famous restaurants – Page 10

June 20, 2014July 11, 2014

Hal’s Bar & Grill from “13 Going on 30”

Last week, while shopping in Venice Beach with my girls Lavonna, Kim, Katie and Kaylee, we made a brief stalking stop at Hal’s Bar & Grill, which appeared in one of my favorite movies of all time, 13 Going on 30. During our visit, we happened to have the good fortune to speak with Don Novack, one of Hal’s owners (that thick Southern accent of Lavonna’s worked for us once again!), and I just about fell over when he informed us that the eatery had appeared in Single White Female in 1992! So even though I’ve already blogged about the place once before, I decided Hal’s was most definitely worthy of a redux.

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Don’s foray into the restaurant world was a circuitous one. While working as a real estate broker in 1985, he unwittingly found himself part-owner of a sandwich shack/antique shop named Merchant of Venice after a business deal fell through. Don remained a silent partner for two years, until he learned that the eatery was facing certain financial failure. He decided to take over operations of the place at that point and brought in his wife, Linda, to help. He also partnered up with Hal Frederick, a fellow real estate broker, whom he had just recently met. The group remodeled the space into an upscale venue, gave the menu a full revamp and renamed the site “Hal’s Bar & Grill.” The property opened its doors to the public in 1987 and very little of it has been changed since.

Hal’s became an immediate success, despite the fact that the neighborhood was rough (to say the least) at the time. Abbot Kinney Boulevard has since experienced a major revitalization and patrons continue to flock to Hal’s, 27 years after its inception. The eatery is also a major celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted dining there include Jessica Simpson, Eric Johnson, Robert Downey Jr., Mike Tyson, Lindsay Lohan, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Tom Hanks, Kobe Bryant, Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson, Dermot Mulroney, Ewan McGregor, Reese Witherspoon, Rachel McAdams and Josh Lucas.

Hal's Bar & Grill (5 of 8)

In the 1992 thriller Single White Female, Hal’s stood in for the supposed New York restaurant where Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) made a deal to sell her computer program to Mitchell Myerson (Stephen Tobolowsky).

Surprisingly, although 22 years have since passed, the eatery still looks much the same today as it did onscreen in Single White Female. LOVE that!

In 2004’s 13 Going on 30, Hal’s masqueraded as the New York City bar where Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) hit on a teenage boy. Only the interior of Hal’s appeared in the movie.

The exterior of the restaurant can actually be found about 3,000 miles away in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. You can read the post I wrote on the exterior here.

Don also informed us that Hal’s had appeared in two episodes of Californication. Because I am not very familiar with the Showtime series, I asked fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, if he happened to know which two episodes had been lensed on the premises. Sure enough, he did. Thank you, Geoff! In 2007, Hal’s was the site of the very bad double date between Hank Moody (David Duchovny) and Meredith (Amy Price-Francis) and Charlie (Evan Handler) and Marcy Runkle (Pamela Adlon) in Californication’s pilot episode.

Hal’s also popped up this year in the Season 7 episode of Californication titled “Faith, Hope, Love,” in a flashback scene in which Hank remembers going on another double date, this time with his ex-wife, Karen (Natascha McElhone), and Charlie and Marcy. Several areas of the eatery appeared in the episode, including the exterior;

the front entrance and bar;

and main dining room.

Don told us that Hal’s was featured in an episode of another show that I am unfamiliar with, Curb Your Enthusiasm. So I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, to figure out which episode and, thankfully, he came through. Hal’s stood in for Primo Trattoria in Season 6’s “The TiVo Guy,” which aired in 2007. In the episode, Larry David (who plays himself) gets snubbed by his favorite restaurant after his wife, Cheryl David (Cheryl Hines), leaves him. Both the interior . . .

. . . and the exterior of Hal’s (which I somehow failed to get any photographs of) were shown several times throughout “The TiVo Guy.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hal’s Bar & Grill, from 13 Going On 30, is located at 1349 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 6, 2014June 5, 2014

Tom’s Bistro from “Parks and Recreation”

A couple of months ago, I asked fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, to assist me in finding Tom’s Bistro from fave show Parks and Recreation. It took him less than a minute to track the place down (thanks to this April 25th tweet). As it turns out, a Hollywood pizzeria named Delancey stood in for the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area restaurant. Once Owen told me the news, I wanted to kick myself as the very same eatery had been used as a location in another of my favorite shows, Dexter. Though I had never stalked it, how I did not recognize the place is absolutely beyond me! So I decided to amend the situation and ran out to visit Delancey last week while I was in L.A. (You can tell from the photograph above that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, was with me when I did so. The pictures I take never turn out that good!)

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Delancey was originally opened by restaurateur George Abou-Daoud (he also founded Bowery, Rosewood Tavern and The Mercantile Wine Bar, as well as several other L.A. eateries) in April 2008. He designed the space, which previously housed Taste of Thai, to resemble a New York bistro.

Delancey’s exterior is marked by red subway tile and wrought-iron detailing and does very much look like a restaurant one would find in the West Village.

The interior boasts much of that same Big-Apple vibe, with dark Cherry hardwood floors, exposed brick arches, pressed-tin ceilings, antique radiators, an oak bar and red leather booths.

Sadly, Mike and I did not get to sample any of Delancey’s fare while we were there (we had just finished a big meal elsewhere), but, from what I’ve read online, the food is superb. I cannot wait to go back there sometime in the near future.

Delancey was first featured in the Season 6 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “New Slogan,” in the scene in which Donna Meagle (Retta) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) took Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) location scouting for his new restaurant. Only the interior of the gastropub appeared in the episode.

The interior actually only appeared in that one episode. According to the super-nice server that we spoke with, a set based on Delancey’s interior was built at CBS Studio Center, where the series is lensed, shortly following the “New Slogan” filming.

Delancey was not featured again until the Season 6 finale of Parks and Rec, which was titled “Moving Up.” This time, the exterior of the eatery was shown in both a daytime shot . . .

. . . and a nighttime shot.

In “Moving Up,” the replica set was used for interior filming.

As you can see below, the interior of Tom’s Bistro is considerably larger than the actual Delancey interior. (This marketing scheme is absolutely amazing, by the way!)

On a random Parks side-note – In the “Moving Up” episode, Aubrey Plaza looked to be wearing Adina Reyter’s Tiny Square Necklace – the very same necklace that my girl Kristin Cavallari regularly wears, which I had a faux gold replica of made a couple of years ago.

As I mentioned earlier, Delancey also appeared in Dexter. In the Season 5 episode titled “My Bad” the restaurant was used in a flashback scene in which Rita Bennett (Julie Benz) and Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) had their first date.

Only the interior of Delancey was shown in the scene.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Delancey, aka Tom’s Bistro from Parks and Recreation, is located at 5936 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

Phil’s Diner from “The X-Files”

When I was in L.A. last week, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I spent two full days stalking. Our adventures took us from one end of Los Angeles to the other. At one point, while in North Hollywood, we passed by Phil’s Diner at 5230 Lankershim Boulevard and stopped to snap some pics. I figured the historic-looking restaurant had to have appeared onscreen at some time, so I did a quick Google search on my iPhone and just about fell over when I learned that the eatery had been used in my very favorite episode of The X-Files EVER, Season 2’s “Humbug.” (“I’ve seen the future and the future looks just like him!”) Talk about a lucky twist of fate!

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Phil’s Diner was constructed in 1926 for the J.F. Phillip restaurant chain (hence the name). It was designed in a train-car style by Charles Amend and originally stood (according to this article) near the intersection of Ventura and Lankershim Boulevards. The eatery was relocated at some point to 11138 Chandler Boulevard, where it spent the bulk of its years. (There are several online articles which state that the café was moved countless times throughout its history, once sitting on Crenshaw Boulevard, near the corner of West Adams. I am fairly certain that information is incorrect, though. I believe that storefront was a different Phil’s outpost – one that is no longer standing.) You can check out some fabulous early photographs of Phil’s at its Chandler Boulevard location here.

For over two decades, beginning in the 1970s, Phil’s Diner was run by Charles and Wendy Hong, a native Korean couple who served up no-fuss American comfort food with an Asian flair. The restaurant flourished under their leadership. Then, in the mid-90s, nearby MTA Red Line construction and tunneling caused a severe downfall in patronage and in 1997 the couple was forced to shutter the café. While it was purchased by a man named Casey Hallenbeck the next year, it stood abandoned for the following decade. The structure was eventually moved to a vacant lot in 2009, where it sat on blocks in a sad graffiti-covered state.

While sitting abandoned, Phil’s vintage signage was stolen and never ended up being recovered. The sign that currently stands in front of Phil’s is a replica.

In 2011, Phil’s was moved to its current location and plans were made to reopen it as part of the new NoHo Commons complex. After a $1.1-million restoration, the eatery opened in April 2011, but sadly only lasted eight months. By December, the restaurant, which is California’s oldest dining car and the only surviving outpost of the Phil’s chain, was shuttered. It remains closed to this day.

Though closed, I managed to snap a few photographs of Phil’s interior through the windows.

As you can see, despite being out of operation for several years, the eatery is still in great shape. The wood-detailing is simply gorgeous! And what I wouldn’t give to catch a close-up glimpse of those headshots lining the ceiling!

Thanks to its historic look, Phil’s Diner has been featured in numerous productions over the years. Phil Everly, of the Everly Brothers, shot the cover of his 1974 solo album, aptly titled “Phil’s Diner,” in front of the eatery.

The diner was visible in the background of a 1977 informational video for the Emergency Medical Service titled “Life or Death,” which you can watch here.

Phil’s Diner briefly appeared in 1986’s Night of the Creeps, in the scene in which Detective Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins) raced to a death scene.

In the Season 2 episode of The X-Files titled “Humbug,” Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) travel to Gibsonton, Florida to investigate a murder that took place in a rural community of sideshow circus performers. Upon first arriving in town, the duo head to a local café to speak to Sheriff Hamilton (Wayne Grace) about the killing. Phil’s Diner was used for the establishing shot of that café.

Interior filming took place elsewhere, though – somewhere in Vancouver where the series’ first five seasons were lensed. As you can see below, the interior of the diner that was used was substantially larger than the interior of Phil’s.

Phil’s Diner was also featured in episodes of Baretta, The Millionaire Matchmaker, Hart to Hart and The White Shadow, and in one of the Friday the 13th movies. I am unsure of the particulars of those productions, though, but if any of my fellow stalkers have information on the filmings, please fill me in.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Phil’s Diner, from the “Humbug” episode of The X-Files, is located at 5230 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. The restaurant is currently closed.

May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

Viva Cantina from “The Girls Next Door”

Each May, my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and I have a standing lunch date to celebrate her birthday. We usually hit up Sizzler (‘cause we’re fancy like that!), but this year she requested to dine at Viva Cantina in Burbank – a place I had long wanted to stalk thanks to its appearance in a Season 3 episode of The Girls Next Door. So I, of course, happily obliged.

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Viva Cantina, also known as Viva Fresh, has been around since 1962. Surprisingly though, I could find no information whatsoever about its history online or in any of my books about Los Angeles (and believe me, my collection is extensive).

What I can report on, thanks to my experience dining there earlier this week, is that the food is delish! Pinky and her husband, Mr. Keith Coogan from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead fame, love the place so much that they eat there almost weekly, in fact.

In the Season 3 episode of The Girls Next Door titled “May the Horse Be with You,” Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, Bridget Marquardt, and a few of their Playmate friends visited Sunset Ranch and took part in their famous Dinner Tour horseback ride (something the Grim Cheaper and I have always wanted to do).

The Dinner Tour, which costs $100 per person, is comprised of a four-hour, five-mile evening ride through Griffith Park with a mid-way meal stop at Viva Cantina. Um, count me in!

During their visit, Holly, Kendra, Bridget and the girls ate in Viva’s red-leathered back room.

Pinky and I also ate in the back room, which is pictured below.

And while I could have sworn that an episode of Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica was also lensed at Viva Cantina, I scanned through my DVDs of the series while researching this post and did not see the eatery pop up anywhere.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Viva Cantina, from the “May the Horse Be with You” episode of The Girls Next Door, is located at 900 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. The Los Angeles Equestrian Center, from Beverly Hills, 90210 and Pretty Woman (which I blogged about here), is located right next door at 480 West Riverside Drive. You can visit the Equestrian Center’s website here. And Pickwick Bowl, from Parks and Recreation (which I blogged about here), is located across the street at 1001 West Riverside Drive. You can visit the Pickwick Bowl website here.

April 1, 2014March 31, 2014

Auntie Em’s Kitchen from “L!fe Happens”

I recently re-watched the 2011 romantic comedy L!fe Happens and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more the second time around. One of the locations featured in it – Auntie Em’s Kitchen in Eagle Rock – I had actually recognized during my first viewing. I used to drive by the place frequently when I lived in Pasadena, but, despite hearing rave reviews, never dropped in. So I decided that it was high time I did so and headed on over there a couple of weeks ago for lunch.

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Auntie Em’s owner, Theresa Wahl, was led to the food world in a rather circuitous way. The former lead singer and guitarist for the all-female punk bank The Red Aunts, Theresa spent the better part of the ‘90s touring the U.S. and Europe. During her travels, she discovered countless new recipes, as well as some modern twists on old favorites. Upon returning to L.A., Wahl decided to put what she had learned to good use. She retired from singing and focused her efforts on the culinary arts, opening up a catering company specializing in good old American comfort food. Thanks to her music connections, she quickly landed jobs providing fare for bands and on music video and production sets. Just a few of the famous names that Theresa has fed over the years include Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rihanna, Brandy, Sheryl Crow, Carmen Electra, Dr. Phil, Lionel Richie, Alec Baldwin, Elton John, Ellen DeGeneres, and Cindy Crawford. She even provided the catering for Rose McGowan’s October 2013 wedding to Davey Detail.

In 2002, Theresa founded Auntie Em’s Kitchen, named in honor of the Auntie Em character from The Wizard of Oz. Um, love it! The place was an instant success and led to appearances for Theresa on the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Sugar High.

Auntie Em’s cheerful interior décor (which I somehow did not take any photographs of) is reminiscent of Monica and Rachel’s apartment on Friends – a bright mish-mash of colors and styles that merge together perfectly to create a warm, welcoming space. The eatery also features a bakery (which, being diabetic, I, unfortunately, could not partake of) and a marketplace that sells gourmet foods and unique trinkets. The place is pretty much the restaurant version of my favorite store, Lula Mae. Of the fare, Wahl said in a January 2013 USA Today article, “We’re cooking up comfort food with attitude. It’s just like Mom would make, if Mom had been a punk rocker with a baking habit. These are recipes that make me happy, and I love sharing them.” All ingredients are fresh – she says, “If it can’t be found at the farmers’ market, it won’t be found on your plate” – and almost everything served is homemade on the premises. What isn’t, is obtained from such high-regarded spots as La Brea Bakery and Strauss Family Creamery. I opted for the Artisanal Cheese Plate for my lunch and it was fabulous!

In L!fe Happens, Auntie Em’s Kitchen is where Deena (Kate Bosworth) writes her book and where she allows Henri (Justin Kirk) to hang out with her, as long as he adheres to her conditions – “no talking, no touching, no disturbing my work flow.” Only the exterior of the restaurant was used in the filming and, as you can see below, two large foliage pieces were installed at either end of the property during the shoot, most likely to block the view of the prying lenses of the paparazzi.

ScreenShot547

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Auntie Em’s Kitchen, from L!fe Happens, is located at 4616 Eagle Rock Boulevard in Eagle Rock. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

February 4, 2014February 3, 2014

Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from “License to Drive”

After reading my January 13th post about Mercedes’ friend’s house from fave movie License to Drive, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’s Filmed There blog, texted to let me know that he had managed to track down the Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from the 1988 flick. As fate would have it, the storefront next door to Shakey’s had appeared in 1976’s The Bad News Bears, a movie Chas had covered on his site. The bad news (pun intended) was that the shopping center where it was once located is no longer standing. The structure was torn down sometime in the ‘90s and a new center subsequently built in its place. Because I had been itching to find it for so long, though, I figured it was still blog-worthy.

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The location pops up once in License to Drive, in the scene in which Les Anderson (Corey Haim) accidentally drives off of an embankment before crash-landing in front of a random Shakey’s Pizza Parlor.

A sporting goods store was visible in the background of the scene and it was that shop that Chas recognized from The Bad News Bears. As you can see below, the sign, logo and roofline of the store from The Bad News Bears (second screen capture below) are an exact match to those of the storefront that appeared next door to Shakey’s in License to Drive (first screen capture below).

You can even make out the word “parlor” on the building next door to the sporting goods shop in The Bad News Bears scene.

While watching The Bad News Bears, Chas had spotted an address number of “19321” on the space next door to the sporting goods store. A quick Google search showed him that there was only shopping plaza in Los Angeles with shops boasting address numbers in 19300 range – The Village in Reseda. When he looked at aerial images of The Village, though, he realized that it was most-definitely not the same spot that had been featured in The Bad News Bears.

Enter the Historic Aerials website, from which we learned that there was once a different shopping center located on the property, one which had been demolished and rebuilt sometime prior to 2003. In the 1980 aerial view pictured below, Shakey’s former location is denoted with a pink arrow. Today, that area is partially comprised of a Chase bank and The Village’s parking lot

A current aerial view of The Village is pictured below with the former Shakey’s location denoted with a pink “X.”

According to this Valley News article, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Reseda Shakey’s took place in December 1964. Because the shopping center where it formerly stood was torn down sometime between 1988 and 2003, I am guessing that the demolition occurred due to damage resulting from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. That is just a guess, though.

Sick Sam’s Rent-a-Car, which played a role in the movie’s original ending, but is only visible briefly in the background of the final cut, has also since been torn down.

Its former location is denoted with a pink circle below.

Today, a large apartment building stands in that spot.

On a License to Drive side-note – I’ve been searching for photographs of the Cabriolet I drove as a teenager ever since I wrote my post about the License to Drive hospital. As I mentioned in the post, even though I was a mere 11 years old at the time, as soon as I first laid eyes on the white VW convertible Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham) drove at the end of the movie, I became completely obsessed with it. I made it known that it was the only car I wanted to drive upon turning 16 and my amazing parents gifted me one on my 16th birthday! I finally found photographs of it yesterday. That’s me (big hair, don’t care!) with one of my best friends Natalie just a few days after I received it. Seriously, Best. Car. Ever.

It should come as no surprise that my fellow celeb-obsessed friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, also drove a white VW Cabriolet in her teens, for the very same reason I did. I couldn’t believe it when I found out! We are so kindred spirits!

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’s Filmed There, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from License to Drive was formerly located at 19341 Saticoy Street in Reseda. It was torn down and no part of the structure currently remains.

November 20, 2013November 20, 2013

Aldo’s Coffee Shop – Where Sonny Met Cher

On the November 4th episode of Dancing with the Stars, which featured singer Cher as a guest judge, contestants Leah Remini and Tony Dovolani danced a Viennese Waltz that adorably reenacted Cher’s first encounter with Sonny Bono to the 1965 hit “I Got You Babe.” In the segment showing Leah and Tony prepping for the performance, Leah mentioned that Sonny and Cher first met at a coffee shop in L.A. Well, believe you me, those words were hardly out of her mouth before I had my phone in hand to try to track down the location of that coffee shop. Through a simple Google search, I quickly learned that the name of the shop was Aldo’s, but I could not seem to find an address for it anywhere. So the following morning I emailed fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory, to see if he might be able to help and he responded just a few minutes later with two possible addresses. From there it was not too hard to figure out the right one. Sadly, the building that once housed Aldo’s was demolished around 1991 and the site today is just a vacant lot (I think – but more on that later). I still ran right out to stalk it, though, this past week while the Grim Cheaper and I were in L.A.

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To find the address for Aldo’s Coffee Shop, E.J. scanned through old Los Angeles phone directories and came up with two results – 6413 Hollywood Boulevard and 6721 Hollywood Boulevard, as you can see below. Cher mentioned in her autobiography, The First Time (which I checked out from the library the day after the Dancing with the Stars episode aired), that the Aldo’s where she met Sonny was located next door to the KFWB radio station studio. From there, I tracked down the station’s location in 1962, the year Sonny and Cher met, which turned out to be 6419 Hollywood Boulevard, meaning that the correct Aldo’s was the one at 6413. Eureka!

Cher, who was 16 at the time, met Sonny thanks to her then-boyfriend, record-promoter Red Baldwin. Of their first encounter, Cher writes, “One day Red told me, ‘I have a great friend who just split up with his wife. He’s a weird guy, but he’s a lot of fun, and everyone loves him. Maybe you could introduce him to your roommate, and we could double-date.’ So we all decided to meet. One afternoon at Aldo’s Coffee Shop, a hangout for radio people and disc jockeys who worked next door at KFWB, Red and I sat down at a table with Melissa, my roommate. Then someone came in, and everybody turned around. The room started buzzing – ‘Sonny’s here! ‘Hey, Son!’ – and that’s when I got my first look at Salvatore Phillip Bono. I will never forget it, because everyone else in the room disappeared, just washed away into some fuzzy soft focus, like when Maria saw Tony at the dance in West Side Story.” She later states, “And I actually thought to myself, Something is different now. You’re never going to be the same.” And while she broke up with Red the following morning, it took a bit more time for Sonny to feel the fireworks, initially telling Cher, “I don’t find you terribly attractive.” LOL

Sadly, I cannot find any photographs of Aldo’s online. You can check out a picture of what the KFWB building, which was demolished in 1991, looked like in 1972 here, though. The photo below was taken from virtually the same angle. While comparing the storefronts that appear in the 1972 image to the listings in the 1973 Los Angeles phone directory, I noticed that some things did not seem to add up and have come to the conclusion that Aldo’s was most likely located in the western-most space of the building denoted with a pink arrow below, which is currently addressed 6411 Hollywood Boulevard. I believe that structure was also torn down at some point and rebuilt (and its address subsequently changed from 6413 to 6411), as it does not match the building that stands in that spot in the 1972 photo. Without seeing actual images of Aldo’s, though, I cannot be certain.

The site does boast a fabulous view of the Hollywood Sign, so at least there’s that. Winking smile

You can watch Leah and Tony’s adorably sweet “I Got You Babe” dance by clicking below.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory , for helping me to find this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Aldo’s Coffee Shop, where Cher and Sonny Bono first met, was formerly located at 6413 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

November 7, 2013November 6, 2013

Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain from “That Thing You Do!”

Another That Thing You Do! locale that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk while the two of us were in the city of Orange in early October was Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain, which popped up twice in the 1996 flick. And while I really wanted to grab a bite there, sadly the GC and I had just eaten prior to arriving in Orange. It was still extremely cool to see the place, which is Orange County’s oldest drugstore and the city of Orange’s oldest continually operating business, in person, though.

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The pharmacy portion of Watson’s was originally founded on Glassell Street by a pharmacist named Keller E. Watson, Sr. in 1899. Two years later, K.E. Watson’s, as it was then known, was moved around the corner to a building on East Chapman Avenue where it has remained ever since (although it has occupied various different storefronts). In 1915, Keller added a soda fountain to the site and Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain was born. When Keller retired in the 1930s, his son, Keller E. Watson, Jr., took over the operations until he, too, retired in 1965. The shop subsequently went through a succession of different owners and then, in 1971, Scott Parker, a pharmacist from Utah, purchased a portion of it. Scott took over the site completely in 1986 and, while the pharmacy section was closed in 2011, the Parker family still runs the establishment to this day.

As you can see below, walking inside the eatery is like taking a step back in time. Besides serving up hamburgers, shakes and its famous malts, the place also sells gifts and cards, so, of course, I just had to do a little shopping while I was there. Winking smile

Watson Drugs first popped up in That Thing You Do! in the scene in which Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) informed Faye Dolan (Liv Tyler) that he had just accidentally hit her car, which was parked outside. As you can see below, both the exterior and the interior of the shop were dressed heavily for the shoot.

Watson’s later appeared in the scene in which Guy gave Faye and his fellow Wonders – Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech), Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn), and T.B. Player (Ethan Embry) – portable radios so that they would be able to keep an ear out for their song at all times.

Thanks to its old-fashioned charm, Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain has long been a favorite of location managers. In the 1987 made-for-television movie The Stepford Children (which looks pretty good, shockingly!), the diner was where Laura Harding (Barbara Eden) told her husband, Steven Harding (Don Murray), that she wanted to leave Stepford and move to a new town.

In 2004, the interior of Watson’s masqueraded as two different Massachusetts-area locales in the Season 1 episode of Medical Investigation titled “Progeny.” It first stood in for the soda shop where a child named Joey White (Adam Taylor Gordon) had a seizure and collapsed. The space was dressed heavily for the shoot, though, and is not very recognizable in the scene.

And, for whatever reason, producers chose to use a different location to stand in for the shop’s exterior, as you can see below.

Later in the episode, Watson’s popped up as the diner where Dr. Stephen Connor (Neal McDonough) and his team – Dr. Natalie Durant (Kelli Williams), Dr. Miles McCabe (Christopher Gorham), Eva Rossi (Anna Belknap), and Frank Powell (Troy Winbush) – discussed what might be causing Joey’s ailment.

Once again, a different location stood in for the coffee shop’s exterior. That exterior, which was also used as Rosalita’s Bar on the television series Happy Endings, can be found on the Paramount Studios backlot.

In the 2006 comedy The Benchwarmers, Watson Drugs was where Gus (Rob Schneider) met his new statistician, Sammy Sprinkler (Alex Warrick). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the diner were used in the scene.

According to the Filmed in Orange website, Watson’s appeared in Fallen Angel, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the 1945 production with which to make screen captures for this post. And while the eatery’s website asserts that the spot was featured in the 1981 comedy The Cannonball Run, I scanned through the flick and did not see it anywhere. Watson’s website also states that Don Knotts, Shelley Hack and Jimmy Smits have all shot commercials on the premises and that George W. Bush made a stop there to pick up a malt while campaigning for the presidency in 2000.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain, from That Thing You Do!, is located at 116 East Chapman Avenue in Orange. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. Tiddlywinks Toys and Games, aka Patterson’s Appliances from the movie, is located just around the corner at 129 North Glassell Street. The That Thing You Do! mailbox scene was filmed just a few storefronts north of Tiddlywinks, in front of 173 North Glassell Street. The building that was dressed to look like a Woolworths in the flick can be found across the street at 160/162 North Glassell.

August 16, 2013August 15, 2013

The Derby Restaurant from “Step Brothers”

During a recent visit to Los Angeles, the Grim Cheaper and I stayed at an Arcadia hotel that just so happened to be located right across the street from a nine-decades old eatery that I had always wanted to stalk – The Derby Restaurant, which was featured in the 2008 comedy Step Brothers. As y’all know, this stalker absolutely loves herself any location with a history! So I dragged the GC right on over there to partake of what turned out to be a fabulous happy hour. (And correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t stepbrothers one word? Why, oh, why was it separated into two for the movie’s title? This is most-definitely a case for fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog!)

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The Derby Restaurant was originally founded by Arcadia Rotary Club charter member Hudson M. Proctor in 1922 at a location on Foothill Boulevard near the Santa Anita Park racetrack (which I blogged about here). At the time it was known as Proctor’s Tavern. Nine years later, when the main thoroughfare in Arcadia shifted from Foothill Boulevard to Huntington Drive, Hudson decided to move his eatery to its current home at 233 East Huntington. The new site featured two dining rooms, two fireplaces and a second-floor apartment where Hudson lived with his wife.

In December 1938, the steakhouse was purchased by Canadian-born jockey legend George “The Iceman” Woolf, who is best known for riding Seabiscuit to several victories, and his partner Bill Peterson. The duo renamed the site “The Derby Restaurant” in honor of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the U.S. Triple Crown. Woolf decorated the property with memorabilia and photographs from his racing career, most of which are still displayed on the premises to this day.

When Woolf was tragically killed during a race on January 3, 1946, his wife, Genevieve, took over daily operation of the restaurant. In 1951, she sold the property to Dominic and Lorene Sturniolo, who continued to run the eatery, along with their son, for the next fifty-plus years. Today, The Derby, which has the distinction of being one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles County, is owned by Dustin Nicolarsen and Michael Thomas. On August 11th, 2011, the Arcadia Historical Society presented a historical marker (one of only eight) to the Zagat-rated site commemorating its significance to the city that it has called home for over 90 years.

While The Derby’s menu is on the pricier side, fortunately the happy hour offerings are very reasonable (which is the only reason the GC agreed to eat there Winking smile ). And I can honestly say that the food is delicious! The place is extremely popular, though, and the bar area was absolutely jam-packed when we arrived, so be prepared for a wait if you happen to venture out there on a Friday night.

In Step Brothers, The Derby Restaurant masqueraded as RJ Posner’s steakhouse, where the birthday party for Derek Doback (Adam Scott) was held. It is during the party that Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) unveil their new music video, which alerts their father/stepfather, Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins), to the fact that his beloved boat has been destroyed.

The birthday party scene was shot in The Derby’s main dining room, which is located just east of the front entrance.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Derby Restaurant, from Step Brothers, is located at 233 East Huntington Drive in Arcadia. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

August 2, 2013August 1, 2013

The “Little Miss Sunshine” Restaurant

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, while doing research on the former Abiquiu eatery (now Wokcano) from Get Shorty (which I blogged about here), I came across a Chowhound message board on which a commenter named Kevin stated that Pann’s restaurant in Ladera Heights was the spot where the Hoover clan – Olive (Abigail Breslin), Richard (Greg Kinnear), Dwayne (Paul Dano), Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin), Sheryl (Toni Collette), and Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carell) – stopped for a mid-road-trip breakfast in fave movie Little Miss Sunshine. Because the breakfast scene was one of my favorites in the entire flick, I was extremely excited to learn this information. Unfortunately though, as is so often the case with locales that are posted online, this one turned out to be wrong.

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While Pann’s menus were visible in the scene, as you can see below, one look at online images of the interior of the restaurant and I knew that it was not the right place. Convincing me further was the fact that Pann’s is not located directly below a freeway overpass, as the Little Miss Sunshine café was shown to be (which you can also see below).

So I got to cyberstalking and fairly quickly came across an absolutely amazing YouTube video (that you can watch by clicking below) in which a fellow stalker named smbstressfest chronicled pretty much every single locale that appeared in the movie. And while he did not state the addresses of any of the places, in response to a commenter named starbucksmunkey (love it!), he did give the Google Earth coordinates of the restaurant. Woot woot! And even though smbstressfest had mentioned that the eatery was no longer in operation, I was still chomping at the bit to stalk it and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there this past weekend while the two of us were in L.A.

The Little Miss Sunshine production notes state that the flick was lensed over a thirty-day period during the “hot” summer of 2005, at which time, according to the mmm-yoso!!! website, the space housed an eatery named Rutt’s Hawaiian Café. Rutt’s was shuttered by the time smbstressfest stalked it in 2007 (the chain still boasts an outpost in Culver City, though) and at some point thereafter a Mexican steakhouse named Don Carlos was opened on the site, but it, too, has since been closed. According the property’s LoopNet listing, the 5,130-square-foot building also once housed a Denny’s.

Which makes sense because the property does look very much like a Denny’s location – to me, at least.

And while a sign in the window states that Maly’s Pizza Buffet is “coming soon”, I do not know how accurate that is.

In Little Miss Sunshine, the Hoover family stops at the café towards the beginning of their road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach. It is there that Olive orders waffles “alamodie” and is lambasted by her father for choosing to eat something so high in fat.

The interior of Rutt’s was used quite extensively in the filming. Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to have been able to go inside that restaurant!

Thankfully, I was able to snap a few photographs of the interior through the front window, although they are not of the section of the restaurant that appeared in the movie. In Little Miss Sunshine, Olive and her family dined in the southeast portion of the building, but the only area in which the blinds were not drawn was the northern part, unfortunately. Boo!

The exterior of Rutt’s was also shown in the scene.

You can watch the Little Miss Sunshine restaurant scene by clicking below.

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

Big THANK YOU to smbstressfest for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The supposed Pann’s restaurant from Little Miss Sunshine is actually the former Rutt’s Hawaiian Café located at 17371 East Valley Boulevard in La Puente. Unfortunately, the eatery is currently closed.