bonaventure, not to mention countless office buildings, it makes for an inviting pit stop. And it does have a very New York feel to it, so it is no surprise that it wound up on the NYC-set The Morning Show.

It is at Ugo that Chip Black (Mark Duplass) brings his assistant, Rena (Victoria Tate), in on the plan to stage a secret on-air interview with Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) in the series’ finale, titled “The Interview.” Only the exterior of the restaurant is featured onscreen, though the interior is quite visible through the windows behind Chip and Rena throughout the segment.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ugo popped up onscreen again in other productions in the months to come. Who knows, it may even feature in the second season of The Morning Show, which, thank goodness, has been given the green light!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Ugo, from “The Interview” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 502 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.