Arrested Development – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 7, 2014November 6, 2014

Porter’s Stowaway Tavern from “Revenge”

The Grim Cheaper and I recently became obsessed with Revenge. We randomly started watching the ABC series on Netflix one night in early September and could NOT stop. For the next three weeks, the two of us obsessively binge-watched episodes, to the extent that I’m kind of surprised no one staged an intervention. We headed to L.A. for a few days in the middle of our Revenge-fest and made sure to bring along our Apple TV so that our viewing would not be interrupted. And we ordered room service every single night while there so that we could stay in front of the television during dinner! I was relieved when we finally caught up to the series’ current season, as it meant I could go back to living a normal life. It also meant that I could finally stalk some of the show’s locations, the first of which was the storefront that masquerades as Porter’s Stowaway Tavern.

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Though the Stowaway is said to be located in Montauk, New York, the exterior of the watering hole owned by Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler) on the series can actually be found in a small shopping center named Fisherman’s Village in Marina del Rey.

The picturesque complex is made up of five brightly-colored New England-style buildings situated along a cobblestone promenade that lines the waterfront.

And what a stunning waterfront it is!

Fisherman’s Village is best-known for the tall blue and white lighthouse that sits at its center and houses a walk-up café.

Sadly, the 1.2-acre complex started to decline in popularity in the ‘90s and city officials are now looking at redeveloping it or possibly tearing it down and replacing it with a parking lot. I certainly hope that does not happen.

Though most of the shops were vacant, I found Fisherman’s Village to be extremely quaint and charming. I would love to see new businesses move in and revitalize the place!

Interestingly, the Revenge pilot was not shot in California, but at various locations in North Carolina. The Fishy Fishy Café at 106 Yacht Basin Drive in Southport masked as Porter’s Stowaway Tavern in the episode. (You can check out some photographs of the restaurant being dressed for the shoot here.) The exterior of the café (pictured below) does bear a striking resemblance to the buildings at Fisherman’s Village, so it is not hard to see why the shopping center was chosen for filming once the series got picked up and production moved to Los Angeles.

From the second episode of Revenge on, a building that stands in the middle of Fisherman’s Village has masqueraded as the Stowaway. In real life, the structure houses a bike shop named Daniel’s Bicycle Rentals & Sales, an ice cream stand named Daniel’s Ice Cream, and a few other small offices.

The two-story building is only used for faraway establishing shots, though . . .

. . . as well as some rare walk-bys.

All close-ups of the tavern’s exterior are actually shot on a set. I was so hoping to see the Stowaway’s entrance . . .

. . . and patio area, and was shocked to discover upon stalking Fisherman’s Village that they actually only exist inside of a soundstage at MBS Media Campus, where the series is lensed.

While typically only the western side of the Fisherman’s Village building is shown on Revenge, in the recently-aired Season 4 episode titled “Ashes,” in which the Stowaway catches fire, the opposite side was utilized.

The super-nice Daniel’s Bicycle Rentals & Sales employee that I spoke with even sent me a photo of the fire scene being set up. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! As you can see, a fake façade was put over a portion of the bottom floor of the building for the shoot.

For the filming of the pilot episode, the actual interior of the Fishy Fishy Café was used as the interior of the Stowaway.

A (much larger) set resembling that interior was then built at MBS Media Campus for all subsequent filming.

Revenge is hardly the first production to make use of Fisherman’s Village. In fact, it popped up in another of my favorite shows, The O.C. In the Season 1 episode titled “The Rescue,” the shopping center was where Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) and Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson) grabbed pizza after helping Marissa to escape from the hospital. The scene was shot outside of what is now the Hornblower Cruises & Events office.

Later that season, in the episode titled “The Ties That Bind,” Seth and Ryan hung out on Seth’s boat which was docked at Fisherman’s Village.

The center was also the site of Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand on Arrested Development. On the series, the banana stand was situated directly in front of the Fisherman’s Village lighthouse.

And in the Season 3 episode of Greek titled “All Children . . . Grow Up,” Fisherman’s Village stood in for Myrtle Beach, where the CRU kids spent Spring Break.

On a side-note – I would like to wish my mom a VERY happy birthday today! I love you! xo xo xo

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Porter’s Stowaway Tavern from Revenge, aka Daniel’s Bicycle Rentals & Sales, is located at 13737 Fiji Way, in the Fisherman’s Village shopping center, in Marina del Rey. “The Rescue” episode of The O.C. was shot outside of the Hornblower Cruises & Events office located at 13755 Fiji Way. Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana stand from Arrested Development was situated in front of the Lighthouse Fountain & Grill, which is located at 13735 Fiji Way.

June 23, 2014June 20, 2014

and Jeremy Piven Nightclub from “Arrested Development”

Thanks to Netflix streaming and the boredom of summer reruns, I just recently started watching Arrested Development. And, let me tell you, I am hooked! My interest in the show was first piqued when I randomly came across this Wikia article about a fictitious nightclub on the series named “and Jeremy Piven.”

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I just about died laughing upon seeing a screen capture of the place (pictured below) and my first thought was, “How am I not watching this show?” So I quickly remedied the situation and, so far, have not been disappointed. Any series that absurd is pretty much guaranteed to wind up one as of my favorites. For those for whom the screen capture below does not have any significance, let me fill you in.

In the opening credits of the now-defunct HBO series Entourage, the cast’s names were showcased on the front of several Hollywood buildings. Jeremy Piven’s was the last moniker to be shown, hence the word “and” in front of it. (You can watch those credits here.) Arrested Development decided to poke fun at the Entourage opening by creating a nightclub named “and Jeremy Piven” for a couple of Season 4 episodes. Hilarious! And even though I have not yet gotten to Season 4, I decided I just had to stalk the nightclub location, as well as the location of the building from the Entourage opening.

The storefront used in the Entourage opening credits was a snap to track down thanks to the fact that it is wrapped in a zebra print and bears signs reading “Piercing” and “Tattoo” (or should I say “Tat oo”?). A simple Google search of “Zebra,” “tattoo” and “Hollywood” led me to the Zebra tattoo parlor at 6660 Hollywood Boulevard and, sure enough, it was the right place. Aside from the fact that the exterior lacks neon signage reading “and Jeremy Piven,” it looks much the same as it did onscreen in Entourage.

The and Jeremy Piven nightclub was also a snap to track down thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, who had the locale listed on his Arrested Development page. The nightclub first showed up (very briefly) in the Season 4 episode titled “A New Start,” in the scene in which Debris Bardeaux (Maria Bamford) was randomly picked up by a limo.

Ironically enough, Zebra tattoo parlor can be seen in the background of an earlier scene in that very same episode.

The nightclub’s next appearance was in the Season 4 episode titled “Colony Collapse.” It was featured as the spot where Gob Bluth (Will Arnett) inadvertently became part of a young pop star’s entourage.

In real life, the and Jeremy Piven nightclub is a 6,200-square-foot building located right around the corner from Zebra tattoo at 1638 North Cherokee Avenue. The space is currently vacant, but most recently housed a studio prop house. You can check out a LoopNet listing for it here.

Only the exterior of the property was used in Arrested Development. The interior of and Jeremy Piven nightclub was actually Beso Hollywood, a place that I will be blogging about soon.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The and Jeremy Piven nightclub from Arrested Development is located at 1638 North Cherokee Avenue in Hollywood. Zebra tattoo parlor from the opening credits of Entourage is located just around the corner at 6660 Hollywood Boulevard.

May 13, 2014May 29, 2019

The Warehouse Restaurant from “Anger Management”

While visiting L.A. last week, the Grim Cheaper and I stayed in Marina del Rey. One late afternoon, during a waterfront stroll, we found ourselves passing by a unique eatery that had long been on my To-Stalk List. Situated on the bustling Admiralty Way amongst upscale hotels and high-rise apartment buildings, the nautical-themed The Warehouse Restaurant is almost hidden from view. I first spotted the place years ago on another oceanside walk with the GC and was instantly intrigued as I had never before seen anything like it! The structure looks like a ramshackle beach hut, complete with a large man-made lagoon out front. My first thought was ‘This place has to have been in movies!’ During that particular visit, The Warehouse was, sadly, closed so I was not able to venture inside to inquire further. This time, though, we passed by just as the clock was reaching cocktail hour and I convinced the GC to pop in for some drinks.

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The Warehouse Restaurant was originally founded way back in 1969 by award-winning cameraman Burt Hixson. To decorate his eatery, Burt salvaged authentic nautical equipment from old San Pedro shipyards. The result is quite spectacular and utterly one-of-a-kind.

Actual wharf posts, boats, fishing nets and buoys flank the exterior.

The lagoon even boasts a large pier jutting out into its middle.

The interior is comprised of whiskey barrels, crates suspended from the ceiling, wooden oars and hanging lanterns.

The place feels like Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride come to life.

The establishment also boasts some pretty fantastic waterfront views.

The GC and I ate in the bar, which just so happens to be the area of the restaurant most often utilized in filming. But more on that later.

Thanks to its fabulous fare and kitschy aesthetic, The Warehouse Restaurant was a hit from the get-go. According to a Beaver County Times article, in 1973 it was the nation’s most successful restaurant. The eatery has also, of course, attracted its fair share of celebrities and has walls upon walls of photos of stars posing with Warehouse menus to prove it.

Just a few of the celebs pictured include Kirk Cameron;

a very young Michael Douglas;

‘N Sync boy-banders Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick;

and Cary Grant (at least I’m pretty sure that’s Cary Grant).

We even spotted a celebrity during our visit there – Two Broke Girls’ Garrett Morris, who was nice enough to pose for a picture with me. (Too bad it turned out a bit blurry.)

In the mid-80s, after opening several successful sister restaurants, Burt decided to establish a boutique hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and sold off his popular eateries. Today, The Warehouse Restaurant is owned by Lee and Martha Spencer, who also own another of my favorite Los Angeles hot spots – the Smoke House in Burbank, which I blogged about here.

Thanks to its unique tropical look, The Warehouse Restaurant has been immortalized onscreen several times over the years. In the 2003 comedy Anger Management, the site masqueraded as the Boston eatery where Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) forced Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) to hit on a random girl named Kendra (Heather Graham).

The following year, the eatery popped up in Meet the Fockers as the Miami, Florida restaurant where Bernie and Rozalin Focker (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, respectively) hosted an engagement party for their son, Greg Focker (Ben Stiller), and his fiancé, Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo).

The exterior of The Warehouse Restaurant was also shown briefly in the film.

In 2013, The Warehouse cameoed as the crab shack where the maritime law trial of Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) took place on Season 4 of Arrested Development.

The restaurant’s entrance was shown during the trial, as well.

The Warehouse also served as Bliss Point, the supposed Dana Point eatery where Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) confront Jen’s dead husband’s mistress, Bambi (Olivia Macklin), in the Season 1 episode of Dead to Me titled “I Can’t Go Back.”

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Warehouse Restaurant, from Anger Management, is located at 4499 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.