Burbank – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 1, 2020May 1, 2020

Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant from “Why Women Kill”

The Grim Cheaper and I often joke that my friend Lavonna should be in charge of our DVR. She has recommended countless shows over the years that became fast favorites, including The Goldbergs, Veep, The Office, and Parks and Recreation. Her latest suggestion, Why Women Kill, hasn’t quite hit the beloved mark for me yet (it’s just a bit too dark and risqué), though its premise – the CBS All Access series centers around a Pasadena mansion and three couples who call it home over various decades – is something I can certainly get behind! And the locations are fab! Early in her viewing, before I started to watch, Von texted me a photo of a diner used in the production to see if I recognized it. Sure enough, I did! The eatery was none other than Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, a historic Burbank spot I stalked and blogged about back in 2012 after it was prominently featured in fave romcom Larry Crowne. Since its resume has seriously bulked up since then, I figured a redo was in order.

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Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, which is also known as Frank’s Steak House, was originally established by Frank Kunelis and his wife, Soula, in 1957.

Lined with brown tufted booths and a long wooden counter with swivel stools, the interior looks as if not much has changed since opening day. And I mean that in a good way.

Pretty much the only thing that has been altered over the years is the fare, thanks to Jose Lopez, a longtime chef from another Burbank eatery named Genio’s, who purchased Frank’s in 2008. As Lopez told the Los Angeles Times, “I thought I was going to retire there, but when Genio’s closed, and I bought Frank’s, I put the menus together.” The result is a vast offering of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and traditional American comfort food.

Other than that, though, the restaurant remains much as it was under Kunelis’ tutelage – which is just the way Frank’s customers like it.

Sadly, the eatery began suffering a decline in patronage in early 2012 and closed its doors in March of that year, shortly after I stalked it. Sam Patel, owner of the adjacent Portofino Inn, wound up stepping in and purchasing the place. He kept Jose on as manager and reopened that June much to the delight of locals. Frank’s is still going strong today – especially when it comes to movie and television appearances!

In the August 2019 pilot episode of Why Women Kill, titled “Murder Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry,” Frank’s masks as the supposed Glendale-area Jansen’s Diner, where Beth Ann Stanton (Ginnifer Goodwin) catches her husband cheating with a waitress named April Warner (Sadie Calvano).

The eatery goes on to appear in subsequent episodes of the series as Beth Ann attempts to befriend April.

Though the chandeliers were swapped out for the shoot, I recognized Frank’s as soon as I laid eyes on the screen captures Lavonna sent me.

Thanks to its retro décor and Anywhere, U.S.A. appeal, the restaurant has long been a favorite of location scouts.

Frank’s was used for exterior shots of the diner where Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) convinced Ray Pruit (Jamie Walters) to return to Beverly Hills in the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Squash It,” which aired in 1995. Interiors were filmed elsewhere, though.

The eatery has been featured in no less than five episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation! It first popped up in Season 6’s “Rashomama,” which aired in 2006, as the supposed Las Vegas, Nevada-area coffee shop where the car belonging to Nick Stokes (George Eads) was stolen (pictured below). It then went on to appear in Season 7’s “Law of Gravity,” Season 9’s “Mascara,” Season 11’s “The List,” and Season 12’s “Willows in the Wind.”

Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) takes his ex-wife, Tammy Swanson (Megan Mullally), out for lunch at Frank’s in the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Ron and Tammy,” which aired in 2009.

Frank’s serves as the central location in the 2011 romantic comedy Larry Crowne. It is there that Larry (Tom Hanks) gets a gig as a line cook after losing his job at the local U-Mart store.

The diner is the site of a confrontation between Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns) and Art Mullen (Nick Searcy) in the Season 5 episode of Justified titled “Shot All to Hell,” which aired in 2014.

Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) meets his sister, Margo (Carrie Coon), and his lawyer, Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry), at Frank’s to discuss his case in the 2014 thriller Gone Girl.

Walter O’Brien (Elyes Gabel) and his team commandeer the restaurant in order to save a doomed plane in the pilot episode of Scorpion, which aired in 2014.

Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) presents David Packouz (Miles Teller) with a severance agreement at Frank’s in the 2016 crime drama War Dogs.

In the Season 1 episode of Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. titled “Tupac Amaru Shakur,” which aired in 2018, Detective Greg Kading (Josh Duhamel) and Officer Daryn Dupree (Bokeem Woodbine) meet with an informant named Percy (Amin Joseph) at Frank’s.

The eatery masks as the Denver Diner in the Season 3 episode of Lethal Weapon titled “Panama,” which aired in 2018.

Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) and David Madson (Cody Fern) dine at Frank’s and reminisce about the night they first met in the Season 2 episode of American Crime Story titled “House by the Lake,” which aired in 2018.

In the Season 1 episode of I Am the Night titled “Phenomenon of Interference,” which aired in 2019, Jay Singletary (Chris Pine) meets with an old army buddy at Frank’s.

And Leslie Peterson (David Hornsby) shares a meal with Baby Tyler (Caleb Emery) at the coffee shop just prior to heading to jail in the Season 3 episode of Good Girls titled “Nana,” which aired in 2020.

On a Why Women Kill Side-Note – For those wondering, the stunning “Pasadena” mansion at the center of the series isn’t really in Pasadena at all, but Hancock Park. It can be found at 113 Fremont Place. Sadly, it is located in a gated community, so I won’t be blogging about it, but figured I’d provide the info 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: Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, from Why Women Kill, is located at 925 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

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.

June 26, 2019July 16, 2019

The Stage from “Big Little Lies’

So far I am unimpressed with the locations featured in Big Little Lies’ second season. During the HBO series’ first go-round, not only were the locales fantastic, but they were showcased to such an incredible extent that they pretty much overshadowed everything else – but in the best way possible! Despite the drama and tension constantly hovering around Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) and the gang, the atmosphere completely drew me in. From the houses to the restaurants to the scenic overlooks, the ladies’ beautiful but haunting world was definitely a place I wanted more of. This season, not so much. In fact, in the three episodes that have aired so far, there hasn’t been a single location standout – in my eyes at least. Even the spots that are striking in real life aren’t being showcased well. Case in point – Burbank’s The Stage California Fusion Restaurant & Café, which masked as the supposed Monterey-area Neptune’s Bistro, where Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) went on a rather odd date with her co-worker, Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith), in the latest episode titled “The End of the World.” I learned about the arcadian eatery thanks to a reader named Lew who posted a comment alerting me that the series was filming on the premises on my Round-Up of Big Little Lies Filming Locations post back in March 2018. I finally stalked the place this past May and can honestly say it is, hands down, one of the coolest, prettiest and most unique venues in L.A.! I anxiously awaited its BLL cameo and was disappointed – and rather surprised – when it finally popped up in very limited form this past Sunday. Hardly any of it could be seen! So I figured it was my duty to properly showcase it for my readers here.

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The Stage California Fusion Restaurant & Café opened its doors in June 2013 on the site of what was formerly a garden shop known as Lucky Plants. Considering the eatery’s pastoral quality, you might think much of the design and foliage are holdovers from the space’s time as a nursery, but as you can see in the August 2011 Street View image as compared to my photograph below, that is, oddly, not the case. Lucky Plants can hardly be described as bucolic. As commenter Vahan Bznuni said of the property’s redevelopment, “They turned an abandoned former nursery with no hint of green into a lush garden paradise.”

The difference is incredible!

Garden paradise it truly is!

The Stage is all bright bougainvillea vines, lush hedges, towering trees and hanging blossoms coupled with reclaimed wood, strung twinkle lights and colorful décor.

Each vista proves more stunning than the last and includes an expansive main courtyard;

a raised patio known as “The Veranda”;

an indoor dining room dubbed “The House” . . .

. . . complete with a stage . . .

canopied pathways;

and a covered patio.

Even the restaurant’s signage is whimsical!

And the parking lot picturesque!

The place is so gorgeous that I took over 110 photographs while there!

Literally everything at The Stage is picture-worthy.

The Grim Cheaper and I dined in a tucked-away little enclave, of which the restaurant has several. It was a bit chilly during our lunch, so our server offered us blankets to keep warm, which perfectly epitomized the place to me. The Stage is warm, cozy and inviting.

Oh, and the food’s not bad either!

We opted for the Shrimp Gruyere appetizer consisting of massive-size prawns wrapped in smoked bacon and covered in Gruyere cheese with a tarragon dipping sauce. And yes, it tasted just as good as it looked.

Big Little Lies’ “The End of the World” episode made use of The Stage’s courtyard area for Jane and Corey’s very brief date scene during which Corey obsessively touts his obscure knowledge of wild versus farmed seafood.

Though the space did appear beautiful onscreen . . .

. . . it was nothing compared to its actual beauty.

I mean!

I am hoping the eatery is featured again in some of Season 2’s upcoming episodes, otherwise what a waste of a location!

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lew for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Stage California Fusion Restaurant & Café, aka Corey and Jane’s date spot from “The End of the World” episode of Big Little Lies, is located at 546 South San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. The Stage is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

January 16, 2019January 14, 2019

Kabuki Japanese Restaurant from “Clueless”

OK so I’m totally buggin’! I just found out that Paramount Pictures is in talks to reboot Clueless! This may be way harsh, but all I have to say regarding the news is ‘Whatever!’ The 1995 classic is absolute perfection AS IS and should NOT be touched! Hearing about the project did remind me of several locales from the flick that I stalked long ago, but have yet to blog about, namely Kabuki Japanese Restaurant in Burbank, aka the former Crocodile Cafe, where Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) lunched with her Beverly Hills besties Dionne (Stacey Dash) and Tai (Brittany Murphy). I had been on the lookout for the eatery for ages – pretty much since starting my blog back in 2007. It was not until 8 years later, on June 4th, 2015, that a reader named Jasmine finally solved the mystery when, in response to another reader asking about the restaurant in the comments section of my post on the Horowitz house from the movie, said, “It used to be Crocodile Cafe in Burbank on San Fernando and Orange Grove. But now it’s a Kabuki. I have no idea how I figured this out but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly where it was. The booth they sat at is right behind the hostess/cashier. I sound so stalkerish right now it’s ridiculous.” Jasmine’s comment was quite stalkerish, but in the best way possible! One look at images of the place online told me she was right. I could not have been more thrilled and ran out to stalk Kabuki just a few days later with my friend Kate who was in town visiting from Kentucky. Very shortly after that, author Jen Chaney released her fabulous book As If!: The Oral History of Clueless as told by Amy Heckerling and the Cast and Crew which confirmed Crocodile Cafe’s appearance in the film on page 126.

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The former Crocodile Cafe actually pops up twice in Clueless – first very briefly in the opening “So, OK, you’re probably going ‘Is this, like, a Noxzema commercial or what?’” montage.

It then later appears in the scene in which Cher and Dionne take Tai out for a “calorie fest” to cheer her up after she finds out that snob-and-a-half Elton (Jeremy Sisto) isn’t into her.

Upon walking into the restaurant, I was thrilled to see that despite the changeover from Crocodile Cafe to Kabuki, it was entirely recognizable from its big screen cameo. Unfortunately, someone happened to be sitting in the exact booth utilized during filming, so I couldn’t snap any photos of it, but as you can see in the image below as compared to the screen capture, the booths remain very much the same today as they appeared in Clueless. The cushioning has been swapped out and glass partitions have since been added, but other than that, they are untouched.

The front door and hostess area also largely look the same.

Crocodile Cafe’s bar, which was visible in both Clueless scenes, was apparently gutted when Kabuki took over.

The area where it used to be located is pictured below. Thankfully, the frosted glass blocks formerly situated behind the bar are still intact, as are the wood columns that frame them.

It is not hard to see why the restaurant was chosen for the movie. With its bright pink and green color scheme and 90s-modern vibe, the place fit in perfectly with the splashy, over-the-top visual aesthetic that made up Cher’s world. Interestingly, Crocodile Cafe was not producers’ first choice, though. Per As If!, “Originally the Clueless crew was hoping to shoot the restaurant sequences at California Pizza Kitchen. But once the CPK people saw the final script, and saw how much breadstick-penis talk goes on between Cher, Dionne and Tai, they said no. Says producer Adam Schroeder: ‘I think the whole idea of talking about boy parts in CPK, that made them uncomfortable.” The default location turned out to be ideal, though.

Of Crocodile Cafe’s unique décor, Los Angeles Times writer Max Jacobson had this to say in a 1997 article, “It’s a breezy place with an open kitchen tiled in a pattern that looks like a multicolored snake. The dining room–all brick walls, high ceiling and a gallery’s worth of modern art–is narrow and noisy.” I believe the open kitchen Jacobson mentions (or at least a portion of it), which was not shown in Clueless, serves as the restaurant’s sushi counter today.

The Burbank Crocodile Cafe outpost opened its doors in July 1994, so it was new when Clueless filmed on the premises. (Though I am unsure of the exact day the scenes were lensed, the movie was shot from November 21st, 1994 through February 7th, 1995.) The eatery was the fifth in the CC chain, which was founded in Pasadena in 1987 by restauranteur Gregg Smith as a sort of casual version of his upscale and highly popular bistro Parkway Grill. I was unable to dig up the year the eatery closed, but, per a newspaper ad I came across, the shuttering took place between May 2002 and July 2005, at which time Kabuki Japanese Restaurant was already in operation. Oh, how I wish I could have seen the Croc when it was still open in all of its bright green and pink glory!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Jasmine for finding this location!

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: Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, aka the former Crocodile Cafe from Clueless, is located at 201 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. The Downtown Christmas Shopping District from “The Voice of Christmas” episode of The Brady Bunch is located a little over a block away at 100 South San Fernando.

November 26, 2018January 10, 2020

Woodbury University from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”

Today’s locale, Woodbury University, was originally going to be included in this year’s Haunted Hollywood postings. I first learned about the Burbank college thanks to its appearance in the 2018 horror flick Truth or Dare and ran right out to stalk it, figuring it would fit in perfectly with my annual October theme. It was not until I sat down to research the place that I discovered its incredibly extensive film resume. The school easily has to be one of the San Fernando Valley’s most oft-used locations! From The Wonder Years to The Office, the site has popped up in countless notable productions over the years, including my and the Grim Cheaper’s latest favorite, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Anytime a college is needed for an L.A.-area shoot, it seems, cast and crew head straight to Woodbury. How I had never heard of the place is beyond me! Thinking the university was better suited to a non-horror-related post, I back-burnered it and am thrilled to finally be writing about it now!

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Woodbury Business College, as it was originally known, was founded by entrepreneur F. C. Woodbury in 1884. Initially housed in single-room space at 316 North Main Street in downtown L.A. with a staff of two, the school offered four classes, all related to practical business skills – bookkeeping, English, spelling, and penmanship. It was not long before high enrollment brought about a need to expand and the college took over an entire floor of the Stowell Building located a few blocks away at 226 South Spring Street. The structure, sadly, has since been demolished. In 1924, Woodbury received charter status from the state and expanded its curriculum to include business administration, foreign trade, and marketing courses. As the student body continued to grow, the school moved numerous times until 1937 when it finally set up shop at a Streamline Moderne building designed by Claud Beelman at 1027 Wilshire Boulevard, where it remained for the next fifty years. Sadly, that property was also since razed.

In 1961, the school received full charter status. That same year, its name was officially changed to Woodbury University.

When the need to expand arose once again in the 1980s, administrators acquired the former Villa Cabrini Academy Catholic girls high school, a 22.4-acre Burbank site that was initially built in 1927 as a summer home for orphans and underprivileged youth.

The new Woodbury campus, which opened to students in the fall of 1987, featured landscaped grounds, a gym, a pool, an athletic field, and dormitories. Additional facilities were also built in order to accommodate an eventual prospective enrollment of 2,500.

Woodbury University continued to flourish in its new home and today the school boasts two additional campuses (in Hollywood and San Diego) and offers degrees in over twenty subjects including business, computer information systems, and design.

The college is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous landscaping . . .

. . . tucked away spots . . .

. . . a tree-lined central quad . . .

. . . and both modern design elements . . .

. . . as well as Italian Romanesque, which harken back to the site’s secular roots.

So it comes as no surprise that Woodbury is a frequent screen star. And what fun I had putting together a comprehensive list of its many cameos!

The school’s original gym was used extensively in the 1989 action flick Best of the Best as the spot where Alexander Grady (Eric Roberts) and the rest of the Team USA martial artists regularly practiced.

In 2001, that gym was transformed into the university’s Design Center. Though completely remodeled, the basketball court markings are still intact today, as you can see in photos here and here.

The exterior of the gym also made an appearance in Best of the Best . . .

. . . as did one of the school’s parking lots.

That same year, the gym popped up as the Kennedy Junior High School gymnasium, where Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) took a stand against his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano), constantly being picked last for team sports, in the Season 2 episode of The Wonder Years titled “Loosiers.”

In 2001, Woodbury masked as the fictional University of Northeastern California in two Season 1 episodes of Undeclared – “Eric Visits” . . .

. . . and “Hell Week.”

In the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Business Trip,” which aired in 2008, Woodbury poses as New York’s Pratt School of Design, where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) tearfully tells Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) that she failed her art class. Filming took place outside of Woody’s Café and the Cabrini Gallery, though very little of either building can be seen.

Woodbury University appears very briefly in the Season 6 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Middle Man,” which aired in 2010, in the scene in which the Behavioral Analysis Unit canvases college campuses in search of a group of serial killers.

In the Season 3 episode of Workaholics titled “Flashback in a Day,” which aired in 2012, Woodbury poses as RC Polytechnic.

The school’s gorgeous library (which originally served as Villa Cabrini Academy’s chapel) masquerades as the Brooklyn Public Library, where Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) chase down a suspect in a deleted scene from the Season 1 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “The Tagger,” which aired in 2013. You can watch that scene here.

Sadly, the library was closed when we visited Woodbury, so we only got to see its exterior.

During the fourth season of Shameless, which started airing in 2014, Woodbury was utilized regularly as the interior of Chicago Polytechnic, where Lip Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) attended school.

That same year, Woodbury’s School of Business popped up in an establishing shot of the Raviga Capital Management offices in two Season 1 episodes of Silicon Valley – “Articles of Incorporation” and “Third Party Insourcing.”

Colette Kimball-Kinney (Fortune Feimster) and Jody Kimball-Kinney (Garret Dillahunt) attend a Physicians on the Front orientation in Woodbury’s auditorium in the Season 6 episode of The Mindy Project titled “Danny in Real Life,” which aired in 2017.

That same year, the school portrayed Danton College, where JJ DiMeo (Micah Fowler) shot a guest part in Bikini University 3, in the Season 2 episode of Speechless titled “B-I– BIKINI U-N– UNIVERSITY.”

Woodbury popped up as Long Beach Tech in another episode of Speechless, Season 3’s “THE S-T-A– STAIRCASE.”

In the 2018 horror flick Truth or Dare, Woodbury was used extensively as Westlake University, where Olivia Barron (Lucy Hale) and the rest of her doomed friends attend college.

The movie’s first freaky truth or dare challenge – which was featured in the trailer – takes place in the school’s library.

Actor Hayden Szeto, who played Brad Chen in the flick, posted the image below, of the Truth or Dare cast posing on the campus’ fountain, to Instagram the day that filming wrapped in July 2017, so I of course had to replicate it while I was there. Winking smile

Said fountain can be found in the center of campus in the Alumni Quad.

That same year, Woodbury masked as the Mumbai university where Bravo team rescued a group of American students who had been taken hostage in the Season 2 episode of Seal Team titled “Say Again Your Last.”

The school portrayed Howard University, Dre Johnson’s (Anthony Anderson) alma mater, in the Season 4 episode of Black-ish titled “Black Math” that same year.

Woodbury’s library makes an appearance in 2019’s Booksmart.

The school pops up in the Season 4 episode of Lucifer titled “Super Bad Boyfriend” as Callaway Prep, where Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) and Chloe Decker (Lauren German) investigate the murder of a beloved teacher.

And the library is where Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) checks out books for her uncle in the Season 1 episode of Truth Be Told titled “No Cross, No Crown.”

Woodbury has also been featured in episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Community, Felicity, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Just Add Magic, though I am unsure of which episodes in particular. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Woodbury University, from “The Tagger” episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is located at 7500 North Glenoaks Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the school’s official website here.

January 19, 2018December 11, 2019

The SmokeHouse Restaurant from “Lucifer”

Hollywood loves a redux. So do I, apparently, because here I am yet again with yet another location re-do! (For those who missed it, I penned a second post on the Simpson family home from She’s Out of Control last week.) Today’s blog is actually my third go-around with this particular spot (you can read my first two blurbs on it here and here), but when I saw the legendary SmokeHouse restaurant pop up in a rather lengthy segment of the Season 3 episode of Lucifer titled “The Sinnerman” early last December, I knew I had to revisit the place once again. So here goes.

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Originally established in 1946, the SmokeHouse (which is also referred to as the “Smoke House”) is about as Old Hollywood as it gets!

The eatery, founded by Lockheed engineers Jim Stockton and Jack Monroe, was initially situated at the corner of North Pass Avenue and West Riverside Drive in Burbank. That location, a small 46-seat space, is pictured below via a still from a video made about the restaurant called Tales from the Smoke House.

The site, which became known for serving “fine food at a fair price,” proved so popular right out of the gate that a mere two years later Stockton and Monroe started looking for a larger venue. They found one just a half a mile south in the form of the Red Coach Inn, a 6,000-square-foot Tudor-style eatery that actor Danny Kaye had built in 1947, but never opened. The partners purchased the building in 1948 and it still serves as the home of the Smoke House today.

By 1955, the restaurant once again found itself bursting at the seams, so architect Wayne McAllister (of Bob’s Big Boy and George’s 50’s Diner fame) was hired to create a 12,000-square-foot expansion. Since that time, very little of the place has been altered. Stepping inside is like entering a portal that leads straight back to the heydays of Hollywood.

Inside, dark wood paneling, exposed brickwork, red leather booths, and dimly-lit sconces stretch as far as the eye can see.

As I said earlier, the SmokeHouse couldn’t be more Old Hollywood if it tried.

It is just the sort of spot I imagine Frank Sinatra dropping by for a martini after playing a set at the Hollywood Bowl – which isn’t actually a stretch. Old Blue Eyes was such a fan of the place that the restaurant named a dish after him! (If you would like to partake, Steak Sinatra features tender cuts of filet mignon sautéed with bell peppers, shallots, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes and red wine, served over linguini.) Frank is hardly the SmokeHouse’s only celebrity patron, though. Thanks to its fabulous food and proximity to several studios, it quickly became a stomping ground for the Tinseltown elite. In Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide, author Richard Alleman dubs the eatery the “unofficial commissary” of Warner Bros., which is situated right across the street. In its early days, luminaries such as Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Milton Berle, Jack Paar, Walt Disney, James Dean, Burt Ives, Robert Redford, and Garry Marshall regularly stopped by.

In more recent years, such celebs as Britney Spears, Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Madonna, Taylor Swift, and Evan Handler have all been spotted at the SmokeHouse. During the ‘90s, the cast of Friends regularly dined on the premises on taping days. And George Clooney became such a fan of the place while shooting ER at the WB that he named his production company Smoke House Pictures in homage to the restaurant.

It is not just stars who love the place. Thanks to its old school aesthetic and Anywhere, U.S.A-appeal, location managers have flocked to the SmokeHouse over the years.

In the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Move On,” which aired in 2005, the SmokeHouse masks as the karaoke restaurant where Julie Mayer’s (Andrew Bowen) birthday party is held.

Gil Grissom (William Peterson) and Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) interrogate Lois O’Neill (Faye Dunaway) at the SmokeHouse in the Season 6 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye,” which aired in 2006.

In the Season 5, 2008 episode of Entourage titled “Pie,” Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) meets his old friend Andrew Klein (Gary Cole) for lunch at the restaurant.

In one of its most notable roles, the SmokeHouse portrays the Niagara Falls hotel restaurant/bar where the Dunder Mifflin gang hangs out while in town for Jim Halpert (John Krasinksi) and Pam Beesly’s (Jenna Fischer) wedding in the Season 6 episodes of The Office titled “Niagara: Part 1” and “Niagara: Part 2,” which aired in 2009.

In “Niagara: Part 1,” the couple’s rehearsal dinner takes place in the SmokeHouse’s back room.

Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) and John Chambers (John Goodman) discuss making their fake movie over a meal at the SmokeHouse in the 2012 drama Argo.

The SmokeHouse’s interior appears as the inside of Lipton’s, the restaurant where Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) plays the piano at the beginning of 2016’s La La Land. (The exterior of Lipton’s can be found about four miles away in Hollywood – at 1648 Wilcox Avenue, to be exact.)

Chloe Decker (Lauren German) and Marcus Pierce (Tom Welling) finally capture the supposed Sinnerman killer during a sting operation at the SmokeHouse in the Season 3 episode of Lucifer titled “The Sinnerman.” For those who are unfamiliar with the series, I highly recommend a watch. The Grim Cheaper and I got majorly hooked on it from the start. Besides fabulous stories, witty writing and a stand-up cast, the police procedural boasts a highly unique lead character – the devil. Like the actual devil – Lucifer Morningstar (played perfectly by Tom Ellis), who, weary of his long banishment in hell, decides to head to L.A. for a little reprieve. He takes to the City of Angels and all of its hedonistic tendencies quite quickly and it isn’t long before he makes his stay permanent. Through a twist of fate, he begins helping the LAPD solve crimes, eventually taking a day job as a sort of police consultant. It is hilarious, completely irreverent, and hands-down one of the best shows on television right now.

In the most recent episode of All Rise titled “Dripsy,” Mark Callan (Wilson Bethel) witnesses his dad Vic’s (Tony Denison) arrest during what is supposed to be a reconcillation dinner at the SmokeHouse.

Though a few websites claim that the SmokeHouse portrays Joey’s Slammer, the Italian joint belonging to Joseph DiMinna (Michael Ansara), in the Season 2 episode of The Rockford Files titled “Joey Blue Eyes,” that information is incorrect. As a commenter named Brian clarified on the Rockford Files Filming Locations blog, the restaurant scenes were actually shot at Martoni Marquis, formerly located at 8240 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can check out some great photos of the place when it was still in operation 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: The SmokeHouse, from “The Sinnerman” episode of Lucifer, is located at 4420 Lakeside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

July 10, 2017July 10, 2017

Retro Dairy Mart from “Say Anything . . . “

“That’s L.A. – they worship everything and they value nothing.” So says Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) while lamenting the closure of a historic jazz club and its subsequent transition into a samba/tapas place in La La Land. Though I did not like the movie (as mentioned previously), I have to agree with Seb on this one. Los Angeles does often show a blatant disregard for its history, regularly razing notable buildings and sites with a nonchalant swoop of its proverbial hand. One yesteryear locale that somehow not only escaped the fate of the wrecking ball, but also popped up in La La Land is the Retro Dairy Mart in Burbank. The property’s onscreen stint in the 2016 musical has been well-documented online for quite a while now, but I was completely surprised when Greg Mariotti, from Cameron Crowe’s official website The Uncool, informed me of its appearance in Say Anything . . . while the two of us were working on our round-up of the 1989 flick’s Los Angeles locales. Since the drive-through market has been featured in two such iconic productions, I figured it was worthy of its own blog post.

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Retro Dairy Mart was originally established as an Alta Dena Dairy market in 1962.

The Alta Dena Dairy company began building the mini grocery stores in 1951, providing patrons with basic sundries like eggs, milk, sugar, and butter all from a convenient drive-up window. The cash-and-carry markets, as they were referred to, became quite popular and countless outposts were constructed across Los Angeles throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s. Though not nearly as prevalent today, there were still 82 of the shops dotting the Southern California landscape as of 2006.

The Burbank site remained in operation until 2014. When it hit the market, recent retiree Patricia Franco saw an opportunity to revitalize the space, while still embracing its retro roots. And revitalize it she did! Patricia completely revamped both the property’s interior and exterior. Over a period of five months, she added a front patio, implemented a red, white and black color scheme, planted foliage, installed new countertops and black-and-white checkered flooring, and expanded the inventory. She dubbed her new shop “Retro Dairy Mart.” It really is an adorable little spot and I am not at all surprised that it turned up in La La Land. The site looked quite a bit different 27 years prior to that, though, when Cameron Crowe pegged it as a location for Say Anything . . .

Masking as a Seattle-area gas station/convenience store, Alta Dena Dairy pops up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) asks some male friends – including a young Jeremy Piven – for advice on girls. After they share some not-so-choice pieces of wisdom with him, Lloyd can’t help but question, “If you guys know so much about women, how come you’re here at, like, a Gas N Sip on a Saturday night, completely alone, drinking beers, with no women anywhere?” Their response? “By choice, man!”

In the segment, Lloyd is pacing along the market’s east side (in the area pictured below, which is now covered by an overhang), while his friends sit across from him in front of the chain link fence that separates the mart’s parking lot from that of what is now the Burning Bonzai restaurant located next door.

Lloyd’s positioning in the scene is denoted with a pink “x” in the aerial view below, while that of his friends is denoted with blue circles.

Though the market no longer resembles its Say Anything . . . self, its slanted front roofline remains unchanged.

As do the pipes and electrical equipment visible behind Lloyd’s friends on the Burning Bonzai next door.

I cannot express how cool it was to stand there, in the footsteps of Cameron Crowe, John Cusack, Jeremy Piven, and Gregory Sporleder (Hello, Coach Romano from Never Been Kissed!), 28 years after the fact, and see those pipes and wires in the exact same positioning that they were in when filming took place.

Even the ledge Lloyd’s friends sat on appears untouched, aside from a paint job.

Though Retro Dairy Mart only popped up briefly in La La Land in the scene in which Seb grabs a morning coffee, a much wider view of it was shown than in Say Anything . . . Other than the fact that the front patio area was expanded for the shoot, the site looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.

Unfortunately, the brightly-colored Californian Oranges mural seen on the wall of the Burning Bonzai building was just set decoration that was painted over after filming wrapped.

Van Beek, the jazz-club-turned-samba-tapas place that Seb laments throughout La La Land, sits directly across the street from the Retro Dairy Mart. As Sebastian explains to Mia (Emma Stone) in the movie, “I get coffee five miles out of the way just so I can be near a jazz club.” In reality, that building is the former Magnolia Theatre.

The Magnolia appears twice in La La Land – first in the scene in which Seb grabs coffee and then in a later segment in which Mia helps Seb destroy one of the bar’s signs.

Though there seem to be differing reports about its history online, from what I have gathered the Magnolia Theatre was designed by architect Clifford A. Balch in 1941. The one-screen, 797-seat venue was shuttered in 1979 when the owners lost their lease and was subsequently transformed into a recording studio named Evergreen Studios, established in part by Barbra Streisand. Though the property has since been sold and renamed numerous times, it continues to operate as a music studio. Just a few of the stars who have recorded on the premises include Frank Sinatra, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, Justin Timberlake, Paul McCartney, Plácido Domingo, Mariah Carey, George Martin, and Stephen Sondheim.

La La Land is hardly the first production to utilize the Magnolia Theatre.

Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) helps Lona McLane (Kim Novak) with some car trouble in the parking lot of the Magnolia after catching a flick at the theatre in the 1954 noir Pushover.

In the Season 3 episode of Columbo titled “Double Exposure,” which aired in 1973, Dr. Bart Keppel (Robert Culp) perfects his use of subliminal advertising at the Magnolia. The theatre looks a bit different in Columbo than it did in Pushover due to a renovation that took place in 1963.

Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood website, I learned that the Magnolia Theatre is where Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) discovers that his wife is having an affair in the 1975 thriller Night Moves.

The Season 1 episode of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl titled “Glitter Rock,” which aired in 1976, also took place at the Magnolia, which the narrator says is located in a “seedy, run-down section of the city.”

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: Retro Dairy Mart, aka the Gas N Sip from Say Anything . . ., is located at 4420 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The Magnolia Theatre from La La Land is located across the street at 4403 West Magnolia Boulevard.

June 21, 2017May 11, 2020

The Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel from “The Office”

I typically have the memory of an elephant, but up until the Grim Cheaper and I recently started re-watching The Office over again from the beginning, I had honestly forgotten what a great show it is. I had also forgotten that several locations from it remain unknown and/or undocumented. One that I recognized immediately during our re-watch was the supposed Philadelphia hotel where Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) stayed in Season 3’s “The Convention.”

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Filming of the episode actually took place a good 2,700 miles west of the City of Brotherly Love. In reality, Michael, Dwight, and Jim checked into the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, a spot I originally visited in November 2011 when I met up with my friends/fellow bloggers Ashley, from The Drewseum, and Katie, from Matthew Lillard Online and Rumble Fish Online, for the very first time.

Because that meet-up took place a good year or so after my initial viewing of “The Convention,” I did not recognize the hotel. But as soon as I saw it onscreen for the second time, realization immediately hit and I ran right out to re-stalk the place shortly thereafter.

Situated on 12 acres directly across the street from the Bob Hope Airport, the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel boasts 488 rooms, 2 outdoor pools with cabanas and fire pits, a Jacuzzi, a fitness center, 45,000 square feet of meeting space, a coffee bar, and a business center.

The property also features two onsite restaurants, the Daily Grill and an outdoor lounge named E.D.B. – Eat, Drink, Be.

In “The Convention,” which aired in 2006, Michael, Dwight and Jim head to Philly to attend the Annual Northeastern Midmarket Office Supply Convention – or as Michael refers to it “a booze-fueled sex romp where anything goes.” The Marriott Burbank Airport was used extensively throughout the episode. Sadly, because the property has been remodeled twice since filming took place (first in 2008 and then again in 2015), it looks quite a bit different today than it did on The Office. It is still recognizable, though. Areas that were featured in the episode include the lobby;

the East Tower elevator bay;

the Convention Center (which you can see some photos of in my 2012 post about the Hollywood Show);

a couple of rooms;

a hallway;

the Daily Grill restaurant – which masked as the Scranton, Pennsylvania eatery where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) went on a double date with Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak), and Kelly’s neighbor, Alan (Robert Bagnell);

and the exterior hallway leading from the lobby to the East Tower . . .

. . . which, while enclosed at the time of the filming, was opened up during the 2015 remodel.

The Marriott Burbank also portrays the Antelope Valley hotel Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) pop into for a “shower pit stop” in the Season 2 episode of Dead to Me titled “Between You and Me.”

Their room, the presidential suite, was just a set, though, I believe.

Jen and Judy also party at the hotel’s Daily Grill, which poses as Whispers and Winks bar, in the episode.

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 Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, from “The Convention” episode of The Office, is located at 2500 North Hollywood Way in Burbank. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

February 29, 2016February 26, 2016

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the “Fuller House” House

My latest Scene It Before post, about the mystery of the Fuller House house, is up on LAmag.com. You can read it here!

February 24, 2016February 23, 2016

New Discover Los Angeles Post – Iconic Film Locations at Warner Bros. Studio

Be sure to check out my latest article for Discover Los Angeles about ten iconic film locations to see while on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood. You can read it here.