Ferris Bueller filming locations

April 3, 2012April 2, 2012

Fig & Olive Restaurant from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl Commercial

Ever since I first saw the ingenious “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V commercial that premiered during the 2012 Super Bowl on February 6th, I have been absolutely itching to track down the restaurant that appeared in it. Especially since, a few weeks beforehand, I had stalked and blogged about L’Orangerie, the eatery that stood in for Chez Quis in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the 1986 movie upon which the two-minute-and-twenty-five-second television spot was based.

Thankfully, this location was a fairly easy find. While watching the ad, I had spotted the name “Chez Neuz” painted on the awning of the restaurant – “neuf” being French for “nine”, which is, of course, the number of times Ferris Bueller was absent from school in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. (“Nine times?” “Nine times!” “I don’t remember him being absent nine times!” LOL) And while the establishment’s tongue-in-cheek moniker was obviously a fake, I figured that the other words – “kitchen” and the partially hidden “–ing bar”, which I guessed to be “tasting bar” – that were also visible on the awning were most likely real. And I was right!

Inputting the words “restaurant”, “Los Angeles”, “kitchen”, and “tasting bar” into Google led me to a website for a fairly new eatery in West Hollywood named Fig & Olive. One quick scan of the photographs pictured there proved that it was a match to what had appeared in “Matthew’s Day Off”. Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend. Fig & Olive, which was originally founded on the East Coast and has several outposts in Manhattan, first opened its West Hollywood location in March 2011 in an 8,000-square-foot, two-story venue on the corner of Melrose Place and La Cienega Boulevard. The bright and airy establishment features a 50-foot tasting bar, two patios, a lounge area and a Mediterranean-inspired menu that is brought to life each night by Executive Chef Pascal Lorange, a man who was once the personal chef to both singer Julio Iglesias and former President Bill Clinton.

Thanks to its trendy location, fab menu and chic interior, Fig & Olive became an overnight sensation and has served the likes of Amanda Seyfried, Robert Downey, Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Jason Bateman, Elizabeth Banks, Hilary Duff, Rebecca Gayheart, Julianne Hough, Ryan Seacrest, Jimmy Kimmel, John Stamos, Bob Saget, Ryan Gosling, Lea Michele, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Reese Witherspoon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Connolly, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Ryan Phillipe, Kellie Martin, Mila Kunis, Molly Sims, Zac Efron, Drew Barrymore and even President Obama. Oh, and me and the GC Winking smile , who both absolutely fell in love with the place. Before we arrived there, I had been convinced that Fig & Olive would be extremely snooty, but I am very happy to report that that was not at all the case. The entire staff was BEYOND nice, especially our bartender who loved the fact that we were only dining there because of the “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial. Smile

Because the establishment is on the pricy side, the GC and I opted to only grab drinks and a cheese plate appetizer, all of which were uh-ma-zing! I cannot wait to go back to there for a full meal sometime (ear muffs, GC!).

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Fig & Olive was featured three times in the “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial, which was directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips. The tasting bar area first popped up in the scene in which Walter Linder, Matthew’s agent, is shown eating lunch in front of a TV that just so happens to be airing the parade in which Matthew is singing.

Fig & Olive’s tasting bar is pictured above and, as you can see, the television set and the wall it was affixed to are not actually there in real life.

The exterior of Fig & Olive then appeared as Chez Neuf, the restaurant where Matthew dropped off his Honda CR-V with a valet, who then, of course, made off with it.

And the restaurant lastly popped at the very end of the commercial, in the scene in which Matthew reenacted his famous “You’re still here?” bit from Ferris Bueller.

Our bartender informed us that an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was also shot at Fig & Olive, but I scanned through both Season 1 and Season 2 of the series earlier today and did not spot it anywhere, so I am guessing that the scene wound up on the cutting room floor.

“Matthew’s Day Off” Super Bowl Commercial Filmed at Fig & Olive in West Hollywood

You can watch the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial by clicking above. Apparently, the team at RPA, the advertising agency that created the ad, hid over two dozen references to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the spot – some obvious, some more subtle.

Here are a few that I spotted (and I swear I could sit here all day doing this!) – 1. In the commercial, Matthew’s agent is named “Walter Linder”.

That same name was listed in the Chez Quis reservation book directly above “Abe Froman” in the movie’s iconic restaurant scene.

2. The woman that Matthew spoke with using his CR-V’s built-in Bluetooth in the commercial was named “Grace” – a nod to Ed Rooney’s dimwitted secretary Grace, who was played to perfection by Edie McClurg in the film.

3. In the scene in which Walter Linder spots Matthew driving, a man is pictured behind Walter playing a clarinet.

Ferris also played a clarinet in the 1986 film.

The trench coat that the clarinet player is wearing in the commercial is also a reference to the outfit Ferris wore when he picked up his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara).

4. In the commercial, the CR-V license plate reads “SOCHOIC”, which is a nod to Ferris’ line, “I must admit, I love driving it. It is so choice.” about the pilfered Ferrari. If you are not into searching for the ad’s many Ferris Bueller’s Day Off references, or “Easter eggs” as they are called, yourself, Entertainment Weekly scored a complete list of them from RPA, which you can check out here.

On a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off side-note – while making screen captures for today’s post, I happened to notice the number 652-9770 (as well as several other variations of it) on the phone Ferris used to call the police while at Chez Quis. On a hunch, I typed that number into Google, adding an area code of 310, and, sure enough, (310)652-9770 was the actual former number of the now-shuttered L’Orangerie restaurant where that scene was filmed. Oh, if only I had spotted those digits sooner, I not only would have bypassed countless hours of searching, but I also might have been able to stalk the place while it was still in business. Ah well! Hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Fig & Olive restaurant, from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial, is located at 8490 Melrose Place in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

January 12, 2012January 13, 2012

L’Orangerie – aka Chez Quis Restaurant from "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off"

Back in 2010, this stalker became just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down the restaurant interior which was used as the fictional Chez Quis French eatery in the iconic 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I knew from listening to director John Hughes’ DVD commentary that the restaurant was somewhere in the Los Angeles area, but try as I might, I just could not seem to locate it. Because I feared that the place had most likely long since closed down and, as such, any hope of finding it would be extremely difficult, I enlisted fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, to contact a few crew members on my behalf. Amazingly enough, Chas was somehow able to get his hands on the email address of Jonathan Schmock, the actor who played the Chez Quis Maitre D’ in the movie. Even more amazing, though, was the fact that Jonathan wrote him back almost immediately and let him know that the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off restaurant was none other than L’Orangerie in West Hollywood, an incredibly famous French eatery which had sadly closed it doors in 2006 and had been remodeled and re-imagined as Nobu shortly thereafter. I cannot express how heartbreaking it was to learn this information as I had moved to LA in 2000, six full years before the restaurant, which I would have given my eye-teeth to stalk, closed down. I added Nobu to my “To-Stalk” list regardless, with the hope that some remnant of L’Orangerie might still exist on the premises. And this past Saturday evening, I finally, finally made it out there to investigate.

Before arriving at Nobu, I was nervous that the place would be extremely hoity-toity and not allow photographs of any kind, but I am very happy to report that nothing could have been further from the truth! The staff was not only exceedingly friendly and let me take all of the pictures that I wanted, but everyone that I spoke with was beyond excited to learn that their place of work was the site of the famous Ferris Bueller restaurant scene. Upon leaving, the manager even told me that he could not wait to start informing people of Nobu’s famous cinematic connection. AND, much to the Grim Cheaper’s delight, the eatery offers a very reasonable Happy Hour every single night (even Saturdays and Sundays!) in the bar and lounge area. This obviously goes without saying, being that the restaurant is known for being a culinary giant, but the food there was absolutely incredible! To say that the GC and I are in love with the place would be a gross understatement. And the cherry on top of my evening was when I discovered that the main body and layout of Nobu is exactly the same as that of L’Orangerie, so the place is still somewhat (albeit very, very remotely) recognizable from Ferris Bueller.

A couple of months back, I happened to find a Flikr photo album featuring pictures of L’Orangerie that a foodie blogger named Abby, from the Pleasure Palate website, had posted online. I contacted Abby and asked if she would be willing to let me feature her photographs in this post and she not only wrote me back immediately, but graciously agreed. A HUGE, HEARTFELT thank you goes out to her. All of the pictures of L’Orangerie which appear in this post were taken by her, unless otherwise noted.

According to the book Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive!, L’Orangerie was one of only two L.A.-area eateries that counted itself as a member of Relais & Chateaux, an extremely exclusive luxury hotel and gourmet restaurant group whose mission is to spread its “unique art de vivre across the globe by selecting outstanding properties with a truly unique character”. Alive!, which was published in 2002, also states, “The only restaurant in Los Angeles that is more expensive than L’Orangerie is Ginza Sushi-Ko in Beverly Hills, a sushi place that is the most expensive restaurant in the US, at around $300 a person.” Can you imagine if the GC and I had actually had a chance to stalk L’Orangerie when it was still in operation? One glance at the menu and he would have had a full-blown heart attack on the spot! L’Orangerie, which is French for “the orangery” – a beautifully-constructed greenhouse- or conservatory-type structure that was popular in Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries and was used to house orange trees during the cold winter months – was originally founded in 1978 by native French couple Gerard and Virginie Ferry. The restaurant quickly became one of Los Angeles’ most premiere and exclusive eateries and remained so until it closed on December 31st, 2006, at which point the Nobu Group took over and an extensive remodel was begun.

Nobu opened in the Spring of 2008 and, while the dark, sleek, modern design is completely different from L’Orangerie’s bright, white, terraced-look, the overall shape and layout of the structure remains exactly the same. L’Orangerie was composed of four dining areas – the bar and lounge;

the main dining room (the picture above is from Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet Newsletter, but I believe it originally came from the now-defunct L’Orangerie website);

the outdoor terrace;

and the central courtyard . . .

which featured a retracting roof.

Nobu is also comprised of those same four dining areas – the bar and lounge;

the main dining room, which is on the northern side of the restaurant;

the terrace, which has since been enclosed and is now where one enters the restaurant;

and the central courtyard, which still features a retractable roof. If you will notice above, the room has six curtained doorways which are in the same spot where the French doors which opened to the courtyard were located when it was L’Orangerie. So incredibly cool!

There is also an additional lounge area which links all of the rooms together. That lounge area is the former L’Orangerie lobby, aka the spot where Ferris Bueller (aka Matthew Broderick) famously had his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (aka Mia Sara), call Chez Quis to ask for Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago.

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , Ferris, Sloane, and Ferris’ best friend, Cameron Frye (aka Alan Ruck), dine at Chez Quis while playing hooky from school. And while the exterior of the restaurant was actually the exterior of a private home located at 22 West Schiller Street in Chicago . . .

. . . all of the interiors were shot on location at L’Orangerie.

Including, I believe, the bathroom scene, in which Ferris delivers a long narrative to the camera while his father is, unbeknownst to him, using a nearby stall. I am kicking myself right now that I did not send the GC into Nobu’s men’s room to see if at all resembled the shape and size of the Ferris Bueller bathroom. Ah well, next time.

Because L’Orangerie was so incredibly picturesque, it saw more than its fair share of filming over the years. In the Season 1 episode of The Colbys titled “A House Divided”, L’Orangerie played itself as the spot where Sable Scott Colby (aka Beverly Hills, 90210’s Stephanie Beacham) had lunch with Zach Powers (aka Ricardo Montalban). As you can see in the second screen capture above, the entryway area looks exactly the same in The Colbys as it did in Ferris Bueller. Even the podium is a perfect match. Love it!

In the Season 3 episode of Hart to Hart titled “Blue and Broken-Harted”, L’Orangerie was where Jonathan Hart (aka Robert Wagner) and Jennifer Hart (aka Stefanie Powers) had lunch and ran into gossip columnist George Christy, who played himself. While there, Jennifer confronts Jonathan about her fear that he is having an affair. In 1982, when the episode was filmed, L’Orangerie did not have a front patio area, but one was later built, along with a large cement wall which surrounded it.

In the “Blue and Broken-Harted” episode, Jonathan and Jennifer dined in pretty much the same spot where the Ferris Bueller gang dined.

In 1982’s Bare Essence, L’Orangerie popped up as “the chicest restaurant in town” where clothing designer Matt Phillips (aka Joel Higgins) took New-York-newcomer Tyger Hayes (aka Genie Francis) for lunch.

In the 1983 made-for-television movie Making of a Male Model, L’Orangerie stood in for the supposed New York restaurant where Kay Dillon (aka Joan Collins) met male model Tyler Burnett (aka Jon-Erik Hexum) upon his return to Manhattan.

In 1985’s St. Elmo’s Fire, L’Orangerie stood in for the supposed Washington, D.C.-area restaurant where Kirby Keger (aka Emilio Estevez) and Dale Biberman (aka Andie MacDowell) went on a very brief date.

In 1985’s Brewster’s Millions, L’Orangerie was where Montgomery Brewster (aka Richard Pryor) took hundreds of random people for lunch immediately after inheriting $30 million.

In 2003’s Intolerable Cruelty, L’Orangerie was featured as the spot where Miles (aka George Clooney) met Marylin (aka Catherine Zeta Jones) for an introductory dinner.

Most recently, L’Orangerie appeared in the Season 2 episode of The Closer titled “Aftertaste” as L’Amboise, the eatery where Walter LaSalle (aka Francois Giroday) was arrested and where restaurant critic Tom Newman (aka John Billingsley) confessed to the murder of Karen Bevis (aka Julie Wagner).

I also spotted L’Orangerie pop up in a movie or television show that I watched a few months back, but, for whatever reason, I failed to write the information down in my stalking notebook and now, for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was. I have been wracking my brain for the past two weeks trying to figure it out, all to no avail. Ironically enough, while I had mentioned the movie or television show to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, back when I spotted it, he also cannot remember what it was. He has spent countless (and I do mean countless) hours over the past few weeks trying to help me figure it out, though. At one point, he texted me that he was looking through the 60th page of L’Orangerie search results on Google. The 60th page!!!!! All of the information in this post actually came from his extensive research. So thank you, Mike! All that work, though, and neither of us did ever figure it out. L’Orangerie’s courtyard (a photograph of which – one that I got off of the EaterLA website, who in turn got it from the Relais & Chateaux website – is pictured above) is the room that I remember appearing in the production. Does it look familiar to anyone? I know the answer will come to me as soon as I stop thinking about it, and when it does, I will update this post.

Fellow stalker Gilles in France also let me know that L’Orangerie was featured in both the pilot episode of L.A. Law and the 1982 Danielle Steele made-for-television movie Secrets, but unfortunately neither of those productions are available for rent or download anywhere, so I was unable to make screen captures of them for this post.

I can say with certainty, though, that L’Orangerie was not the restaurant that appeared in Some Kind of Wonderful, as some websites have stated. Some Kind of Wonderful was filmed just down the street at the former L’Ermitage restaurant, now Koi, located at 730 North La Cienega Boulevard.

There have also been some online reports that The Blues Brothers was filmed at the same restaurant as Ferris Bueller, but, as you can see above, that information is incorrect, as well. The Blues Brothers was actually filmed at Chez Paul, the legendary French establishment that was formerly located at 660 North Rush Street in Chicago, Illinois. You can read more about that location on The Blues Brothers Central website here.

Besides being a filming location, L’Orangerie was also a major celebrity hotspot. Motley Crew’s Vince Neil and former Playboy Playmate Heidi Mark were married there on May 28th, 2000, as were Fred Savage and Jennifer Stone on August 7th, 2004. Rob Lowe’s 40th birthday party was held at the restaurant. Teri Hatcher and Ryan Seacrest once had a date there, Ronald and Nancy Reagan were regulars, and Brad Pitt and my girl Jen Aniston shocked fellow patrons by cuddling during a three-hour candlelit dinner just a few weeks after announcing their separation. Brad also supposedly took Angelina Jolie to L’Orangerie for a meal during the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which I, of course, was not especially happy to hear.

L’Orangerie- the Ferris Bueller restaurant

You can watch a video which shows the interior of the former L’Orangerie restaurant by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location and an even BIGGER THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for going above and beyond the call of duty (of both stalking and friendship) by spending countless hours doing research for me and reading through 60-plus pages of search results on Google while trying to figure out what movie it was that I had seen recently that had been filmed at L’Orangerie.

And a HUGE thank you to Abby, of the Pleasure Palate website, for so graciously allowing me to feature her photographs of L’Orangerie restaurant on my website. This post would not have been the same without her fabulous pictures! You can read Abby’s write-up on her dining experience at L’Orangerie here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Nobu, aka the former L’Orangerie restaurant, aka the interior of Chez Quis from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is located at 903 North La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 30, 2008May 25, 2010

The “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” House

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has long been one of my favorite movies. So I was completely floored when I found out that Ferris’ house from the movie was located in Southern California! Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was filmed almost entirely on location in Chicago, Illinois, but for some reason producers chose a house on the West Coast, in Long Beach, California, to use as the Bueller family home. As soon as I found the address, I immediately dragged my boyfriend (on his birthday, no less!) to go stalk it. This was quite a few years back and we took pictures of the house using a cell phone, so they aren’t the best. 🙁 You will immediately recognize the large colonial style home, though, and its circular driveway, as they look EXACTLY the same as they did over two decades ago when the movie was filmed. It was so much fun to see the house in person, and I really wanted to ring the doorbell to see if Ferris’ taped doorbell recording would play. 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing some cyber-stalking and found some interior pictures of the home on a movie location website. I was shocked to see that the interior of the real home matched the interior of the home from the movie, as I had always assumed that a set was used for the interior shots. But from what I can see from the pictures, the interior of the Long Beach home was obviously used for filming, as well. You can see the interior of the house here. You’ll recognize the staircase and the kitchen as almost a perfect match to Ferris’ house in the movie.

The Ferris Buehler house was also used in the Silence of the Lambs sequel Red Dragon and in Not Another Teen Movie as the house where the massive party is thrown.

A little bit of Ferris trivia – Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward, the actors who played Ferris’ parents, met while filming the movie and ended up getting married after filming was completed. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Ferris Buehler’s house can be found at 4160 Country Club Drive in Long Beach. Many other homes in the same neighborhood have been featured in other movies and TV shows. Check out Seeing Stars, which does a great write up on this neighborhood and its famous homes.