famous places – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 31, 2018October 16, 2019

The Magic Castle

Happy Halloween! I can’t believe the season is already coming to a close! October 31st is always bittersweet for me because, though my favorite holiday, it marks the end of my Haunted Hollywood postings for the year. For my last go round of 2018, I thought I’d blog about one of Los Angeles’ most iconic sites, a place that is pretty much synonymous with both otherworldliness and Tinseltown itself. I am talking about The Magic Castle, a private club for members of the Academy of Magical Arts that is situated inside of a historic mansion said to be occupied by more than a dozen ghosts! I mean, can you think of a better locale for my final HH article?

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Though typically closed to non-members, the Grim Cheaper and I were able to visit The Magic Castle on November 2nd, 2012 (just a couple of days after Halloween – talk about perfect timing!) thanks to my incredibly generous friend/fellow stalker Marie who secured tickets via a charity auction and invited us to tag along with her and her buddy Dana. (Those are our tickets and some brochures we picked up that night. And yes, I, of course, held on to them. Smile ) To say we had a good time would be an absurd understatement. Being there was absolutely . . . well . . . magical! It was hands-down one of my favorite Los Angeles experiences! By the end of the evening, I was ready to plunk down my credit card to pay the initiation fee and yearly dues and become a member!

The spacious Gothic Renaissance-style mansion that today is known as The Magic Castle was originally built in 1908 as a single-family residence for banker Rollin B. Lane and his wife, Katherine. Dubbed “Holly Chateau,” the estate was designed by architects Oliver Perry Dennis and Lyman Farwell as a near replica of an 1897 pad the duo constructed in Redlands named the Kimberly Crest House (which I wrote about for Los Angeles magazine back in 2013.) Both are pictured below. Though the castle has been altered a bit over the years, the two properties are still virtually identical.

At the time of its inception, Holly Chateau boasted 17 rooms, a rooftop garden, a sun parlor, quarter-sawed white oak and mahogany detailing, a library, five baths, a billiards room, multiple fireplaces, French windows, and a finished basement and attic. Rollin passed away in one of the property’s bedrooms on August 23rd, 1940 and Katherine continued to live on the premises until her subsequent death on December 9th, 1945. The dwelling fell upon hard times in the years that followed, was turned into a multi-family home, and then eventually a boardinghouse. When Milt Larsen spotted it in 1961, though in disrepair, he decided it was the perfect spot to open a magic club. As he told L.A. mag in the January 2018 issue, “I loved the idea of turning a haunted house into a magic castle.” A man after my own heart!

Somehow Milt convinced then owner Thomas Glover to turn over the mansion to him and his brother, Bill Larsen Jr., for free via a handshake deal. The two then promptly got to work transforming the place into a whimsically hodgepodge house of prestidigitation, an idea that took shape thanks to their father. Originally an attorney, Bill Larsen Sr. had quit his job later in life in order to take his family on the road, performing magic shows. He hoped to one day open a magicians’ club. Though he passed away before that dream came to fruition, his sons made good on his vision in spades. They acquired décor and furnishings from nearby mansions that were set to be razed and other adornments from a mishmash of area locales. Hollywood High’s former gym floor makes up one of the space’s bars, the original backdrop from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson provides ambiance for another bar. And yet another of the club’s bars (there are five!) was fashioned from a set used on both The Dean Martin Show and Mickie Finn’s.

The Magic Castle opened its doors on January 2nd, 1963. At the time, there were a scant 150 Academy of Magical Arts members. Today, that number has grown to more than 5,000. Though only a few parts of the massive property were utilized for shows during the early years, the venue is now a sprawling arena counting the aforementioned five bars, an entry parlor, multiple grand dining rooms, a library (which is off-limits to non-members), a music room, a museum, a gift shop, and four stages. There’s even a Houdini Séance Chamber! (Big thank you to Marie for providing the photograph below, as well as several others in this post.)

Sadly, the castle is only open to Academy members and their guests – as well as guests of the neighboring Magic Castle Hotel. There are a few other ways to garner tickets, such as my friend Marie’s charity auction method and those detailed here. If you are lucky enough to secure a reservation, several rules must be followed including adhering to a dress code (a jacket and tie are required for men, cocktail wear for women) and a no-interior-photos policy (excluding the entry parlor), which is why mine consist mainly of exterior shots. You can check out some fabulous images of the inside here, though.

And yes, you do have to say a secret password to gain access to The Magic Castle! Upon walking through the club’s front doors . . .

. . . you find yourself in an intimate parlor, where photos are, fortunately, allowed.

The room’s detailing is absolutely stunning.

After checking in with the hostess . . .

. . . you make your way to a large book-shelved wall . . .

. . . where you tell the golden owl “Open Sesame!”, causing the bookshelves to magically slide apart.

That’s me saying the magic words!

Guests of The Magic Castle are also required to eat dinner on the premises, which is not a bad gig, by any means. For our meal, we sat in a grand parlor reminiscent of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, sipping cocktails and noshing on scrumptious fare. After eating, patrons are invited to wander the estate and take in any and all of the many shows performed on the premises each night. And, let me tell you, this is not some rinky dink operation! The acts are top-notch – easily the best magic I’ve ever seen! Along with the formal shows, there are also magicians staging tricks pretty much everywhere you turn – at empty tables in the bars, on couches in the lounges, even the bartenders get in on the act!

While I enjoyed every single solitary minute I spent at The Magic Castle, I have to say that my favorite part of the club was Invisible Irma, the mansion’s resident piano-playing ghost who regales guests with tunes in the music room, situated off the Grand Salon & Main Bar. As legend has it, Irma was a frequent guest of the Lane family during their tenure at the home and she could often be found tinkling the ivories, much to Rollin’s chagrin. He soon moved the piano to a tower room on the third floor, out of Irma’s reach. She was not pleased with the situation and promised to come back and haunt the house after her death. Upon passing away in 1932, that is exactly what she did. When the Larsen brothers purchased the property, they came across the Lanes’ former piano tucked away in the attic and quickly reinstated it to the music room. Irma’s ghost followed. Though the instrument was eventually replaced by one belonging to MGM star José Iturbi (whose specter sometimes stops by to play with Irma), she can still be heard each night. Guests can even request songs, which Irma’s invisible hands effortlessly play.

Thanks to its intrigue and mysterious allure, celebrities have been drawn to the place since the very beginning, with Orson Welles, Johnny Carson, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Tony Curtis, and Steve Allen all spending time there in the early days. In more recent years, Johnny Depp, Katy Perry, Conan O’Brien, Ryan Gosling, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Nicolas Cage, Lucy Liu, Quentin Tarantino, Ronald Reagan, Drew Barrymore, Hugh Hefner, Debbie Reynolds, and Matt Lanter have all been known to pop in. Countless luminaries have also performed on the premises including Jason Alexander, Pen and Teller, David Blaine, Siegfried and Roy, Steve Martin, and Lance Burton. Neil Patrick Harris was famously the club’s longtime president, aka “Ambassador of Magic,” and during his tenure regularly regaled guests with his illusion skills.

In a rather macabre twist, but one in keeping with my Haunted Hollywood theme, a magician passed away at the club on February 24th, 2017. Shortly before he was about to take the stage to perform that evening, Daryl Easton hung himself in one of the venue’s dressing rooms.

It should come as no surprise that The Magic Castle is also a frequent film star. Way back in 1965, the site was used in exterior shots of the mansion belonging to Oliver Stone (Richard Eastham) in the Season 9 episode of Perry Mason titled “The Case of the Runaway Racer.”

Though IMDB asserts that the property popped up in another Season 8 episode of Perry Mason – “The Case of the Feather Cloak” – as the Hawaiian home of Gustave Heller (David Opatoshu) and Jarvis Logan (John Van Dreelen), that information is incorrect. As you can see below, that pad looks nothing like The Magic Castle.

Anthony Blake (Bill Bixby) lived in an apartment supposedly located at The Magic Castle on the short-lived television series The Magician, which aired from 1973 to 1974.

In the Season 2 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Magic Fire,” which aired in 1977, Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd), Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), and John Bosley (David Doyle) head to the venue to investigate an arsonist posing as a magician.

Dr. R. Quincy, M.E. (Jack Klugman) visits The Magic Castle to speak with magician Harry Whitehead (Don Ameche) about the death of his former assistant in the Season 4 episode of Quincy, M.E. titled “The Death Challenge,” which aired in 1979.

Per IMDB, The Magic Castle pops up in 1980’s Little Miss Marker. I scanned through the flick and the only locale I could find that resembled the club is the restaurant where Regret (Bob Newhart) delivers a message from Sorrowful Joe (Walter Matthau) to Blackie (Tony Curtis). Because the quality of the video I watched was so bad, though, there is no way for me to say with any certainty that the segment was actually shot on the premises.

Nickelodeon’s 1988 made-for-television movie Mystery Magical Special took place at The Magic Castle.

As did the 1994 made-for-television movie Count DeClues’ Mystery Castle.

In the 1995 horror film Lord of Illusions, Harry D’Amour (Scott Bakula) heads to the mansion to investigate two murders.

Tiffany (Thandie Newton), Vernon (Stuart Townsend), and Miller (Gabriel Byrne) hide out from Malini (Patrick Bauchau) at The Magic Castle in the 2003 thriller Shade.

In the Season 7 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk and the Magician,” which aired in 2009, Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) investigates the death of his neighbor, a wanna-be magician named Kevin Dorfman (Jarrad Paul), at The Magic Castle.

As featured on the Season 3 episode of the reality show Tanked titled “Love Is an Illusion,” which aired in 2012, Neil Patrick Harris commissioned a 240-gallon aquarium modeled after Houdini’s Water Torture Cell for the club.

Sadly, the piece deteriorated fairly quickly and is no longer displayed on the premises.

Contestants were brought to the castle to receive their latest challenge – to design prosthetics for a wizard character – in the Season 6 episode of the reality series Face Off titled “Open Sesame,” which aired in 2014.

In 2016, Gus Cruikshank (Paul Rust) took Mickey Dobbs (Gillian Jacobs) to the mansion for their first official date in the Season 1 episode of Love titled “Magic.”

Aimee Mann’s 2017 music video for her song “Patient Zero” was also shot at The Magic Castle, though very little of the club can actually be seen.

While several sites claim that The Magic Castle portrayed The Cabaret of Magic in the Season 5 episode of Columbo titled “Now You See Him,” that information is incorrect. The Cabaret in the show was inspired by the club, but filming took place elsewhere, as you can see below.

IMDB also states that the mansion masked as the headquarters of The Greatest Detective Society in the Season 8 episode of Castle titled “The G.D.S.”, but that locale is actually the uh-ma-zing Dutch Chocolate Shop in downtown Los Angeles.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Marie for inviting us to be her plus-ones at The Magic Castle and for providing several of the photos that appear in this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Magic Castle is located at 7001 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood. You can visit the club’s official website here.

April 30, 2018May 1, 2018

The Disney Garage

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I am obsessed with all things Disney – especially Disneyland. I can hardly pass by the “Disneyland Drive” sign on the 5 Freeway without feeling a twitch. Not surprisingly, whenever I find myself in Orange County, my only interest is visiting the park and spending every waking moment there. I am definitely a show-up-before-opening-stay-until-closing-and-then-spend-an-extra-hour-on-Main-Street kind of girl. As such I’ve never really ventured out to do much stalking in the area. One local spot I’d been dying to see for ages, though, was the Disney Garage, aka Walt Disney’s very first animation studio which is on permanent display at the Stanley Ranch Museum in Garden Grove about two miles south of the Happiest Place on Earth. I finally got my chance last March thanks to a doctor appointment in the OC that I accompanied my dad to. While there was not enough time during our quick trip to allow for a Disney day, I made sure to schedule a stop at Stanley Ranch and we headed right on over there upon arriving in town.

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I briefly covered the story of the Disney Garage in a May 2014 Scene it Before post for Los Angeles magazine, but a more thorough recap is in order here. Upon returning home to Missouri after serving in World War I, Walt secured a job at the Kansas City Slide Company which produced both live-action and animated film advertisements. The work fascinated the 18-year-old and it wasn’t long before he was creating his own animations using a borrowed camera in his father’s garage. (Garages seem to be a theme in young Walt’s life.) In 1921, Disney partnered with cartoonist Ub Iwerks and under the label Laugh-O-Gram Films started producing shorts including one about a live-action character named Alice who lived in a cartoon world. The company failed after less than two years and in July 1923 Walt headed west to Los Angeles, where he rented a room at $5 a week from his uncle Robert who lived at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in Los Feliz. (That’s Uncle Robert’s house pictured below.) Of the move, he said, “I packed all of my worldly goods – a pair of trousers, a checkered coat, a lot of drawing materials and the last of the fairy-tale reels we had made – in a kind of frayed cardboard suitcase. And with that wonderful audacity of youth I went to Hollywood, arriving there with just 40 dollars.”

After a brief stint trying to break into the production world, Walt returned to his original passion, transforming his uncle’s small detached garage into a make-shift animation studio, which Robert charged him an additional $1 a week to use. Fashioning a cartoon stand out of lumber and plywood boxes, Disney got to work creating cartoon gag reels with the hope that he could sell them to the Pantages Theatre chain to play before movies. You can check out some historic photos of the garage, which was formerly located down the driveway on the home’s east side, here and here.

The Pantages plan was abandoned when producer Margaret Winkler tapped Disney to create more Alice cartoons (which later became known as the Alice Comedies) in October 1923. In conjunction with the deal, Walt partnered with his brother, Roy, and moved his studio out of his uncle’s garage and into the back of a real estate office located down the street at 4651 Kingswell Avenue. By February 1924, the brothers needed more space and secured a lease on the storefront next door at 4649 Kingswell. Today, that spot, which has since been renumbered 4647, houses a print shop named Extra Copy (pictured below). It is the Kingswell building that The Walt Disney Company officially recognizes as Walt’s first studio. He wasn’t there long, though.

A little over a year later, the brothers put down a deposit on some vacant land on Hyperion Avenue in Los Feliz and proceeded to build a small single-story studio which they moved into in January 1926. As the company grew, so did the space. In his book The Art of Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms, Christopher Finch says, “It was constantly being expanded.” (Sadly, that site was torn down in 1966 and a Gelson’s Market currently stands in its place.) The brothers eventually ran out of room to expand any further at that location and switched their sights to Burbank where they purchased 51 acres and began construction on a much larger studio. The company moved to their new digs at 500 South Buena Vista Street about a year later. The Walt Disney Company still calls the site home today. I was lucky enough to tour it in July 2009. The photos below are from that visit.

But back to the garage. In 1981, a foamer named Paul Maher was perusing old photographs of historic sites and came across an image of Uncle Robert’s garage. A stalker at heart, Maher decided he had to see the place in person and headed over to Kingswell Avenue the next morning. What he found shocked him. Not only was the bungalow undergoing a renovation in order to be turned into a rental, but the famous garage was set to be razed. Thankfully, Paul stepped in. He quickly tracked down the residence’s owner who offered to sell him the standalone, single-car structure for $6,400 – if he agreed to also become her new tenant. He moved in shortly thereafter. Maher soon ran into financial problems, though, and had to vacate the premises. He subsequently put the garage up for auction for $10,000, but incredibly there were no takers. As fate would have it, Art Adler, the senior contractor for the purchasing department at Disneyland, happened to be at the auction and couldn’t bear the thought of Walt’s former studio being lost to the ages. He started chatting up other auction-goers asking them to chip in funds to save the structure and quickly had $8,500 in hand thanks to a band of 8 people who were promptly dubbed “Friends of Walt Disney.” The group later grew to 18 members, all of whom worked tirelessly to preserve the garage.

All the Friends of Walt Disney needed now was a place to display the structure. The group contacted several museums, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, but none could guarantee the garage a permanent exhibition space. Art finally approached the Stanley Ranch Museum, run by the Garden Grove Historical Society, and the organization was thrilled to accept the piece.

The historical society quickly got to work in preparing the 12-by-18-foot structure for its new home. A concrete slab was poured, broken slats were replaced, protective weather coating was added, and Disney memorabilia was set up inside. (You can take a peek at the interior here). The restored garage was dedicated on October 20th, 1984.

Even though Walt technically created the first Alice short in his father’s garage and even though The Walt Disney Company doesn’t officially recognize it, Uncle Robert’s garage is though of by most fans as Walt’s first studio. Of the structure’s importance, Adler said, “He may not have done a lot of work here, but this is where he started – and that’s what counts. It is important that this garage be preserved so children can look at the humble beginnings of a man who would later create an empire that brought happiness and joy to children all over the world. It’s a way to tell kids that you can start from nothing and, in a relatively short time, achieve great things.”

In the interest of being thorough – and to provide some armchair tourism for those who can’t make it out to Stanley Ranch Museum themselves – I snapped photos of each of the garage’s four sides. That’s its west side below.

There’s the rear.

And the pics below are the best I could get of the east side.

The Disney Garage is hardly the only historical structure located on the grounds of the Stanley Ranch Museum.

The open air site was originally the family home/ranch of horticulturist Edward G. Ware. In 1970, Ware’s daughter, Lillian Agnes Stanley, donated the two-acre parcel to the Garden Grove Historical Society. The following year, Stanley’s son gifted the group Ware’s original 1892 residence, a barn, a tank house, and his own Craftsman-style pad. And thus, a museum was born.

Since that time several of the area’s most historic homes and structures have been donated and moved to the site. The museum now boasts 17 buildings, including one of the city’s first post offices, originally opened in 1877;

a former Main Street storefront that housed an electric shoe store and a barber shop at various times;

a replica of a firehouse once located on Garden Grove Boulevard;

. . . and many others.

Cloaked in history, Stanley Ranch Museum is a fabulous place for both Disney and non-Disney fans alike to enjoy a sunny Southern California day.

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: Stanley Ranch Museum, the home of the famous Disney Garage, is located at 12174 Euclid Street in Garden Grove. Tours are offered the first and third Sunday of every month at 1:30 p.m., so plan accordingly. Robert Disney’s house, where the garage was originally located, can be found at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in Los Feliz. Extra Copy, aka Walt Disney’s first official studio, is located just three blocks west at 4647 Kingswell.

April 13, 2018July 5, 2018

The Barthman Sidewalk Clock

It has been said that you shouldn’t look down when you walk. There are two places in Manhattan where you ought to keep your eyes on the pavement, though. I blogged about one, Hess Triangle in front of Village Cigars, on Wednesday. The other, a clock imbedded in concrete outside of what was once William Barthman Jeweler in the Financial District, has been alerting overhead passersby of the time since 1899! I first learned about the historic curiosity while perusing the book The Best Things to Do in New York shortly before our April 2016 trip to the Big Apple and immediately decided it was a must-see. Even though the underfoot ticker is not a filming location (at least, not that I know of), since it is such an obscure and unique spot and definitely falls into the “Hidden NYC” category, I figured it was blog-worthy, as well.

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The sidewalk timepiece was first dreamed up by William Barthman in 1896 as a way to attract patrons to his downtown jewelry and watch store, which he opened on the corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane twelve years prior. Though large clocks posted at the entrance to boutiques were quite commonplace at the time, one embedded in the sidewalk was a definite novelty and Barthman figured such an unusual mechanism would pique the interest of all who stepped upon it. He conceived of the design himself and enlisted his associate Frank Homm to bring his vision to life. It took Homm more than two years to do so and the piece was finally installed outside of the shop in the fall of 1899.

The original Barthman Sidewalk Clock is not the one pictured above. As you can see in the screen capture below, which I grabbed from a fabulous video posted on the Hodinkee website, in its initial form the piece, a three-window jump hour mechanism with a built-in light that made it visible at night, looked much different. Though it did quickly become an area attraction, luring in those who walked by, in a rather unfortunate twist, when Homm passed away in 1917 he took the secret of maintaining the device to his grave with him. As such, the clock ceased to function, consistently broadcasting the incorrect time to all who took note of it (well, except for twice a day, as the saying goes). In the years following, it served as a source of embarrassment for the store and employees took to covering it over with cardboard each morning prior to opening.

Finally, in 1925, Barthman Jeweler replaced the busted gadget with a working Arabic-style clock. The apparatus has since been refitted and modified on several occasions throughout the years, including a 1983 revamping performed by none other than Cartier. The brass compass rose that currently encircles it was also a later enhancement. In addition to regular winding, the piece still requires quite a bit of maintenance, which is not surprising considering an estimated 15,000 people walk across it each hour during peak intervals. Thankfully, this time around more than one Barthman employee is experienced with the ins and outs of its upkeep and care. According to Gizmodo and The New York Times, the custom-made face, which can withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure, is removed for polishing twice a year and replaced altogether every four due to scratching and clouding. And how are maintenance and repairs achieved, you ask? Via an access point located underneath the sidewalk. You can check out what it looks like here.

Though William Barthman Jeweler is still in existence, it has since moved a few doors down to 176 Broadway and a Vitamin Shoppe outpost now occupies its original space.

Prior to the move, a replica clock was made with the intention that it would be installed in the sidewalk in front of the new store. That was not to be, though. As the Hodinkee website explains, when Barthman’s owners asked for permission for the project, in a rather iconic twist “the authorities had a simple answer: there is only one New York Sidewalk Clock.” The replica was eventually hung above the shop’s main door. Though I did not get any photos of it, you can see it in the Google Street View images below.

Despite the re-location, Barthman employees still maintain the clock via the underground access point.

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 Barthman Sidewalk Clock can be found on the northeast corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane, outside of The Vitamin Shoppe located at 174 Broadway, in Manhattan’s Financial District. William Barthman Jeweler is a few doors down at 176 Broadway. You can visit the jewelry store’s official website here.

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017

Grand Central Terminal’s Whispering Gallery

New York is a magical place. I always describe it as such. It is not just the abject filming locations, gorgeous architecture, and surplus of history that make the city so majestic, but the little, notable things that seem to be tucked around every corner. Take for instance the Whispering Gallery at Grand Central Terminal. On the lower level of the landmark train station is a small alcove framed by four pillared archways. Commuters and tourists rush through it everyday, hurriedly passing underneath the tiled bows, taking no note of its symmetrical beauty or its acoustic secret. Linger a few minutes in the 2,000-square-foot chamber, though, and you will undoubtedly see friends enter together, wander to opposite corners, turn to face the pillars, and then either immediately proclaim “How cool!” or start giggling. Their exuberance is due to the fact that the curvature of the Gallery’s ceiling provides a seamless path for low-level sound to travel up one side and down the other, arriving in the ear of a listener 50 feet away.

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I first read about the phenomenon shortly before my inaugural visit to New York in 2004. The guidebooks I purchased in preparation for the trip didn’t specify exactly where in Grand Central the Whispering Gallery was located, though, and I somehow got the impression that it was part of the Main Concourse. So, on our first sojourn to the station, the Grim Cheaper and I excitedly headed to opposite corners of the grand room, turned and faced the walls, and, like a couple of idiots, proceeded to whisper to each other. Neither of us heard a peep, outside of the hustle and bustle of commuters, and walked away from the experience thoroughly confused, I am sure drawing quite a few laughs from Manhattanites in the know. Thinking the Whispering Gallery was a hoax, we never re-visited the search on any of our subsequent trips to the Big Apple. I did not even think about the site until years later, in fact, when I happened to mention our failure to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, during our first meet-up, which took place in NYC in 2009. Owen was quite familiar with the Whispering Gallery, knew of its exact location, and assured us it was real. While he wanted to show it to us that day, unfortunately we ran out of time. But he vowed that on our next visit, he would take us there. Though it took 7 years for that visit to materialize, Owen made good on his promise.

As he showed us, the Whispering Gallery is located on Grand Central’s lower level, in the Dining Concourse, just outside of the iconic Oyster Bar.

The rotunda, which is actually a convergence of three commuter corridors, was constructed, along with the rest of Grand Central Terminal, in 1913. The vaulted space was designed by Rafael Guastavino and his son, Rafael Guastavino, Jr., of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company. The duo, who also created domed masterpieces at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the City Hall subway station, and the Bronx Zoo Elephant House (just to name a few), utilized their signature technique to create the Gallery. As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority website explains it, “Guastavino’s method of arch construction uses layers of thin, glazed terracotta tiles set in mortar in a herringbone pattern. The tiles are naturally fireproof and as strong as steel or wooden beams but weigh much less.”

The result is a dazzling display of gilded masonry.

And yes, a scientific curiosity. Thanks to the laws of physics and the Gallery’s parabolic-curved ceiling, two friends can stand at opposite corners of the room, face the wall, whisper to each other, and those whispers will magically be heard. The GC and I tested it out, with Owen acting as our guide, and I am happy to report that the phenomenon is absolutely real – and so incredibly cool.

There are differing beliefs as to whether or not the Guastavinos intended the effect. The New York Times quotes architect Frank J. Prial, Jr., who worked on the 1990s restoration of the terminal, as describing the acoustical occurrence as “a happy coincidence.” Apparently, during the restoration project, Prial’s firm, Beyer Blinder Belle, did not come across any evidence that the sound effect was deliberate. But author Lisa Montanarelli states in her book New York City Curiosities that the Guastavinos “designed the whispering gallery based on architectural principals that have been used for centuries worldwide – from the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing to the Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, India.” Regardless if the phenomenon was accidental or intended, the Whispering Gallery is a fabulous “secret” site, one that I cannot more highly recommend visiting and testing out for yourself.

The Whispering Gallery is also a filming location! In the 2011 remake of the movie Arthur, Naomi (Greta Gerwig) shows the unique spot to Arthur (Russell Brand) during their first date and he proceeds to officially ask her out – via whisper, of course – while there.

My friend Katie, who runs Matthew Lillard Online, let me know that Cereal (Lillard), Dade (Jonny Lee Miller), Kate (Angelina Jolie) and the gang skated through the Whispering Gallery at the end of 1995’s Hackers. Thanks, Katie!

The Gallery is also said to have been featured in the 1996 romcom Breathing Room, but unfortunately I could not find a copy of it anywhere with which to make screen captures for this post.

The Oyster Bar, also designed by the Guastavinos, has been featured in a couple of productions, as well. Though we did not venture inside the historic eatery during our Whispering Gallery stalk, I figured it still bears mentioning here. The restaurant popped up a couple of times in the 2016 thriller The Girl on the Train.

That same year, Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling) dined there with Dr. Hunter Aloysius ‘Hap’ Percy (Jason Isaacs) in the Season 1 episode of The OA titled “New Colossus.”

Though a scene in the Season 1 episode of Mad Men titled “Red in the Face” was set at a supposed New York City oyster bar, the specific oyster bar wasn’t mentioned. Countless websites state that filming of the segment took place at Grand Central, but that information is erroneous. The AMC series was shot almost in its entirety in Los Angeles and the “Red in the Face” scene was lensed at Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood, as detailed in this post. Being that Musso’s (as the eatery is commonly called) looks nothing like Grand Central’s Oyster Bar (as you can see below), I am unsure of how the confusion came to be.

Another “secret” spot in Grand Central that we checked out while in New York last April was a section of dirty ceiling in the Main Concourse. When the room’s massive rooftop mural was cleaned in the mid-90s (a job that took 6 months to complete at a cost of $1 million!), the John Canning Company, the group that performed the restoration, left one small 9×18-inch patch tainted. That patch can be found near the crab’s claw in the hall’s northwest corner. While most websites (and even Grand Central tour guides) claim that the dirt was caused by nicotine tar from the hundreds upon hundreds of commuters who puffed in the Concourse before cigarettes were banned, JCC disputes this fact, stating that the grime, which boasted a 2-inch thickness in some spots, was actually created by air pollutants, including car and truck exhaust and soot emissions from area industrial plants. JCC left the small patch of dirt intact for future study. According to the company’s website, such patches “provide the complete environmental history of the building’s interior.”

Though the dirty ceiling patch was referenced in Arthur, it wasn’t shown. A close-up view of it can be seen below, though.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend/fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for showing me this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Grand Central Terminal is located at 89 East 42nd Street in the Midtown East area of New York. The Whispering Gallery, from Arthur, can be found just outside of the Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant, which is on the Lower Level in the Dining Concourse. The dirty ceiling patch is located near the crab’s claw in the northwest corner of the Main Concourse.

May 30, 2012December 6, 2013

The “Forever Marilyn” Statue in Palm Springs

Back in December the Grim Cheaper’s boss, while on vacation in Chicago, spotted a huge statue of my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe towering above the Michigan Avenue skyline and texted me a picture of it. Well, as you can imagine, I just about lost my mind upon seeing the looming bronze effigy and told the GC that we had to get out to the Windy City as soon as possible to stalk it. As it turns out, though, Marilyn ended up coming to me! A few months after learning of the installation, which is named “Forever Marilyn”, fellow stalker Lavonna informed me that it was actually being relocated to the West Coast – to the corner of Tahquitz Canyon Way and Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs to be exact! So I immediately called up my parents, who live in the Coachella Valley, and told them to keep me abreast of the bombshell’s status so that I could stalk it as soon it was installed, which, thankfully, did not take long. “Forever Marilyn” was finally unveiled last Thursday evening and I dragged the GC right on out to the desert to see it the very next day.

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“Forever Marilyn” was originally constructed in 1996 by American-realist sculptor Seward Johnson as part of his ICONS REVISTED series. The design was based upon the famous 1954 photograph of the starlet taken by Bruno Bernard, aka Bernard of Hollywood, during the filming of The Seven Year Itch’s iconic subway grate scene (the location of which I blogged about way back in June 2008). The statue did not make its debut until 15 years after its inception, though, when, on July 15th, 2011, it was unveiled as a temporary installation in the middle of Chicago’s Pioneer Court. Of the work, the now 82-year-old Seward states, “In this series, ICONS REVISTED, I am trying to discover what makes an image stay with us; become something more than its one moment in time. Marilyn has come to represent beauty, and the white dress blowing up around her is a type of teasing sensuality. There is something about her pose: the exuberance for life without inhibition, which is quintessentially American. It expresses an uninhibited sense of our own vibrancy.” Because The Seven Year Itch was the first MM movie that I ever saw, the image of the starlet trying to hold down her billowing dress has always been one that I’ve held extremely close to my heart. As photographer Mark Anderson asked in the October 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, “Who ever forgets the first time they saw Marilyn Monroe?” So true!

“Forever Marilyn”, which was constructed entirely out of bronze and stainless steel, measures 26 feet tall, 17 feet wide and weighs a whopping 34,300 pounds. It is owned by The Sculpture Foundation, Inc., an educational organization that provides public exhibitions and works of art to various communities around the globe.

Earlier this year, it was decided that the Coachella Valley would be “Forever Marilyn’s” next temporary stop and, on May 7th, a crew of six dedicated men began the dismantling process before the blonde bombshell embarked upon the long journey to her new home. (You can check out some fabulous photographs of her cross-country drive here.) Of the move, Seward said, “I am very pleased that Marilyn will be on view in Palm Springs. It was, after all, a location of her own choosing, and I assume she was drawn to the beauty and stillness of the landscape.”

As you can see here, the positioning of “Forever Marilyn” in relation to the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago was quite deceiving and made the statue appear to be much taller than it actually is. As the GC and I made our way down South Palm Canyon Drive towards the sculpture last Friday afternoon, I kept expecting to see it towering over the short one- and two-story buildings that make up Palm Springs. When we finally did come upon the icon, I was quite shocked as she is much shorter than her Chicago surroundings made her appear. Don’t get me wrong, “Forever Marilyn” is HUGE, just not as huge as I had originally anticipated.

“Forever Marilyn” is honestly one of the coolest works of art that I have ever seen in my entire life and I was literally pinching myself the whole time I was stalking it. I have a feeling that I will be making regular pilgrimages to see it when visiting my parents in the desert over the next year.

I am absolutely IN LOVE with the photograph below that the GC took of “Forever Marilyn”. I think it is can’t-take-my-eyes-off-it stunning and if we had any blank wall space left in our apartment, I would so have it blown up and framed.

I would be remiss in my blogging duties if I did not mention here that located directly across the street from “Forever Marilyn” is a statue of Lucille Ball that was designed in 1995 by the husband-and-wife sculpting team of Emmanuil and Janet Snitkovsky.

I actually stalked the statue, which is titled “Lucy Ricardo”, way back in May of last year for fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, whose mom is a HUGE Lucy fan, but I never got around to blogging about it.

While doing research for today’s post, I discovered that I had unknowingly stalked another of Seward Johnson’s statues while in San Diego back in 2008. The 25-foot-tall “Unconditional Surrender”, which is part of a 2005 series, recreates the infamous photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse in the middle of Times Square on August 14th, 1945 – the day that the end of World War II was announced. I saw the piece at Tuna Park Harbor, just outside of The Fish Market Seafood Restaurant, in downtown San Diego. It has since been relocated to New Jersey for restoration, but according to a May 28th, 2012 Los Angeles Times article, a replica of it is currently being created and will eventually be on permanent display at the seaside park.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: ‘Forever Marilyn’ is located at the northwest corner of South Palm Canyon Drive and East Tahquitz Canyon Way in downtown Palm Springs. The statue will be on display through June 2013. You can visit the “Forever Marilyn” Facebook page here. The “Lucy Ricardo” statue can be found directly across the street from Marilyn on the northeast corner of South Palm Canyon Drive and East Tahquitz Canyon Way, in front of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

May 22, 2012May 21, 2012

John O’Groats Restaurant from “New Girl”

Another restaurant that appeared on fave show New Girl that I stalked recently was John O’Groats, a tiny breakfast and lunch café in the Rancho Park area of West Los Angeles. As fate would have it, a few years back I attended a weekly acting class at the Pico Playhouse, which is located directly next door to John O’Groats, and, on occasion, my actor friends and I would venture on over to the diner to grab a bite to eat before class. So when it popped up in the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Kryptonite”, I recognized the place and its darling interior immediately. Because I had not been there in years, though, and had no photographs of it, I added John O’Groats to my ever-growing To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there this past Sunday morning for breakfast.

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John O’Groats was originally opened on February 26th, 1982 in a tiny, 750-square-foot space on the corner of Manning Avenue and Pico Boulevard. The eatery was the second culinary endeavor of Angelica and Robert Jacoby, who first founded Bit O’Scotland in Westwood seventeen years prior. After deciding that they no longer wanted to work nights, as they missed eating dinner regularly with their two sons, the Jacobys closed their pioneer restaurant and opened a coffee shop that served only breakfast and lunch. Their new café, which was named for a village in Scotland, enjoyed immediate success thanks to its homemade American-style comfort food, created with only the freshest and finest ingredients. After two years, the couple moved John O’Groats to a larger location where it still remains to this day, almost three decades later. Due to its immense popularity, the Jacoby’s have since expanded twice – first in 1995 and then again in 2000 – but, even so, it is still quite common to see large crowds standing outside waiting for a table. Thanks to its fabulous food and proximity to 20th Century Fox Studios, the restaurant has also become a magnet for celebrities over the years. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Julia Roberts, Debra Messing, Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Ed O’Neill, Billy Baldwin, Danica McKellar, Josh Brolin, and Diane Lane.

John O’Groats has received countless culinary accolades in the press, including Zagat’s “Best Breakfast”, Esquire Magazine’s “Best Breakfast in America”, and USA Today’s “Best Power Breakfast in L.A.” – all of which are incredibly well-deserved! I am not a big breakfast person, but John O’Groats serves up some spectacular grub! The homemade biscuits, which the restaurant is famous for, are fabulous, as is the French-press coffee. The café also serves both sausage patties and sausage links, which I appreciate as I do not like links, but LOVE me some patties and most eateries only serve one or the other. Love it!

In the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Kryptonite”, John O’Groats was the eatery where Nick (Jake M. Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Winston (Lamorne Morris) discussed who was the “Top Dog” in their apartment. Our waitress informed us that the series had actually filmed on the premises twice, but I am guessing that the second taping wound up on the cutting room floor because I scanned through each of the show’s other 23 episodes and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Oprah Winfrey also taped an interview at John O’Groats with actor Jonah Hill for her 2012 Oscar Special in February of this past year.

You can watch a clip of the interview by clicking below.

Oprah Winfrey Oscar Interview with Jonah Hill at John O’Groats

And a BIG belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog! I love you more than Matt Lanter, Michael Buble and Kristin Cavallari put together, girl! Winking smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: John O’Groats restaurant, from the “Kryptonite” episode of New Girl, is located at 10516 West Pico Boulevard in the Rancho Park neighborhood of West Los Angeles. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

May 1, 2012December 6, 2013

The Romanesque Villa Apartments – Marilyn Monroe’s Former Home

While doing research on the Harper House from Scream 3, which I blogged about in mid-April, I came across some information about an apartment complex – located on the very same street and designed by the very same architect – where my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe once lived. I was, of course, beyond ecstatic to learn about a previously-unknown Marilyn location and immediately added the building, which is named Romanesque Villa or Romanesque Villa Apartments, to my “To-Stalk” list. It was not until I dragged the Grim Cheaper out there just a few days later that I realized the complex is located directly across the street from Villa Primavera, the In a Lonely Place apartment building that I stalked last October. How I had been standing less than 20 feet away from Marilyn’s former home at the time without even realizing it is absolutely beyond me! The GC keeps saying that all of the blonde hair dye I use is starting to affect my brain and, in cases like this, I can’t really argue with him. On a side note – I am switching things up a bit today as the GC recently suggested that I post the descriptions of my photographs above the actual photographs themselves. And, even though he is almost never right , I thought I would try out his idea for a few days. Let me know what you think. And now, on with the post!

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The Romanesque Villa Apartments were originally constructed in 1928 and were commissioned by Michael and Isaac Mann. As I mentioned above, the garden courtyard complex was designed by none other than Leland Bryant, the very same architect who also gave us the Harper House and the Sunset Tower Hotel.

As you can see below, the architectural detailing of the Spanish Colonial Revival/Churrigueresque-style building is nothing short of spectacular. I literally could not take my eyes off the place while I was there.

And while the exterior of Romanesque Villa does not bear much of a resemblance to that of the Harper House, the interiors of the buildings’ actual units are almost identical, especially the bathroom areas.

You can watch a video tour of one of the Romanesque Villa apartments (in which the building is incorrectly identified as the “Harper House”) from the West Hollywood Patch website by clicking below. As you can see, the bathroom is pretty much an exact match to Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) and Christine Hamilton’s (Kelly Rutherford) bathroom in Scream 3.

Marilyn Monroe reportedly lived off and on at Romanesque Villa Apartments from 1950 to 1951. The starlet had previously been residing with her agent/purported lover Johnny Hyde, but when he passed away on December 18th, 1950, she decided to move in with her beloved acting coach Natasha Lytess, whom she had been studying with since the filming of Columbia Pictures’ Ladies of the Chorus in 1948. There seems to be a bit of confusion over Marilyn and Natasha’s exact apartment number, though. You can see a photograph on the icollector.com website here of a check written by MM on December 23, 1950 in which she lists her address as “1301 N. Harper Ave.” That same address is written on a photograph release form that Marilyn signed on April 26th, 1949, which you can take a look at here. But the very cool Marilyn and the Camera website has a check signed by the actress in which she notes her address as 1309 N. Harper Avenue. Despite the many conflicting reports, most written in the actress’ own hand, the majority of publications agree that MM lived in Unit 1309, which is pictured below. Legend has it that Marilyn, fraught with despair over Johnny Hyde’s death, also attempted suicide during her tenure at Romanesque Villa.

According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Anita Stewart, and John Welch also all lived at Romanesque Villa at one time or another. And fave book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide states that upon first arriving in Hollywood, actress Marlene Dietrich moved into an apartment at the Villa thanks to some advice from the man who had discovered her, director Josef von Sternberg, who also lived on the premises with his then wife, Riza Royce. Rumor has it that an affair between Marlene and Josef heated up shortly thereafter. Josef eventually filed for divorce from Riza and she, in turn, slapped Marlene with two lawsuits, one for alienation of her husband’s affections and the other for libel. Both lawsuits were later dropped and Josef and Marlene went on to collaborate in a total of seven films.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Romanesque Villa Apartments, where Marilyn Monroe once lived, are located at 1301-1309 North Harper Avenue in West Hollywood. Villa Primavera, the In a Lonely Place apartment building, is located directly across the street at 1300-1308 North Harper Avenue. The Harper House, from Scream 3, is located just up the street at 1334-1336 North Harper Avenue. Pink Taco, aka the former site of the Roxbury, is also located just up the street at 8225 West Sunset Boulevard. And Pinches Tacos, from the “It’s On Bitch” episode of The Hills, is located just around the corner at 8200 West Sunset Boulevard.

April 17, 2012April 16, 2012

The “New Girl” Apartment Building

My good friend/fellow stalker Lavonna has been begging me to track down locations from New Girl for a good three months now, but because I had never seen an episode of the series I was unable to do so. Until last Monday evening, that is, when the Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down and started watching it from the beginning. Thank you, Hulu! I have to admit that I did not have very high hopes for the show as, for whatever reason, I am not that big of a fan of actress Zooey Deschanel (whose mom played Eileen Hayward on fave series Twin Peaks, but I digress). I ended up LOVING it, though, and both the GC and I are now absolutely hooked! After watching the first few episodes, I immediately started doing research on the warehouse-style loft apartment building where the New Girl gang lives (Lavonna’s most coveted locale from the series) and thankfully, Christine, over at fave website OnLocationVacations, had posted the address several times on her Daily Filming Locations page. So I dragged the GC right on out to the Arts District in Downtown L.A. this past Saturday afternoon to do some stalking of the place. (On a side-note, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, just taught me how to process my photographs using the soon-to-be defunct Picnik editing program, so I have been having a little fun with them today. Don’t mind me. Smile )

I had never before visited – or even heard of – the “Arts District” (or “Artists District” as it is sometimes referred to) until this past Saturday, but according to the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District website, the area is the site of an average of 900 movie shoots per year! Um, yes please – sign me up! It is basically a stalker’s heaven – and one of the coolest spots that I have been to in all of my stalking travels. The District became a haven for the artistically-inclined in 1976 thanks to the many affordable studio-type spaces available in the countless then-abandoned buildings and warehouses located there. Artists gradually began to take over the many spacious lofts, turning them into art studios and illegal living spaces (the area was not yet zoned as residential). In the 1980s, the Artists-In-Residence ordinance was passed which allowed lessees to use their flats as live/work spaces and, as a result, even more artisans flocked to the area. Today, the Arts District is a flourishing mecca of artists and hipsters and boasts fabulous brick buildings, sidewalk cafes and more galleries than you can shake a stick at. While there, not only did I feel like I had been transported back to my beloved Manhattan, but we ended up falling bass-ackwards into one of my most sought-after filming locations ever! But that is another story for another post.

In real life, the property where the New Girl gang lives is known as the Binford Building and it was originally constructed in 1906, but was not converted into a residential structure until the mid-1980s. The 36-unit domicile was the brainchild of real estate developer Michael Kamin, owner of the Mika Company, who, in a 1986 Los Angeles Times article said, “We wanted to make the building a statement and an art piece — something that says this is an exciting place to live, something to keep the focus on this street.” I would say he succeeded – in spades! The structure is definitely unique and the most eye-catching on the entire block.

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In New Girl, the Binford Building is where Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Nick (Jake M. Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) live. The exterior of the structure is shown weekly on the series.

The building’s main entrance has also popped up from time to time.

That entrance is shown above.

As you can see, the Binford’s real life directory and intercom are even visible on the show. Love it!

The interior of the gang’s apartment is just a set, though, located at Fox Studios where (I am fairly certain) the series is lensed. You can check out some photographs of the interior of an actual Binford Building unit here. As you can see, it does not look anything like the New Girl loft. I am absolutely IN LOVE with the group’s sprawling, FOUR-bedroom, industrial, brick-walled loft, by the way. The GC and I also live in a loft-style apartment that I ADORE, but it is 750-square feet, has no actual bedrooms and only ONE teeny-tiny closet! Yes, ladies, I have to share a closet with my husband – GASP! The GC recently commented that he has noticed his side of the closet getting gradually smaller over the years. Ha! And here I thought I was being all sly. Winking smile So yes, I have been known to drool copiously while watching New Girl. I definitely have apartment envy!

I could do without their public-style bathroom, though, which is an aspect of the show that I still do not entirely understand.

According to a message board on the Animation Nation website, the premiere episode of the cartoon Family Dog (which was part of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories) was created by animator Brad Bird in one of the Binford Building lofts. The family in the series was even named “The Binfords” in honor of the property. Traction Avenue, the street where the Binford is located, was also mentioned (and briefly seen on a freeway sign) in Bird’s 2004 hit, The Incredibles.

Binford Lofts–the “New Girl” Apartment Building

You can watch a video about the Binford Building lofts by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for asking me to find this location (and for turning me on to New Girl) and to Christine, from OnLocationVacations, for tracking it down! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Binford Building, aka the New Girl apartment building, is located at 837 Traction Avenue in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles.

April 11, 2012April 10, 2012

Grub Restaurant from “The Hills”

While scanning through episodes of The Hills this past weekend looking for the scene that was filmed at Pinches Tacos in West Hollywood, which I blogged about yesterday, I just about fell off my chair when I spotted Grub Restaurant pop up in Season 5’s “Can’t Always Get What You Want”. Amazingly, way back in February of 2011, I had dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Grub as part of his Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt across L.A. (during which we had stalked LACMA, Boardner’s of Hollywood, and the HMS Bounty Bar and Restaurant), but at the time I was completely unaware that the place was a filming location. Thankfully, I snapped some pictures of it regardless, as I am always apt to do when visiting new eateries. I first learned about Grub thanks to fave book Peaceful Places Los Angeles: 110 Tranquil Sites in the City of Angels and Neighboring Communities, which I read while planning the GC’s hunt. Of the Hollywood hideaway, author Laura Randall had this to say, “Hidden by a high trellis bloom-full of seasonal morning glories, the restaurant’s small patio is marked by homey touches such as potted plants, mismatched umbrellas, and flea-market antiques. It sort of feels as if you’re eating in a friend’s back garden.” Because the place sounded so absolutely idyllic, I decided to make it the very first stop on our hunt.

Grub Restaurant was founded in 2001 by former San Francisco actress Betty Fraser and Arkansas native Denise DeCarlo, BFF’s who originally met a few years prior while waitressing at a L.A.-area California Pizza Kitchen. The two first launched a catering company in 1995, which they dubbed “As You Like It Catering” and ran out of a 1920s-era bungalow-style duplex in the heart of Hollywood’s Post-Production District. When neighbors began suggesting that they open an eatery in the charming little space, they thought “Why not?” and Grub Restaurant was born. The eclectic and humorous menu (one entrée is named “Our Friggin’ Amazing French Toast”) features upscale “California comfort food” with offerings such as the White Truffle Burger – a large patty topped with roasted mushrooms, Swiss cheese, caramelized onions, white truffle oil, and fresh arugula, and served on a toasted brioche bun – and the After School Special – a cheddar and Swiss grilled cheese sandwich on thick sourdough bread paired with a cup of homemade Creamy Dreamy Tomato Soup. Um, love it! Grub Restaurant has won countless well-deserved accolades over the years including LA Citysearch’s “Best Lunch Spot” in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and “Best Breakfast in Los Angeles” in 2009 and 2010, Los Angeles Magazine’s “Best Tuna Melt in LA” in 2009, and Zagat Survey’s “Top Five Breakfast Spots” in 2007.

Thanks to Grub Restaurant’s proximity to various Hollywood studios and post-production offices, the place has become a mecca for celebs. Just a few of the stars who have gotten their grub on there (see what I did there Winking smile ) include Sacha Baron Cohen, Charlize Theron, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Tom Sizemore, Jim Caviezel, Bob Guiney, Galen Gering, Zac Efron, Luke Wilson, and Daryl Hannah. Owner Betty Fraser is even a minor-celebrity herself, having appeared on Top Chef, The Today Show and Rachel Ray’s Tasty Travels.

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In the Season 5 episode of The Hills titled “Can’t Always Get What You Want”, Brody Jenner and my girl Kristin Cavallari discussed Brody’s tumultuous relationship with ex-girlfriend Jayde Nicole over breakfast at Grub. Upon first arriving at the eatery, Brody turned to Kristin and said, “You swear by this place”, so I am guessing that KCav used to be a frequent customer.

On a Hills side-note – while watching Season 5 of the series way back in 2009, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with the gold square-shaped necklace that KCav wore in almost every episode. And while I spent countless hours scouring the web trying to figure out who made the darn thing, I came up completely empty-handed. Then, last October, I happened to come across a post on the fabulous The Budgetista blog detailing exactly where I could order one. I ended up buying a gold-plated replica of the necklace (the GC would have killed me had I spent $300 on the actual thing) and not only is it absolutely adorbs, but it is also now one of my favorites. (I am wearing it in the above pic with Idris Elba.) Can’t thank you enough, Budgetista!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Grub Restaurant, from the “Can’t Always Get What You Want” episode of The Hills, is located at 911 Seward Street in Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

April 10, 2012April 9, 2012

Pinches Tacos from “The Hills”

As always seems to happen when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I get together, while out doing some stalking in West Hollywood this past Thursday afternoon, the two of us stumbled upon a filming location without even meaning to do so. After stopping by the Sunset Strip’s new Pink Taco to grab some lunch and finding it inexplicably closed, we headed across the street to a different pink-hued Mexican eatery named Pinches Tacos. Upon ordering our food, we made our way to the restaurant’s patio area and, as I am apt to do when dining at a new place, I started doing some iPhone research to see if, on the off chance, Pinches had ever been used as a filming location. Well, let me tell you, I just about fell off my chair when I came across some behind-the-scenes footage of my girl Kristin Cavallari shooting an unspecified Season 5 episode of fave show The Hills in the very spot where I was then sitting! How I had missed that tidbit when the episode originally aired is beyond me, but needless to say I was absolutely floored over the information and promptly grabbed my camera and ran inside to snap some pics and speak with the manager.

The Sunset Strip Pinches Tacos was first founded in 2007 by brothers Miguel, Jorge and Javier Anaya – nephews of Jose Prado, the former longtime chef of The Ivy turned restaurateur who established The Original Cha Cha Cha in Silverlake, Cocina Primavera in Beverly Hills, Prado Restaurant in Larchmont Village, and Cha Cha Chicken in Santa Monica and Northridge. Everything that the fast-fix hot spot serves – from the salsa to the tortillas – is homemade daily using hundred-year-old secret family recipes from the Anaya brothers’ hometowns of Guadalajara and Jalisco. Thanks to its extremely reasonable prices, fresh fare, and late-night hours (Pinches is open until 3 a.m. each Thursday through Saturday), the eatery became insanely popular virtually overnight and three more outposts have since been launched. Besides West Hollywood, the chain currently boasts restaurants in Culver City and Santa Monica, all of which are family-owned and operated. And Alabama native Ty Taylor loved the place so much that he convinced the Anaya brothers to partner with him in founding an annex in Taylor’s hometown of Homewood. That restaurant opened in January of 2011 and is doing so well that the group is already looking to establish another outpost in Birmingham.

And for those wondering where the name “Pinches” came from, while a note on the eatery’s door states that the term is Spanish slang for “kitchen boy”, Google translate dug up a far more interesting (and far more NSFW) meaning, which you can take a look at here. All I can say is LOL.

While the interior of Pinches Tacos is quite adorable, the patio area, which overlooks the Sunset Strip, is where most people choose to eat, including Mike and me. I cannot tell you how cool it was to sit there, just feet from the bustling Strip, and watch all of the cars zipping by, not to mention the countless Hollywood tour buses – one of which you can see in the background of the above picture. Love it!

Because I am extremely picky about my meat, I opted to order Pinches vegetarian tacos and not only were they bursting with flavor – not something one expects from vegetables – and FABULOUS, but, at $2.95 a piece, were less expensive than a Starbucks latte! I am so going to have to bring the Grim Cheaper back there for lunch. Winking smile

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Oddly enough, the behind-the-scenes footage of The Hills that Mike and I watched while at Pinches did not look at all familiar to me, so when I got home I popped in my DVDs of the series and scanned through each and every Season 5 episode. As it turns out, the Mexican eatery appeared in the episode titled “It’s On Bitch” as the spot where Brody Jenner, Jayde Nicole, Stephanie Pratt, Lo Bosworth, Stacie the Bartender (I so love that she was never referred to by her full name), Justin “Bobby” Brescia, and my girl Kristin Cavallari celebrated Frankie Delgado’s birthday. “It’s On Bitch” was actually the very first episode of The Hills that KCav appeared in, so I am extremely embarrassed that I failed to recognize it. I must be losing my mojo or something! Winking smile Besides being a filming location, Pinches Tacos is also something of a celebrity hotspot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Kat Von D, Jesse James, Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Roberts, Megan Fox, Brian Austin Green, Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone, Gabriel Aubry, Balthazar Getty, Isabel Lucas, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pinches Tacos, from the “It’s On Bitch” episode of The Hills, is located at 8200 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant chain’s official website here.