Starbucks – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 27, 2019April 23, 2020

The Starbucks from “The Morning Show”

I love a good Starbucks location! I mean, what’s better than stalking and being able to pick up a great cup of coffee at the same time? So I was thrilled to recognize an outpost of the java giant while watching the fifth episode of The Morning Show, titled “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” recently. As it turns out, the café is a place I’ve visited countless times over the years and even blogged about once back in 2013. Situated on the corner of West 6th Street and Grand Avenue in downtown L.A., the coffee shop is just steps from the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, where the Grim Cheaper and I regularly used to check in when seeking a staycation while living in Los Angeles. As fate would have it, my parents booked a room at the property just last week, so I, of course, tagged along in order to do a little Starbucks re-stalk.

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The Starbucks at 6th and Grand has been a staple of the neighborhood for more than a decade.

Before that, the space, situated in the southwest corner of the ground floor of the picturesque PacMutual building, housed a Grand Central Coffee outpost and then a Tully’s Coffee.

The Starbucks looks quite a bit different today than when I originally stalked it six years ago thanks to an extensive remodel that took place in late 2017 during which the interior was gutted, the front doors moved from the store’s south to west side, and the café expanded into the unit next door which formerly housed a deli.

The result is a massive, modern space with plenty of seating, a huge front counter, and wraparound windows.

I love the muted green color scheme and concrete design elements which give it a bit of a different feel than a typical Starbucks.

It is at the coffee shop that Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) runs into her co-workers Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Claire Conway (Bel Powley), who invite her out to celebrate Claire’s birthday, in “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around.”

By only showing one small corner of the café in the scene and none of the familiar Starbucks signage, it seems that producers went out of their way to make the place appear to be a random coffee house and not an outpost of the retail giant. Had it not been for the green umbrellas visible outside the window, as well as the view of the Edwards & Wildey Building (now known as Milano Lofts) across the street, I might not have recognized the location. It’s a good thing I know my Starbucks!

The 6th and Grand outpost is actually a frequent film star.

It appeared very briefly in the background of the 1999 drama Fight Club in the scene in which The Narrator (Edward Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) blew up an electronics store.

Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and Amy Gardner (Mary-Louise Parker) discussed welfare reform at the site back when it was a Tully’s Coffee in the Season 3 episode of The West Wing titled “Posse Comitatus,” which aired in 2002.

Though the Tully’s signage was left intact on the front doors, the space was utilized to portray the fictional “Phil’s Bar” in the 2004 romcom Little Black Book. In another odd move, the imagery of the bar’s exterior was also flipped in the scene, as I detailed in my 2013 post.

The 6th and Grand Starbucks is also where Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) tried to talk to Walter King (Robert Patrick Benedict) in the Season 1 episode of Touch titled “Safety in Numbers,” which aired in 2012.

Recently, Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector), Brad Coniff (David Marciano), and Detective Julie Espinosa (Jacqueline Pinol) grabbed coffee there and discussed a case in the Season 6 episode of Bosch titled “Good People on Both Sides.”

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 Starbucks from the “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around” episode of The Morning Show is located at 523 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

January 4, 2017January 1, 2017

The Old Towne Orange Starbucks from “That Thing You Do!”

“We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks, but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.” So says Meg Swan (Parker Posey) about meeting her husband, Hamilton (Michael Hitchcock), in the 2000 comedy Best in Show. (You can watch the hilarious scene here.) Meg might well have been describing the two outposts of the coffee giant in Old Towne Orange, which are situated across the plaza from each other. As fate would have it, both are filming locations! I blogged about one – the 44 Plaza Square site, which was featured in the 2004 Yuletide comedy Surviving Christmas – last December, and promised to do a post on the second – which can be found at 101 East Chapman Avenue – but never got around to it. So I figured now was as good a time as any. Here goes! The second Starbucks, which is housed alongside a Wells Fargo in a 1928 bank building, made a brief cameo in fave movie That Thing You Do!

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The city’s first bank, the Bank of Orange, was originally established in 1886. The following year, the company constructed offices, a two-story brick building, on the northeast corner of Chapman Avenue and Plaza Square. You can see what it looked like here. The site has been home to a bank ever since.

The Bank of Orange underwent an ownership change in 1905 and was eventually consolidated with another local financial institution, becoming the First National Bank of Orange in 1927. The brick offices were torn down shortly thereafter to make way for a new headquarters building. That property, which was designed in the classical style by architects Morgan, Walls & Clements, opened its doors in 1928.

The stately site, which was expanded twice over the years (first in 1955 and then again in 1963), became a Wells Fargo in 1978. In more recent years, a Starbucks was added to the premises.

Due to the fact that the coffee shop is situated inside of the actual bank, its interior is quite unique.

And quite impressive.

Not a bad place to grab a cup of joe, eh?

I fell in love with the site’s ornate rounded inlaid ceiling.

As you can see below, it’s really quite something.

In That Thing You Do!, the exterior of the Starbucks/Wells Fargo building masked as the exterior of the main branch of The Erie Public Library. You can see a photo of it dressed for the filming here. It was there that, while Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech) pontificated about naming his musical group “The Heardsmen,” Chad (Giovanni Ribisi) broke his arm during an attempt to hop over a parking meter. Though it was a short scene, it was significant in that it served as the catalyst for Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) joining the group to replace Chad, which in turn caused them to become famous.

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Filming of the segment took place on the building’s south, East Chapman Avenue side . . .

. . . where there are, unfortunately, no parking meters in real life, so I could not do a re-creation.

Being that I’m a klutz, though, maybe that’s a good thing.

The building’s other side (the west Plaza Square side) was seen briefly in the background of the Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Partridge.”

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 Old Towne Orange Starbucks/Wells Fargo from That Thing You Do! is located at 101 East Chapman Avenue in Orange.

August 1, 2016July 29, 2016

The “Sex and the City” Starbucks

One of the best things about starting this blog is the people it has put me in contact with – a myriad of fabulous individuals who share my unique affection for filming locations. One such fellow stalker, a New Yorker named Gary, has gifted me with countless Big Apple locales since we first started exchanging emails way back in 2010. Most of Gary’s knowledge comes from driving a cab for three years. The job took him all over NYC, made him familiar with its nooks and crannies, and he now knows the city like the back of his hand. He has also come across quite a few filmings during his tenure in New York and, thanks to his hawk-like memory, can recall where each took place. One such filming was of a Sex and the City episode that Gary witnessed being shot at the Starbucks at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue. Well believe you me, when I read the words “Sex and the City” and “Starbucks,” I practically came unglued and added the locale to my NYC To-Stalk list. And while Gary could not remember which episode the scene appeared in, it did not take me long to figure it out.

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In Season 4’s “The Good Fight,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) heads to the Eighth Avenue Starbucks for some respite after getting into a huge fight with then fiancé Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) over the lack of space in their newly shared apartment. (You can watch that fight here.) While there, she says, “I used to think those people who sat alone at Starbucks writing on their laptops were pretentious posers. Now I know – they’re people who have recently moved in with someone. As I looked around, I wondered how many of them were mid-fight, like myself. The hard thing about fighting in relationships as opposed to Madison Square Garden? No referee. There’s no one to tell you which comments are below the belt or when to go to your separate corners. As a result, someone usually gets hurt. And it seems the closer a couple gets and the more stuff they have between them, the harder it is to figure out exactly why they’re yelling. When it comes to relationships, I couldn’t help but wonder, what are we fighting for?” Despite the fact that I have re-watched the entire Sex and the City series a copious amount of times, I often forget how ingenious the writing is. When the Grim Cheaper and I first moved in together, we had Aidan and Carrie’s exact same fight. In preparation for our move – and the tiny closet at our new apartment – I had thrown out countless outfits that I loved. So when the GC showed up with six (six!) medium-sized boxes filled solely with white undershirts, I practically had a meltdown. Thankfully, we survived our tiff (after five of those boxes of undershirts were thrown out, of course), but Carrie and Aiden did not. They broke up just two episodes later.

Most of the Starbucks scene was shot looking in through the property’s south window.

Though the café’s exterior remains unchanged from its onscreen appearance in 2002, I somehow failed to snap a photograph of the correct window.

You can check out Google Street View images of it below, though.

While very little of the Starbucks interior was shown in “The Good Fight,” it is apparent that the space has been remodeled since filming took place and looks a bit different today.

In the scene, Carrie sat at a tall shared table in the middle of the café.

That exact table is no longer there, but a similar one currently stands in the same spot.

I was excited to see that the seating that runs along the south window, which was visible in the scene, remains intact.

It was raining when we showed up to stalk “The Good Fight” Starbucks and, as a result, the place was exorbitantly crowded, which made it a bit difficult to snap pics. The deluge is also the reason I did not pose for my normal photograph out in front of the locale. And although I hate rain pretty much more than anything, as I said that day to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, “I’ll take rain in New York over sun in Palm Springs any day!” Smile

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gary for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Starbucks from “The Good Fight” episode of Sex and the City is located at 124 8th Avenue in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.

July 20, 2010July 19, 2010

The Very First Starbucks Store

While this probably goes without saying, the location that I was most excited about stalking while vacationing in Seattle this past May was the very first Starbucks store at Pike Place Market. As I’ve mentioned countless times in the past – and as anyone who knows me even slightly well can attest to – I am an absolute Starbucks fiend! I visit my local branch at least twice a day and am on first name basis with all of the baristas who work there. Heck, some of them even read my blog! 🙂 So, when it was decided that the Grim Cheaper and I would be taking a mini-vacay to the Pacific Northwest to do some stalking and visit with our friends Kerry and Jim, I let it be known right away that there was absolutely no way I was leaving town without seeing the very first Starbucks store in person. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited about it. On the morning we were scheduled to stalk the store, my fiancé woke me and said, “Are you ready to visit your Mecca? Be sure to bring along a prayer rug or something so that you can pay your respects while there.” 😉 All joking aside, though, it really was a very special pilgrimage for me as I had always promised myself that one day I would get to Seattle so that I could stalk the store that started it all.

In the interest of integrity, though, I should mention here that the store which actually started it all is no longer standing and that the Pike Place Starbucks, which is generally touted as being the company’s first location, was actually the chain’s fourth. Confused? I’ll see if I can break it down. A couple of years ago I read a FASCINATING book by Taylor Clark called Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture. Besides sharing interesting tidbits, like the fact that “coffee is the second-most-traded physical commodity in the world” (oil being the first), the book chronicles the long and storied history of the now-ubiquitous coffee giant. The first Starbucks outlet was actually opened by three men – history teacher Zev Siegl, Boeing programmer Jerry Baldwin, and writer Gordon Bowker – on March 29, 1971 in Downtown Seattle’s Harbor Heights building, which used to be located at 2000 Western Avenue. And while the store did offer free drip coffee samples, the place was not actually a cafe, but a walk-up wholesale coffee bean vendor. There were no espresso machines, no comfy couches on which to linger, no pastries or desserts on offer in glass cases, and no music playing on the stereo. But even without all the extras, Starbucks was a success. By the time the owners of the Harbor Heights building decided to raze the property in 1974 (the building that currently stands on that site is pictured above), Starbucks had already opened two additional sister stores.

With their current location facing demolition, the original Starbucks store moved a few doors down to 1912 Pike Place (pictured above), making the first store the company’s fourth. I know, I know, it’s confusing. “Starbucked” author Clark explains it best: “The rundown building that once housed the first store was knocked down in 1974, so they built a new one a couple of blocks away, right across from the public market. But in the meantime, the three founders had opened new stores near the University of Washington and on Capital Hill in 1972 and 1973 – making what’s now called the “original” the fourth store by chronology.” Ironic, huh? Crazier still is the fact that Starbucks mega-mogul Howard Schultz didn’t come into the picture until 1981. He was working as a housewares salesman in New York at the time and had noticed that one of his customers, a tiny coffee chain in Seattle, was selling more of a certain kind of drip coffeemaker than Macy’s! He flew out to the Pacific Northwest to learn more about the then-unknown coffee company and was immediately taken with it. A year later, he left Manhattan and moved to Seattle in order to go to work for the small chain. The rest, as they say, is history.

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It’s amazing to think that a chain that currently boasts 17,743 different stores in more than 50 countries (there’s even a branch on the Great Wall of China! – not kidding!) started out as one tiny, little storefront in Seattle. Thankfully, that storefront has been left largely unaltered over the past 36 years and looks pretty much exactly like it did back in 1974 when it first opened. As Clark points out in his book, though, with its plank-wood flooring and weathered wooden countertops, the store more closely resembles a Peet’s Coffee shop than it does a Starbucks. There’s a reason for that, though. Dutch coffee roaster Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee Company, actually helped Siegl, Baldwin, and Bowker get started in the business, and they modeled their first location after the original Peet’s store in Berkeley, California. I cannot even express how happy I am that the original store has been left untouched and was not remodeled to fit the cookie-cutter Starbucks mold over the years.

The Pike Place Starbucks also continues to use the chain’s original logo – that of a split-tailed mermaid with bared breasts, encircled by the words “Starbucks – Coffee, Tea, Spices” – an image which was deemed too risqué when the company went corporate.

To commemorate the store’s historical significance, there is also a brass post which reads “First Starbucks Store, Established 1971” on display at the front entrance. Love it! I wish they had a post like this on display at movie locations, as well!

And there’s even a map on the wall of all of the Starbucks locations worldwide.

But besides being the most unique-looking of all of the Starbucks stores, the Pike Place location is also the only one in North America which still hand-pulls its espresso shots, making for a more authentic coffee experience. (The other stores switched to automated espresso machines a few years back.) The Grim Cheaper was especially enthralled with watching the baristas craft the espresso by hand and took countless photographs of them. All of the baristas were also extremely friendly and knowledgeable about Starbucks – and coffee in general – which I absolutely LOVED. It was fascinating to speak with them about the history of the store and the company.

I absolutely cannot tell you how cool it was to be standing there ordering an iced latte at the very Starbucks store which started it all – definitely a moment I will never forget! And I have to say that even though the place was jam-packed with people, my drink was made in record time! I honestly cannot recommend stalking the first Starbucks enough! For those who don’t want to wade through the hordes of stalkers there, though, there is – of course – another Starbucks store located just around the corner from this one. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The first Starbucks store is located at 1912 Pike Place in Seattle. The location of the former Harbor Heights building, which housed the very first Starbucks store but has long since been torn down, can be found at 2000 Western Avenue.

November 23, 2009December 16, 2009

My Coffee With Andre – Agassi, That Is!

A few years back, an email entitled “You Know You’re From Los Angeles When . . . “ which was comprised of a list of “Only in L.A.” scenarios circled the World Wide Web. My personal favorite item on the list was number 28 which stated, “The guy at 8:30 in the morning at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney actually IS George Clooney”. LOVE IT! Well, Thursday morning, I had my very own “Only in L.A.” moment at a local Starbucks, when I realized that the guy in front of me in line who looked like tennis superstar Andre Agassi actually WAS tennis superstar Andre Agassi. As it turns out, Andre was in town for a book signing at my fave bookstore, Vroman’s, and was grabbing a quick coffee beforehand. So, of course, for my blog’s sake, I just had to ask him to take a picture with me. I was a little nervous about doing so, though, as just a few weeks prior some friends and I happened to run into Bruce Willis while dining at the Jerry’s Deli on Beverly Boulevard. We had the good fortune of finishing our meal at pretty much the exact same time as Bruce and when we found ourselves in the valet line next to him while waiting for our cars, I asked him if he wouldn’t mind posing for a photograph with us, to which he replied “Doubtful.” Being that my question pretty much warranted either a yes or a no answer, I’m not even really sure what he meant by that, but needless to say I did not get my photo. 🙁 He did shake our hands, though, so I guess that’s something. So, when Andre Agassi said that he’d be happy to pose for a picture with me, I was absolutely elated! A man who I am guessing was his publicist took the above photograph of us – which is arguably the worst photo I’ve ever taken in my life LOL – and afterwards said “I think you’re going to like this one!” I laughed and replied, “Well, being that I’m not wearing any make-up right now, I’m not so sure”, to which Andre said, “Well, I’m not wearing make-up either, so we’re even!” LOL LOL LOL Three other women were in Starbucks at the time that all of this took place and, let me tell you, Andre’s presence caused us all to act like a bunch of giddy little school girls. I’m pretty sure the noise level inside Starbucks increased more than one decibel while the four of us fawned over him. My three new friends also asked for their pictures to be taken with Andre and he happily obliged. In fact, he was so incredibly friendly and gracious I almost couldn’t believe it. He even waited patiently while I tried to figure out how to use the camera on one of the girl’s iPhones. And, to top it all off, when I was on the way out the door a few minutes later, Andre looked up from his espresso and called out “Bye!” Sigh! What a nice guy! I am so going to have to check out his new book now!

Seeing Andre on Thursday got me thinking. Everyday I receive emails from readers seeking advice on how and where to spot celebrities in L.A. And, while I did write a post about celebrity hot spots earlier this year, I realized that the best advice I can give on seeing a famous person in Los Angeles is to just simply KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN AT ALL TIMES. The truth is you just never know when or where you might spot a celeb. I’ve seen stars in such mundane spots as the grocery store, Target, Rite Aid, the mall, Joann’s Fabrics, and Michael’s Craft Store. And, of course, at Starbucks. Other celebs I’ve spotted at various Starbucks in the L.A. area include Sophia Loren, Bradley Whitford (on three different occasions!), Jane Kaczmarek, Britney Spears, Peter MacNicol, Maxine Bahns (from The Brothers McMullen), David Strathairn, Danielle Panabaker, Mark D. Espinoza (who played Andrea’s husband Jesse on the original 90210), Kevin Dunn, Jamie Lynn Spears, who was with her mother Lynn Spears, and Reese Witherspoon. Although to be fair, Reese wasn’t actually at a Starbucks when I spotted her. I saw her walking out of a yoga studio located directly next door to the Starbucks I happened to be walking into. But that still counts, don’t you think? 🙂 Being that I visit a Starbucks on average of three times a day, though, I guess my record of seeing celebs there isn’t actually all that good. LOL But my point is that when you’re in L.A. you just have to keep your eyes peeled at all times! And always, always have your camera with you! 🙂

As if to further drive this point home, while doing some shopping at Larchmont Village with my fiancé on Saturday afternoon, I happened to spot both Anthony John Denison, who plays Lieutenant Flynn on TNT’s The Closer, and Owain Yeoman, who plays Detective Wayne Rigsby on The Mentalist (pictured above), dining at restaurants across the street from each other. I, of course, noticed both actors immediately, but my fiancé walked RIGHT BY them completely oblivious. Honestly, I think they both could have come up and bitten him on the nose and he still wouldn’t have realized who they were! As I mentioned above, you just gotta keep your eyes open!

And let me just say here that I was completely struck by how much better looking Owain Yeoman is in person than he comes across onscreen, as was the case back in August when I saw him during a filming of The Mentalist. I mean, even my fiancé had to admit that the guy looked quite a bit different in person. 🙂 And even though Owain is one of my new celebrity crushes, because he was eating lunch when we spotted him, I didn’t want to bother him for a photograph. But, as luck would have it, when driving away from Larchmont Village, my fiancé happened to get stuck at a stop sign RIGHT IN FRONT of Owain’s table, so, I just had to snap a quick pic. 🙂 Owain definitely noticed me taking his photo and didn’t seem too happy about the situation, but being that he is oh so dreamy, I just couldn’t help myself. 🙂 Sigh!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Starbucks where I ran into Andre Agassi is located at 408 East Colorado Blvd., in the Paseo Colorado Shopping Center, in Pasadena. Larchmont Village, where I spotted Owain Yeoman and Anthony John Denison, is a quaint little shopping district located on North Larchmont Blvd. in between Beverly Boulevard and West 1st Street. Anthony John Denison was eating at Louise’s Tratroria, which is located at 232 N. Larchmont Blvd. Owain was eating at Le Petite Greek, which is located at 127 N. Larchmont.

October 16, 2009October 20, 2009

The It’s A Grind Coffee House from Weeds

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked while in the San Fernando Valley a few weeks ago was the It’s A Grind Coffee House featured weekly in the opening credits of the Showtime series Weeds. I was dying to stalk this location not only because I love anything and everything having to do with coffee, but because of a little bit of trivia that I had read online. According to IMDB, the It’s A Grind coffee company has had a product placement deal with Weeds since the series began. Those who watch the show regularly will recall that Nancy (aka Mary-Louise Parker) carries around an iced drink from It’s A Grind in pretty much every scene. A woman after my own heart, I swear! Anyway, when it came time to shoot the opening credits, which features a scene where about a dozen businessmen dressed all alike enter and exit an It’s A Grind, for some odd reason producers chose NOT to film at an It’s A Grind location, but at a Starbucks store. They literally went to all the trouble of redressing the store and removing the Starbucks logo to replace it with It’s A Grind signage for the shoot. Being that It’s A Grind is a real coffee company with locations dotted all over the L.A. area, I cannot for the life of me figure out why they didn’t just use one of the real stores for the filming! It doesn’t make any sense! I guess I just have to chalk it up to the magic of Hollywood! 🙂

Because of the Starbucks store’s odd filming history, I decided I just had to stalk the place. The only problem was that I had no idea where it was located. According to IMDB, the store from the opening credits was located somewhere in Calabasas. So, since Mike is familiar with the Valley, I sent him the above screen capture and he recognized its location immediately. 🙂 YAY! So a few weeks ago, the two of us headed out to stalk the It’s A Grind/Starbucks store from Weeds. 🙂 And, of course, being that it’s a Starbucks, I highly recommend stalking the place! 🙂 And thanks to the numerous amount of stars that live in the Calabasas area, the store is no stranger to celebrity. I hear that MJ’s brother Jermaine Jackson is even a regular there. 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Mike for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The It’s A Grind/Starbucks coffee house from Weeds is located at 26531 Agoura Road in Calabasas. You can visit the It’s A Grind website to find a real It’s A Grind location here.

January 7, 2009February 13, 2009

The Astor Place Starbucks

Two of my favorite things in the world (besides Jennifer Aniston, of course) are Starbucks coffee and Sex and the City. So it was only natural that I stalk the Starbucks featured in Sex and the City: The Movie while I was in New York a few weeks ago. 🙂 The Starbucks used in SATC is located on Astor Place and is actually one of the busiest Starbucks in New York. It also just happens to be Matt Damon’s Starbucks of choice. 🙂 I found this location thanks to the Sex and The City: The Movie book, which features an entire chapter dedicated to filming locations. LOVE IT!

The Astor Place Starbucks was featured twice in SATC: The Movie. It first shows up in one of the funniest scenes in the movie, as the location where Carrie holds her personal assistant interviews and meets “Louise from Saint Louis” (Jennifer Hudson) for the first time. That scene was actually the first scene Jennifer Hudson filmed for the movie and, according to the Sex and the City: The Movie book, at the end of the day she sang “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” to the cast and crew. In fact, all of the actors who played Carrie’s interviewees in the scene are well-known Broadway singers.

Later on in the movie, Carrie and Louise once again visit this same Starbucks. But this time, Carrie has a new head of hair – long, dark brown locks. A little bit of SATC trivia – Carrie’s brown mane in the movie was actually a wig!

While walking to the Astor Place Starbucks, I couldn’t help but wonder why, out of the 178 Starbucks locations in New York City, producers choose this one for filming? But once I entered the front doors, it all became clear. The Astor Place Starbucks is the BIGGEST Starbucks I have ever seen in my life. It has to be at least 2,000 square feet. It’s massive size must have made it the easy choice for filming a movie with a large crew and large cameras.

While researching the Astor Place Starbucks this morning, I came across this AMAZING website and pretty much spent my whole morning absolutely engrossed by it! Apparently, there is a man named Winter whose goal in life is to visit every single Starbucks location on the planet. A man after my own heart, I’m telling you. 🙂 I told my boyfriend about Winter and his unique mission this morning and he replied “That sounds like something you would do!” LOL I better never meet this Winter guy, I have a feeling we’d be trouble together. 🙂 On a side note, if you are at all a Starbucks fan like myself and find yourself in New York, you will be very excited to know that the Herald Square Macy’s houses not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Starbucks – one on the first floor balcony, and one each on levels 3, 5, and 6! I was in heaven while shopping there. 🙂 LOL The above picture is of a Macy’s sign showing all of its Starbucks locations that I took while riding the escalator, which explains why it turned out a bit blurry. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sex and the City Starbucks is located at the corner of Astor Place and Layfayette Street in Manhattan.

May 10, 2008February 13, 2009

Celeb’s Coffee of Choice

While we all know that Britney Spears can’t live without her daily Starbucks ration, it seems that most other celebs in the LA area much prefer a smaller coffeehouse chain called Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Because I am absolutely obsessed with coffee and Starbucks (if I had my way – and the money – I’d easily drink three or four iced lattes a day!) I recently started reading a great book about the chain called Starbucked by Taylor Clark. Starbucked chronicles the history of Starbucks and also tells much of the history of Coffee Bean, as well. So last weekend, after I learned of the location, I dragged my boyfriend to Brentwood to stalk the very first Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf store.

The first Coffee Bean was founded in 1963 by Herbert Hyman and immediately had a celebrity following. Ronald Reagan, Lee Marvin, Jason Robards, Johnny Carson and Jacques Cousteau all became regulars at the Brentwood store shortly after its opening. Today, celebs like Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan, David Beckham, and Benji Madden are Coffee Bean regulars and paparazzi can often be seen loitering outside the various LA locations of the chain. Several CB stores were also featured regularly on the series Entourage as a meeting place for Vince and his crew.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The very first Coffee Bean can be found at 11698 San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood. I recommend ordering an ice blended – they are the best you’ll ever taste!

February 24, 2008February 13, 2009

This Might Just Be What Finally Puts Britney Over the Edge!!

I am sad to report that on Tuesday, February 26th, every single Starbucks store is going to close between the hours of 5:30PM and 8:30PM for an emergency re-training session with CEO Howard Schultz. Whatever is BritBrit going to do if she wants her beverage of choice during those three hours?? For that matter, what am I going to do??? Thank God Sophie Kinsella’s (my very favorite author!!!) new book comes out that day to keep my mind off of my Starbucks withdrawals!!

You can read more on the story here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Britney’s Starbucks of choice is located at the Malibu Country Mart in Malibu, right on Pacific Coast Highway. You can read a more detailed post about Britter’s fave Starbucks here.