St. Vincent Court from “The Mentalist”

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I cannot wait for the Secret L.A.-themed February issue of Los Angeles magazine to hit newsstands!  The City of Angels is chock full of tucked-away gems and I absolutely love discovering them.  The Grim Cheaper and I just stalked one, in fact, that is also a filming location – St. Vincent Court, which appeared in a recent episode of The Mentalist.  I first discovered the tiny and incredibly unique alleyway while on a Watson Adventures’ Downtown L.A. Movie Locations Scavenger Hunt with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, back in November 2010.  So I recognized it immediately when it popped up on The Mentalist and ran right out to re-stalk it while in L.A. last week.

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St. Vincent Court is so named because it stands on the site of what was Los Angeles’ first college, Saint Vincent’s College.  The school was originally founded in 1865 at the Lugo Adobe House.  Two years later, it moved to a two-story building on 6th Street, between Hill and Broadway, in downtown L.A.  St. Vincent Court, which is actually a small alleyway, was known as St. Vincent Place at the time and served as the main pathway onto the campus.  In 1887, the school relocated to a new venue and the property subsequently served as a military compound.  Then, in 1906, it was chosen to be the location of the very first Bullocks department store.  The new store was constructed on the corner of 7th and Broadway, adjacent to St. Vincent Place, which was used as a pass through and for deliveries.  Bullocks soon purchased the building located across the alley and built an air bridge to connect the two structures.  The alley became dirty and dingy, as alleys tend to do, though, and in 1956 Bullocks and the City of L.A. teamed up to give the small space a facelift.  Façades and false fronts were built, awnings installed, a café and flower shop added, and the alley’s name changed to St. Vincent Court.  The site was dedicated in 1957 and became a California Registered Historical Landmark that same year.

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St. Vincent Court is situated behind a rather unremarkable breezeway and is virtually hidden from view.  Despite the signage out front announcing its existence, one could easily walk by without even realizing it is there.

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From the outside, it looks like any other of the city’s non-descript alleys.  Step inside, though, and you’ll find that it is anything but.

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St. Vincent Court The Mentalist (22 of 25)

Inside, the place looks like Disneyland.

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The fake balconies;

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ornate overhangs;

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whimsical signage;

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elaborate doorways and windows;

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and sidewalk seating . . .

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. . . . all add up to give the alley an amusement park/movie set/fake European/old world-feel.  To say that St. Vincent Court is unique is a vast understatement.  The place is like a Hollywood backlot that has been randomly plopped into the middle of downtown.

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St. Vincent Court The Mentalist (7 of 25)

Despite some recent opposition to outdoor seating in the alley, mid-week St. Vincent Court is typically bustling with hungry downtowners seeking authentic European and Mediterranean-style meals at lunchtime.

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St. Vincent Court The Mentalist (13 of 25)

In the Season 7 episode of The Mentalist titled “Orange Blossom Ice Cream,” Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) went undercover in Beirut in order to capture a terrorist.  No filming actually took place in the Middle East, though.  Instead production simply headed to . . . downtown Los Angeles.  The hotel where Patrick and Teresa stayed in the episode was none other than the Millennium Biltmore.

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The Biltmore Hotel Mentalist (2 of 5)

Two of the Biltmore’s hallways were used in the episode . . .

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The Biltmore Hotel Mentalist (4 of 5)

. . . but I am fairly certain that Jane and Lisbon’s suite was just a set built on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studios where The Mentalist is lensed.

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For outdoor filming, production head to St. Vincent Court.  The alley was first shown in the scene in which Patrick was taken to meet with terrorist Jan Nemic (Mark Ivanir).

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Nemic’s lair was actually the back side of the Los Angeles Theatre.

 

Later in the episode, Lisbon and Jane dined on some manakish at a local Beirut eatery.

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The restaurant scene was filmed at the Sevan Garden Kebab House, which is located at the northeastern end of St. Vincent Court.  Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the place’s interior.  You can check some out here, though.

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After dinner,  Jane and Lisbon head out to St. Vincent Court and hail a cab.

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At the end of the episode, Lisbon and Jane are shown walking up the Biltmore’s stairs . . .

. . . and onto the hotel’s rooftop to share some orange blossom ice cream.

St. Vincent Court also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Moonlight titled “Out of the Past.”

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Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) sped through the alley while being chased by cops in Gone in 60 Seconds

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And Taylor Swift danced there in her “Delicate” music video.

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: St. Vincent Court, from the “Orange Blossom Ice Cream” episode of The Mentalist, is located on 7th Street, in between South Hill Street and Broadway, in downtown Los Angeles’ Jewelry District.

The Viper Room from “Entourage”

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Once I found the location of Zebra tattoo parlor, on which Jeremy Piven’s name was displayed during the opening credits of Entourage each week (I blogged about it here), I just had to track down the spot where cutie Jerry Ferrara’s moniker was showcased.  Upon finally doing so, I was a bit embarrassed that I had not recognized the place beforehand, being that it is one of Hollywood’s most well-known landmarks – The Viper Room in West Hollywood.

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Although arguably most famous for the fact that it was where River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993, The Viper Room had a long, storied history prior to that time.  The space was originally the site of a night spot named The Cotton Club, which then became Greenwich Village and then the Rue Angel – all during the first half of the 20th century.  When the Rue Angel was burned in a fire in 1950, its doors were shuttered.  The site reopened shortly thereafter as The Last Call, a drag show venue, which did not prove fruitful.  The Last Call was closed in April 1951 and was subsequently transformed into The Melody Room, a small jazz bar that opened on June 14th of that same year.  The Melody Room was successful for almost two decades and was reportedly frequented – and maybe even backed -by mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen.

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The Viper Room Entourage (4 of 30)

In 1969, The Melody Room was sold and became Filthy McNasty’s, a live rock ‘n’ roll venue.  Sometime during the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, the property’s name was changed once again, this time to “The Central.”  By 1993, The Central, which had remained a forum for rock ‘n’ roll acts, was on the verge of closing.  When actor Johnny Depp found out, he decided to invest.  Along with a few partners (one of whom, Anthony Fox, mysteriously went missing in 2001), he revamped the place and dubbed it “The Viper Room.”  It opened to the public on August 14th, 1993, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers serving as one of the inaugural acts.  The Viper Room was immensely popular from the get-go, especially with the young Hollywood set.  Just a few of the celebrities who were spotted there during the early years include Christina Applegate, Drew Barrymore, Jen Aniston, Nicole Eggert, Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Johnny Cash, Tommy Lee, Pamela Anderson,  Gwen Stefani, Ellen DeGeneres, and Michael Keaton.

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The Viper Room Entourage (19 of 30)

Shortly after its opening, The Viper Room would be forever marred by the death of 23-year-old actor River Phoenix, who passed away on the sidewalk just outside the club’s front doors in the early morning hours of October 31st, 1993.  Following the tragedy, the venue closed down for a full two weeks.

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The Viper Room Entourage (23 of 30)

While stalking The Viper Room recently with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, we were shocked to see a payphone nearby.  (I wasn’t aware those things still existed!)  After some research, I learned that it was the payphone where Joaquin Phoenix made his now infamous call to 911 following River’s collapse.  The phone is located in front of the Sun Bee food mart at 8860 West Sunset Boulevard.  And yes, I realize how morbid this subject matter is, but I was absolutely astounded to discover that it was still standing, all these years later, especially considering the fact that payphones are such a rarity in today’s world.

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The Viper Room Entourage (30 of 30)

In 2004, in the midst of a lawsuit with his partners, Johnny Depp sold his portion of The Viper Room.  Today, the property is owned by Harry Morton, son of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton.  You can check out some photos of the venue over the years in all of its many incarnations here and you can see some pictures of what the interior of the club looks like today here.

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The Viper Room Entourage (22 of 30)

In the Entourage opening credits, Jerry Ferrara’s name was shown in neon lettering above The Viper Room awning.  As I mentioned earlier, I am embarrassed to admit that I did not recognize the site during all my years of watching the series.  No, it was not until a couple of weeks ago, when I did a Google search for “Terner’s Liquor,” a neighboring storefront visible in the Entourage credits, that I made the connection.  In my defense, though, The Viper Room looked quite a bit different in the opening, as you can see below.

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You can watch the Entourage opening credits by clicking below.

The Viper Room has been spotlighted onscreen several times over the years.  In 1983, when it was still operating as The Central, its interior popped up in the movie Valley Girl as the site of the club where Randy (Nicolas Cage) took Julie Richman (Deborah Foreman) shortly after meeting her.  Only the interior of The Central was used, though.  The exterior was a bar in Hollywood that has since been torn down.

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In 1991’s The Doors, The Central masqueraded as the London Fog where Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) and the group played in their early days.  At the time, the exterior, which has since been painted black, looked considerably different than it does today.

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The real life interior of the club also appeared in The Doors.

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In 2005’s Be Cool, The Viper Room was where Chili Palmer (John Travolta) heard Linda Moon (Christina Milian) sing for the first time.  Only the exterior of the site was used in the shoot.

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The interior of the club that appeared in Be Cool is far larger than The Viper Room’s actual interior.  I have been to The Viper Room a few times over the years (one of my acting class friends used to date a bouncer there, so we were VIP all the way, all the time!  Winking smile) and the inside of it is tiny.  I’m talking tiny.  Like I’m pretty sure my apartment has more square footage.  I am guessing that the interior of the Be Cool bar was a set.  Either that or filming took place inside of a a different Los Angeles nightclub.

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Viper Room, from the opening credits of Entourage, is located at 8852 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.  You can visit the club’s official website here.

The Quality Café

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While stalking in Downtown Los Angeles a couple of weekends ago, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves hungry so I suggested grabbing some lunch at the Quality Café on West 7th Street – a diner that has appeared in countless productions over the years.  When we showed up to stalk the place, though, we were shocked to discover that it was completely boarded up.  I was even further shocked to discover, once I returned home, that, aside from some brief blurbs about its filming history, I could not seem to find any information about the place online.  I was extremely curious if the cafe had ever been an actual working restaurant or if it had only ever existed as a film set.  So I contacted fellow stalker Harry Medved, author of one of my very favorite stalking tomes – Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors – who was nice enough to give me the scoop on the former greasy spoon.  As it turns out, the Quality Café was indeed a real life restaurant at one point time.  It closed its doors a few years back and is now used solely for filming, although word on the street is that the place might re-open as an eatery once again in the near future.

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Being that it is completely boarded up and there is not a whole lot to see while there, the Quality Café does not make for a great stalking venue, but because it has such an incredibly vast filming history, I figured it was worthy of a blog post.

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In Catch Me If You Can, it is while dining at the Quality Café that a waiter clues Carl Hanratty (aka Tom Hanks) into the fact that Barry Allen, the alias Frank Abagnale Jr. (aka Leonardo DiCaprio) has been using, is the actual name of the comic book character “The Flash”.

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In 1995’s Se7en, Tracy Mills (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) confesses to Detective Lt. William Somerset (aka Morgan Freeman) that she is pregnant with Detective David Mills’ (aka Brad Pitt’s) baby over a cup of coffee at the Quality Café.

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Morgan Freeman returned to the Quality Café in 2004 to film the scene from Million Dollar Baby in which his character, Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, takes Maggie Fitzgerald (aka Hilary Swank) out to celebrate her birthday.

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In Gone in Sixty Seconds, the Quality Café is the diner where Helen Raines (aka Grace Zabriskie), the mother of Memphis (aka Nicolas Cage) and Kip Raines (aka Giovanni Ribisi), works.

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In Training Day, Detective Alonzo Harris (aka Denzel Washington) and Jake Hoyt (aka Ethan Hawke) meet up at the café on their first day of working together.

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In Old School, Mitch Martin (aka Luke Wilson) takes Nicole (aka Ellen Pompeo) to the Quality Café and tries to convince her that he is actually a nice guy.

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In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, John Smith (aka Brad Pitt) and Eddie (aka Vince Vaughn) meet up at the Quality Café to discuss the failed assassination attempt of Benjamin Danz (aka Adam Brody).

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In 2001’s Ghost World, Enid (aka Thora Birch) and Rebecca (aka a very young Scarlett Johansson) spy on some supposed Satanists while dining at the Quality Café.

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In 2009’s The Stepfather, the Quality Café is where David Harris (aka Dylan Walsh) asks Michael Harding (aka Penn Badgley) to be his best man.

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In Sex and Death 101, the Quality Café is where Death Nell (aka Winona Ryder) tells Roderick Blank (aka Simon Baker) her life story.

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In 2008’s The Midnight Meat Train, the Quality Café is where Leon’s (aka Bradley Cooper’s) wife, Maya (aka Leslie Bibb), works.

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In 1993’s What’s Love Got To Do With It, the Quality Café is where Ike Turner (aka Laurence Fishburne) takes Anna Mae Bullock (aka Angela Bassett) out to dinner for the first time.

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The Quality Café was the site of a triple murder in the Season One episode of CSI: New York titled “Outside Man”.

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In the Season One episode of Mad Men titled “5G”, the Quality Café stood in for the Delight Café where Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) met up with his half-brother, Adam Whitman (aka Jay Paulson), whom he had been estranged from for years.

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Harry Medved also let me know that, according to Marty Cummins, the key assistant location manager for 500 Days of Summer, the Quality Café is where Summer (aka Zooey Deschanel) broke up with Tom (aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) at the beginning of the flick.

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And while the exterior of the restaurant appeared as a local hangout in 2004’s You Got Served . . .

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. . . as you can see in the above screen captures, a different restaurant was used for the interior filming.


EMBED-The Quality Cafe in Movies Mash-Up – Watch more free videos

You can watch a fabulous compilation from the Screen Junkies website of several different movies that have been filmed at the café by clicking above.

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Big THANK YOU to Harry Medved for filling me in on the restaurant’s history.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Quality Café is located at 1238 West 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles.  The restaurant is currently closed to the public and is only available for film shoots, so I can’t say that I’d really recommend stalking it as there is just not a whole lot to see.

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

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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.

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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!!!  

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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! 

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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;

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

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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.  🙁

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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. 

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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!!!! 

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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!  🙂

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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.

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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  

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

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

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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 . . .

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

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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.

The Matchstick Men House

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Another location I dragged my fiance to while in Venice last weekend was the house used in the 2003 movie Matchstick Men.  I found this spot thanks to fellow stalker Chas, who made it his mission to find EVERY SINGLE Matchstick Men location in the L.A. area.  And find them all, he did!  Chas’ entire catalog of Matchstick Men locales can actually be found on the Seeing Stars website, but the spot I was most interested in stalking, of course, was the residence belonging to obsessive-compulsive con man Nicolas Cage in the flick.  I had absolutely fallen in love with the unique Mid-Century Modern-style home with a tree growing through its front porch when I first saw Matchstick Men in the theatre six years ago.  So, when Chas mentioned that he knew where the house was located, I just about died of excitement and immediately ran right out to go stalk it!  🙂

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I am very happy to report that the Matchstick Men  house looks exactly the same in person today as it did onscreen six years ago.  For those who don’t remember, Nicolas Cage’s residence in the flick was a very unique, very flat, one story white 50’s-style abode.  But the coolest feature of the house actually had to be the large tree growing right through the roof of the front porch.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my entire life and when I first saw the movie, I remember wondering if the tree was real or just a prop added for the filming.  Well, as it turns out, the front porch tree is a real feature of the house and is still there today.  Love it!  

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The Matchstick Men  house is located on a very cool street that is actually chock full of similar looking Mid-Century Modern-style homes.  More than a few of them even have a tree growing through their front porch roof, too.  Love it!  🙂    According to Zillow, the MM  house, which was built in 1948, has 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and measures a tiny 1,016 square feet.

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Chas also told me that, according to the Matchstick Men  DVD’s director’s commentary, the scenes that took place in Nicolas Cage’s backyard in the movie were actually filmed at another location altogether – a house located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley near Woodland Hills. 

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The home’s real life backyard is pictured in the above aerial image, and as you can see, is much smaller than the backyard portrayed in the movie and does not have a pool. 

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If you were at all a fan of the movie – or of Mid-Century Modern-style architecture in general – I highly recommend stalking the Matchstick Men house.

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Matchstick Men  house is located at 3508 Meier Street, just outside of Venice, in West Los Angeles.

"He Tied Me to a Chair and Stole My Car!"

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On Thanksgiving my mom and I did a little stalking in South Pasadena – we aren’t much for football games or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. 🙂 Anyway, one of the places we stalked was John Voight’s home from the movies National Treasure and National Treasure : Book of Secrets. Mike, from MovieShotsLA , had found the house long ago, but I had yet to go out and stalk it.

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In the first National Treasure, Nicolas Cage, along with his cohorts Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha (LOVE him!!), show up at this house, which is supposedly located in Philadelphia, carrying a stolen copy of the Declaration of Independence. After using lemon juice and heat to uncover a code located on the back of the historical document, the trio tie John Voight to a chair and steal his car. LOL The house also shows up a few times in the second National Treasure movie.

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When I first saw National Treasure, I remember thinking that John Voight’s house looked like a Pasadena house, despite the writing that appears onscreen which says otherwise (pictured above). LOL Sure enough, I was right. The white clapboard residence does have an East Coast feel to it, though, which is probably why the producers chose it. Pasadena is chock full of Colonial style homes like this one, and many of them have made appearances in movies, such as the Father of the Bride house, the Mr. and Mrs. Smith house, and the Catch Me If You Can house.

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Seeing so many similar Pasadena houses appearing in movies really makes me wonder what makes producers choose one over another. While the National Treasure house is very cute in person, for some reason the two octagon shaped windows located above the front door kind of creep me out. I guess someone on the location team liked them, though. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The National Treasure house is located at 1030 Buena Vista Avenue in South Pasadena, just down the street from Lady Heather’s house.