famous restaurants – Page 21

February 18, 2010February 18, 2010

The Chinese Foooood Drive-Through from “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

One location that I have been begging fellow stalker Chas to find for what seems like months now is the “Chinese Foooood” restaurant from the 2000 movie Dude, Where’s My Car? As I’ve mentioned in the past, Dude is one of my very favorite comedies and a few years back my best friend Robin and I pretty much spent every night of an entire two week period doing nothing but watching and re-watching the flick over and over again. We simply could not get enough of it! Our absolute favorite scene, hands down, had to be the scene in which bonehead best friends Jesse Montgomery III (aka Ashton Kutcher) and Chester Greenburg (aka Seann William Scott) visit the drive-though window of a Chinese food restaurant only to find that the woman working there cannot stop saying the words, “And then? And then? And then?” LOL LOVE IT! So, last week, when Chas told me that he was finally going to put his proverbial nose to the grindstone to try to track down the restaurant for me, I just about died of excitement. I had actually spent quite a bit of time looking for this location in the Pasadena area, as I was convinced it was located somewhere along the famous Colorado Boulevard. Turns out, I was searching a few miles too far to the east, though, as Chas later informed me. Thankfully, early on in Chas’ quest, fellow stalker Gary, from fave website Seeing Stars, pointed him in the direction of this website written by an actor named Geoffrey Gould, who had actually worked as an extra in the Dude, Where’s My Car? Chinese food scene! Talk about serendipity! On his website, Geoffrey mentioned that the restaurant was located “at Victory near Hollywood Way” in Burbank. Well, Chas got to googling and found the drive-through almost immediately. YAY! So, this past weekend I dragged my fiancé out to finally, finally do some Chinese Foooood stalking!

In real life, the Chinese Foooood place is not actually a drive-through at all, but a tiny little restaurant named Steve’s Burgers.

And because Steve’s is a burger joint and not a Chinese food restaurant, it looks quite a bit different in person than how it was portrayed in the movie. Missing in real life, of course, is the Asian-inspired decor and Oriental-style flared roof that appeared in Dude, Where’s My Car?, all of which I am fairly certain were just decorations that were added for the filming. Despite the lack of Asian decor and a slight change in paint color, though, the restaurant is still VERY recognizable from the movie. And let me tell you, while it may sound silly, I could NOT have been more excited to be seeing the place in person!

And I was absolutely floored to discover that while Steve’s serves up mostly All-American fare, there were a few Chinese food items featured on the menu, as well! LOVE IT! For the record, Steve’s also serves a bit of Mexican food. It’s a whole smorgasbord of options!

And, as you can see in the above photograph and screen captures, the painted-on window signs that were featured in Dude are still there to this day – over an entire decade later – and still look pretty much exactly the same as they did in the movie! LOVE IT!

Unfortunately, Steve’s was already closed by the time we showed up to stalk the place so we couldn’t sample any of their food. 🙁 But I guess that just means I’ll have to re-stalk the place again sometime soon! 🙂

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The Dude, Where’s My Car? restaurant scenes were filmed both on the west side and in the back of Steve’s Burgers, the latter being where the fake drive-through menu and speaker box were added for the filming. As you can see in the above photographs, that drive-through area doesn’t actually exist. 🙁

Steve’s Burgers first shows up in the very beginning of Dude, Where’s My Car, in the scene in which Jesse and Chester visit a restaurant called “Chinese Foooood” for lunch. While Jesse is ordering, the woman working the drive-through window continually asks him, “And then? And then? And then?” to which he finally says, “AND THEN . . . I’m gonna come in there and I’m gonna put my foot in your a** if you say ‘and then’ again!” The Chinese Foooood lady of course responds with, “And then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then?” LOL

Jesse then proceeds to absolutely destroy the drive-through box.

The restaurant later shows up towards the end of the flick in the scene in which Jesse and Chester drop the “Nordic Dudes” off at the Chinese Foooood place after telling them that the drive-through lady knows where the “Continuum Transfunctioner” can be found. I know, I know, the whole thing sounds pretty darn stupid, but trust me, it’s hilarious! You can watch the Chinese Foooood restaurant scene here.

A big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Steve’s Burgers, aka the Chinese Foooood drive-through from Dude, Where’s My Car?, is located at 2320 West Victory Boulevard in Burbank. Steve’s is open Monday through Saturday, but is closed on Sundays.

February 10, 2010June 16, 2011

Cole’s Restaurant from “A Lot Like Love”

This past weekend I dragged my fiancé out to re-stalk Cole’s Restaurant, a location that I originally blogged about way back in May of 2008. I first learned about the old time watering hole while watching the DVD commentary for fave movie A Lot Like Love, during which one of the film’s directors mentions that the New York bar scene featured at the beginning of the flick wasn’t actually filmed on the East Coast at all, but at a historic little bar in Downtown Los Angeles named Cole’s. After doing a bit of online research I discovered that COUNTLESS movies had actually been filmed on location at the historic bar, so I, of course, immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place. Sadly, though, upon arriving we were greeted by a sign announcing that the restaurant was closed for a massive renovation project. 🙁 And I have longed to stalk the place ever since. So, since we were in the area this past weekend, I begged my fiancé to make a little pit stop there and, since he was hungry at the time, he happily obliged. YAY!

Cole’s actually has a few other claims to fame besides being an oft-used filming location, including the fact that it is not only where the French Dip sandwich was first originated, but it is also the oldest continuously operating bar and restaurant in all of Los Angeles.

Cole’s, which was originally known as Cole’s P.E. Buffet, was first opened on December 8, 1908 by an entrepreneur named Harry Cole in what was once the main terminal of the Pacific Electric Building. That very same year, Cole’s main chef, a resourceful young man named Jack Garlinghouse, dipped the bread of a roast beef sandwich in Au Jus sauce in order to soften it for a customer who suffered from sore gums, and, thus, the French Dip sandwich was born. Those sandwiches, and the restaurant itself, became extremely popular with the hundreds of thousands of commuters who traveled through the Pacific Electric Building terminal each day. Twenty-five years later, in 1933, Cole’s was still such a popular spot that on the day California nixed its ban on beer, the bar served up over 19,000 gallons of the stuff to its parched customers. Yes, you read that right – 19,000 GALLONS in ONE day! That same year, Harry Cole’s son, Rawland, who was a bit of an entrepreneur himself, decided to start cashing checks out of the restaurant’s back room and wound up giving out over $1,000,000 each month (and we’re talking 1930’s money!), which was a larger amount than any U.S. bank was giving out during that same time! Cole’s has also had a longtime celebrity following, attracting such notables as Mickey Cohen who was a regular there during the 70’s and even had his own booth.

In 2007, Cole’s was purchased by a Los Angeles area development company named 213 who subsequently began a year-long, $1.6 million restoration process on the historic restaurant, during which its 40-foot long mahogany bar, porcelain penny tile mosaic flooring, and antique Tiffany glass lamps were all brought back to their original glory. The 213 company, which is headed by C.E.O. Cedd Moses, even added a “secret” bar in what was formerly Cole’s storage room. That secret bar is named “The Varnish” and it is so hidden, in fact, that I had absolutely no idea it was there until I read about it online after I got home. 🙁 For their restoration efforts of the legendary restaurant, 213 was awarded the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Preservation Award.

Cole’s specialty is, of course, its signature hand-carved, made-to-order French Dip sandwich which was originated on the premises one hundred and two years ago. There’s actually another L.A. area restaurant named Phillipe’s also laying claim to that exact same feat and the dispute between the two establishments is almost as old as the sandwich itself. But being that in 1974 the City of Los Angeles designated Cole’s a Historical Landmark Site and a State Point of Historical Interest not only due to its significant location, but also to its culinary invention, I think it’s safe to say that Cole’s has won that battle. 🙂 Cole’s French Dips can be constructed out of a variety of meats, including lamb, pastrami, turkey, and the typical roast beef. They can also be adorned with extra meat, Swiss, cheddar, goat, or blue cheeses, and an “atomic pickle spear”. I opted for a turkey French dip, sans the cheese and pickle, and I have to say it was absolutely A-MA-ZING! The meat truly was hand-carved, right-off-the-turkey-type turkey and I loved every last bite of it. What I loved more, though, was the historic aura of the place. It was incredible to be sitting there, dining on my French dip, thinking about the fact that the very sandwich I was now eating had actually been created on the premises over a century ago. Yes, I’ll take my meal with a side of history, please. 😉 I think it goes without saying that I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Cole’s and I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough!

In A Lot Like Love, Cole’s stood in for the New York bar where Oliver (aka Ashton Kutcher) and Emily (aka Amanda Peet) make a $50 bet that he won’t be a successful married businessman in six years time.

And I, of course, just had to eat lunch while sitting in the same spot where Ashton and Amanda sat in the flick. 🙂

The side booth area that is visible to the left of Ashton in the above screen capture is no longer a part of Cole’s. It was closed off during the restaurant’s recent remodel and is now a separately owned “secret” bar known as the Association. Yes, there are two secret bars located on the Cole’s premises!

The Association’s unmarked front door is pictured above.

In Jumpin’ Jack Flash – one of my all-time favorite movies EVER – Cole’s once again stood in for a New York bar, this time as the place where Terri Dolittle (aka Whoopi Goldberg) gets kidnapped by a man in a tow truck while making a telephone call from a public phone booth.

It is during this scene that Whoopi utters the infamous line “I am little black woman in a big silver box!” LOL

Towards the end of the movie, Whoopi once again runs by the restaurant on her way back to her office after escaping from the police. Cole’s is also talked about throughout the flick as the place where Whoopi and her pals hang out after work. Ironically enough, back before my very first trip to the Big Apple, I spent HOURS using Google Street View to search New York for this location. It wasn’t until years later, when I stalked Cole’s the first time after watching A Lot Like Love, that realized my mistake. I can’t believe I wasted so much time scouring New York for this location, when the whole time it was literally right in my own backyard! 😉

In Rumor Has It, Cole’s stands in for the San Francisco bar named the Fillmore Pub, where Kevin Costner and my girl Jen Aniston share a dance. Ironically enough, before I knew about Cole’s, I actually spent quite a bit of time searching the San Francisco area for this spot! Which means – you guessed it! – that I not only wasted countless hours searching for this location – not realizing it was the same place featured in Jumpin’ Jack Flash – in New York, but in San Francisco, too. LOL Man, I’m such a blonde sometimes!

The scene where Kevin and Jen kiss outside of the ladies’ room after their dance was really filmed in the bathroom area of Cole’s, as well.

The exterior of the restaurant was also used in the filming of the scene, although they changed the signage to read “Fillmore Pub”. As you can see in the above photograph (which was taken during my first Cole’s stalk) and screen capture, though, the signage used in the movie is an exact match to Cole’s real life signage. Love it!

In Forrest Gump, Cole’s yet again stood in for a New York watering hole. It was used as the spot where Forrest and Lieutenant Dan spend New Year’s Eve of 1971. Sadly, though, not much of the bar is visible in that scene.

On a side note – Located directly across the street from Cole’s is a little place named J &J Sandwich Shop, which is the restaurant which stood in for the Night Owl Cafe in fave movie L.A. Confidential.

And located directly above Cole’s is the ninth floor window from which Bud White (aka Russell Crowe) hung D.A. Ellis Loew (aka Ron Rifkin) in the same movie.

Cole’s has also appeared in an episode of The X-Files, in numerous episodes of both Mad Men and NYPD Blue, and it flashed by very briefly in the 1991 movie Guilty By Suspicion. And, according to legend, the Terminal Bar from 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which was in actuality just a set, was based on Cole’s.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cole’s is located at 118 East Sixth Street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

February 2, 2010February 2, 2010

The Standard Hotel Rooftop Bar in Downtown Los Angeles

Another Fracture filming location that I recently stalked – without actually realizing it – was the Standard Hotel’s Rooftop Bar in Downtown L.A. I say “without actually realizing it” because at the time I stalked the place I had no idea it was a filming location. I ended up there while on the way to the Los Angeles airport where I was dropping off my good friends from Switzerland who were flying home after a two week visit. I thought it would be nice to stop for a cocktail at an L.A. hot spot before their flight took off and so I got to Googling, whereupon I found a myriad of websites all touting the amazing views that could be found at the Standard’s rooftop watering hole. So, we made a pit stop there before heading to LAX and, as fate would have it, the place turned out to be the PERFECT spot for my friends to bid their farewells to Los Angeles.

Downtown L.A.’s Standard Hotel opened up in May of 2002 and was the brainchild of famed hotelier Andre Balazs, the same man who gave us New York’s Mercer Hotel, the original Standard Hotel in West Hollywood, and the updated version of Hollywood’s legendary Chateau Marmont. The twelve story building now known as the Standard was originally built in 1952 and housed the Southern California headquarters of Superior Oil. The structure, which was designed by architect Claude Beelman, had stood vacant for over a decade when Balazs purchased it in 2000. He left most of the original architectural details intact, including the two-story lobby area’s stainless steel time zone clock which displays the times of 15 different countries and stands at over ten feet tall, the oil mining frieze located above the entrance doors, a pair of escalators (left over from when Union Bank of California occupied the building), the black and white marble flooring, and the original S-shaped door handles. To that he added shag carpeting, an absolutely enormous digital wall hanging, a sunken lounge area, an outdoor fire pit, a 125 foot long couch designed by Vladimir Kagan, and a foosball table station situated next to the valet desk. It’s retro-modern decor at its finest! The Standard’s piece de resistance, though, is its 1,220 square foot Rooftop Bar, which features astro-turf, a heated swimming pool, outdoor sofas, a dance floor, numerous topiaries, vibrating waterbeds, movies which are projected onto the walls of neighboring buildings, red plastic “pod” gazebos, Verner Panton-designed furniture, a fab menu and a full bar.

Oh, and did I mention the view? Yes, the bar also features an absolutely breath-taking, awe-inspiring view of Downtown Los Angeles.

So breath-taking and awe-inspiring, in fact, that it’s almost impossible to do anything but stare out at the skyline while there. The above photograph was taken of my friend Stephanie while at the bar and it perfectly encapsulates how one feels while visiting the place. 🙂 Of the hotel, Travel + Leisure Magazine said it is “Los Angeles like you have never seen it before.” My sentiments exactly!

The Standard Rooftop Bar is such a unique spot that it became an almost immediate celebrity magnet. Stars such as Owen Wilson, Charlize Theron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Mark Wahlberg, Lara Flynn Boyle, Moby, Nicolas Cage, and Sophia Coppola have all been spotted hanging out there. And I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough! Whether you’re a native Angelino or a first-time visitor to Southern California, I can’t think of a better place from which to enjoy the City of Angels.

Due to its unique architecture and unparalleled views of the city, the Standard has become a frequent filming location. In Fracture, the Standard’s Rooftop Bar is featured very briefly as the spot where Willy Beachum (aka Ryan Gosling) meets up with Nikki Gardner (aka Rosamund Pike) after losing his court case against Ted Crawford (aka Anthony Hopkins).

The bar was also featured in the Season 3 episode of Entourage entitled “Strange Days” as the spot where Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly) meets up with Sloane’s best friend Tori (aka Malin Akerman).

In Collateral, Jamie Foxx “borrows” a stranger’s cell phone while out in front of the Standard’s main entrance. And last, but not least, the hotel was also where Robert Downey Jr. stayed in the 2005 movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I unfortunately don’t own a copy of.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Standard Hotel is located at 550 South Flower Street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

January 28, 2010February 5, 2010

The IHOP Restaurant from “Glee”

As I have mentioned a few times in the past, I am a diabetic. And in order to combat my currently out-of-whack blood sugars, I recently picked up Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution, a best-selling book which proposes a VERY low carbohydrate diet to maintain blood sugar control. Which is a problem, because this stalker loves to eat! And the foods I am naturally drawn to are, of course, those high carbohydrate entrees that the book proposes steering clear of. I mean, I honestly can’t think of any better meal than chicken strips and ranch dressing, can you? Nor can I think of a better place that serves them up than the International House of Pancakes, aka IHOP. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I found out – thanks to a reader who happened to be in the know – that an episode of Glee had been filmed at an IHOP in Tarzana, because, honestly, how was I going to stalk the place without consuming carbs?? I mean, a stalker’s gotta eat, right? So, I made the command decision to put my diabetic diet on hold for a couple of hours – for my blog’s sake, of course – and dragged my fiancé right out to Tarzana to do a little Glee stalking.

The IHOP in Tarzana appeared in one very brief scene at the beginning of the Season One episode of Glee entitled “The Rhodes Not Taken”. In the episode, Will Schuester (aka cutie Matthew Morrison) is out dining with his wife Terri (aka Jessalyn Gilsig) when he recognizes his waiter as a student he used to teach over five years ago. Once the former student informs Will that he is now enrolled at Carmel High School and is continually flunked year after year so that he can stay in Vocal Adrenaline – despite the fact that he is 24 years old, LOL – Will gets inspired to re-enroll high school dropout and former glee club star April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenoweth) at McKinley High School so that she can perform with his group, New Directions. And, of course, hilarity ensues.

Some of you out there might find it silly that I stalked a Glee location that appeared in only one very brief, barely sixty second long scene, but being that the show is currently on hiatus until April 16th – what am I going to do with myself until then???? – I needed to get my fix somehow. And, thankfully, IHOP provided me with that. 🙂 Not to mention the fact that my current celebrity crush Matthew Morrison was in said scene, so I had no choice but to stalk the place! I so wanted to sit in Matthew’s seat while there, but unfortunately a group of three was already occupying it when we arrived – and something tells me that they had absolutely no idea of the significance of their particular booth. Ah well, such is life. The staff at IHOP could NOT have been nicer to me, though, and answered all of my silly questions about the filming. And, of course, the chicken strips were A-MA-ZING. And I did manage to snap a quick pic while sitting in a booth sort of near the one used in the Glee scene.

The purple arrow above denotes the exact booth where Will and Terri were sitting during the scene.

On a side note – For those Gleeks out there who have yet to see the behind-the-scenes video of the filming of Emma and Will’s kiss from the “Sectionals” episode, you really need to check it out. It is ADORABLE! I absolutely love Jessalyn Gilsig’s little cameo appearance in it. 😉

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The IHOP that appeared in “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee can be found at 19100 Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana. If you stalk the place, I highly recommend ordering the chicken strips meal. 😉

January 15, 2010January 18, 2010

George’s 50’s Diner from “A Cinderella Story”

Another location at the very top of my Long Beach “To Stalk” list was the restaurant where Hilary Duff worked in fave teeny-bopper movie A Cinderella Story. In real life, that restaurant is known as George’s 50’s Diner and it is one of the last remaining diners of its kind in all of California. George’s Diner, which was originally named Grissinger’s Drive-In, first opened up in 1952. It was designed by architect Wayne McAllister, who also designed the famous Sands Casino in Las Vegas. In 1963, the Grissingers sold the drive-in to new owners who expanded and remodeled the place and dubbed it Lyman’s Coffee Shop. Shortly thereafter it was purchased by a woman named Terry, who re-named it Terry’s Coffee Shop and in 1974 made the fortuitous decision to hire as a chef a young man named George Alvarez. George worked at the restaurant for over two decades and then in 1996, decided to buy the place for himself, upon which he restored it back to its original 1952 design. He named the place George’s 50’s Diner, in honor of both himself and the restaurant’s original opening date.

In A Cinderella Story, George’s 50’s Diner stood in for the restaurant first owned by Hilary Duff’s father and then later by her evil step-mother, who was played by Jennifer Coolidge. Both the interior and the exterior of the restaurant were used extensively in the filming.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen captures, though, the place looks very, very different in person than how it appeared onscreen in the movie. In fact, it almost doesn’t even look like the same place. According to George and Helen, the diner’s INCREDIBLY nice owners, the restaurant was COMPELTELY remodeled for the filming.

A few of the changes made for the filming include: the interior walls being removed to make the diner appear much larger than it actually was, the real life counter being replaced with a new, much higher counter, all of the booths being covered over in fake pink and black leather, a false ceiling being installed, the ceiling fans being removed and new light fixtures hung, fake doors being added in numerous places, the entire kitchen being re-painted in a fake stainless steel color, and linoleum being laid over the restaurant’s real life carpet.

According to George and Helen, the interior and the exterior of the diner were actually remodeled TWICE during the filming – first for the scenes in which the restaurant was owned by Hil D’s dad . . .

. . . and then again for the scenes in which it was later owned by her evil step-mother.

Producers also brought in the big pink “Fiona’s” sign that ends up falling on Carter’s dad’s Mercedes towards the end of the movie. Phew! Sure seems like a whole lot of remodeling work to do. You’d think it would have been much easier to built a diner set on a soundstage somewhere in Hollywood for the filming. Which, according to IMDB’s A Cinderella Story trivia page, is exactly what they did. That information, however, is not accurate. According to George and Helen, all of the interior filming of the diner scenes – which took just about two weeks to complete – did indeed take place on location at George’s Diner. I’ll never understand Hollywood, I swear. 😉 Helen even has a scrapbook full of photographs of the filming, but unfortunately she didn’t have it on hand the day I stalked the place. 🙁 Oh well, I guess that just means I’ll have to go back to re-stalk it sometime! 🙂

And a little Cinderella Story trivia for you – not only did the movie star Madeline Zima, who now has a recurring role on Californication . . .

. . . but it also starred Dan Byrd who is currently playing Courteney Cox’s son Travis on Cougartown.

A Cinderella Story is not the only production to have filmed at George’s, though. Back when the restaurant was known as Terry’s Coffee Shop, the 1994 movie Corrina, Corrina filmed on the premises. It is at the drive-in diner that Whoopi Goldberg gets Tina Majorino to communicate with her for the very first time.

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George’s also appeared briefly at the very beginning of the 2007 movie Zodiac, in the scene in which Mike Mageau and his girlfriend Darlene Ferrin drive by a diner, decide it is too crowded to stay, and leave, only to be attacked by the Zodiac killer minutes later.

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George’s 50’s Diner has also been featured in the movie The Real McCoy and in several episodes of the television series Cold Case. And I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough!!!! The food was A-MA-ZING – especially the French fries – the retro atmosphere was truly unique, and George and Helen honestly could NOT have been nicer. I absolutely LOVED the place and will DEFINITELY be back!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: George’s 50’s Diner is located at 4390 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach. You can visit their MySpace page here.

January 14, 2010January 14, 2010

Joe Jost’s from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

As I’ve mentioned countless times before, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is one of my all time favorite movies. And I have long been dying to stalk the restaurant which stood in for Lil’ Dickens, the Frazier’s Bottom bar where Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Pete (aka Topher Grace), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Tad (aka Josh Duhamel – sigh!) hung out in the flick. In real life, that bar is named Joe Jost’s and it is actually located in Long Beach, California, a good 2,300 miles west of the real Frazier’s Bottom. So, since we were in the area this past weekend, I just had to drag my fiancé right out to stalk the place.

Joe Jost’s was founded in 1924 by a man named, you guessed it, Joe Jost, who was born in a small town in Yugoslavia. At only 16 years of age, after a four year apprenticeship in a barbershop, Joe left Yugoslavia and immigrated to the U.S. He first settled in New York City where he continued his work as a barber for a few years before moving to the West Coast and setting up a home in Upland, California. In 1920, Joe opened up the first Joe Jost’s, a combination barber shop/pool hall/bar/restaurant, in Newport Beach where he sold such goods as candy, cigarettes, and because prohibition was in effect, a non-alcoholic drink known as “near beer”. In 1924, Joe moved his unique shop to its current location on Anaheim Street in Long Beach. It wasn’t long, though, before the Barbering Commission closed down the barber shop portion of the establishment, claiming that cutting hair in close proximity to alcohol being served was not “safe”. LOL So, Joe abruptly removed his barbershop chairs and installed booths – the very same booths where Joe’s customers still sit today! So cool! 🙂 Joe’s enjoyed immediate success as a restaurant and even managed to sustain itself throughout the depression years. To date, the place has served over 5,000,000 Joe’s Special Sandwiches, over 7,000,000 pickled eggs, over 15,000,000 glasses of beer, and over 1,800,000 pounds of Marmion’s peanuts! Joe’s is such an institution in Long Beach, in fact, that a term known as “josting” has been coined. Josting refers to the act of taking a photograph of oneself in different locations all around the world while wearing a Joe Jost’s T-Shirt. And, let me tell you, the T-shirts have been EVERYWHERE! Joe’s walls are literally COVERED in such photographs and I can’t tell you how incredible it was to be looking at the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of said patrons – always with their backs to the camera so that the Joe’s logo can be clearly seen – in such far off places as the Pyramids in Egypt, Heidelberg Castle in Germany, Namoto Island in Fiji, and the Arctic Circle (not kidding!). Most amazing of all, though, were the numerous photographs of soldiers currently stationed in Iraq wearing Joe’s T-shirts. Incredible! What an unbelievably cool tradition!!!

Because my fiancé and I were first-timers, we had to try one of everything on the menu. And I have to say that even though I am a horribly picky eater, I LOVED it all! The pickled egg (pictured above) – which sounds disgusting, I know – was incredible, the Marmion’s peanuts were de-lish!, and the Special . . . oh my god, the Special! What can I even say about it except that it was simply A-MA-ZING! Joe’s Special consists of a homemade Polish sausage (made from their own secret recipe), a pickle, a slice of Swiss Cheese, and mustard smacked in between two slices of rye bread. And, oh my lord, is it good!

Because Lil’ Dickens is the regular hangout of Rosalie, Pete, and Cathy, Joe Jost’s shows up quite a few times in Win a Date. The areas used include the main bar;

and the billiards room, which was decked out with tables and chairs for the filming.

Sadly, though, Pete and Rosie’s dart board was just a prop that was brought in for the filming and is not there in real life. 🙁

Oddly enough, the area of the restaurant that I was most interested in stalking was the men’s bathroom, not so much because I wanted to see it in person, but because I wanted to verify if it was really there. As I had suspected, though, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom, in which Pete confronts Tad telling him that if he breaks Rosalie’s heart he’ll tear him to pieces with his “bare hands or vicious rhetoric” LOL, is not the real Joe Jost’s bathroom. Joe’s men’s room actually consists of one single room with a toilet and a sink (yes, I actually sent my fiancé in there to report back to me!), and because the scene called for a considerably larger restroom with actual stalls, a set had to be built. Interestingly enough, though, according to Dan, one of the SUPER nice Joe’s crew members that I spoke with, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom set was actually built right there on the Joe Jost’s property, in the back area of the restaurant.

The crew even ended up using the real Joe’s men’s room door, after making some small modifications, as the door of the Lil’ Dickens men’s room set. So cool!!!!

The crew also modified the real life Joe Jost sign, which is located in the pool hall area of the restaurant, into a Lil’ Dickens sign for the shoot. Love it! 🙂

Win a Date is hardly the only production to film at Joe’s, though. The restaurant is also where Kevin Costner took Whitney Houston on a date in 1992’s The Bodyguard.

And where they danced to John Doe’s version of the song “I Will Always Love You”, which Whitney calls “depressing” in the scene. LOL

The interior of Joe’s also stood in for the bar where Angelina Jolie worked in Gone in 60 Seconds.

The exterior of that bar (pictured above), however, was a different location altogether.

Joe’s showed up twice in the 2007 movie License to Wed, first as the site of Mandy Moore and John Krasinski’s pre-marriage group counseling . . .

. . . and second as the spot where John and his friend, DeRay Davis, grab a drink towards the end of the movie.

Producers definitely took some liberties when filming the exterior scenes for License to Wed, though. In the flick, it is made to appear as if Joe’s is part of a tall building located underneath the L Train somewhere in Chicago. In real life, though, Joe’s is a simple, small, one-story structure located on a busy Long Beach street corner. I SO love how they incorporated the real life Joe’s storefront into the digitally altered Chicago-area establishing shots, though, rather than using a real Chicago location for the exterior. So cool! Joe’s has also been featured in the movies Madison, The Vanishing, and True Confessions and in episodes of Chance of a Lifetime, The ‘60s, Roswell, Boomtown, Clubhouse, and Classmates. You can see a full list of Joe’s Hollywood credits here.

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Joe Jost’s is a VERY cool place and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it – or ordering up one of its Specials – enough!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Joe Jost’s is located at 2803 East Anaheim Street in Long Beach. You can visit their website here.

January 4, 2010January 3, 2010

Vertical Wine Bistro

Even though I am not usually a going-out-on-New-Year’s-Eve type of girl, this year I wanted nothing more than to ring in 2010 with a glass of champagne at my very favorite restaurant, POP Champagne Bar in Pasadena. But being that I am not now, nor never have been, a night person – I can’t tell you the last time I’ve actually stayed up past midnight on New Year’s Eve – my fiancé and I decided to head over to POP early in the evening, at around 5 p.m., so that we could grab an early drink and be back home, comfy mumfy in our pajamas, by 6:30. Yes, I am that much of a dork! 😉 So, you can imagine my disappointment when we arrived at POP only to discover a note taped to the front door announcing that the champagne bar would be opening later than usual – at 7 p.m. – that particular night. 🙁 Such a bummer! But, as fate would have it, as we headed back to our apartment, my head hung low, we stumbled upon a little place called Vertical Wine Bistro, which just so happens to be owned by movie producer Gale Anne Hurd, the mastermind behind such Hollywood blockbusters as Armageddon, Aliens, The Abyss, and the Terminator movies, and I immediately grabbed my fiancé’s hand and dragged him right inside! I figured if I wasn’t going to be able to spend my New Year’s Eve at POP, I was at least going to get a blog post out of the evening! 😉

Longtime Pasadena resident Gale Anne Hurd opened Vertical Wine Bistro back in October of 2006 after deciding that Old Town Pasadena was in desperate need of an upscale and sleek, but laidback wine bar where someone like herself could hang out. She named the bistro in honor of a type of wine tasting known as “vertical” in which patrons sample different vintages of one type of wine from a single winery. (In case you’re wondering, horizontal tasting, consequently, consists of sampling wines of the same vintage from a variety of different wineries.) Vertical Wine Bistro features an eclectic menu and an extensive wine list with over 400 different wines by the bottle and almost 100 by the glass varieties. And even though I’ve known about the restaurant and it’s celebrity connection since it’s opening three years ago, for some reason, until this past New Year’s Eve, I’d never ventured inside. But I have to say that the place was definitely worth the wait! Vertical is a very cool, very “New-Yorky” style bar, with a simply amazing menu!! My fiancé and I chose to share the crab cake appetizer on New Year’s and just about died it was so good! Our crab cake was flanked by a fennel cream and chanterelle mushroom sauce and it was so good, I honestly could have been given just a bowl of that and been happy! I’m telling you, this stalker is all about chanterelle mushrooms from here on out. 🙂

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Vertical Wine Bistro enough! And, who knows, you might even spot a celeb while doing so! Besides Gale and her screenwriter husband Jonathan Hensleigh, other celebrities who have been spotted at the restaurant include former Bachelor Jason Mesnick and then-girlfriend Molly Malaney and Today Show stars Al Roker, Matt Lauer and Ann Curry.

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On a side note – I really have to apologize for the craptastic photographs featured in this post. Because I hadn’t planned on stalking anything on New Year’s Eve, I left my purse (and the camera I keep inside of it) at home. Thankfully, my fiancé had his iPhone on him, so we were able to take the pictures posted above, but unfortunately they aren’t of the best quality, which just proves what I’ve been saying for years – if you live in L.A., NEVER, EVER leave your camera at home! 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vertical Wine Bistro is located upstairs at 70 North Raymond Avenue in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit their website here.

December 29, 2009December 29, 2009

Tamale Heaven from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has been begging me to blog about for over a year now is the Canoga Park burger restaurant that stood in for Tamale Heaven in the Season Two episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Ashes to Ashes”. In real life that restaurant is named Michael’s Burgers and even though it has been on my “To Stalk” list for ages now, because I rarely find myself in the Canoga Park area, I had yet to visit the place. So, during our Valley stalking day back in October, Mike made a point of stopping by the tiny restaurant to finally show it to me. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited! 🙂 Especially because the “Ashes to Ashes” episode has always been one of my favorites, thanks to the fact that it featured all of the elements that made 90210 such a classic show – a sugary sweet, albeit cheesy, moral message, Dylan and Brenda back together and madly in love, and boyscout Brandon not only taking on the Beverly Hills Security Patrol, but race relations, as well! Love it! One of my favorite 90210 lines EVER was actually spoken during this episode, in the scene in which Devo (love the name!) accuses Brandon of trying to score drugs at Tamale Heaven, causing Brandon to say, “Hey, I’m not a doper, man!” LOL LOL LOL See what I mean? Classic 90210!

Amazingly enough, Mike frequented Michael’s Burgers on a regular basis back in the early ‘90s. So, when the restaurant appeared in the “Ashes to Ashes” episode, he immediately recognized the place. Love it! According to Mike, the burgers at Michael’s are out of this world, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to eat there while stalking the place. 🙁 Oh well, it looks like I’m just going to have to drag my fiancé back there in the near future. In the “Ashes to Ashes” episode, only the back entrance and rear parking lot area of Michael’s Burgers were used.

For some reason, the front exterior, which is pictured above, was never shown.

The areas which appeared in the episode include the main rear door,

the interior,

the rear employee entrance,

and the dumpster area. Because Tamale Heaven is supposed to be located in the ghetto, somewhere between “Watts and the airport”, producers really dressed the place down for the filming. In reality, though, Michael’s Burgers is not located in a bad area at all, nor is it completely covered over with graffiti. And, amazingly enough, despite a change in paint color and the lack of graffiti, Michael’s Burgers still looks almost exactly the same today as it did eighteen years ago when the episode was filmed! LOVE IT!

On a side note – While making screen captures for today’s post, I spotted something quite interesting. If you look in the above screen capture, you will notice a sign in the upper left hand corner which ends with the letters “R” and “S”. I am fairly certain that that sign read “Michael’s Burgers” and that it wasn’t actually supposed to appear in the scene. I am guessing that producers either forgot to take the sign down for the filming or left it up thinking it would not be visible in the shot. Whoopsie! 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for taking all of the photographs featured in this post. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael’s Burgers, aka Tamale Heaven, is located at 7225 Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park. You can visit their website here. Directly across the street from Michael’s, at 7218 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, is the strip mall that was used in the 1999 movie Blast from the Past.

December 14, 2009November 8, 2010

Clown Dog Restaurant from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

UPDATE – I just drove by this location last week and was shocked to discover that the entire thing had been completely torn down. The only part of it left standing is the All American Burger sign pictured below. 🙁 A Chipotle restaurant is currently being built in its place. So incredibly sad! I will leave this post up, though, for those stalkers who are interested in seeing photographs of how it used to look.

A few weeks ago, I dragged my boyfriend out to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to stalk a restaurant named All American Burger – a location which has been on my list of places to stalk ever since fellow stalker Owen informed me that it stood in for the Clown Dog diner where Bryan (aka Josh Charles) worked in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. In a random twist of fate, Owen happened upon this information during his search for the main house used in Don’t Tell Mom back in September. While trying to track down that location, Owen came across an interview with actor Keith Coogan, who played Christina Applegate’s younger brother Kenny in the flick, who had this to say, “The film was shot entirely in Southern California. Mostly in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley areas. The house is really close to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Some locations were in the heart of Hollywood, like the roof of the Holiday Inn, and the Clown Dog is actually an ‘All American Burger’ located on Sunset Blvd. Some scenes were shot in Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as some interiors which were filmed in Simi Valley/Sherman Oaks.” (Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find the source of that interview online, otherwise I would post a link to it here.) An actor who not only remembers where scenes from his movies were filmed, but actually references them in an interview??? SO LOVE IT!!!!! Thank you, Keith!!! So, once I heard where Clown Dog was located, I immediately added the address to my long “to stalk” list and finally made it out there to see the place in person just a few weeks back. YAY!

And, let me tell you, this was one stalk that was DEFINITELY worth the wait. As fate would have it, the owner of the restaurant, an INCREDIBLY nice man named Lang, was working behind the counter when we arrived. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, “Was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filmed here?” Lang laughed and told me that yes, indeed, the movie had been filmed on the premises. I then asked him if everyone who came in inquired about the very same thing, to which he replied “You’re only the second person in the twenty-plus years I’ve worked here who has ever asked me that!” LOL It’s nice to know I’m unique! Lang seemed truly amused at my excitement over stalking his restaurant and really could NOT have been nicer about it. Not only did he tell me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted . . .

. . . BUT HE ALSO LET ME DON ONE ONE OF THE ALL AMERICAN BURGER UNIFORMS AND STEP BEHIND THE COUNTER TO POSE FOR A PIC! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I also so love it that the real All American Burger hat is almost exactly the same as the Clown Dog hat that Christina Applegate wore in the movie! 🙂

Because my fiancé and I were both starving at the time, we just had to grab a bite to eat during our stalk. And, let me tell you, we were not disappointed! While All American Burger is by no means fancy, their food is simply A-MA-ZING! The menu features your typical all-American fare, such as burgers, hot dogs, and French fries, all of which happen to be right up my alley. 🙂 My fiancé and I ended up splitting a cheeseburger and fries – both of which were excellent! And the Grim Cheaper was very excited about the fact that the entire meal cost us $4! Even more exciting to him, though, had to be the restaurant’s working pinball machine, which he played quite a few games on. So cool! (Please pardon the above picture, I was in a goofy mood that day. 🙂 )

All American Burger pops up twice in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. It first shows up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Sue Ellen (aka Swell), gets a job working behind the counter of the fast food restaurant.

Fed up with Mr. Egg, her perennially happy boss, Swell quits her new job after only one day of work, but not before making a romantic connection with fellow Clown Dog employee Bryan.

The restaurant next shows up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Swell, upset over her recent fight with Bryan, drives by Clown Dog and sadly watches him working through the window.

I am very happy to report that although over 18 years have passed since Don’t Tell Mom was filmed, All American Burger still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. Missing in real life, of course, is the circus themed decor that was used to dress the restaurant during the filming. Besides Don’t Tell Mom, All American Burger has also been featured in a recent episode of Southland and in an album cover for one of musician Howie Day’s CD’s. And because the restaurant is something of a Hollywood institution, celebs have been known to stop in there from time to time, including The O.C.’s Adam Brody, who is a regular. 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: All American Burger, aka Clown Dog from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

December 10, 2009December 10, 2009

The “Father of the Bride” Bar

A few weeks ago, while wandering around Old Town Pasadena, my fiancé and I found ourselves in the familiar predicament of having to decide whether to go out to eat or cook dinner at home. Being that the only thing I like to make for dinner is reservations, I voted to eat out and started looking around at nearby restaurants. And, let me tell you, I just about fell over when I realized we were standing only steps away from an eatery where a scene from fave movie Father of the Bride took place. At the time the movie was filmed, the restaurant was known as Delacey’s Club 41 and it was something of a Pasadena institution, but for some odd reason, in my almost ten years of living in the area, I had yet to dine there. So, you can imagine my disappointment when the placed closed down in 2007, after 25 long years of serving Pasadena patrons. 🙁 A little pub called Spitfire Saloon soon opened up in its place, but it wasn’t long before that restaurant was also shuttered and the space’s current inhabitant – a French bistro named Cheval Blanc – set up shop. So, not wanting to take the chance that the new eatery would also close, I grabbed my fiancé and headed right in!

And I am so glad I did because even though it has been over 18 years since Father of the Bride was filmed and even though the place has gone through a succession of different owners since Delacey’s Club 41 closed its doors more than two years ago, both the interior and the exterior of the restaurant still look EXACTLY the same as they did in the movie. YAY! I mean, even the black and white tiled floor is still intact. LOVE IT!

Only a very brief scene from Father of the Bride took place at Cheval Blanc. In the scene, a fight has just erupted between Bryan Mackenzie (aka George Newbern) and his fiancé Annie Banks (aka Kimberly Williams) over his decision to give her a blender as a pre-wedding present. To calm the situation, Annie’s father, George Banks (aka Steve Martin), decides to take Bryan out for a cocktail and a little heart-to-heart at, you guessed it, Cheval Blanc. 🙂 It is in that scene that George says one of my very favorite lines from the movie, “You know, Brian, Annie’s a very passionate person and passionate people tend to overreact at times. Annie comes from a long line of major overreactors. Me – I can definitely lose it. My mother – a nut. My grandfather – stories about him were legendary. The good news however is that this overreacting tends to get proportionately less by generation. So, your kids could be normal. But on the upside, with this passion comes great spirit and individuality, which is probably one of the reasons you love Annie. ” Ah, George, I can so relate! I, too, am a very, ahem, passionate person, and have done my fair share of overreacting over the years. And I just so happen to also hail from a long line of major overreactors – both of my parents would actually fit into that category. 🙂 As fate would have it, I just recently learned a pretty good lesson about overreacting. Those of you who read my blog regularly know that the guy who I paid to make my wedding dress skipped town a few months back – with my money. Well, as it turns out, even though the guy did close up his shop, disconnect his phone, and was M.I.A. for over two months time, the whole thing was actually just a big misunderstanding. But, let me tell you, during those two months, there was quite a bit of overreacting going on!! LOL So, when the guy called me out of the blue two weeks ago to let me know that my dress was finished and ready to be picked up – at his new shop LOL – I felt like a complete fool! What a waste all that anger and worry was. The next time something like that happens I just need to let go, relax, and let things take their natural course. That’ll never happen, of course, but it’s a nice sentiment, nonetheless. 🙂 But I digress. Besides being featured in Father of the Bride, Cheval Blanc also showed up in I Love Trouble, Judging Amy, and in ten different episodes of Equal Justice.

I honestly cannot say enough good things about Cheval Blanc! My fiancé and I had an absolute blast dining there! The manager, who knew quite a bit about the restaurant’s filming history, truly could not have been nicer to us and told me I could take as many interior photographs of the place as I wanted. LOVE IT! The service was also spectacular and don’t even get me started on the food! The macaroni and cheese is to die for! 🙂 And even though Cheval Blanc’s menu is French, the decor is very Old New York, with dim lighting, dark paneled walls, and an incredibly ornate Mahogany bar. The place is absolutely gorgeous inside, which should come as no surprise being that it is owned by the hugely successful restaurateur team of Bob and Gregg Smith, aka the Smith Brothers, who also started the Arroyo Chophouse, the Crocodile Cafe chain, Smitty’s Grill, and the hugely popular Parkway Grill.

On a side note – Cheval Blanc also showed up in the movie Father of the Bride Part II. Well, sort of. In the flick, Steve Martin’s Side Kicks shoe factory is located directly across the street from the restaurant and the exterior of it can be seen very briefly in the background of the scene pictured above. I’m not sure what occupied the Side Kicks space at the time Father of the Bride Part II was filmed, but I am guessing it was simply a vacant warehouse that producers dressed for the movie. Today, Steve Martin’s shoe warehouse space houses a restaurant named Brix 42. It is the restaurant’s side door, which looks much different today, that Steve Martin enters in the above scene.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Father of the Bride bar, aka Cheval Blanc , is located at 41 South De Lacey Avenue in Pasadena. Steve Martin’s shoe factory from Father of the Bride Part II is really the side entrance to Brix 42 Restaurant, which is located at 42 South De Lacey Avenue, just across the street from Cheval Blanc.