Tag: famous restaurants

Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea in Pasadena – One of Joel McHale’s Favorite Hangouts

As I have mentioned quite a few times before on my blog, this stalker absolutely loves herself some Joel McHale. So when I saw that the cutie The Soup host/Community star had been interviewed about some of his favorite SoCal haunts in the August 2011 “The Best of LA” issue of Los Angeles Magazine, I just about died of excitement! And, being that this stalker also absolutely loves herself some coffee, when I discovered that the actor frequents a java spot right near where I live in Pasadena, I almost had a full-blown heart attack right on the spot! In the brief blurb, which is pictured above, Joel mentions that his two young sons love visiting Travel Town at Griffith Park and the Train Shack in Burbank and that a great night out with his wife would include meals or cocktails at Harvard & Stone, Girasole, Mozza, Cut, or Varnish (all of which I will, of course, be stalking in the very near future ). But the quote that caught my eye had to do with a recently-opened coffee bar in Old Town Pasadena that I have walked by about a hundred times in the past few months, but had yet to visit. (I know, I know – a coffee bar that I have not yet sampled? Did hell freeze over or something?) When asked where Joel goes for “solo time”, the actor responded, “Solo time is in my car, but if I’m alone and want to be in a social atmosphere, I would choose LaMill in Silver Lake or Intelligentsia in Pasadena.” So I, of course, immediately ran right out to stalk the place the very next day.

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I first walked by Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea shortly after it opened in August of last year and was completely floored to discover that the place was not only a coffee house, but a restaurant and wine bar, as well. I am of the opinion that every type of public space should house a built-in coffee bar, e.g. nail salons, laundry mats, book shops, museums, clothing stores, etc., etc., etc. So when I saw that Intelligentsia not only served espresso, but champagne (which is my other culinary vice), as well, I was beyond excited! I immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and told him about the place and what a fabulous idea I thought it was. According to fave website Eater LA, of the concept owner Doug Zell says, “The neighborhood there in Old Town Pasadena reminds us of some European and South American cities where you can walk into a café or bar and be served a great espresso any time of day, but also a nice lunch, a beer after work, a glass of wine on a date.” Zell was apparently inspired to open the space after visiting an eatery in San Paulo, Brazil that served beer, wine, food, and fine coffee. Never have I so badly wanted to visit Brazil!

The first Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea was opened in October of 1995 on the north side of Chicago by coffee-loving couple Doug Zell and Emily Mange. Sixteen years later, the Zagat-rated chain, which employs coffee sommeliers at each outpost (love it!), boasts nine locations in three different cities – Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. (The Pasadena branch is the first to offer food and wine.) Celebrities have been flocking to the company’s four L.A.-area locations since the very beginning. Just a few of the stars who have gotten their java on at the chain include Vanessa Hudgens, Zachary Quinto, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson, Joe Jonas, Christina Ricci, Jake Gyllenhaal, and, of course, Joel McHale. Amazingly enough, the recent Los Angeles Magazine article was not Joel’s first mention of the coffee house. He also spoke about it in a June 2011 Chicago Tribune interview in which he said, “I do drink Intelligentsia. I wish there was one slightly closer to my house. There are two of them right now. Hopefully, they’ll open more. But the coffee is—no, there’s three of them now, four; I don’t know. There’s a couple in Pasadena, one on Sunset and one in Santa Monica, which is not geographically conducive to me. But it’s great coffee.” Even though it is not geographically conducive, according to the barista that I spoke with, the actor does stop by the Pasadena outpost fairly regularly. She also told me that Joel could NOT be nicer, friendlier, or more down-to-earth, which was the exact impression I got of him when I met him at the Envelope Emmy Week Geek TV Event this past June. (I also just got to go to a taping of The Soup this past Friday, thanks to my good friend/fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, which was an ABSOLUTELY amazing experience that I will be blogging about soon.)

As my fellow stalkers very well know, I have long been a Starbucks girl at heart and can rarely find a coffee house that compares. But I am very happy to report that Joel McHale has some great taste in java, because Intelligentsia serves up some FABULOUS joe! I was VERY pleasantly surprised as I find that most independent stores make a brew that is far too strong for my taste. Intelligentsia’s was a perfect blend, though, and, coming from me, that is the ultimate compliment! And, let me tell you, I just about fell over when the girl ahead of me in line ordered a cappuccino and it came out looking like this. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is located at 55 East Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit the chain’s official website here.

August 8, 2011
Le Petit Bistro from “90210”

A couple of Saturday nights ago, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves in West Hollywood, tired and hungry after a long day of stalking. We happened to come across an absolutely adorable little French restaurant named Le Petit Bistro and decided to pop in for a bite to eat. Now, usually I do not like to frequent eateries that are not mentioned on my (very long and ever-growing) “To Stalk” list, but because the place was so darn cute I made an out-of-character exception. So imagine my surprise when later that week I happened to be perusing through my friend and fellow stalker Geoff’s 90210Locations website and saw that Le Petit Bistro was listed as a filming location from fave show 90210! I literally just about fell off my chair and immediately started mentally kicking myself for not taking more pictures of the place.

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In the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much Is That Liam In The Window”, college student/budding writer Charlie Selby (aka Evan Ross, who I just found out is Diana Ross’ son!) takes Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) out for a date at Le Petit Bistro, his favorite French restaurant. After the waiter approaches their table and says something in French, Annie asks Charlie, “Are you sure you didn’t secretly drug me and take me to Paris?” (The menus pictured above are the eatery’s actual menus, by the way! How incredibly cool is that?)

Annie’s assessment of the Zagat-rated restaurant, which first opened in 1993, could NOT have been more spot-on! Thanks to its dark red walls, French-accented waiters, wood-paneled bar, and covered patio (made complete with twinkle lights), the Grim Cheaper and I absolutely did feel like we had been magically transported to Paris! And I am very happy to report that besides the incredible ambiance, Le Petit Bistro also serves up some out-of-this-world food! For whatever reason, I opted for a bit of a strange order that night – a parmesan cheese salad that was one of the evening’s specials, the Blue Crab Cakes appetizer, and a side of marinated wild mushrooms. Even though it might sound odd ordered all together like that, it was an absolutely incredible meal, especially the mushrooms! My mouth still waters just thinking about those mushrooms weeks later! The GC ordered one of the restaurant’s fish specials which was adorned with homemade mushroom risotto and it was also scrumptious! And best of all (in the GC’s eyes at least), the prices were extremely reasonable. We both absolutely fell in love with the place and cannot wait to go back!

Besides being a filming location, Le Petit Bistro is also something of a celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the famous faces who have dined there over the years include Dr. Dre, Neve Campbell, Julio Iglesias, Alfred Molina, Sean Connery, Salma Hayek, Robert Forster, Denise Grayson, Suzanne Somers, director Jared Hess, and Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement.

Ironically enough, the very brief exterior establishing shot of Annie and Charlie’s date restaurant on 90210 was not of Le Petit Bistro, but of a different L.A.-area French eatery – Figaro Bistrot, which is located at 1802 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. While making screen captures for today’s post, I immediately recognized Figaro as I have walked past the cute little French restaurant numerous times in the past and have always wanted to stalk it due to its appearance in a Louis Vuitton ad featuring Madonna (which you can see photographs of here). And I should clarify here that while I have never been a particularly big fan of Madonna, I am a HUGE fan of Louis Vuitton. I also spotted Archie Panjabi, who plays investigator Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife, dining on Figaro’s sidewalk patio a couple of months back.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Le Petit Bistro, from the “How Much Is That Liam In The Window” episode of 90210, is located at 631 North La Cienega Boulevard, just north of Restaurant Row, in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

August 5, 2011
Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood

Two weekends ago, while doing some stalking in the Hollywood area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center to grab a quick drink at Lucky Strike Lanes, an oft-used filming location and celebrity hot-spot. While I had first heard about the bowling alley/lounge when it originally opened eight years ago and knew of its appearance on numerous reality series, for whatever reason I did not have much interest in stalking the place. Then, a couple of months ago, fellow stalker Lavonna happened to tell me a little bit of trivia about the alley that had me absolutely chomping at the bit to go see it.

Lavonna informed me that when the iconic Hollywood Star Lanes, which first opened in 1960 and was where the majority of the movie The Big Lebowski was filmed, was torn down back in 2003 to make way for a new elementary school, the owners of the soon-to-be opened Lucky Strike decided to purchase all of the wood that comprised Hollywood Star’s Lane #7. They then proceeded to use that wood to construct the bar at their new establishment. How incredibly cool is that?

They also purchased the exterior neon signage from Hollywood Star Lanes to use as a wall hanging. Love, love, love it!

As you can see above, Lucky Strike Lanes is a VERY cool little spot. Unfortunately, I have to say that I was not all that crazy about the food. And sadly, the GC and I did not have time to do any bowling while we were there, but fellow stalker Lavonna has plans to hit the place up when she comes to visit L.A. in November, so you know what that means – I will definitely be doing a re-stalk!

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As I mentioned above, Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood is an oft-used filming location. In the Season 6 episode of The Hills titled “The Elephant in the Room”, Kristin Cavallari, Brodie Jenner, Frankie Delgado, Stacie Hall (aka Stacie the Bartender), and Audrina Patridge and her new boyfriend, singer Ryan Cabrera, spent the evening bowling and flirting at Lucky Strike.

Ryan Cabrera returned to the bowling alley to film the Season 1 episode of the ULTRA-stupid reality show Pretty Wild titled ”The Hearing”, in which he angers series star Tess Taylor by inviting a friend to accompany them on their date.

Vinnie Chase (aka Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (aka Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (aka Jerry Ferrara) took their girlfriends, one of whom was Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester, to Lucky Strike for an evening of bowling in the Season 1 episode of Entourage titled “Date Night”.

In the Season 11 episode of America’s Next Top Model titled “Fierce Eyes”, J Alexander hosted a runway challenge at Lucky Strike in which the models had to practice walking down the super-slippery bowling lanes while wearing high heels.

In the Season 1 episode of No Ordinary Family titled “No Ordinary Sidekick”, Jim Powell (aka Michael Chiklis), along with his family, Stephanie (aka Dexter’s Julie Benz), Daphne (aka Kay Panabaker), and J.J. (aka Jimmy Bennett), and their friends Katie Andrews (aka The O.C.’s Autumn Reeser) and George St. Cloud (aka Romany Malco), spend the evening using their super-powers to bowl at Lucky Strike.

And while I had originally believed that the Season 1 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Lucky Strike” was filmed at the Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood, as it turns out filming actually took place at the chain’s Torrance location, inside of the Del Amo Shopping Center.

And the Season 2 episode of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County titled “Since You Been Gone” was filmed at the chain’s Block at Orange location.

As I mentioned above, Lucky Strike Lanes is also a veritable celebrity magnet. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Drew Barrymore, Liv Tyler, John Mayer, Glee’s Cory Monteith, The Bachelorette’s Ali Fedotowsky and Roberto Martinez, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Rumor Willis, Geena Davis, Robin Williams, Paris Hilton, Nick Carter, Matthew Lillard, Fergie and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas, Mandy Moore, Judy Greer, Vanessa Hudgens, Courteney Cox, Nicole Richie, Trevor Donovan, Jessica Simpson, and even my girl Jen Aniston. I once spotted David Arquette walking into the bowling alley for some sort of celebrity event back in December of 2008 and while I tried to take the above photograph of him, as you can see, it did not turn out very well due to the bright lights on the red carpet. You can definitely tell it is him, though.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lucky Strike Lanes is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, inside of the Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center, in Hollywood. You can visit the bowling alley’s official website here.

July 13, 2011
Christina Aguilera’s “Extra” Taping at The Grove

Way back on Friday, June 3rd, Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, called me up to inform me that Christina Aguilera would be appearing live that afternoon at The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles to tape a segment for the television series Extra. And even though I have never really been a big fan of the pop singer, because I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED me the movie Burlesque, I was simply dying to attend. I am so obsessed with Burlesque, in fact, that a couple of months ago I cut my hair to resemble the wig that Christina wore during the “But I Am a Good Girl” number, which you can watch by clicking above. “The dress is Chanel, the shoes YSL, the bag is Dior, Agent Provocateur.“ Sigh! I LOVE that song! And that hair!

Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, had long before informed me that the Extra stage at The Grove was one of the worst venues in L.A. for celebrity photographs, so I knew that my chances of getting one with Christina were slim to none. As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, though, I am an eternal optimist, so when the Grim Cheaper and I headed out towards the shopping center that Friday afternoon, I was armed with some pretty high hopes.

As you can see in the above photograph, the area surrounding the Extra stage was absolutely JAM PACKED with people when the GC and I arrived on the scene. Because a large portion of The Grove’s courtyard had been partitioned off for the taping, though, I did manage to secure a spot right along the fan barricade and still had pretty high hopes that I might be able to get a picture with the singer.

Christina’s team from The Voice (singers Beverly McClellan, Frenchie Davis, Lily Elise, and Raquel Castro) arrived a couple of minutes before the segment was set to begin and promptly hit the red carpet to film some media interviews.

Mario Lopez arrived next and while I had presumed that he would most certainly pose for photographs, that was sadly not the case. He walked right by the crowd, both on his way in and on his way out, without so much as signing an autograph. Such a bummer!

Just a few seconds later, a huge limo drove right into The Grove’s central courtyard and stopped in front of the fan barricades. Needless to say, the crowd went absolutely wild at this point.

Because Christina is so darn tiny, the limo blocked her almost completely from view as she stepped from the car. But the GC did manage to get a few pics of her by holding his camera above his head.

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As soon as Christina walked onto the stage, all of the fans in attendance moved over to that part of the courtyard to get a better view of the taping. And while the GC and I tried to find a spot in that area, it was just far too crowded for my taste. As you can see, it was so chaotic that the GC could hardly get any photographs of the stage even though he has a high-tech, long-lensed camera.

So I dragged him right on back over towards the rear of the stage where we once again were lucky enough to snag a spot against the barricade.

While Christina spoke with Mario onstage, her Voice team walked over to where the limo was parked and started signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. We were standing just a bit too far away from them, though, so I was not able to get them to pose with me.

Mario invited The Voice contestants to take to the stage a few minutes later to sing a cappella for the crowd and, oh my lord, were they INCREDIBLE!!!!!!

After the four contestants sang, the segment ended and Christina came walking down the red carpet towards her limo.

And while she sadly did not stop to sign any autographs or take any pictures, she did reach out to touch some of the fans on my side of the barricade (that’s my hand in the above photograph) . . .

. . . and the GC somehow managed to magically snap some pics of Christina grabbing my hand! NICE camera work, GC!!!!

Thankfully, The Voice contestants stuck around to meet some of the fans after Christina’s limo departed. Because I had watched Frenchie Davis on Season 2 of American Idol back in 2003, I really wanted a photograph with her. And I am very happy to report that Frenchie could NOT have been nicer and, even though her publicist was rushing her along and kept telling her that she did not have time to take pics with fans, Frenchie said, “I’m staying until everyone who wants a picture gets one. I’m nothing without my fans!” Love it!

After Christina left, the GC and I headed over to the Whisper Lounge, Michael Buble’s favorite restaurant which I blogged about back in November of last year, to grab a bite to eat. And let me tell you, I just about died when I spotted both Tajari P. Henson and Teri Seymour dining (separately) at tables near the bar. When I saw Teri get up to leave the Lounge, I followed her outside and asked her for a picture and she happily obliged. But the GC was in charge of watching for Tajari to leave and, of course, was not paying attention when she actually did, so I did not get to ask her for a photo. 🙁 Men!!!! Being that he had managed to snap that awesome picture of Christina and me touching hands, though, I could not get too mad at him about it. 😉

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this event.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Grove shopping center is located at 189 The Grove Drive in Los Angeles. Extra films on the premises on a daily basis. You can check out their filming schedule and list of their upcoming celebrity guests here. The Whisper Lounge is located inside of The Grove, in Suite F-90B. You can visit the Whisper Lounge’s official website here.

July 11, 2011
Chili’s Grill & Bar from “The Office”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while in the San Fernando Valley was the site of the former Black Angus Steakhouse in Panorama City which masqueraded as a supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Chili’s Grill & Bar in two different Season 2 episodes of fave show The Office. I first found out about this location from fellow stalker/Office aficionado Snidley Whiplash who posted a comment about it on my site a little over a year and a half ago and, even though the structure was unfortunately torn down shortly after The Office episodes were filmed, I was absolutely dying to stalk the place. For whatever reason, though, the GC and I just never made it out there. Then, when I was randomly asked about the restaurant on three separate occasions over the past two weeks, I decided that I had best get a move on and stalk it, which I finally did two Sundays ago, shortly after grabbing lunch at Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant which I blogged about on Tuesday.

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The Panorama City Black Angus Steakhouse was first featured in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “The Dundies” as the site of the Dunder Mifflin staff’s 2005 Dundie Awards ceremony. The real life restaurant had shuttered its doors shortly prior to the filming, making it easy for the production staff to come in and dress it to look like an actual, working Chili’s. In TV Guide’s Office Gossip blog about “The Dundies” episode, series stars/co-executive producer/writer B.J. Novak, said, “In the show, the awards ceremony takes place at a local Chili’s restaurant, which we thought would be fun and true to the show. We didn’t want to invent a fake, similar-sounding restaurant, like “Peppers,” or “T.G.I. Wednesday’s.” Since this is supposed to be a realistic show, about realistic offices, we thought setting [it in] a place like Chili’s would be refreshing. We got permission from Chili’s and spent weeks, with their help, reconstructing with painstaking detail a Chili’s restaurant in an empty abandoned building.” The results of their efforts are pictured above.

Both the interior and the exterior of the former Black Angus appeared in the episode.

And it was there that Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), after consuming far too many margaritas, spontaneously kissed Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) for the very first time. Sigh! So cute!

A few weeks later, the very same former Black Angus masqueraded as the Chili’s where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson (aka Melora Hardin) took prospective Dunder Mifflin customer Christian (aka Tim Meadows) for lunch in order to woo him in the Season 2 episode titled “The Client”. Of the restaurant, Michael says, “Chili’s is the new golf course. It’s where business happens.” LOL

And while I was hoping that some portion of the former steakhouse would still be standing, that was sadly not the case. As you can see in the above photographs, the area where filming took place is now just a large vacant field sandwiched between two strip malls in the middle of Downtown Panorama City. I am not sure why the building was torn down and not just leased out to a different restaurant chain (like maybe Chili’s ), but I am guessing that the vacant land must have been worth more than the lease for a new restaurant would have been. Such an incredible shame!

Amazingly enough, though, as you can see above, the former steakhouse is still visible on Bing aerial maps.

It is also still visible on Google Street View, as well. And while I had originally assumed that the restaurant was painted red while it was still in operation, I happened to stumble across this Facebook page about the former eatery in which the structure is shown to be brown.

Which got me to thinking that the restaurant must have been painted red solely for the filming and, sure enough, while poking around on Google Street View, I noticed that only the front and side of the eatery were red, while the backside was left the original brown, as you can see above. It is so incredibly cool that the building was captured by the Google Street View camera while in its filming state! Oh, how I wish I could have seen it that way in person, too!

And on an Office locations side note – sweetheart that he is, fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members who informed him that the interior of Louis Vople’s Italian Restaurant, where the Season 7 episode “Michael’s Last Dundies” was filmed, was in actuality just a set that had been built at Chandler Valley Center Studios where the show is filmed. So that mystery is finally solved! Thank you, Owen!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Snidley Whiplash for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Black Angus restaurant which stood in for Chili’s Grill & Bar in the Season 2 episodes of The Office titled “The Dundies” and “The Client” was formerly located at 14640 Roscoe Boulevard in Panorama City.

June 16, 2011
Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant from “The Office”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for quite a few weeks now is the Italian restaurant where the Dunder Mifflin gang hosted the annual Dundies Awards ceremony in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “Michael’s Last Dundies”. I had an inkling that the eatery was most likely located somewhere in the Van Nuys area, near Chandler Valley Center Studios where the series is lensed, so one of my first lines of attack was to do a Google search for the terms “Italian restaurant”, “Van Nuys”, and “filming”. My query kicked back numerous results, most of which pointed to an eatery in Valley Glen named “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant” and when I looked at an exterior image of the place on fave website LA Time Machines, I saw that it indeed matched up perfectly to what had appeared on The Office. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place and grab some lunch two Sundays ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant was originally founded way back in 1945 by brothers Tony, Frank, and Mike Arpaia, all of whom had just returned home after finishing a stint in the Air Force during World War II, and their sister, Josephine Barone. The siblings purchased a defunct eatery named Barto’s at the corner of Beverly Glen and Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks and, in order to to save a bit of money, simply dropped the “T” and added an “N” and an “E” to the former restaurant’s exterior signage, thus creating “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant”. The establishment became so popular that just four years later the family was forced to move it to a larger space located at 14151 Ventura Boulevard, where it remained until 2006, at which time it was moved to its current home on the corner of Oxnard Street and Mammoth Avenue in Valley Glen. It was that Valley Glen location that I set out to stalk two weekends ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant, which has served such luminaries as Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Lucille Ball, John Wayne, and Jane Russell, is still family-owned and operated to this day, 66 years after its inception. The eatery has long been known for its rectangular-shaped pizzas, an idea which was born out of a need to fit more pies into the restaurant’s tiny oven, but because I am diabetic and have to stay away from carbs, the GC and I were unfortunately not able to sample any. I instead opted for the Chicken Marsala entree, while the GC sampled Barone’s “Famous Stuffed Mushrooms” and a Caesar salad, and, sadly, I have to say that none of it was especially tasty. I had such high hopes for the place, too! Being that we saw no less than thirty pies make their way out the door for delivery in the short time that we were dining there, though, I am guessing that it is the pizzas that have kept people coming back to this place time and time again for over six decades.

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In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell), Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell), Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinksi) and the rest of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch employees gather at the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Louis Volpe’s Italian Restaurant to celebrate the 2011 Dundie Awards. Chaos, of course, ensues and they all end up getting kicked out of the establishment by the restaurant’s manager after Deangelo screams out the word “vomit” numerous times during his acceptance speech.

Upon entering the restaurant, though, I was shocked to discover that it looked NOTHING at all like what had appeared on the show. From what I was able to discern after talking to the restaurant’s super-nice hostess, while the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode did use the exterior of Barone’s for some filming, all of the interior scenes were filmed elsewhere – at a location that I am unfortunately still on the hunt for. UPDATE – fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members, who informed him that the interior of Louis Volpe’s was in actuality just a set that was built at Chandler Valley Center Studios.

Some filming has taken place inside of the Barone’s space over the years, though. The eatery was the spot where Mark “Rat” Ratner (aka Brian Backer) took Stacey Hamilton (aka Jennifer Jason Leigh) out on a date, for which he forgot his wallet, in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. At the time, the restaurant was a German establishment named Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg, which was originally founded in 1958.

Thankfully, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, even though the establishment has gone through several ownership changes throughout the years, very little of the interior has been altered since Fast Times at Ridgemont High was filmed almost three decades ago. So incredibly cool!

In 1995, Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg was sold to a new owner, Switzerland native and Chef-of-the-Year-awardee Ueli Huegli, who renamed the place Matterhorn Chef and gave the menu a Swiss flair. In 2005, the restaurant was featured in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Bad News Bears.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant, which served as the exterior of Louie Volpe’s restaurant from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 13726 Oxnard Street in Valley Glen. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 14, 2011
Tapas & Vino from “90210”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk this past weekend while in the Redondo Beach area was Tapas & Vino restaurant which appeared in the Season 3 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Best Lei’d Plans”. I found this location, as always, thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, and because Matt Lanter, the love of my life, had appeared in the scene that had been filmed there, I was absolutely dying to stalk the place! So after hitting up the Yellow Vase Café, which I blogged about yesterday, for lunch, the GC and I headed just a few doors north to snap a few quick pics of the Spanish-fusion restaurant.

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In the “Best Lei’d Plans” episode of 90210, newly-famous pop star Adrianna Tate-Duncan (aka Jessica Lowndes) takes her publicist, Renee (aka Elaine Hendrix), hair-stylist, Ilon (aka Jeffery Self), and make-up artist, Ginny (aka Cassandra Church), as well as her (as she calls them) “normal, non-famous friends” Navid Shirazi (aka Michael Steger), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Silver (aka Jessica Stroup), Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donnovan), Dixon Wilson (aka Tristan Wilds), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord), and Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!) out for a celebratory lunch at Tapas & Vino.

While the gang is dining, a few paparazzi show up and start snapping photos of Adrianna. And while she feigns annoyance and calls the paps “vultures”, as we later come to find out, it was actually the wannabe starlet herself who tipped the photogs off in the hopes that it would generate publicity for her new singing career. Oh, Adrianna! Such a drama queen!

While watching the episode, Geoff had noticed a sign reading “Curl Up & Dye” located across the street from the restaurant and he immediately got to work using Google to search for a salon by that name in the L.A. area. And sure enough, he found it – almost directly across the street from the Yellow Vase Café.

Unfortunately we did not have time to grab a bite to eat, or even a cocktail, at Tapas & Vino while we were in the Redondo area. The restaurant looks like a VERY cool place, though, and the GC promised to take me back there for a meal in the near future. Even though we weren’t actually dining there, Tapas & Vino’s SUPER-nice owner came out to chat with us and spent quite a bit of time answering all of my silly little questions about the filming. She said that both the cast and the crew of 90210 were EXTREMELY nice and that the filming was absolutely hassle-free and went off without a hitch. She also informed me that all of the cast members went outside after the shoot wrapped to snap pictures with the fans who were in attendance. Sigh! If only I had been there!!!!! Not everyone, it seems, was pleased with the shoot, though. You can read a rather negative article about the inconveniences the filming, which took place on October 20th, 2010, caused on the Redondo Beach Patch website here. Apparently Redondo residents were beyond irritated that 90210 was filming in their town. Really? REALLY? I would be so incredibly floored if the cast and crew of 90210 came to Pasadena to film. They could shut down the street in front of my apartment building for an entire week and you wouldn’t hear one complaint from this stalker! Sheesh! What the heck is wrong with people? Honestly!

As you can see in the above photographs, all of the restaurant’s real life furnishings were moved out for the filming and new tables and chairs were brought in, which I thought was absolutely bizarre. So in real life the restaurant looks quite a bit different than it did onscreen. It is definitely a cool place, though, and I cannot wait to go back there to eat!

On a stalking side-note – yesterday I attended a Read-In event to promote literacy at the school where my mom works. Each guest of the event was assigned to an individual classroom where we were supposed to both talk about out careers and read a passage from our favorite book. A few days before the event, each class decorated their particular room’s door in honor of their reader and my decorated door, as well as the two students who were in charge of designing it, are pictured above. I thought the door was absolutely ADORABLE and had to share it with my fellow stalkers.

Not only did the students post a photograph of me and Matt Lanter on the door, but they also created a fake pink computer out of construction paper, complete with a keyboard that popped out. So incredibly cute!

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Tapas & Vino, from the “Best Lei’d Plans” episode of 90210, is located at 1729 South Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. The Yellow Vase Café, from the “What’s Past is Prologue” and “Another Another Chance” episodes of 90210, is located just a few doors south of Tapas & Vino at 1805 South Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach. You can visit the official Yellow Vase Café website here. Salon Riviera, from the “To the Future!” episode of 90210, is located nest door to the Yellow Vase Café at 1807 South Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach.

May 27, 2011
Pappa Don’s Delicatessen from “Modern Family”

I must apologize in advance for the length of today’s post. I spent most of my day yesterday at the Walk of Fame star ceremony for American Idol creator Simon Fuller – an event which I will be writing about later this week – and therefore did not have time to write a very lengthy blog post for today, so I am sorry. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a fellow stalker named Cait wrote a comment on my blog post about Carmine’s II Restaurant from the “Boy’s Night” episode of Modern Family alerting me to the fact that the series had filmed its Season 1 episode titled “Fifteen Percent” at Pappa Don’s Delicatessen in South Pasadena. In her comment, Cait said she “you probably already know this (you know everything!) . . .”, but I have to admit that not only did I NOT know that information, until reading Cait’s comment I had never even heard of Pappa Don’s! So I immediately added the restaurant to my lengthy “To Stalk” list and finally made it out there to stalk the place this past Thursday afternoon. Yay!

Pappa Don’s Delicatessen was originally founded by the eponymous “Pappa Don” in the early 1960s. Sometime during the 80s Pappa sold the restaurant to a chef named Harry – a man whom many diners came to refer to as the “Soup Nazi” due to his reportedly gruff exterior. Harry apparently had no tolerance whatsoever for patrons who added what he felt were inappropriate additions to his sandwich creations. LOL Sadly, Harry passed away unexpectedly in August of 2007 at the tender age of 58 and Pappa’s was forced to shutter its doors for a time. On February 28th, 2008, the deli re-opened, this time under new owners who thankfully made very few changes to the restaurant or its menu. Pappa Don’s Delicatessen is a VERY cool little spot that serves up some fabulous sandwiches at EXTREMELY low prices. Because I am diabetic and usually try to avoid carbs altogether, I was unfortunately not able to sample any of the deli’s grub, but I purchased one of their “Anchor” sandwiches – which consisted of tuna salad on sourdough with Swiss cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, and mayo, all for only $4.95 – to take home to the Grim Cheaper and he absolutely devoured the thing. Said it was one of the best tuna salad sandwiches he had ever eaten.

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In the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) runs into his father-in-law, Jay Pritchett (aka Ed O’Neill), who is hanging out with his group of friends in front of Pappa Don’s. While there Jay ends up introducing Cameron not as his son-in-law, but as “a friend of my son’s”.

When Cameron tells his husband Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) how he was introduced, Mitchell marches right on over to the deli to confront his father. While there, he ends up meeting Jay’s friend, Shorty (aka Chazz Palminteri), whom he is convinced is gay.

The deli showed up once again at the very end of the episode in the scene in which Shorty, who has spent most of the episode adamantly denying that he is gay, gifts Jay with two tickets to see “the great Michael Buble”, who “sings like an angel”. Ah, Shorty, I couldn’t agree with you more on that count! And he’s not bad to look at, either.

Susanne, the SUPER-nice owner of Pappa Don’s, also informed me that the deli had been featured in the pilot episode of the new Fox television series Traffic Light, in the scene in which Mike (aka The Office’s David Denman), Adam (aka Nelson Franklin), and Ethan (aka Love Actually’s Kris Marshall) discuss the fact that Ethan can get away with saying anything, no matter how obnoxious, thanks to the fact that he has a British accent.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Pappa Don’s Delicatessen, from the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, is located at 303 Pasadena Avenue in South Pasadena. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Pappa Don’s is open Monday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the place only accepts cash, so make sure to visit an ATM before you stop by.

May 24, 2011
Double A Cafe from “Charmed”

Another Charmed location that fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, told me about prior to the Grim Cheaper’s and my recent stalking trip to the Heritage Valley two weekends ago was the service station/mini-mart where the Charmed Ones – sisters Prue (aka Shannen Doherty), Piper (aka Holly Marie Combs), and Phoebe Halliwell (aka Alyssa Milano) – stopped for gas in the Season 2 episode of the series titled “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans”. That property is actually no longer a service station, but is, of all things, a full service restaurant named the Double A Café and it is located on the corner of Santa Clara Street and Central Avenue in the tiny city of Fillmore, just off of Highway 126. Chas found this location thanks to a very helpful Charmed crewmember he had managed to track down and, even though at the time I had yet to watch the “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode, because my girl Shannen Doherty had once been there, I just had to stalk the place.

In the episode, the Charmed Ones stop for gas at the Double A Café while on their way to visit their evil Aunt Gail (aka Anne Haney) in the fictional Northern-California town of Santa Costa. While Piper fills the car with gas, Phoebe asks a couple of older gentleman for directions to her aunt’s mansion. (Filming of the mansion scenes took place at the Newhall Mansion in Piru which I blogged about last week.)

Later on in the episode, the girls return to the gas station while chasing after Cryto, the Demon of Vanity [aka Cameron Bancroft, who also played Donna Martin’s (aka Tori Spelling’s) All-star-quarterback boyfriend Joe Bradley on Beverly Hills, 90210], whereupon they find that the older gentlemen Phoebe had previously asked for directions have since been transformed into young men.

At the time of the filming, the Double A Café was an actual service station/mini-mart named Gasoline Alley. I could not find much information about the history of the place online, but at some point the property was converted from a gas station into a restaurant, as odd as that may sound. Subsequently, in October of 2011, a professional chef and Fillmore native named Dustin Anderson opened up an upscale eatery in the space which he named the Double A Café. And, amazingly enough, even with the vast transformation, the property still looks very much the same today as it did back when Charmed was filmed!

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A few other parts of Fillmore were also featured in the “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode of Charmed. The establishing shot of the supposed-Santa-Costa-downtown-area which was shown just before the Halliwell sisters pulled into the service station was actually a view of Downtown Fillmore’s Central Avenue. The shot was taken from the intersection of Sespe and Central Avenues and the camera was facing south, looking towards Santa Clara Street.

The spot where the girls hid from Cryto, the Demon of Vanity was the alcove area of the historic Fillmore Town Theatre, which has sadly since closed.

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While scanning through the 2002 movie Enough to make screen captures for last week’s post on the Piru Creek Bridge, I spotted the Double A Café space standing in for the supposed-Northern-Michigan-area roadside diner where Slim Hiller (aka Jennifer Lopez) and her daughter, Gracie (aka Tessa Allen), stopped for a bite to eat while on the run from Slim’s ex-husband, Mitch (aka Bill Campbell).

And while not much of the interior of the café was shown in Enough, I immediately recognized Fillmore City Hall, which is located directly across the street from the restaurant, through the window where Slim and Gracie sat in the scene. As you can see in this photograph, the real life view from the window of the Double A Café perfectly matches the view that was shown in the movie.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location! You can check out Chas’ ultra-detailed Charmed filming locations page, which covers Seasons 1 through 6, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Double A Café, from the “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode of Charmed, is located at 501 Santa Clara Street in Fillmore. You can visit the restaurant’s Facebook page here. The Fillmore Town Theatre, where the Charmed Ones hid in the episode, is located at 338 Central Avenue in Fillmore. And the shot of the downtown area that appeared at the beginning of the scene was taken at the intersection of Sespe and Central Avenues in Fillmore.

May 6, 2011
Villa Blanca Restaurant from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”

A couple of weeks ago while out doing some stalking in the Beverly Hills area, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves hungry so I suggested grabbing a bite to eat at Villa Blanca, the Italian eatery owned by The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Lisa Vanderpump and her husband Ken Todd. Because Lisa is my favorite Housewife (actually, truth be told, there are only three Housewives that I like on the show – Lisa Vanderpump, Camille Grammer, and Adrienne Maloof-Nassif – the rest of the women I absolutely CANNOT stand), Villa Blanca has long been at the top of my To-Stalk list. Because the restaurant is on the pricier side, though, never in a million years did I ever think the GC would agree to dine there. But the stars must have been seriously aligned that particular evening because, even after looking at the menu and taking a gander at the prices, he happily acquiesced.

Villa Blanca was actually designed by Lisa, who said, “It’s going to be sexy, white, clean, comfortable and inspired . . . gorgeous art, stylish furnishings and creative music selection will bring life and style to the new space. The ambiance will be extremely important to the experience of eating at Villa Blanca – flowers, lighting, chairs, staff – every aspect will look great. If the ambiance isn’t great, you might as well stay home and order take-out.” And she definitely made good on her promise because Villa Blanca is not only beautiful, but it is also extremely unique, comfortable, and intimate. As you can see in the above photograph, there are several tucked-away nooks and crannies featuring small tables and cushy couches covered in pillows, which gives off the sense that you are dining in someone’s living room and not in a public restaurant.

Villa Blanca’s distinctive menu, which was created by executive chef Francis Dimitrius, the former head chef at Koi, features Italian standards made unique thanks to an Asian flair. The GC and I opted for the Lobster Crisp appetizer, which consisted of mini-corn-taco shells stuffed with Maine lobster salad and guacamole, and I have to say that they were absolutely OUTSTANDING. In fact, they were easily my favorite part of the entire meal! YUM! For my entrée I chose the Japanese Mushroom Chicken – a chicken breast covered with marsala wine sauce and accompanied by shimeji, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms – and I just about had a heart attack over it, it was so good! The GC had the Sweet & Spicy Butterflied Shrimp which he also absolutely devoured. The Villa Blanca staff was also incredibly nice and accommodating and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of The Real Housewives. I honestly cannot say enough good things about this restaurant! I loved, loved, loved the place and cannot recommend stalking it enough!

It did not take long for celebrities to discover Villa Blanca. Just a few of the famous names who have been spotted there recently include Stephanie Pratt, Dancing with the Stars’ Karina Smirnoff, Dakota Fanning, David Hasselhoff, AnnaLynne McCord, Twilight’s Kiowa Gordon, Paris Hilton, Phoebe Price, LaToya Jackson, Paula Abdul, Sophie Monk, Eva Longoria, David Boreanaz, Patrick Dempsey, Chace Crawford, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvester Stallone, Lo Bosworth, Regis Philbin, Kathy Lee Gifford, Gerard Butler, and Kim and Kris Kardashian. Unfortunately, the GC and I did not spot any celebs while we were dining, but a couple of paparazzi did stop by at one point during the evening and poked their noses around to see if anyone famous was on the premises. Love it!

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Villa Blanca was featured regularly on TRHOBH, most notably in the episode titled “Payback’s a Bitch . . . Just Ask Your Husband”, in the scene in which Lisa hosts a fashion show fundraiser for the Children’s Burn Foundation.

On the series, Lisa was regularly shown displaying HUGE arrangements of fresh flowers in various places around the restaurant and I was VERY happy to see that, in real life, there were fresh flowers situated all around the eatery, as well.

Villa Blanca was also featured in the Season 6 episode of The Hills titled “This is Goodbye” in the scene in which Kristin Cavallari, Audrina Patridge, and Heidi Montag grab lunch and discuss Heidi’s bizarre relationship with her husband Spencer Pratt. You can check out some pictures of the scene being filmed on the Zimbio website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Villa Blanca from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is located at 9601 Brighton Way in Beverly Hills. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

April 29, 2011