Lucifer – IAMNOTASTALKER

December 13, 2019December 12, 2019

Bridges Auditorium from “The West Wing”

I am one of the few people in the world who did not watch The West Wing when it was on the air. And boy was I missing out! The Grim Cheaper and I started binging the series on a whim this past January and now can’t get enough! The show is so good, I could cry! It’s literally one of the best productions to ever grace television screens! Early in our binging, I, of course, went on a deep dive to unearth some of its locations and was thrilled to come across a 2012 Architectural Digest article that spelled out one locale in particular, stating “Because The West Wing had not yet acquired an East Room set in time, the series’ second-season Christmas episode, ‘Noël,’ featuring the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, was filmed in the lobby of Pomona College’s Bridges Auditorium, in Claremont, California.” Well, believe you me, the venue went straight to the top of my To-Stalk List and I headed out there way back in February, but I’ve held off on blogging about it as I figured it would make for an excellent holiday post.

[ad]

The Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium, as it is formally known, was commissioned by Appleton and Amelia Shaw Bridges in honor of their daughter, Mabel, who passed away while attending Pomona College in 1907.

Designed by San Diego-based architect William Templeton Johnson in the Northern Italian Renaissance style, the venue was constructed from 1930 to 1931 at a cost of $650,000.

Bridges Auditorium was dedicated on September 18th, 1931 and its inaugural concert season officially kicked off the following month, on October 27th, with a performance by Artur Rodziński and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, it has gone on to host a slew of celebrated personalities. Just a few of the luminaries who have set foot on its stage include Steve Martin, Muhammad Ali, Amelia Earhart, Benny Goodman, James Earl Jones, and Bono.

Sadly, the hall was closed when I visited, so I did not get to see the interior.

The exterior is pretty darn spectacular, though, with a towering arched overhang lined with grand columns and topped by a cathedral ceiling.

The auditorium itself, which you can see photos of here, boasts rich red carpeting, seating for 2,494 guests, and a magical ceiling mural spanning 22,000 square feet that was hand-painted by Giovanni Smeraldi, the famed artist who also adorned the ceilings of Doheny Memorial Library’s Los Angeles Times Reference Room, the Pasadena Main Branch of the Bank of the West, St. Vincent de Paul Church, and the Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s South Galleria. (The latter, coincidentally, is also a West Wing locale!)

It is Bridges Auditorium’s lobby that is its real claim to fame, though. Featuring a coffered ceiling, marble columns, and a grand staircase, the versatile space has appeared onscreen as everything from a courthouse to a college admissions office to the White House (twice!). You can take a look at the beautiful room here.

In The West Wing’s “Noël” episode, which aired in 2000, President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his senior staff attend a congressional Christmas party during which Yo-Yo Ma performs – and yes, the actual Yo-Yo Ma guest-starred! As mentioned above, the production team transformed Bridges’ lobby into the White House’s East Room for the shoot. Architectural Digest notes, “Although smaller than the actual East Room—the largest room in the White House, primarily used for entertaining—the space, says [production designer Kenneth] Hardy, had the right feeling. He and his production crew hung replica chandeliers and added chairs, flowers, and presidential portraits.” It was a lot of preparation for what essentially amounted to about two minutes of screen time, much of which was interspersed with flashbacks of Josh Lyman’s (Bradley Whitford) shooting from Season 1. Nevertheless, the space did look beautiful in the scene.

The Bridges Auditorium foyer also masked as the courthouse lobby where Hillary Whitney Essex (Barbara Hershey) collapsed in the 1988 drama Beaches.

It again portrayed the White House – this time its grand entry hall – in the 1993 comedy Dave.

And in the Season 3 episode of Gilmore Girls titled “Let the Games Begin,” which aired in 2002, the foyer masqueraded as the main administration building at Yale University, where Richard (Edward Herrmann) forced Rory (Alexis Bledel) into an impromptu interview with the Dean of Admissions.

The exterior of Bridges Auditorium also appeared briefly in the episode.

The theatre itself is where the body of a murdered ballerina is found in the Season 3 episode of Lucifer titled “Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better,” which aired in 2018.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Bridges Auditorium, from the “Noël” episode of The West Wing, is located at 450 North College Way, on the Pomona College campus, in Claremont.

October 3, 2019August 7, 2020

Mountain View Mausoleum from “Lucifer”

Given my proclivity for graveyards and extensive knowledge of Los Angeles (especially the Pasadena area), it is shocking that I only learned of Altadena’s Mountain View Mausoleum a few months ago. Sure I’ve visited the neighboring Mountain View Cemetery numerous times and even dedicated a post to it, but somehow I never knew about its mausoleum, situated directly across the street on Marengo Avenue. It was only while watching the latest season of Lucifer, which Netflix dropped in May, that I discovered the place. More beautiful than scary, I figure it’s still a perfect spot to include in my Haunted Hollywood blogs. (How fitting is that orb in the photo above, by the way?)

[ad]

In the Season 4 episode of Lucifer titled “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno,” Mountain View Mausoleum masks as the church library in Italy where Los Angeles police detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) researches biblical stories about the devil in an attempt to gain clarity on the disturbing things she has recently learned about her partner, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis).

Producers went to great lengths to transform Mountain View into a library for the shoot, sparing what seems to be no expense on set décor including tables, chairs, desk lamps, red curtains, and large bookshelves filled with tomes to cover the crypts. The result was extremely convincing. While initially viewing the episode, I was sure filming had taken place at an actual area athenaeum. Being that I am something of an aficionado of such spaces (as evidenced here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), I was shocked I had never come across the place in all of my stalkings. It wasn’t until taking a closer look at the scenery while scanning through “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno” the following day that I realized the site where Chloe researched was actually a mausoleum.

From there, it was not very hard to pinpoint the exact spot used. A simple Google search for the terms “ornate mausoleum,” “arched ceilings,” “stained glass,” and “Los Angeles,” led me straight to Mountain View. I finally ran out to stalk it this past weekend.

Though I do intend on penning another post about Mountain View Cemetery (since my previous one was published way back in 2010!), I will only be covering the mausoleum itself in this column.

Designed in 1925 by architects Clarence L. Jay and Cecil E. Bryan (the latter was a one-time student of Frank Lloyd Wright!), Mountain View Mausoleum is a sight to behold!

While certainly compelling from the outside . . .

. . . it is the interior of the Neo-Mediterranean-style structure that is truly special.

Though Bryan designed more than eighty mausoleums throughout his lifetime, he considered Mountain View his pièce de résistance. So much so that when he passed away in 1951, it was there that he chose to be interred. And it’s not very hard to see why.

Unsurpassed beauty is found around every turn.

The mausoleum’s focal point is easily its 180-foot-long Great Gallery featuring an ornate vaulted ceiling hand-painted by artist Martin Syvertsen. The massive mural, depicting a frescoed version of the story of Christianity, took four years to complete and is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The Mausoleum also boasts stained glass windows created by Judson Studios, surfaces fashioned from more than 64 varieties of Italian marble, and intricate tile work.

It is, hands down, one of the most beautiful spaces in Los Angeles.

I mean!

Sorrow coexists with lightness seamlessly here . . .

. . . and there are plenty of eerie tucked-away corners to explore for those who are so inclined.

At one point, while perusing the mausoleum, I found myself separated from the Grim Cheaper, on a lower floor by myself, sans cell signal and surrounded by a quiet permeating the space so strongly it was almost deafening! In my haste to get back to civilization, I wound up lost and wandered through the basement level for what felt like hours, though I’m sure it was only minutes. Needless to say, I was sufficiently spooked. Those looking for a scary experience can definitely find it here.

Not initially associated with the cemetery, the mausoleum was acquired by Mountain View in 1971 and adopted its name at the same time.

Of the building, Altadena Historical Society President Jane Backman said, “This is Altadena’s own Sistine Chapel. Most Altadenans, even those who have lived here all their lives, have driven past the mausoleum on Marengo but have never gone inside.” It is such a shame that most locals (myself included, until just recently) don’t even know it’s there! Mountain View is a true hidden gem.

There seems to be quite a bit of misinformation floating around concerning the mausoleum’s cinematic history, so I’ve decided to rectify that.

Sebastian Stark (James Woods) gives Jennifer Randolph (Elizabeth Lackey) a stern talking to at the mausoleum in the Season 2 episode of Shark titled “Partners in Crime,” which aired in 2008.

In 2011, D.B. Russell (Ted Danson) and Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) encountered a distraught Joanna Sapphire (Frances Fisher) there in the Season 12 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Maid Man.”

James Woods returned to the mausoleum in 2013, this time playing Sully Sullivan in the Season 1 episode of Ray Donovan titled “New Birthday,” which I learned about thanks to Geoff, of 90210Locations. He also provided the screen captures that appear below. Thank you, Geoff!

That same year, the mausoleum appeared in Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” music video.

Geoff also informed me that Rick Stevens (Nat Wolff) went to confession there in the 2014 comedy Behaving Badly.

Elizabeth (Lady Gaga) visits the tomb of Rudolph Valentino (Finn Rittrock) at Mountain View Mausoleum – and learns that he’s not actually dead – in the episode of American Horror Story: Hotel titled “Flicker,” which aired in 2015.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) head to the mausoleum to investigate the murder of a Navy lieutenant in the Season 15 episode of NCIS titled “Twofer,” which aired in 2017.

In the finale of the new Netflix series Hollywood, Avis Amberg (Patti LuPone) gives Henry Wilson (Jim Parsons) the green light for his new movie at the mausoleum.

And (spoiler alert!) the funeral for Dick Samuels (Joe Mantello) also takes place in the mausoleum’s onsite chapel, The Chapel of the Gardens.

The mausoleum also appears as the funeral home that Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin) and Della Street (Juliet Rylance) visit in the second episode of the new HBO series Perry Mason titled “Chapter 2.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mountain View Mausoleum, from the “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno” episode of Lucifer, is located at 2300 North Marengo Avenue in Altadena. The property is open to the public daily and photos are not only allowed, but encouraged!

December 3, 2018August 24, 2020

The Dutch Chocolate Shop from “Castle”

I am an extremely excitable person. A visit to Disneyland, randomly running in to a friend, a surprise sale at a favorite store, unexpected access to an off-limits filming location – all can send me into a tailspin. Such was the case last week when the Grim Cheaper and I were driving to stalk the former Dutch Chocolate Shop – a stunning oft-used locale in downtown L.A. that typically sits hidden away behind an unsightly metal rolldown door. As I ventured past the site looking for parking, I saw that the door happened to be open and got so excited I nearly careened the car into oncoming traffic. After calming down (slightly) and securing a parking spot, I ran back to the store, hyperventilating all the way, and was met by the extremely friendly man that runs it, who, lo and behold, invited us inside! More hyperventilating ensued (obvs). Still, days later as I sit here and write this, I cannot believe I actually got to see the inside of the place. As Yelper Andrew W. recently noted, the Dutch Chocolate Shop is “the Holy Grail of downtown Los Angeles’ – heck, maybe all of Los Angeles’ – historical and artistic sites.”

[ad]

I was first made aware of the Dutch Chocolate Shop when writing my post about The Magic Castle in October. While doing research on the historic Hollywood club, I came across a mention on IMDB that it had portrayed the headquarters of the Greatest Detective Society in the Season 8 episode of Castle titled “G.D.S.” I headed right on over to Amazon to download and scan through the episode, but one look at the cavernous space shown onscreen and I knew IMDB had gotten it wrong. The locale was most certainly not The Magic Castle. I was absolutely captivated by it, though, and promptly started trying to track it down, which I did fairly quickly thanks to Castle Wiki. As the website informed me, filming had taken place at a former chocolate shop, of all things, once located at 217 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Situated on the ground floor of a rather non-descript (and now graffiti-covered) 1898 building, the confectionary was the brainchild of E.C. Quinby, P.W. Quinby, and W.M. Petitfils of the Chocolate Shop Corporation.

The group leased the four-story structure in 1913 and renovated the street level space to the tune of $40,000. Architecture firm Plummer & Feil was commissioned to carry out the redesign.

The architects secured Pasadena artisan Ernest Batchelder to wallpaper the interior of the Dutch Chocolate Shop (or “the Chocolate Shoppe” as it was sometimes referred to) with his famous tilework, including murals which were to be Dutch in theme.

Per Big Orange Landmarks, “The Shoppe was to serve as a prototype for a whole chain of soda parlors, each with a different European country as its theme. For whatever reason – some say it was the high cost of Batchelder’s work – this never came to pass, and the 6th Street location was the first and last Chocolate Shoppe.”

Ernest’s fees might have been high, but the owners certainly got what they paid for because the finished product is absolutely stunning, with groined arches, tiled pillars, and 21 bas relief murals all depicting imagery of life in Holland.

The space, which is extremely reminiscent of Grand Central Terminal’s Whispering Gallery, is exquisite.

According to a commenter on Curbed Los Angeles, Feil instructed Ernest to fashion the tiles to look like chocolate bars. While a sweet (see what I did there) anecdote, I do not believe it to be true being that not only did Batchelder regularly utilize dark brown hues in his work, but per a different Curbed article and a Los Angeles Conservancy reference manual, the shingles’ current shading is actually an unintentional discoloration caused by shellac.

The Dutch Chocolate Shop, which operated as a confectionary, a soda fountain and a lunch/dinner restaurant, opened to the public in 1914.

You can see what it looked like in its early days here and here.

Though beautiful, the Dutch Chocolate Shop was not successful in the long run and by the early 1920s it was shuttered. The tiled space changed hands several times in the years that followed before being transformed into Finney’s Cafeteria in 1947. The eatery proved highly popular with the downtown set and remained in operation for almost forty years, until it, too, closed its doors in 1986 and was subsequently sold to an investment group.

For some inexplicable reason, the former Dutch Chocolate Shop was transformed into an arcade of sorts in 1997 – its vaulted rooms divided up by stalls, its gorgeous tiling covered over with particle board, and stacks of wares piled in every available nook and cranny. You can see some photos of its tragic appearance from that time period on Big Orange Landmarks. The space then became an electronics/pager store, as the signage hanging outside still attests to.

In 2012, the site, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, rather fortuitously wound up in the hands of former furniture dealer Charles Aslan. As reported in a Los Angeles Times article from that year, “The funny thing was that Aslan hadn’t come to the building for Batchelder. The exuberant businessman, born in Singapore, had only recently learned who Batchelder was.” After removing the plywood covering the former arcade’s walls and accidentally unearthing the virtually pristine historic murals and tile work, though, an idea took shape – to revitalize the entire structure by opening an upscale hot chocolate bar on the ground level, a restaurant on the second, artist studios on the third, and a tile manufacturing shop on the fourth. Again, from the L.A. Times – “Soon this man who once sold over-the-top factory furniture from an open lot on La Cienega Boulevard was expressing his devotion to the Pasadena artisan who epitomized the handmade. ‘The whole building is going to be Batchelder,’ Aslan said proudly of the 25,000-square-foot, four-story structure he has leased for the next 13 1/2 years.” Sadly, his intentions to reinvigorate the once grand space have not yet come to fruition. The roadblocks are mainly due to the structure’s lack of a rear exit, which is needed in order to secure a large enough certificate of occupancy to accommodate a restaurant of any sort. Though the building looks to have been put on the market for a brief time in late 2017, there weren’t any takers and current plans for the Dutch Chocolate Shop site seem to be uncertain.

Today, it sits vacant and, outside of the occasional filming, closed up . . .

. . . but thankfully well-preserved.

The “G.D.S” episode of Castle, which aired in 2016, made spectacular use of the Dutch Chocolate Shop. One look at the images below and it should be clear why I became so obsessed with the place.

Interestingly, “G.D.S.” was not the first Castle episode to utilize the site. In 2012, the Dutch Chocolate Shop masked as “the lair of an evil laser-gun-making genius” named Benjamin Donnelly (Armin Shimerman) in the Season 5 episode of the series titled “The Final Frontier.”

The exterior of the building also appeared in the episode.

The Dutch Chocolate Shop’s filming history far predates Castle, though.

Way back in 1918, Sheila Moore (Dorothy Gish) got a job there in The Hope Chest. Sadly, I could not find a copy of the movie with which to make screen captures anywhere, but photos from it appear on both Wikipedia . . .

. . . and The Daily Mirror website.

In the 1980 drama The Hunter, Ritchie Blumenthal (Eli Wallach) convinces bounty hunter Papa Thorson (Steve McQueen) to bring in fugitive Tony Bernardo (Thomas Rosales Jr.) while eating lunch at what was then Finney’s Cafeteria.

The Dutch Chocolate Shop site masks as The Museum of Human Misery: Hall of Low-Grade Crappiness in the Season 2 episode of The Good Place titled “Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent,” which aired in 2018.

And it masquerades as a secret cellar beneath the Sisters of the Divine Path convent in the Season 5 episode of Lucifer titled “Detective Amenadiel,” which aired in 2020.

According to the nice man who runs the place, the locale was also utilized in a Shania Twain video, though I was unable to figure out which video in particular.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Dutch Chocolate Shop, from the “G.D.S.” episode of Castle, is located at 217 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the space is closed to the public and typically hidden from view.

May 30, 2018May 29, 2018

Lux Nightclub from “Lucifer”

The recent network television cancellations left me reeling. Four – yes, four – of my favorite shows – Lucifer, Scorpion, Timeless and Brooklyn Nine-Nine – were given the ax. Though the latter was promptly rescued, I am still waiting for the #savescorpion, #savelucifer and #savetimeless cries to be heard. If not, the Grim Cheaper and I will have practically nothing to watch next season! Thank God Vanderpump Rules is still on the air, otherwise I’d be completely confounded! To cheer myself up, I recently did some stalking of the three spots that mask as Lux nightclub on Lucifer and, in the hopes of possibly persuading some of my readers to become viewers (hint, hint), thought it was the perfect time to blog about them.

[ad]

Though I gave a brief synopsis of Lucifer in my January post about the SmokeHouse restaurant, I figured it best to recap it once again here. The Fox series (or should I say “former Fox series”?) centers around Lucifer Morningstar (played to delightfully wicked perfection by Tom Ellis), aka the devil (yes, the actual devil) who has decided to leave Hell in order to lead a hedonistic existence in – where else? – Los Angeles. Through a random turn of events, he winds up joining the LAPD as a consultant and, using his unique gifts and otherworldly talents, helps detectives catch the city’s bad guys – all while running his successful night club, Lux, which he lives above in a decadent penthouse. Lux first appeared in Lucifer’s pilot and went on to become the show’s most prominent locale. In the inaugural episode, as well as several subsequent episodes, the El Capitan Theatre and Office Building in Hollywood masqueraded as the exterior of the opulent lounge.

The six-story Spanish Baroque-style structure was designed by the Morgan, Walls & Clements architecture firm in 1926 and in real life is comprised of the El Capitan Theatre and Disney Studio Store/Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop on the bottom floor and office space on the upper floors.

Only a small portion of the building was ever shown on Lucifer, with a doorway situated down an adjacent alley on the eastern side of the property masking as Lux’s main entrance. (I did not get a great shot of that door while I was stalking the place, so please pardon the Street View image below.)

To help give the site a club-like appearance in establishing shots, signage reading “Lux,” a succession of velvet ropes, and a long line of patrons were positioned outside.

Starting with the series’ third episode, titled “The Would-Be Prince of Darkness,” West Hollywood’s Sunset Tower Hotel was used in wide-angle establishing shots of both Lux and Lucifer’s penthouse. From that point on, imagery of the Sunset Tower was intermingled with imagery of the El Capitan on the show, though the former was utilized far more often than the latter.

I have written about the Leland A. Bryant-designed Sunset Tower numerous times. The Art Deco masterpiece even made My L.A. Must-Stalk List and My Guide to L.A. Hotels. The 1931 lodging is one of the prettiest spots in all of Southern California. Considering its striking architecture, it is no surprise that producers chose to feature it as the home of Hell’s most famous former denizen on the series.

The exterior of the Sunset Tower was altered quite a bit with CGI for the show. As you can see in the establishing shot as compared to the aerial view below, a floor was added to structure just below the penthouse level. The penthouse was also covered over with a wide roofline and another floor and large spire were added to the top of the building.

While the Sunset Tower does boast a penthouse suite (you can take a peek at it here), it was not utilized on Lucifer. The devil’s sleek penthouse is actually just a soundstage-built set.

Though I recognized both the El Capitan Theatre and the Sunset Tower Hotel upon seeing them on Lucifer, the interior of Lux was not familiar to me at all and because the space was so grand, so opulent and so massive, I assumed it was the stuff of a set designer’s imagination and not a real place. So I was shocked when I came across a forum on the Previously TV website in which a commenter named vampdetective mentioned that an actual Hollywood nightclub named The Emerson Theatre portrayed Lux in Lucifer’s pilot (images from that episode are pictured below) and that a set based upon it was constructed for all subsequent filming.

The set re-creation, which was built on a 2/3 scale by production designer Stephen Geaghan, is pictured below.

Though Hollywood clubbing is not at all my thing, I think I would have enjoyed spending time at The Emerson Theatre. Sadly, the site, which opened in January 2103, was shuttered in April 2015 and remains closed today, so I only got to stalk the outside of it.

The brainchild of interior designer Mark Zeff and SBE hospitality company, The Emerson Theatre was built to resemble a 1920s burlesque club and featured a sunken dance floor, large banquette style booths, a grand double staircase, strung Edison lights, two bars, a photo booth, and a patio area. More than just a nightclub, The Emerson Theatre also hosted live performances, hence the name. During its scant two years in operation, such stars as Paris Hilton, Vin Diesel, Trey Songz, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, Wiz Khalifa, Khloe Kardashian, Lamar Odom, Ashley Tisdale, James Franco, Chris Brown, and Dallas Austin were all spotted hanging out there.

You can check out some photos of The Emerson Theatre from the time it was still open here and here. Man, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lux Nightclub from Lucifer is a mashup of three different Los Angeles locales. The Sunset Tower Hotel, which is located at 8358 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, is used as the exterior of the club. The entrance to Lux is the east side of the El Capitan Theatre and Office Building located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. And the interior is based upon the now-closed The Emerson Theatre, formerly located just down the street at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

January 19, 2018December 11, 2019

The SmokeHouse Restaurant from “Lucifer”

Hollywood loves a redux. So do I, apparently, because here I am yet again with yet another location re-do! (For those who missed it, I penned a second post on the Simpson family home from She’s Out of Control last week.) Today’s blog is actually my third go-around with this particular spot (you can read my first two blurbs on it here and here), but when I saw the legendary SmokeHouse restaurant pop up in a rather lengthy segment of the Season 3 episode of Lucifer titled “The Sinnerman” early last December, I knew I had to revisit the place once again. So here goes.

[ad]

Originally established in 1946, the SmokeHouse (which is also referred to as the “Smoke House”) is about as Old Hollywood as it gets!

The eatery, founded by Lockheed engineers Jim Stockton and Jack Monroe, was initially situated at the corner of North Pass Avenue and West Riverside Drive in Burbank. That location, a small 46-seat space, is pictured below via a still from a video made about the restaurant called Tales from the Smoke House.

The site, which became known for serving “fine food at a fair price,” proved so popular right out of the gate that a mere two years later Stockton and Monroe started looking for a larger venue. They found one just a half a mile south in the form of the Red Coach Inn, a 6,000-square-foot Tudor-style eatery that actor Danny Kaye had built in 1947, but never opened. The partners purchased the building in 1948 and it still serves as the home of the Smoke House today.

By 1955, the restaurant once again found itself bursting at the seams, so architect Wayne McAllister (of Bob’s Big Boy and George’s 50’s Diner fame) was hired to create a 12,000-square-foot expansion. Since that time, very little of the place has been altered. Stepping inside is like entering a portal that leads straight back to the heydays of Hollywood.

Inside, dark wood paneling, exposed brickwork, red leather booths, and dimly-lit sconces stretch as far as the eye can see.

As I said earlier, the SmokeHouse couldn’t be more Old Hollywood if it tried.

It is just the sort of spot I imagine Frank Sinatra dropping by for a martini after playing a set at the Hollywood Bowl – which isn’t actually a stretch. Old Blue Eyes was such a fan of the place that the restaurant named a dish after him! (If you would like to partake, Steak Sinatra features tender cuts of filet mignon sautéed with bell peppers, shallots, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes and red wine, served over linguini.) Frank is hardly the SmokeHouse’s only celebrity patron, though. Thanks to its fabulous food and proximity to several studios, it quickly became a stomping ground for the Tinseltown elite. In Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide, author Richard Alleman dubs the eatery the “unofficial commissary” of Warner Bros., which is situated right across the street. In its early days, luminaries such as Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Milton Berle, Jack Paar, Walt Disney, James Dean, Burt Ives, Robert Redford, and Garry Marshall regularly stopped by.

In more recent years, such celebs as Britney Spears, Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Madonna, Taylor Swift, and Evan Handler have all been spotted at the SmokeHouse. During the ‘90s, the cast of Friends regularly dined on the premises on taping days. And George Clooney became such a fan of the place while shooting ER at the WB that he named his production company Smoke House Pictures in homage to the restaurant.

It is not just stars who love the place. Thanks to its old school aesthetic and Anywhere, U.S.A-appeal, location managers have flocked to the SmokeHouse over the years.

In the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Move On,” which aired in 2005, the SmokeHouse masks as the karaoke restaurant where Julie Mayer’s (Andrew Bowen) birthday party is held.

Gil Grissom (William Peterson) and Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) interrogate Lois O’Neill (Faye Dunaway) at the SmokeHouse in the Season 6 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye,” which aired in 2006.

In the Season 5, 2008 episode of Entourage titled “Pie,” Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) meets his old friend Andrew Klein (Gary Cole) for lunch at the restaurant.

In one of its most notable roles, the SmokeHouse portrays the Niagara Falls hotel restaurant/bar where the Dunder Mifflin gang hangs out while in town for Jim Halpert (John Krasinksi) and Pam Beesly’s (Jenna Fischer) wedding in the Season 6 episodes of The Office titled “Niagara: Part 1” and “Niagara: Part 2,” which aired in 2009.

In “Niagara: Part 1,” the couple’s rehearsal dinner takes place in the SmokeHouse’s back room.

Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) and John Chambers (John Goodman) discuss making their fake movie over a meal at the SmokeHouse in the 2012 drama Argo.

The SmokeHouse’s interior appears as the inside of Lipton’s, the restaurant where Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) plays the piano at the beginning of 2016’s La La Land. (The exterior of Lipton’s can be found about four miles away in Hollywood – at 1648 Wilcox Avenue, to be exact.)

Chloe Decker (Lauren German) and Marcus Pierce (Tom Welling) finally capture the supposed Sinnerman killer during a sting operation at the SmokeHouse in the Season 3 episode of Lucifer titled “The Sinnerman.” For those who are unfamiliar with the series, I highly recommend a watch. The Grim Cheaper and I got majorly hooked on it from the start. Besides fabulous stories, witty writing and a stand-up cast, the police procedural boasts a highly unique lead character – the devil. Like the actual devil – Lucifer Morningstar (played perfectly by Tom Ellis), who, weary of his long banishment in hell, decides to head to L.A. for a little reprieve. He takes to the City of Angels and all of its hedonistic tendencies quite quickly and it isn’t long before he makes his stay permanent. Through a twist of fate, he begins helping the LAPD solve crimes, eventually taking a day job as a sort of police consultant. It is hilarious, completely irreverent, and hands-down one of the best shows on television right now.

In the most recent episode of All Rise titled “Dripsy,” Mark Callan (Wilson Bethel) witnesses his dad Vic’s (Tony Denison) arrest during what is supposed to be a reconcillation dinner at the SmokeHouse.

Though a few websites claim that the SmokeHouse portrays Joey’s Slammer, the Italian joint belonging to Joseph DiMinna (Michael Ansara), in the Season 2 episode of The Rockford Files titled “Joey Blue Eyes,” that information is incorrect. As a commenter named Brian clarified on the Rockford Files Filming Locations blog, the restaurant scenes were actually shot at Martoni Marquis, formerly located at 8240 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can check out some great photos of the place when it was still in operation here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The SmokeHouse, from “The Sinnerman” episode of Lucifer, is located at 4420 Lakeside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.