famous coffee shops – IAMNOTASTALKER

April 20, 2020April 20, 2020

Insomnia Cafe – The Inspiration for “Friends”

Oh, to be able to visit a coffee shop, order a steaming latte and sit in a secluded corner sipping away! Hard to believe that is something unattainable right now. These certainly are strange days we are living in. When things do get back to normal, one spot I am itching to re-patronize is Insomnia Cafe, the Fairfax District eatery that served as the impetus for Friends. I first learned about the place way back in 1995 via an interview with show co-creator Marta Kauffman that appeared in Friends: The Official Companion Book. In it, she talked about driving by the Beverly Boulevard cafe, taking note of its unusual name and thinking it would make for an interesting setting for a series. She and writing partner Kevin Crane penned the treatment for Friends (initially titled – you guessed it! – “Insomnia Cafe”) just a few days later. When I moved to Los Angeles about five years after first reading that interview, I found myself sitting at a stoplight on Beverly directly in front of the locale and just about fell over! I couldn’t believe I was in the same spot Kauffman was when she conceived of one of the most seminal shows in television history! In the years that followed, I passed by the site numerous times and doing so always brought a huge smile to my face. Somehow though, I never ventured inside. It wasn’t until last September when my friend Owen emailed me this USA Today article, which stated that Friends set decorator Greg Grande also used Insomnia Cafe as the inspiration for the design of the series’ iconic Central Perk set, that the locale went straight to the top of my To-Stalk List! And I headed right over there just a few days later.

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Insomnia Cafe was originally established in March 1992 at a small storefront located at 13718 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. Founded by former nightclub promoter John Dunn, the late-night coffee shop, open until 3 a.m. on weekdays and 4 a.m. on weekends (hence the name), served up strongly caffeinated brew, but no cocktails. Per a 1995 Los Angeles Times article, Dunn stopped using drugs and alcohol in 1989 and “wanted to create a place that conformed to his own lifestyle.” The bohemian-style coffee bar, which the Times described as being “decorated with cast-off sofas” (sound familiar?), became an immediate hit. It also drew quite a bit of ire from nearby homeowners who claimed the leagues of patrons frequenting the eatery made constant noise and wreaked havoc in their neighborhoods in the early morning hours. Regardless, the cafe remained insanely popular and Dunn soon opened a sister site at 7286 Beverly Boulevard.

The Sherman Oaks location, which you can see photos of here, was where it was really at, though! Artists, screenwriters, and teens would pack the place, venturing in for espresso, open mic nights, and live music. The cafe also boasted legions of celebrity devotees. Just a few of the well-knowns seen hanging out at the coffee bar include Robin Williams, Mel Gibson, Sharon Stone, O.J. Simpson, A.C. Cowlings, Dwight Yoakam, Jerry Seinfeld, Daryl Hannah, Bobcat Goldthwait, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio, members of the Smashing Pumpkins, and Beck (who performed on the open mic nights before he was famous).

Sadly, area homeowners eventually succeeded in their fight to close the place. The Sherman Oaks Insomnia Cafe shut its doors in 1996. The Beverly Boulevard site remained open, though, and is still going strong today!

It, too, has a very bohemian vibe – and serves up some great coffee!

Per the Original Insomnia Cafe Facebook page, the Sherman Oaks location was the spot that actually served as inspiration for both Kauffman and Grande. A recent post on it states, “What is so funny and sad is the newer Insomnia Cafe we built in L.A., not the original one in Sherman Oaks, keeps claiming to be the inspiration for the TV show Friends. But the truth will always be known – Sherman Oaks Insomnia Cafe was it! The characters were based on the customers of the Sherman Oaks, California store.” I had the pleasure of speaking with Dunn recently and he confirmed the info. He also informed me that Kauffman and Crane actually wrote the seven-page treatment for the series at the Sherman Oaks site!

Kauffman, though, has repeatedly recounted first noticing the Insomnia Cafe moniker at the Beverly outpost. In a 2010 interview she and Crane did for the Television Academy, she said, “We were driving along – I think it was Beverly Boulevard – and we saw a place called the Insomnia Cafe. And I remember we were talking about how that would be a cool place to have as one of our main sets . . . we liked the idea of something being overcaffeinated.”

Writer Saul Austerlitz also starts off his book Generation Friends by saying, “One day in late 1993, a young television writer named Marta Kauffman was driving down Beverly Boulevard when she passed a funky coffee shop called Insomnia Cafe, located across the street from an orthodox synagogue. Full of lumpy couches and garish chairs, strings of Christmas lights and towering bookshelves piled high with mismatched books, the place was a beacon calling to the artists and slackers of the Fairfax-La Brea area. Something about Insomnia Cafe grabbed her attention, and she began to mull over an intriguing idea. Could a comedy series set in a coffee shop appeal to viewers? Kauffman and Crane had only recently moved to California from New York, and found that they missed their old crew of friends from Manhattan terribly. They had spent all their spare time together, done everything together, served as a kind of surrogate family. What if they put together a show about that?” The rest, as they say, is history.

In an incredible twist, longtime Insomnia Cafe fan Greg Grande was hired as the series’ set decorator. He loved the eatery’s funky, but comfortable vibe. In Generation Friends, Austerlitz says, “He would stop in to grab some coffee at Insomnia Cafe and would be inspired anew each time by the fabulously quirky décor inside. When it came time to dress the set of the new show’s coffee shop, Grande thought again of Insomnia Cafe and wanted to model the set’s look on what he remembered.” As Grande told EW magazine in 2019, “The idea was to have it feel like it was kind of a living room, hang out space. You know, not your typical generic coffee shop with the computers. What did they used to call them back then? Internet cafes? So the vibe that Marta [Kauffman] and Kevin [Bright] and David Crane wanted was, let’s make this feel like it’s truly a comfortable, casual living room. I had mentioned to them that there was a place in West Hollywood, — I still think it’s around — it was one of the first interesting coffee shops in L.A. called The Insomniac [sic] Café and that was kind of, in my world, the inspiration for eclectic, old, classic pieces of furniture. Nothing really matched, but there was collectible artwork on the wall, so I took that and kind of drove that point in. I made what I like to refer to as the seventh character on the show.” (As I mentioned in this post, Central Perk’s design was also partially inspired by Arnold’s Turtle in New York.)

Amazingly, Central Perk is not the only television coffee shop modeled after the locale! The Bold and the Beautiful’s Insomnia Cafe took not only design inspiration, but its name from the site!

And the eatery is also a filming location!

It is there that Kevin (Michael Rady) and Laura (Abby Wathen) first meet in the 2013 romcom Random Encounters, which also starred Meghan Markle.

Insomnia Cafe is also a central location on the series Love Is -.

Kramer (Michael Richards) visited the Sherman Oaks outpost in the Season 4 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Trip: Part 1,” which aired in 1992. Only the exterior of the café appeared in the episode, though.

Interiors were shot on a studio-built set.

In 1995, when MTV started airing My So-Called Life reruns, the network filmed a bunch of promos at the Sherman Oaks site, which resulted in teens popping by in droves in the hopes of seeing Claire Danes in person, as recounted in this article. Unfortunately, I could not find clips of those promos with which to make screen captures anywhere.

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: Insomnia Cafe, the inspiration for both the television series Friends and its Central Perk set, can be found at 7286 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District. The Sherman Oaks outpost of the coffee shop was formerly located at 13718 Ventura Boulevard.

November 27, 2019April 23, 2020

The Starbucks from “The Morning Show”

I love a good Starbucks location! I mean, what’s better than stalking and being able to pick up a great cup of coffee at the same time? So I was thrilled to recognize an outpost of the java giant while watching the fifth episode of The Morning Show, titled “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” recently. As it turns out, the café is a place I’ve visited countless times over the years and even blogged about once back in 2013. Situated on the corner of West 6th Street and Grand Avenue in downtown L.A., the coffee shop is just steps from the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, where the Grim Cheaper and I regularly used to check in when seeking a staycation while living in Los Angeles. As fate would have it, my parents booked a room at the property just last week, so I, of course, tagged along in order to do a little Starbucks re-stalk.

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The Starbucks at 6th and Grand has been a staple of the neighborhood for more than a decade.

Before that, the space, situated in the southwest corner of the ground floor of the picturesque PacMutual building, housed a Grand Central Coffee outpost and then a Tully’s Coffee.

The Starbucks looks quite a bit different today than when I originally stalked it six years ago thanks to an extensive remodel that took place in late 2017 during which the interior was gutted, the front doors moved from the store’s south to west side, and the café expanded into the unit next door which formerly housed a deli.

The result is a massive, modern space with plenty of seating, a huge front counter, and wraparound windows.

I love the muted green color scheme and concrete design elements which give it a bit of a different feel than a typical Starbucks.

It is at the coffee shop that Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) runs into her co-workers Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Claire Conway (Bel Powley), who invite her out to celebrate Claire’s birthday, in “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around.”

By only showing one small corner of the café in the scene and none of the familiar Starbucks signage, it seems that producers went out of their way to make the place appear to be a random coffee house and not an outpost of the retail giant. Had it not been for the green umbrellas visible outside the window, as well as the view of the Edwards & Wildey Building (now known as Milano Lofts) across the street, I might not have recognized the location. It’s a good thing I know my Starbucks!

The 6th and Grand outpost is actually a frequent film star.

It appeared very briefly in the background of the 1999 drama Fight Club in the scene in which The Narrator (Edward Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) blew up an electronics store.

Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and Amy Gardner (Mary-Louise Parker) discussed welfare reform at the site back when it was a Tully’s Coffee in the Season 3 episode of The West Wing titled “Posse Comitatus,” which aired in 2002.

Though the Tully’s signage was left intact on the front doors, the space was utilized to portray the fictional “Phil’s Bar” in the 2004 romcom Little Black Book. In another odd move, the imagery of the bar’s exterior was also flipped in the scene, as I detailed in my 2013 post.

The 6th and Grand Starbucks is also where Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) tried to talk to Walter King (Robert Patrick Benedict) in the Season 1 episode of Touch titled “Safety in Numbers,” which aired in 2012.

Recently, Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector), Brad Coniff (David Marciano), and Detective Julie Espinosa (Jacqueline Pinol) grabbed coffee there and discussed a case in the Season 6 episode of Bosch titled “Good People on Both Sides.”

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 Starbucks from the “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around” episode of The Morning Show is located at 523 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

July 29, 2019July 29, 2019

Bean Town from “Big Little Lies”

Big Little Lies sure made use of Sierra Madre this season (in case you missed my other posts on the city’s BLL appearances, you can check them out here, here and here). And it is not very hard to see why. The San Gabriel Valley town, situated just east of Pasadena, is charming, picturesque and extremely evocative of the past. It is like Pleasantville come to life! The place is also very reminiscent of Carmel, where the show is set, though it is even more quaint than the Northern California hamlet if you can believe it. And the hit HBO series utilized pretty much every square inch of it, including Bean Town, the beloved coffee house at 45 North Baldwin Avenue, which stood in for a pizza parlor, of all things, in episode 4. Though I blogged about the café back in February 2009, due to its recent small screen cameo, I decided it was time for a redo.

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I learned about Bean Town’s appearance on Big Little Lies thanks to the employees at Mother Moo Creamery (situated just down the road at 17 Kersting Court), whom I spoke with while researching my article about locales from the series for the June issue of Los Angeles magazine. They informed me that the coffee shop was altered significantly for the shoot and, boy oh boy, was it ever! So much so that, even with the insider information, I had a heck of a time figuring out what was lensed on the premises.

It was not until I started scanning through the café’s Instagram feed that I figured things out. During the March 2018 shoot, Bean Town’s owners graciously posted several photos of the space dressed for the filming. The set of images showed the coffee shop decked out to look like an upscale Italian restaurant, with large pieces of art dotting the walls, autumn decorations splayed on tabletops, and garlic strands hanging from the ceiling. One look and I knew immediately that Bean Town was the spot where Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) took grandsons Josh (Cameron Crovetti) and Max (Nicholas Crovetti) for “the beeeeesssst pizza in the wooooooorld!” in “She Knows.” Virtually none of the café is actually shown in the scene (which is surprising considering the energy apparently spent on decorating it). What you see below is the extent of its appearance.

Despite the scant footage, though, enough was visible for me to be able to positively identify the place. As you can see, the artwork, fall wreath and decorative plate positioned behind Mary Louise in the segment match the décor pictured in Bean Town’s Instagram photo of the café’s back wall perfectly.

In everyday life, that back wall looks considerably different.

Per Bean Town’s Instagram, the coffee shop was closed for a full four days for the shoot, from Tuesday, March 27th through Friday, March 30th, so it is fairly gobsmacking that its appearance amounted to exactly sixty seconds of screen time! Typically, a scene of that length would require about a half a day of filming. And while the set dressing was extensive . . .

. . . I just can’t imagine that it necessitated three and a half days of prep and strike time.

So where did all that extra time go? My guess is that several additional segments were shot at the pizza parlor, but that they, like so much of Season 2, wound up on the cutting room floor. Who knows for certain, but man, what I wouldn’t give to see director Andrea Arnold’s original cut!

The Big Little Lies shoot required Bean Town and the Starbucks down the block (the only two coffee shops in the area!) to be closed simultaneously (the horror!), so, in an amazing gesture, the former set up an outdoor kiosk and offered free java so the community would not be without! The café, which was originally established in the ‘80s, actually has a long history of goodwill. When a horrible wind storm hit the San Gabriel Valley in December 2011, owner Matt Krantz powered the eatery with three generators so that locals could still get their fix. As he explained to the Patch, “We lost some signage, we lost a light and the awning tore up a bit but other than that, we’re here. Bumps and bruises. I could sit at home and not do anything, but I’d rather be here trying to keep everybody together and keep the sense of community that Sierra Madre is basically founded on.” He also delivered coffee and baked goods to the city crews working to get the town back up and running. And, in 2013, when a beloved barista unexpectedly passed away, Krantz not only shuttered the place for two full days to give friends and family a place to gather and mourn, but he also held a fundraiser on the premises to help with funeral costs. Bean Town is a café with heart! Oh, and their coffee is darn good, to boot!

As I mentioned in my 2009 post, Bean Town also appeared numerous times throughout the 2005 comedy Kicking and Screaming . . .

. . . most notably in the scene in which Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) has a minor breakdown over a too-long line. (I’ve been there, Phil! I’ve been there!) You can check out the hilarious segment 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: Bean Town, aka the pizza restaurant from the “She Knows” episode of Big Little Lies, is located at 45 North Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. Several other spots from Season 2 can be found on the same block. The Starbucks where Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) propositioned Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) in “The Bad Mother” and where Renata Klein (Laura Dern) lashed out at Mary Louise in “I Want to Know” is just down the road at 1 Kersting Court. Mother Moo Creamery, where Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) threw an ice cream cone at Mary Louise in a scene that was ultimately cut, is a few doors away at 17 Kersting Court. Deasy Penner Podley, aka Madeline’s real estate office, is at 30 North Baldwin Avenue. And the fictional Seaside Coffee Shop seen on Reese’s Instagram was created in the storefront that now houses Capelli Court Salon at 26 North Baldwin Avenue.

July 17, 2019July 23, 2019

Ed and Tori’s Coffee Shop Meet-Up from “Big Little Lies”

If the news reports currently lighting up the internet are to be believed, the drama that took place behind the scenes of Big Little Lies’ latest season is far headier than that which unfolded onscreen! At the center of the dustup, per a recent IndieWire exposé, is Jean-Marc Vallée, the director of the series’ epic first season, who HBO penned to surreptitiously take over post-production duties from Season 2’s Andrea Arnold, largely modifying her vision. According to the article, “While there was a significant reworking of the show’s story through additional photography and an increased reliance on Season 1 flashbacks, a large part of what guided Vallée’s reconfiguration of the second season was removing Arnold’s signature contributions. Sixty-page scripts were slashed down to 40-plus minute episodes, sources say, largely by chopping up a scene to remove what one source described as Arnold’s character exploration and ‘ephemeral stuff.’” Eleven – yes, eleven! – different editors were apparently brought in to complete the retrofit. The dissension shows. Big Little Lies’ current season has not only been disjointed but seriously lacking – in storyline, character development, script (where are Madeline’s zingy one-liners?), cinematography and locations – especially in locations. The first season sported some of the most appealing spots to ever come out of Hollywood – from the houses to the restaurants to the parks, every square inch of the BLL landscape was intoxicating! This season, the sites have been tepid at best (not that I’ll stop reporting on them!). Take for instance the illicit meet-up between Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) and Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) in “The Bad Mother,” which took place at a . . . Starbucks. While I’m the first to extol appreciation for the coffee giant, I recognize that its stores are rather generic and bland. Not exactly the space I would have chosen for a steamy, Monterey-style tête-à-tête. Arnold, you could have done better! Nevertheless, I just had to stalk the outpost where the segment was shot.

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As I’ve said many times before, stalking begets stalking. While visiting a different Big Littles Lies location a few weeks ago (one that I have yet to blog about), I struck up a conversation with the employees of the establishment who informed me that the Starbucks at 1 Kersting Court in Sierra Madre was also used in some Season 2 filming. Though I found it extremely surprising that the series would utilize a coffee chain and thought my new friends might even be mistaken, I popped on over there to snap a few pics.

So when the café popped up Sunday night in “The Bad Mother,” I recognized it immediately.

It is at the Kersting Court Starbucks that, in what is easily one of the season’s most cringe-worthy moments, Tori propositions Ed to have an affair. (I’m not even going to mention the type of diary Tori claims she keeps!)

Thanks to extremely tight angles, which seem to be a hallmark of this season’s shooting style, not much of the coffee shop is visible in the scene.

Though it is easy to discern that the segment made use of the corner window pictured on the left-hand side below.

To add insult to injury, the Sierra Madre Starbucks was also utilized for a scene in the season finale titled “I Want to Know.” While ordering a double Americano (NO milk!) at the outpost prior to heading to court to support Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman), a “wrought” Renata Klein (Laura Dern) runs into “judgey judger” Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) and gives her a rather obscenity-laden piece of her mind. The segment (which you can watch here) is extraordinary (seriously, how is Meryl so good?), especially the ending in which Renata storms out sans her Americano causing Mary Louise to tell the barista, “Put it in a bag. I’ll take it to her cause we’re going to the same —” and then points her finger toward the wall cavalierly, failing to mention that they’re both going to Monterey Superior Court where Mary Louise is suing Celeste for custody of her two children. Like I said, the scene is genius. The location? Not so much.

The Kersting Court Starbucks is a cute little spot to grab a cup of joe, no doubt. The patio out front is especially inviting. Regardless of that fact, though, I still maintain that it is by no means extraordinary enough to be featured on a series like Big Little Lies, which is so adept at showcasing striking locations, viewers practically want to dive through their screens to immerse themselves in the scenery. Well, that was the case with Season 1, at least. Season 2 left quite a bit to be desired.

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 Starbucks where Tori propositions Ed in the Season 2 episode of Big Little Lies titled “The Bad Mother” is located at 1 Kersting Court in Sierra Madre.

June 28, 2019July 30, 2019

Café Descanso from “Big Little Lies”

My mom recently commented to me that the latest season of Big Little Lies is shot very tightly, which she finds surprising being that director Andrea Arnold sought to feature more of the great outdoors this time around. Even Blissful Drip Café, the prop coffee shop built specifically for the series on a bluff overlooking Monterey Bay, isn’t really shown. As my mom lamented, anytime the ladies dine there, all that can really be seen are the chairs. Odd considering the strikingly dramatic views that would be visible if the camera just panned back slightly. One spot we are getting more of a glimpse of (though not by much) is Café Descanso, a casual outdoor eatery located at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge. Though I would have recognized the restaurant on sight having frequented the gardens many a time in the past, I was lucky enough to interview Big Little Lies’ insanely talented production designer John Paino a few months back (which I’m still pinching myself over!) as part of an article I wrote for the June issue of Los Angeles magazine and during our chat, he mentioned its Season 2 cameo. I didn’t realize just how much the place was going to be featured, though, and have been pleasantly surprised to see it pop up in every episode that has aired as of yet, sometimes more than once! So I just had to pop by for a quick stalk while driving through the area recently.

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I covered the history of Descanso Gardens way back when in a May 2009 post (I’m going to have to update that one soon!), so I’ll spare you a recap here. Suffice it to say the 160-acre site is a bucolic wonderland of lush landscapes which include a rosarium, an oak forest, koi ponds, and a Japanese tea garden. The venue charges a meager $9 admission fee, as opposed to The Huntington’s $25, so it does get pretty significantly crowded, something I bemoaned in my previous post. Regardless of the crowds, though, Descanso is beautiful.

The property boasts two onsite dining options – Maple, an upscale indoor eatery, and Café Descanso (pictured below), a walk-up window deli/bakery connected to a large outdoor patio. Both are operated by the Patina Restaurant Group.

The offerings at Café Descanso include pastries, coffees, salads, sandwiches, beer, wine and more.

I did not sample any of the fare while there, so I can’t say whether it is good or not, but the atmosphere sure is stellar!

Judging by the crowds, though (the line to the walk-up window never seemed to wane), I’d say the food must be pretty tasty.

Bonus – because the café is situated outside of Descanso’s entrance, admission is not required to dine there! (The same is true of Maple.)

Café Descanso is a truly idyllic little spot and, with its mature foliage, definitely has a Monterey feel, so it is not surprising that it came to be used on Big Little Lies.

In the series’ Season 2 opener, ”What Have They Done?”, Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) runs into Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) at the eatery and asks him to take his wife, Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz), out to lunch in the hopes of getting her to open up since “she’s gone missing in mental action.”

Unfortunately, I failed to bring screen captures with me on this particular stalk, so my photos above and below are from slightly different angles from which the scene was shot.

In the second episode of Season 2, titled “Tell-Tale Hearts,” Renata Klein (Laura Dern) tells Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) about her husband’s financial misdeeds while at Café Descanso.

Again, my photos are slightly off angle-wise.

Later in that same episode, Ed and Nathan run into each other once again at the café and almost come to blows.

That particular scene was shot by the eatery’s walk-up window, which was changed a bit for the shoot. Not only was a menu board removed, but a sugar and creamer station were positioned at the forefront of the space, I believe, to make it appear to be more of a coffee shop than a restaurant.

In “The End of the World,” Madeline stumbles upon Ed and Bonnie having coffee together at Descanso Café.

Needless to say, she does not take the sighting well.

And in “She Knows,” Madeline and Renata run into Detective Adrienne Quinlan (Merrin Dungey) there.

I am fairly certain Café Descanso will be featured in additional Season 2 episodes and will update this post accordingly.

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: Café Descanso, from the second season of Big Little Lies, can be found at Descanso Gardens which is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Cañada Flintridge. You can visit the garden’s official website here. The café, which is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is situated past the venue’s ticketing area, but is outside of the actual entrance, so admission is not required to dine there.

November 2, 2018June 6, 2020

Demitasse Café from “Bosch”

I hope all of my fellow stalkers had a fun and safe Halloween. For this year’s festivities, the Grim Cheaper and I headed over to our neighbor’s house for an amazing party (the decorations were like nothing I have ever seen!) and had an absolute blast. Our 2018 costumes were, per usual, celebrity-inspired. Unusual is the fact that they were all the GC, which typically never happens. As of late, he has been rather obsessed with Spencer Pratt and his Snapchat feed, though, so when we started discussing costumes this summer, he mentioned that he wanted to dress up as Speidi. I wasn’t following either Spencer or his wife, Heidi, on social media at the time, but as soon as I took a look at her Instagram stories and saw that she regularly dons a set of black pajamas strikingly similar to a pair I already owned, I was all in!

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Creating the look was a snap. The GC purchased a tie dye t-shirt from Spencer’s company Pratt Daddy, a signet pinky ring from Amazon, and glued a hummingbird toy that belongs to our cats onto a handheld feeder also found on Amazon. For Spence’s ubiquitous crystal necklaces, he simply looped some suede twine around two actual Spencer Pratt crystals that he had gifted me for Christmas last year. The Make Speidi Famous Again hat had to be specially made since they are no longer offered on the Pratt Daddy site. To round out the look, he wore shorts and tennis shoes already in his closet. To portray Spencer and Heidi’s baby, Gunner, we utilized the same doll that played Shiloh when the GC and I dressed up as Brad and Angelina in 2006. I also reused my Emily Maynard wig, purchased a sling carrier on Amazon, grabbed my everyday house slippers, and, voila, our Spencer and Heidi costumes were complete! The GC completely ate the whole thing up, playing “Look What You Made Me Do” on his iPhone and holding crystals to his head all evening. It looks like I may be rubbing off on him when it comes to Halloween, finally! Winking smile And now, on with the post!

I love a good police procedural. And, as weird as it may sound (especially considering I couldn’t be a bigger scaredy cat if I tried!), there’s nothing I enjoy more than viewing Law & Order: SVU before bed. I don’t know what it is about that show – it’s like warm milk to me. Despite its rather grim nature, it is somehow calming. And while I could watch it every.single.night., the GC likes to change up our television viewing every so often. So, on the recommendation of my mom, I recently suggested we give Bosch, the Amazon series based upon Michael Connelly’s detective Harry Bosch novels, a try. Ten minutes into episode 1 and we were hooked. I love the show’s noirish roots, lead actor Titus Welliver’s constant deadpan delivery, and the locations. Oh, the locations! Set and shot in the City of Angels, Bosch makes spectacular use of real life L.A. locales, some iconic, some lesser known. I was thrilled to recognize one lesser known spot, Demitasse, while watching Season 2’s “Exit Time.” The Little Tokyo café is a longtime favorite of mine. Though I mentioned it in my 2015 guide to Los Angeles’ coffee scene, until I saw it pop up on Bosch, I did not realize it was a filming location. So I figured it was high time I dedicate a post to the place.

I first discovered Demitasse in October 2011 when I randomly walked by the corner shop on my way to stalk Kyoto Gardens. The unique contraptions displayed in the front window stopped me right in my tracks and I promptly ventured closer to get a better look.

As the posted sign informed me, the machines were actually Kyoto-style slow-drip iced coffee brewers, aka the “Kyoto Twins,” which “drip water onto coffee beds, allowing the water to slowly extract flavors from the coffee, leaving us with a rich, layered and complex iced coffee.” Intrigued, I headed right inside, where I ordered what turned out to be one of the best iced lattes of my life! Since that day, I make it a point to pop into Demitasse whenever I find myself nearby.

Demitasse (which means “small coffee cup”) was the brainchild of Bobak Roshan, a 2008 USC Gould School of Law graduate who found himself more intrigued by java than statutes. Initially figuring he’d open a café post-retirement, his plans quickly shifted and, in 2010, he traded his law books for grounds. He found the perfect site to establish his coffee bar in a wedge-shaped spot that formerly housed a frozen yogurt shop on the corner of South San Pedro and Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Streets.

Demitasse opened its doors to the public on August 15th, 2011.

The inspiration for the café’s horseshoe-shaped interior came from an unusual place. As Roshan explained to The Rafu Shimpo website, “This bar is actually heavily influenced by sushi bars. I was in San Francisco once at this place called Sebo. You sit up at the bar and you talk to the chef and he tells you about the fish and what you’re eating and why it’s fresh and where it comes from. I thought, ‘This is what coffee should be like. So we specifically designed [our bar] for making drinks and interacting with customers, so they can sit and watch us work and we can talk to them . . . and we’ve certainly become friends with a lot of our regulars.”

From the beginning, Roshan has utilized the Kyoto method of brewing. Of the complicated technique, The Rafu Shimpo website says, “The coffee siphon (also called the ‘vacuum coffee pot’) dates back to 1800s Berlin, but fell out of popularity in Europe around the mid-20th century. The ‘weird contraptions’ are now most popular in Asia, and Demitasse’s siphons, like much of their other equipment, comes from Japan. Brewing by siphon instead of with a standard coffee maker creates a smoother, more flavorful cup of coffee, taking out much of the body and leaving a drink almost as delicate as tea.” The process takes a whopping 8 to 16 hours to complete! The result is well worth it, though. The Kyoto Twins create some of the richest and creamiest brew I have ever sampled.

In a genius move, Demitasse also serves its iced java in special sake glasses made to keep the cubes separate from the coffee, ensuring that drinks don’t get watered down (one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to iced brew).

Though the place struggled a bit during its early days, it eventually caught on. So much so that Roshan opened up two sister outposts – one at 6363 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Grove and another at 1149 Third Street in Santa Monica. Today, the Little Tokyo branch is bustling most hours, which is not surprising. As I said in my 2015 guide to coffee in L.A., grabbing a java at Demitasse is a full-on experience! It doesn’t hurt that the café is situated along Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Street, a quaint closed-to-cars block home to countless cute boutiques and shops.

In “Exit Time,” which aired in 2016, Harry Bosch pretends to run into Detectives Brad Conniff (David Marciano) and Julie Espinosa (Jacqueline Pinol) at Demitasse in an attempt to find out what they know about the murder of George Irving (Robbie Jones). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the café appeared in the episode.

Because the GC and I have only watched Bosch’s first two seasons, I did not realize until sitting down to write this post that Demitasse has actually been featured in no less than four episodes of the show! In Season 3, it popped up in “El Compadre” as the spot where Chief Irvin Irving (Lance Reddick) asked Jun Park (Linda Park) out on an official date.

Irving and Jun returned to Demitasse the following season in the episode title “The Coping.”

Jun meets reporter Laura Cook (Kristen Ariza) at the café to give her some off-the-record information in Season 4’s “Book of the Unclaimed Dead.”

And Demitasse pops up briefly in Bosch’s Season 6 premiere, titled “The Overlook,” as the spot where Captain Sarah McCurdy (Jennifer Hasty) briefs Harry and Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) on the Sovereigns.

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: Demitasse café, from Bosch, is located at 135 South San Pedro Street in Little Tokyo. You can visit the coffee shop’s official website here. Portal light installation can be found just up the block in the Weller Court shopping center at 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Street. Kinokuniya, one of my favorite book/gift stores, is on Weller Court’s second level directly above Marukai Market. And Kyoto Gardens from Her is steps away on the third floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Los Angeles Downtown at 120 South Los Angeles Street.

February 5, 2018June 5, 2018

Kaldi Coffee and Tea from “Lady Bird”

The Grim Cheaper and I are almost all settled in to our new desert home, so I should be getting back to my regularly scheduled blog programing in the near future. Thanks for bearing with me over the past few weeks. For my first post-move locale, I thought I’d write about a spot I originally covered back in early 2010 – Kaldi Coffee and Tea in South Pasadena, which I was thrilled to see pop up numerous times while watching a for-your-consideration DVD of Lady Bird prior to the SAG Awards in early January. Though I did not particularly like the Greta Gerwig-directed coming-of-age drama, Kaldi has long been one of my favorite San Gabriel Valley cafés, so I figured it was most definitely due for a re-post. Because of our move, I was not able to venture out to South Pas to snap any additional photos of the place, but, thankfully, my parents happened to be in L.A. for a brief visit last week and, while there, my mom did some Kaldi stalking on my behalf. Thanks, mom!

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The handsome brick building that houses Kaldi Coffee and Tea was originally constructed in 1903 as South Pasadena Bank, founded by George W. E. Griffith.

Designed by architect Thomas Preston in what this National Register of Historic Places Inventory calls “typical western storefront style,” the site has the distinction of being the city’s very first bank.

During its early years, the property also acted as a sort of unofficial city hall with its upper floor serving as office space for South Pasadena trustees.

Per the Historic Places Inventory, the building, which is South Pasadena Cultural Heritage Landmark #8, informed the architecture of nearby Mission Street, where most of the structures boast a similar two-story brick aesthetic.

The site’s ground-level corner space was transformed into Kaldi Coffee and Tea in 1995.

The café has been a South Pas staple ever since.

Though sold to new owners Susan and Chanho Park in December 2011, not much of the place has been changed over its two-plus decades in operation. Kaldi still serves up fabulous coffee, espresso specialties, sandwiches, salads, and bakery staples in a bright, sun-filled atmosphere.

So it should come as no surprise that the café is pretty much always bustling, as evidenced in the photos above and below.

Regardless of that fact, Kaldi still makes for a peaceful, quiet spot to enjoy a cup of joe.

Masking as Sacramento’s New Helvetia Coffee Shop, Kaldi is featured numerous times throughout Lady Bird. It first appears in the scene in which Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) goes out with her new boyfriend, Danny O’Neill (Lucas Hedges), and some friends to hear a band play on Thanksgiving.

Lady Bird later gets a job at the café . . .

. . . where she gets into trouble for flirting on her first day.

Kaldi pops up in a few additional scenes, as well.

Lady Bird is hardly the first production to feature Kaldi. In fact, the place is something of a South Pasadena filming landmark, which is not surprising considering its charming Anywhere, U.S.A. look.

Felix Bonhoeffer (Anthony Hopkins) has coffee at Kaldi with his friend Tracy (Lisa Pepper) at the beginning of 2007’s incredibly weird drama Slipstream, though not much of the space can be seen in the scene.

Kaldi pops up a couple of times as Danny (Paul Rudd) and Beth’s (Elizabeth Banks) local coffee shop in the 2008 comedy Role Models.

That same year, the office space directly above Kaldi portrayed a therapist’s office in the horror flick Prom Night, which I learned thanks to the Movie Locations and More website. (South Pasadena’s oft-filmed Library Park – which is situated across the street and which I blogged about here – can be seen through the windows in the second screen capture below.)

As was the case in Lady Bird, Kaldi masks as a Sacramento café in The Ugly Truth. The locale is featured twice in the 2009 romcom – first in the scene in which Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler) begins to teach Abby Richter (Katharine Heigl) the way to a man’s heart.

Later, Kaldi is where Abby shows off her new boyfriend, Colin (Eric Winter), to her best friend, Joy (Bree Turner).

The coffee shop also pops up twice on the television series Brothers & Sisters. In the Season 3 episode titled “Owning It,” which aired in 2009, Tommy Walker (Balthazar Getty) meets with Kent Barnes (Scott Klace) at Kaldi to discuss his scheme to buy a vineyard.

And in Season 5’s “Get a Room,” which aired in 2010, Kaldi masks as the coffee shop near Wexley University where Kittie McCallister (Calista Flockhart) meets and flirts with handsome, young barista Seth Whitley (Ryan Devlin).

Kaldi portrays Cup ‘N Cakes Cafe, where Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Sofia Vergara) gets into not one, but two car accidents in the Season 1 episode of Modern Family titled “Moon Landing,” which aired in 2010.

The café plays Berkeley Coffee, where Jim Kazinsky (Mike O’Malley) works – and gets dumped by Sarah Braverman (Lauren Graham) – in the Season 1 episode of Parenthood titled “The Deep End of the Pool,” which aired in 2010.

In the Season 4 episode of Rizzoli & Isles titled “We Are Family,” which aired in 2013, Kaldi masquerades as Boston’s “College Café,” where Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) spies on her sister, Cailin Martin (Emilee Wallace).

Kaldi Coffee and Tea also pops up in the pilot episode of Splitting Up Together, which aired in 2018 – only in an establishing shot, though.

All actual filming took place at Habitat Coffee Shop and Cafe located at 3708 North Eagle Rock Boulevard in Glassell Park.

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

Big THANK YOU to my mom for stalking this location for me and for taking the photos that appear in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kaldi Coffee and Tea, aka New Helvetia Coffee Shop from Lady Bird, is located at 1019 El Centro Street in South Pasadena.

January 8, 2018January 8, 2018

Rise N Grind from “Veep”

I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions. That being said, in 2018 I am hoping to regularly exercise, be kinder (to myself and others), drink more water and less champagne, and cut down on my daily latte regimen. The last one is going to be much easier said than done. No matter what, though, I will definitely not be cutting down on my stalking of coffee shops – that I can promise. One café that I recently visited was Hollywood’s Rise N Grind, which I became enamored with after it made a brief appearance in an episode of Veep.

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In Season 6’s “Georgia,” Catherine Meyer (Sarah Sutherland) and girlfriend Marjorie Palmiotti (Clea DuVall) meet with Dan Egan (Reid Scott) at a supposed New York coffee shop to ask if he would be willing to be their sperm donor. The encounter is extremely quick, as Dan readily agrees to the proposition – literally no questions asked.

Though I’ve always been prone to coffee shop adoration, the café that appeared in the episode intrigued me even more so than usual. I was immediately taken with the space’s modern décor. A black and white color schematic? A marquee “coffee” sign? Painted brickwork? Touches of wood throughout? Yes, yes, yes, and yes! The place couldn’t be any more “me” if it tried! So I, of course, set out on a mission to track it down.

While watching, I noticed what looked to be a menu board constructed out of skateboards in the background of the scene. So I did a Google search for “Los Angeles,” “coffee shop,” and “skateboards.” The second result kicked back was a listing for Rise N Grind located at 6501 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. One glimpse at the photographs of the place posted online told me it was the right spot. I ran out to stalk it just a short time later.

Opened in July 2014 by nightclub impresario Robert Vinokur, Rise N Grind is fairly new to the Hollywood coffee scene.

Situated inside of a corner building in the heart of Tinseltown, the site is easily one of the most artfully-decorated cafes I’ve ever visited.

Prior to opening, Vinokur completely and painstakingly re-designed the 7,000-square-foot, 2-story, 1994 building, which previously housed a designer suit outlet.

As writer Kim Sudhalter chronicled in a post for the Only in Hollywood blog while the space was being renovated, “Last month I drove up Wilcox and saw a crew of painters working on the building gracing the northwest corner of Wilcox and Hollywood, near my old office. As I got closer, I noticed they were carefully painting the face of each brick white, leaving the brick-colored mortar intact in between. I drove by several times in the next week and they were still at it . . . hand-painting bricks one by one. The final effect was so elegant I knew something special was happening.” Something special indeed! The white brick motif was carried out inside the café, as well, to stunning effect.

The result is a thoroughly modern venue that manages to be industrial, but wholly welcoming at the same time.

“Welcoming” is one of the key characteristics Vinokur hoped to embody in his design – a space where patrons could feel comfortable hanging out for hours on end. To that end, the café provides free WiFi, power outlets for customer use, a copious amount of seating, a large menu offering sandwiches, pastries, juices, and salads, and java specialties provided by Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

As described on LinkedIn, the site is a “laptop haven for all creative minds.”

Regarding the name, Rise N Grind, as Vinokur explained to the Los Angeles Times, is a play on both a motivated get-out-of-bed attitude and the city’s longstanding skateboard culture, which is paid homage to via the menu board I spotted in the background of Veep – a massive display of more than 150 decks displaying the store’s moniker and its many food and drink offerings.

While stalking the place, I, of course, had to partake of a latte and it was fabulous. Rise N Grind will definitely be a frequent stop whenever I find myself in Hollywood. Whoops – there I go, already abandoning that less-lattes-in-2018 plan!

Only the interior of Rise N Grind appeared on Veep. The exterior shots shown were of Orwashers, “New York’s Original Artisan Bakery,” at 440 Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. With its corner location and black and white façade, Orwashers does bear quite a resemblance to Rise N Grind, as you can see below.

Back in 2003, when the Rise N Grind site housed a clothing store named Roma, it appeared in the background of S.W.A.T., in the scene in which Alex Montel (Oliver Martinez) is captured by Jim Street (Colin Farrell) shortly after escaping from a police bus.

As you can see in the screen captures as compared to the photographs above and below, the building looked completely different – and much less attractive – at the time. The white brick edifice really suits it!

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: Rise N Grind, from the “Georgia” episode of Veep, is located at 6501 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the café’s official website here. Exterior footage from the episode was shot at Orwashers, located at 440 Amsterdam Avenue on New York’s Upper West Side. You can visit the bakery’s official website here.

November 24, 2014December 1, 2014

Alfred Coffee & Kitchen

At one point last year, I mentioned that I would occasionally be blogging about stalk-worthy locales that do not have a film connection. Today’s post chronicles one of those places. A few months ago, fellow stalkers Becky and Anushika told me about Alfred Coffee & Kitchen, a quaint West Hollywood café that they thought I would adore. They were right. (To be fair, though, it was a pretty sure bet – I’ve yet to meet a coffee shop I didn’t like. Winking smile ) When I first set foot inside the eatery, I immediately fell in love. So I brought my friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria there for a cup of joe while they were in L.A. two weeks ago visiting from Ohio.

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Alfred Coffee & Kitchen was founded in 2013 by real estate developer Joshua Zad. As a longtime area resident, Zad was frustrated that there was not a place to grab a coffee or baked good within walking distance of West Hollywood’s fashionable Melrose Place shopping district, so he decided to open one himself. He found the perfect site in a charming yellow-hued building situated on the eastern end of the tree-lined road. The entrepreneur had once lived on Alfred Street, just off Melrose Place, and named his new eatery in honor of his former address. It opened on January 23rd.

Thanks to its quaint charm and neighborhood-y feel, Alfred Coffee proved extremely popular from the get-go.

While the exterior of the eatery is absolutely adorable . . .

. . . it was the Manhattan-esque split-level interior that had me drooling! Upon walking in the front door, patrons are greeted with a huge “But first, coffee” sign, that I, of course, loved. Of being at Alfred, TimeOut Los Angeles said, “The experience is irresistibly Instagram-able (Seriously. That ‘But first, coffee’ decal should have its own handle.).” I couldn’t agree more – in fact, I did Instagram that very decal during my first visit to the café.

Alfred’s ground level boasts an intimate living room-like space for lounging, complete with a working fireplace.

The basement level features a seating area, as well as a large barista counter. Both floors are constantly jam-packed with patrons. One sip of an Alfred latte and you’ll understand why. The coffee is spectacular!

Alfred is most famous for its specialty espresso and macchiato drinks which come served in a four-ounce chocolate-dipped waffle cone cup.

While not a filming location, Alfred is a major celebrity hotspot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Vanessa Hudgens, Jaimie Alexander, Mickey Rourke, Dianna Agron, Jamie King, Jonah Hill, Jesse Metcalfe, Joe Jonas, (my boyfriend) Jerry Ferrara, Dolph Lundgren, Jennifer Meyer, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Ashley Tisdale, Emma Roberts and Camilla Belle.

My favorite blogger, Cupcakes and Cashmere’s Emily Schuman, even shot an outfit post at Alfred back in mid-2013.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Anushika and Becky for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Alfred Coffee & Kitchen is located at 8428 Melrose Place in West Hollywood. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

April 4, 2012April 3, 2012

The Coffee Pot from “90210”

As I mentioned back in March in my post about Bar Keeper in Silver Lake, the whimsical little barware store that stood in for Upon Galley in the 2005 movie A Lot Like Love, one locale that I had been absolutely itching to stalk in recent weeks was the Coffee Pot, an Echo Park-area café that appeared in the Season 4 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Babes in Toyland”. And while tracking down this location required minimal effort on my part, stalking it would be a different story altogether.

The GC and I actually tried to stalk the Coffee Pot not once, but twice, and both endeavors proved futile. Our first attempt took place on a Sunday when we just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by, only to discover that the shop is closed on Sundays. Then, last weekend, we made a special trip out there, on a Saturday this time, only to be met with a sign on the front door announcing that the small café was closed because “I’m the mom and I said so!” Um, OK. And while it is said that “the third time’s the charm”, I think we will just cut our losses at two unsuccessful stalks for this location. It is unfortunate, too, because the place looked absolutely adorable and I had a major hankering for some coffee at the time.

I was so flummoxed over the shop being closed yet again that I completely forgot to have the GC take my picture out front. I was able to snap two photographs of the Coffee Pot’s interior through the café’s front windows, though, and being that there was also a Starbucks located right across the street and I did manage to score myself a latte, I guess the trip was not a total loss. Winking smile

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In the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210, troublemaker Vanessa (Arielle Kebbel) tries to sabotage Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) and Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) by sending them to the fictional “Echo Park Grill” for a fake meeting with the VP of A&R for Def Jam Records. Oddly enough, three different locations were used to stand in for the restaurant in the episode. The first establishing shot shown in the scene was of the 3900 block of West Sunset Boulevard in the Sunset Junction area of Silver Lake, where Bar Keeper is located.

The second establishing shot was of Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz, which I I blogged about back in August 2011. The exterior of Figaro also appeared in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much is that Liam in the Window”.

And, finally, the Coffee Pot was used for all of the “Echo Park Grill’s” interior scenes, where Adrianna and Dixon waited futilely for the record executive. As you can see above, the café is a pretty cute spot.

Despite the conflicting establishing shots, this location was actually a snap to track down as I had noticed the words “Coffee Pot” on the door of the café while watching the episode. A simple input of the terms “Coffee Pot” and “Los Angeles” into a Google search spit back a result of the Coffee Pot in Echo Park. Yay! Too bad it wasn’t quite as easy to stalk.

Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, also let me know that the Coffee Pot had appeared as “Spark Plug Coffee” where Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) and Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) arrested a man for having placed a hidden camera in a women’s bathroom in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Risk”.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of the Coffee Pot’s Southland appearance.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Coffee Pot, from the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210 and the “Risk” episode of Southland, is located at 2201 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.