Reseda – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 3, 2018August 3, 2018

The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant from “I Love You, Man”

In Pretty Woman, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) states that very few people surprise him. I could say the same about filming locations. One that did recently surprise me, though, was The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant in Reseda. For years I had been under the impression that the engagement party scene from the 2009 comedy I Love You, Man had been shot at Hop Louie. But when I sat down to write my post about the landmark Chinatown eatery back in March, I realized that, despite a misleading establishing shot pictured at the beginning of the segment, the restaurant’s interior most certainly did not match what was shown onscreen. What the wha? I got to Googling and eventually discovered that filming had actually taken place at The Great Wall. What’s more, the eatery’s official website noted several other productions lensed on the premises! So it, of course, went straight to the top of my To-Stalk List and the Grim Cheaper and I headed out there for lunch a few weeks later.

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The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant is one of those rarest of Los Angeles anomalies – an eatery that has been around for multiple decades.

Originally established in 1984, the Mandarin/Szechwan restaurant is a neighborhood landmark.

The site’s rather drab exterior (excluding those fabulous red doors pictured above) belies little of the grandiosity of its interior.

Featuring Mandarin décor . . .

. . . and a striking gilded ceiling, the place is absolutely stunning!

I mean, look at that chandelier!

The restaurant is also much larger than its exterior would have you believe and consists of three areas – a massive main dining room;

a rear banquet room;

and a bar area situated near the entrance.

The eatery is extremely old school – in the best way possible.

The GC and I both commented on the fact that we hadn’t seen a Chinese restaurant like it in ages.

The place even has a Lazy Susan and serves hot tea via ceramic teapots upon entering! Talk about bringing me back to my childhood!

Per LoopNet, The Great Wall, which appears to be for sale, raked in $38,350 in filming income last year alone! And it is not very hard to see why. The restaurant is just begging to be photographed! Somehow, it even manages to come across more beautifully in pictures than it does in real life. As such, location managers flock to it.

Though an establishing shot of Hop Louie was shown at the beginning of I Love You, Man’s engagement party scene and the restaurant was even referred to by that name in the segment . . .

. . . all actual filming took place at The Great Wall.

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) and Zooey Rice’s (Rashida Jones) friends and family first gather in the bar area in the scene . . .

. . . and then head to the rear banquet room for dinner.

The interior of The Great Wall also pops up a few times as the inside of the Golden Wonton Restaurant & Orphanage in the 2007 comedy Norbit.

That same year, the restaurant appeared in Lucky You as the spot where Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) takes Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) for a celebratory dinner.

Though the place isn’t referred to by name and is supposedly located in Las Vegas in the flick, “The Great Wall Restaurant” is visible on the menu Huck is holding in the scene.

At the end of the 2011 drama Drive, Driver (Ryan Gosling) meets with Bernie Rose (an unrecognizable Albert Brooks) at The Great Wall.

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 Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, from I Love You, Man, is located at 18331 Sherman Way in Reseda. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

February 4, 2014February 3, 2014

Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from “License to Drive”

After reading my January 13th post about Mercedes’ friend’s house from fave movie License to Drive, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’s Filmed There blog, texted to let me know that he had managed to track down the Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from the 1988 flick. As fate would have it, the storefront next door to Shakey’s had appeared in 1976’s The Bad News Bears, a movie Chas had covered on his site. The bad news (pun intended) was that the shopping center where it was once located is no longer standing. The structure was torn down sometime in the ‘90s and a new center subsequently built in its place. Because I had been itching to find it for so long, though, I figured it was still blog-worthy.

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The location pops up once in License to Drive, in the scene in which Les Anderson (Corey Haim) accidentally drives off of an embankment before crash-landing in front of a random Shakey’s Pizza Parlor.

A sporting goods store was visible in the background of the scene and it was that shop that Chas recognized from The Bad News Bears. As you can see below, the sign, logo and roofline of the store from The Bad News Bears (second screen capture below) are an exact match to those of the storefront that appeared next door to Shakey’s in License to Drive (first screen capture below).

You can even make out the word “parlor” on the building next door to the sporting goods shop in The Bad News Bears scene.

While watching The Bad News Bears, Chas had spotted an address number of “19321” on the space next door to the sporting goods store. A quick Google search showed him that there was only shopping plaza in Los Angeles with shops boasting address numbers in 19300 range – The Village in Reseda. When he looked at aerial images of The Village, though, he realized that it was most-definitely not the same spot that had been featured in The Bad News Bears.

Enter the Historic Aerials website, from which we learned that there was once a different shopping center located on the property, one which had been demolished and rebuilt sometime prior to 2003. In the 1980 aerial view pictured below, Shakey’s former location is denoted with a pink arrow. Today, that area is partially comprised of a Chase bank and The Village’s parking lot

A current aerial view of The Village is pictured below with the former Shakey’s location denoted with a pink “X.”

According to this Valley News article, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Reseda Shakey’s took place in December 1964. Because the shopping center where it formerly stood was torn down sometime between 1988 and 2003, I am guessing that the demolition occurred due to damage resulting from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. That is just a guess, though.

Sick Sam’s Rent-a-Car, which played a role in the movie’s original ending, but is only visible briefly in the background of the final cut, has also since been torn down.

Its former location is denoted with a pink circle below.

Today, a large apartment building stands in that spot.

On a License to Drive side-note – I’ve been searching for photographs of the Cabriolet I drove as a teenager ever since I wrote my post about the License to Drive hospital. As I mentioned in the post, even though I was a mere 11 years old at the time, as soon as I first laid eyes on the white VW convertible Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham) drove at the end of the movie, I became completely obsessed with it. I made it known that it was the only car I wanted to drive upon turning 16 and my amazing parents gifted me one on my 16th birthday! I finally found photographs of it yesterday. That’s me (big hair, don’t care!) with one of my best friends Natalie just a few days after I received it. Seriously, Best. Car. Ever.

It should come as no surprise that my fellow celeb-obsessed friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, also drove a white VW Cabriolet in her teens, for the very same reason I did. I couldn’t believe it when I found out! We are so kindred spirits!

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.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’s Filmed There, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from License to Drive was formerly located at 19341 Saticoy Street in Reseda. It was torn down and no part of the structure currently remains.

July 23, 2010July 22, 2010

Michael Scott’s Condo from “The Office”

I am very sad to report that early last week I finally watched the Season 6 finale of The Office and am at this time all caught up on new episodes of the show. I am not quite sure what to do with myself now and am seriously considering watching the entire series over again, even though it’s only been about three weeks since I began watching it the first time. What can I say – I am absolutely obsessed! Unlike me, though, my fiancé was extremely happy when I finished watching the series because as he said, “Yes, it’s a great show, but not when you are playing it on a 24-hour loop in our apartment.” He was on so much Office-overload, in fact, that he had actually taken to watching random movies on his laptop computer every night while I commandeered our TV. Poor guy. Anyway, because there are no new episodes for me to watch, in order to satisfy my Office fix I spent this past weekend dragging my fiancé all over the Valley to stalk a bunch of locations from the show, the first one being the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania- area condominium where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) lives. I found Michael’s residence thanks, once again, to fellow stalker Owen who was able to track the place down via a lucky Google search. Thank you, Owen!

While watching the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Dream Team”, Owen noticed the above-pictured “Exit on Laura Lane” sign displayed on a fence near the front of Michael’s house and figured it might just be an actual sign posted near the actual property. He then simply used Google to search for a Laura Lane in Los Angeles and it wasn’t long before he stumbled upon one located in Reseda and, sure enough, just around the corner from it was Michael’s condo. YAY!

Before stalking the place, Owen had warned me that Michael Scott’s condo was located inside of a gated community and that it was most likely not visible to the public. I am very happy to report, though, that Michael’s particular unit is the second house in from Wyandotte Street, which is a public road, and that it actually can be seen from the street! YAY!

Sadly, Michael’s front door, which appears quite often on the series, is not visible, though.

But, I was able to spy the front door of a different unit while I was there and I am very happy to report that it looks JUST LIKE Michael’s front door. 🙂

Michael first purchased the condo in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “Office Olympics”. It is while he is buying the residence that he gives this sage piece of advice to the audience: “There’s a basic principle in real estate that you should never be the best-looking person in the development. It’s just sort of common sense because, if you are, then you’ve got no place to go but down.” LOL

In that same episode, when Michael first points out his new condo to Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) he mistakenly shows him the wrong unit, which is located directly across the street from the one which he has actually purchased.

The condo has been featured in several episodes of The Office over the course of the series’ six-year run, including the Season 4 episode titled “Dinner Party”, in which Michael invites all of the office couples over to his house for dinner.

And, as you can see from these photographs of another residence in the same development, the real-life interior of the home was actually used in the filming of that episode.

Michael’s condo was also featured in the Season 5 episode titled “Dream Team”, as well.

My favorite part about this location is that if you look at it via Bing Maps, you can see several production trucks, star trailers, and craft services tents set up, which means that they were actually filming an episode of The Office when the aerial images were taken!! SO DARN COOL!

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On a side note – I recently got a Brazilian Blowout treatment done to my hair and I have to say it was the BEST DECISION I EVER MADE! While I’ve never had particularly difficult or unruly hair, it is very thick and very curly and because I’ve been growing it out recently for the wedding, it has become rather time-consuming to style. My mom told me about the Brazilian Blowout treatment a few weeks ago after she heard it supposedly shortens the time it takes to straighten one’s hair. I was leery to try it as not only is it very expensive, but I was afraid it might fry my locks. I finally bit the bullet, though, last Wednesday, and, let me tell you, I am SO GLAD I DID! It is no exaggeration to say that the treatment has been life-changing! While it used to take me 90 minutes to blow-dry my hair straight, it now takes me 20! NO JOKE! And I no longer need to use any sort of product to style it – that’s right, no balm, no cream, no gel! If you have been trying to decide whether or not to try the Brazilian Blowout, I honestly cannot recommend it enough! I’ve gone from being so frustrated with my hair that I was ready to shave it all off ala Britney Spears to being a wash-and-go type of gal. LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael Scott’s condo from The Office is located at 7303 Bonnie Place in Reseda. The condo which Michael mistakenly thinks is his in the “Office Olympics” episode is located at 7302 Bonnie Place. Both residences are located within a gated community, so please be respectful and do not trespass.