Southland locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

One location that has been a thorn in my side for as long as I can remember is the gorgeous wood-paneled bar featured in the opening scene of Bad Santa. Despite having contacted several crew members and spending copious amounts of time searching for it online, I just cannot seem to find the place – and, let me tell you, it is driving me absolutely crazy! A locale from the 2003 black comedy that I was able to track down last January, though, thanks to location manager Steve Beimler, was Footsies – a different watering hole that appeared in the movie. While Beimler originally informed me that Footsies was the bar from Bad Santa’s opening scene, when I went to stalk it – with Mike, from MovieShotsLA – I knew right away that it was not the right spot. Regardless, I was excited to have a Christmas locale for my stalking backlog and figured it was most definitely blog-worthy.

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Footsies popped up towards the beginning of Bad Santa as the supposed Milwaukee-area tavern where Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and Marcus (Tony Cox) celebrated their successful robbery of a local mall. It was also where Willie told Marcus that he was hanging up his Santa hat and moving to Miami Beach. Only the interior of the bar was used in the filming.

In real life, the establishment looks very much the same as it did onscreen, despite a slight remodel.

According to Mike, who grew up in L.A., Footsies has been around forever. Oddly enough, though, I could find no information whatsoever – nothing, nada, zip! – about its history online.

I did learn that the bar appeared in two episodes of Southland, though. The exterior was used in the Season 1 episode titled “Derailed” as the watering hole that Officer Dewey Dudek (C. Thomas Howell) stumbled out of before heading to work early in the morning.

And in the Season 5 episode titled “Bleed Out,” Footsies was where Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) and Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) investigated a disturbance.

For any of my fellow stalkers who might have information or are interested in helping with the hunt, the exterior of the thorn-in-my-side Bad Santa bar is pictured below. According to a crew member that I spoke with, it is located somewhere in Santa Monica and was dressed for the filming. (I am guessing that the entire green front panel may have been faked.) The locale is a one-story brick building that sits perpendicular to a traffic light.

The interior of the thorn-in-my-side bar might also be located in Santa Monica (although no crew members can say either way with any certainty). It is such a beautiful, historic-looking site, I am shocked that no one I have spoken with has any recollection of its whereabouts.

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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Footsies bar, from Bad Santa, is located at 2640 North Figueroa Street in Los Angeles’ Cypress Park neighborhood.

As I mentioned back in March in my post about Bar Keeper in Silver Lake, the whimsical little barware store that stood in for Upon Galley in the 2005 movie A Lot Like Love, one locale that I had been absolutely itching to stalk in recent weeks was the Coffee Pot, an Echo Park-area café that appeared in the Season 4 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Babes in Toyland”. And while tracking down this location required minimal effort on my part, stalking it would be a different story altogether.

The GC and I actually tried to stalk the Coffee Pot not once, but twice, and both endeavors proved futile. Our first attempt took place on a Sunday when we just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by, only to discover that the shop is closed on Sundays. Then, last weekend, we made a special trip out there, on a Saturday this time, only to be met with a sign on the front door announcing that the small café was closed because “I’m the mom and I said so!” Um, OK. And while it is said that “the third time’s the charm”, I think we will just cut our losses at two unsuccessful stalks for this location. It is unfortunate, too, because the place looked absolutely adorable and I had a major hankering for some coffee at the time.

I was so flummoxed over the shop being closed yet again that I completely forgot to have the GC take my picture out front. I was able to snap two photographs of the Coffee Pot’s interior through the café’s front windows, though, and being that there was also a Starbucks located right across the street and I did manage to score myself a latte, I guess the trip was not a total loss. Winking smile

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In the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210, troublemaker Vanessa (Arielle Kebbel) tries to sabotage Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) and Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) by sending them to the fictional “Echo Park Grill” for a fake meeting with the VP of A&R for Def Jam Records. Oddly enough, three different locations were used to stand in for the restaurant in the episode. The first establishing shot shown in the scene was of the 3900 block of West Sunset Boulevard in the Sunset Junction area of Silver Lake, where Bar Keeper is located.

The second establishing shot was of Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz, which I I blogged about back in August 2011. The exterior of Figaro also appeared in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much is that Liam in the Window”.

And, finally, the Coffee Pot was used for all of the “Echo Park Grill’s” interior scenes, where Adrianna and Dixon waited futilely for the record executive. As you can see above, the café is a pretty cute spot.

Despite the conflicting establishing shots, this location was actually a snap to track down as I had noticed the words “Coffee Pot” on the door of the café while watching the episode. A simple input of the terms “Coffee Pot” and “Los Angeles” into a Google search spit back a result of the Coffee Pot in Echo Park. Yay! Too bad it wasn’t quite as easy to stalk.

Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, also let me know that the Coffee Pot had appeared as “Spark Plug Coffee” where Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) and Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) arrested a man for having placed a hidden camera in a women’s bathroom in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Risk”.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of the Coffee Pot’s Southland appearance.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Coffee Pot, from the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210 and the “Risk” episode of Southland, is located at 2201 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.

Tag: Southland locations

Footsies Bar from “Bad Santa”

The Coffee Pot from “90210”