The Morning Show – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 6, 2020May 5, 2020

The InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown from “The Morning Show”

Aside from flying, there is little I am afraid of. Spiders? Nope. Public speaking? Not even a lick! Heights? Not typically. But when the Grim Cheaper and I visited the new InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown inside Wilshire Grand Center, which stands at 1,100 feet, I almost had a panic attack! I am not sure why, but as soon as we stepped into the elevator and the GC pressed the 70th-floor button to head to the hotel’s sky lobby, my heart started fluttering and instinct had me running back out into the foyer before the doors could close. I finally got myself together and made it up to the building’s top (quite quickly, I might add – the elevators travel at 1,600 feet per minute!), but I never felt fully comfortable while there. In fact, my heart rate didn’t return to normal until my feet were firmly planted back on terra firma. I am sure glad I braved it, though, because not only is the hotel stunning, but it later popped up on The Morning Show!

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Construction on Wilshire Grand Center, which replaced the Wilshire Grand Hotel, began on February 15, 2014.

The Korean Air-backed metamodernist tower was designed by the AC Martin architecture firm. I had the pleasure of interviewing CEO and Chairman Chris Martin about the building for this 2015 Los Angeles magazine article and even got to tour the site mid-construction, both of which were highlights of my stalking career. That’s me perched atop what was then the property’s highest floor.

As I stated in the L.A. mag article, Wilshire Grand’s design was inspired by the California landscape, particularly Half Dome and Yosemite’s Merced River. Perhaps the most dramatic element of the building is the 240-by-60 foot skylight that hangs over the main entrance, which Martin dubbed a “river of glass.”

It truly does look like a wave cresting over the front doors.

Capped by a glass sail, Wilshire Grand is the only L.A. skyscraper sans a flat roof. Prior to its construction, all city buildings over 75 feet were required to have helicopter landing pads and, therefore, flat tops. Thanks to its plethora of fire safety measures which far exceed code requirements, though, the Grand was granted permission to instead have a small landing “platform,” allowing for a unique curved roofline. It definitely sets the place apart from the other structures in the skyline.

Officially, Wilshire Grand is L.A.’s tallest building, as well as the tallest edifice West of the Mississippi, though that is a point of contention among many as the distinction is only met thanks to its 294-foot spire. Runner-up U.S. Bank Tower, which stands at 1,018 feet, also dwarfs it due to its location atop Bunker Hill (as you can see here), further complicating the matter. But whether you think Wilshire Grand is deserving of the superlative or not, there’s no denying the tower is spectacular!

The mixed-use property, which is comprised of offices, retail space and the InterContinental, opened to the public on June 23rd, 2017. The 900-room hotel makes up the building’s upper 43 floors.

One of its most unique elements is its lobby, which can’t be found at street level, but all the way up on floor 70!

It’s a pretty striking place to check-in.

The sky lobby boasts plenty of comfortable spots to sit, windows galore, and a lounge serving food and drinks.

The construction beams . . .

. . . which stretch up to the ceiling . . .

. . . are an integral part of the space’s design.

As are the floor-to-ceiling windows.

When we first arrived at the sky lobby, I was too nervous to get close to the windows . . .

. . . which didn’t make for the best photos.

But I finally worked up the courage and, wow, once I did, I couldn’t get over the views!

Wilshire Grand seems to just tower over the neighboring buildings.

It felt like the entire city was stretched out below me.

Even the Hollywood Sign was visible!

Along with stellar views, the hotel boasts 3 restaurants, 3 bars (sadly, Spire 73, the rooftop bar, was closed when we were there), 94,977 square feet of event space, a 13,000-square-foot gym known as Attitude Fitness, and an outdoor pool (the latter three make up floors 5, 6 and 7 of the Wilshire Grand). The InterContinental really is a must-see for anyone visiting Los Angeles!

Considering its unique design, modern style, and stunning views, it is no surprise the place made its way to the screen.

The InterContinental was used several times throughout Season 1 of The Morning Show. It first showed up in episode 3, “Chaos Is the New Cocaine,” in the scene in which Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) delivers her great “You don’t have the power anymore!” speech to UBA network executives. The segment was filmed in one of the hotel’s sixth-floor board rooms, which you can see images of here and here.

Attitude Fitness (which you can see photos of here) is where Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) watches Bradley Jackson’s (Reese Witherspoon) first TMS taping in episode 4, “That Woman.”

In episode 8, “Lonely at the Top,” and briefly in episode 10, “The Interview,” the presidential suite (which you can see here) masks as Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) Las Vegas hotel room.

Alex and Chip Black (Mark Duplass) pass each other on the fabulous escalators leading up to the hotel’s conference area in episode 10, “The Interview.”

The InterContinental is most prominently used, though, as UBA President Fred Micklen’s (Tom Irwin) office, which first pops up in “That Woman,” but went on to appear in almost every episode following.

Fred’s office scenes were also shot in one of the hotel’s sixth-floor board rooms.

You can check out images of it here

Other productions have found their way to the InterContinental, as well. In the Season 7 episode of Silicon Valley titled “Exit Event,” which aired in 2019, Dinesh Chugtai (Kumail Nanjiani) scaled the staircase inside the rooftop sail.

That same year, one of the hotel’s boardrooms portrayed a meeting room at Núñez Incorporated in the first two episodes of The L Word: Generation Q, titled “Let’s Do It Again” and “Less Is More,” respectively.

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 InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, from The Morning Show, is located at 900 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown L.A. You can visit the property’s official website here.

April 10, 2020April 9, 2020

The Fine Arts Building from “The Morning Show”

Considering I’ve been at this crazy hobby of mine for twenty years now, you’d think I’d have stalked every square inch of Los Angeles. While watching the second episode of The Morning Show, though, I was reminded of a site I had yet to set foot in – downtown’s Fine Arts Building. I’d heard of the celebrated property countless times, seen photos of its impressive lobby online and read up on its history, but somehow had never visited. So while in the area last December, I decided to amend that and got my first look at the marvel that is the Fine Arts Building.

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The landmark structure, a commission of the Fine Arts Building Company, was erected in 1926.

The 12-story, 107,000-square-foot property, designed in the Romanesque Revival style by architects Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen (who also gave us the Oviatt Building, the Gaylord Apartments and the Beverly Wilshire, aka the Pretty Woman hotel), initially housed studios, workshops, and galleries for local Los Angeles artists.

The impressive terra cotta exterior features castings by Burt William Johnson, including two figures perched on either side of the third-floor overhang, one symbolizing architecture and the other sculpture.

Though the ornate façade is nothing to sneeze at . . .

. . . the sweeping two-story lobby, designed in the Spanish Renaissance style, is the real stunner.

Almost unbelievably so!

Featuring tile work by Pasadena artist Ernest Batchelder, paintings and murals by Anthony B. Heinsbergen, a beamed ceiling, a blue-tiled fountain, and 17-foot-tall glass display cases which initially served as a place for resident artists to exhibit their wares, the 3,000-square-foot chamber truly is a sight to be seen.

Sadly, the Great Depression hit the artisans who rented space in the structure hard, causing many of them to terminate their leases and the property to be sold in 1930. It was then rebranded the “Signal Oil Building.” It went through numerous ownership and name changes in the years that followed until being taken over by the Ratkovich, Bowers Inc. development firm in 1983, at which time it was heavily rehabilitated and its original moniker restored.

Today, the Historic-Cultural Monument houses business offices, though the lobby remains a place for local artists to exhibit their works.

The Fine Arts Building serves as the office of Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) business manager, where he gets some bad news regarding his financial status following his firing, in the Season 1 episode of The Morning Show titled “A Seat at the Table.” It is as Mitch is walking out of the structure that he is accosted by a stranger who screams “Rapist!”, to which he not-so-calmly replies, “I’m not even accused of rape! Sexual misconduct is what I’m being accused of! Don’t you wave your f*cking hand at me! Have a nice day, you f*cking asshole!” I spotted the “811” address placard and the ornate carvings flanking the front doors as Mitch exited the building just before being yelled at and recognized the place immediately.

I believe the interior scene involving Mitch’s business manager’s office may have been shot elsewhere, though I am not sure where.

The Fine Arts Building is no stranger to the screen.

The site portrayed a Swiss Embassy in the 1997 action film Spawn.

It popped up as the location of Jane’s (Angelina Jolie) I-Temp Technology Staffing office in 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

And Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) shows Summer (Zooey Deschanel) the building, which he misattributes to architects Walker & “Eisner,” in the 2009 drama (500) Days of Summer.

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 Fine Arts Building, from the “A Seat at the Table” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 811 West 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The lobby area is open to the public daily. 7th Street/Metro Center Station, aka Penn Station from Cruel Intentions, is right next door at 660 South Figueroa Street.

April 6, 2020April 9, 2020

Hotel Barclay from “Little Fires Everywhere”

Not only do The Morning Show and Little Fires Everywhere share a leading lady, Reese Witherspoon, but the two new series also seem to be sharing locations! Both made use of The Wolves, an insanely beautiful downtown Los Angeles bar that I blogged about in December, as well as Hotel Barclay, a historic and oft-filmed DTLA lodging that I covered way back in 2011. Considering the latter’s recent screen cred, though, I figured it was worthy of a redo.

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Hotel Barclay, which is also referred to as the “Barclay Hotel,” began life in 1897 as the Van Nuys Hotel.

Commissioned by businessman Isaac Newton Van Nuys, the Beaux Arts-style property was designed by the Morgan & Walls architecture firm.

During its early days, the 6-story hotel was the epitome of luxury, boasting a light-filled lobby lined with stained glass windows, a Ladies’ Parlor, a 150-seat formal dining room, a casual grill, a bar, a billiard room, a cigar stand, a newsstand, a buffet, a barbershop, and 160 rooms, each with both a long-distance and local telephone, as well as electric service. Per the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Barclay was, in fact, the first hotel in the city to provide those last two luxuries.

In 1929, ownership changed hands, the fancy dining room was closed and the property re-dubbed Hotel Barclay. The move kicked off a decline not only in the building’s exclusivity, but also its patronage.

Though it fell into some disrepair in the years that followed, eventually becoming a residential hotel (you can read up on the more sordid parts of its history here), the Barclay’s original interior somehow remained intact and still, miraculously, looks much as it did on opening day over 120 years ago!

During my 2011 stalk of the place, the manager invited me inside for a look at the lobby, which is where the interior photos in this post come from. I was practically giddy walking around snapping pictures of all of the historic enclaves! The hotel is like a time capsule come to life!

The Barclay, which, again per the Los Angeles Conservancy, is the city’s oldest continuously operating hotel, was put on the market in 2016 for $40 million and eventually sold in 2018 for $21 million. There are currently plans in the works to turn it into a luxury boutique lodging, though it does not appear as if that project has gotten off the ground yet.

In the “Duo” episode of Little Fires Everywhere, Hotel Barclay stands in for the exterior of New York’s fictional Varick Hotel, where Elena Richardson (Witherspoon) stays while visiting Manhattan.

Interiors were shot at The Mayfair Hotel, another historic DTLA lodging that has been completely revamped since my 2012 post on it, meaning I have to get back out there stat!

On The Morning Show, the Barclay also portrays a New York locale – the Manhattan apartment building where Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) lives, said to be at 103 Wooster Street in SoHo. The site initially appears at the end of episode 7, “Open Waters,” in a scene that continues into episode 9, “Play the Queen,” in which Mitch Kessler (Steve Carrel) asks Hannah to come forward and say that the network bosses were complicit in his predatory behavior.

The Barclay is also featured in The Morning Show’s Season 1 finale, “The Interview” in which (spoiler alert!) Claire Conway (Bel Powley) shows up to discover than Hannah has overdosed.

In the episode, it is apparent that a façade containing a fake set of stairs and an elevator was added just beyond the hotel’s front doors for the shoot.

In real life, the Barclay’s front doors open directly into the lobby, as you can see in the photo below.

Only the exterior of the Barclay was utilized on The Morning Show. I believe interior scenes involving Hannah’s apartment may have been shot at the Pan American Lofts, located at 253 South Broadway. You can check out what a unit in that building looks like here.

Hotel Barclay has quite an extensive film and television resume – so much so that it would be impossible for me to chronicle all of its appearances here. A few of the more notable include . . .

Way back in 1975, Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) chased a suspect through the hotel in the pilot episode of Starsky & Hutch.

The lobby is used extensively as Café 24 Heures, where Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) works and where Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) regularly dines, in 1997’s As Good As It Gets.

Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) gets kicked out of the place for writing bad checks at the beginning of Catch Me If You Can.

Hotel Barclay is the Columbian lodging where John (Brad Pitt) and Jane (Angelina Jolie) meet in 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

The lobby masks as the café where Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his friends hang out in the 2009 drama (500) Days of Summer.

Also in 2009, Detectives Flynn (Tony Denison) and Provenza (G.W. Bailey) dine in the hotel’s former restaurant, which sits vacant in real life, in the Season 5 episode of The Closer titled “Tapped Out.”

Leonardo DiCaprio visits the Barclay once again as Cobb in 2011’s Inception. This time it’s posing as a casino in Africa. (One of the hotel’s 2nd floor rooms is also where Cobb was dunked into a bathtub in an earlier scene).

Fellow stalker Anne informed me via a comment on my original post that a now-vacant anteroom at the lodging masked as Drake’s Magic Shop in the Season 3 episode of Castle titled “Poof, You’re Dead,” which aired in 2011. The show’s production team must really love the Barclay! The hotel was also featured in the episodes titled “Ghosts,” “Knockdown,” “Swan Song,” “Sleeper,” “XY,” and “The Blame Game.”

NYPD detectives interview a bunch of clowns outside of the Barclay in the Season 7 episode of CSI: NY titled “To What End,” which also aired in 2011.

In 2018, Hotel Barclay popped up as the supposed San Antonio, Texas-area Gunter Hotel in the Season 2 episode of Timeless titled “The King of the Delta Blues.”

And it portrays the supposed Lahore hotel where Bravo Team captures a terrorist in the Season 2 episode of Seal Team titled “Never Out of the Fight,” which aired in 2019.

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: Hotel Barclay, aka the Varick Hotel from the “Duo” episode of Little Fires Everywhere, is located at 103 West 4th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

March 30, 2020March 30, 2020

Mitch’s House from “The Morning Show”

My dad is unfortunately back in the hospital and right now this blog is one of the main things keeping me sane. Being able to research, track down and write about filming locations, trivial as that may be, sparks major joy for me and has provided a much-needed distraction from all that is going on with my dad, not to mention the world. So I’ll be here, blogging away. Hopefully my posts will provide my fellow stalkers with a bit of joy and distraction, too. Last week, I received an email from a reader named Esteban letting me know that he had tracked down the house where Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) lived on The Morning Show. I had actually IDed the locale and stalked it a while back, but had not gotten around to blogging about it. So thanks for the reminder, Esteban! I became extremely mesmerized with Mitch’s massive home as soon as it popped up in the first episode of The Morning Show, titled “In the Dark Night of the Soul It’s Always 3:30 in the Morning.” Thankfully, finding it was a snap – after I overcame an initial hurdle at least.

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The first glimpse we are given of Mitch’s pad is the aerial view below. Purported to be located in a wealthy suburb of Manhattan, with its expansive yard and Cape Cod detailing, the place definitely has an East Coast feel. So much so that when I initially saw it, I became convinced filming of the series had taken place in New York! It was not until I spotted Cicada restaurant pop up in episode 2 that I figured out The Morning Show had actually been shot in Los Angeles.

In that same episode, I also noticed an address number of 4019 visible on the gate in front of Mitch’s estate. Considering the four-digit number, the size of the house and the large yard, I decided to take a look in the Encino area first. Armed with an address number and an aerial view, it did not take long to find the right place at 4019 Valley Meadow Road.

In real life, the extremely private residence, which was built in 2007, boasts 8 en suite bedrooms including a 3-room master suite with a sitting room, upstairs office, his and her bathrooms and a walk-in closet, 14 baths, 15,000 square feet of living space, a formal living room, a formal dining room, a 2-story library, 5 fireplaces, a cook’s kitchen with 2 islands, 2 refrigerators, 2 dishwashers and 4 ovens (!), coffered ceilings, wainscoting, a maid’s room, a gym, a home theatre, a 1.46-acre lot, a tennis court, a basketball court, a pool, a pool house, a waterslide, a waterfall, a fire pit, an outdoor kitchen, a dog run, and a home generator that can run the property for several weeks without power. Talk about amenities galore!

Sitting perched behind a plethora of foliage and a large gate, virtually none of the place is visible from the street, though, sadly.

But we do see plenty of it on The Morning Show, including the front exterior . . .

. . . the expansive backyard . . .

. . . and the real life interior, which you can check out some photos of here. It even looks like some of the homeowners’ actual furniture was utilized in the shoot!

Mitch’s pad is a pretty special place. It’s exactly the type of spot I’d love to shelter-at-home in over the next couples of weeks, amirite?

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: Mitch’s house from The Morning Show is located at 4019 Valley Meadow Road in Encino. Steve’s (James Marsden) mansion from Dead to Me can be found just a half a mile north at 4230 Valley Meadow Road.

January 22, 2020April 27, 2020

Mitch’s New York Condo from “The Morning Show”

It’s been a minute (literally) since I’ve blogged about a location from The Morning Show, but, don’t worry, I’ve still got a few more up my sleeve – namely the modern building that served as beleaguered television host Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) New York pied-à-terre. I had a hunch that the property was most likely in the downtown L.A. area (though set in NYC, the vast majority of the new Apple TV+ series was lensed in Los Angeles) and that hunch turned out to be correct. And I have my beloved Starbucks to thank for leading me to it!

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While scrutinizing one of the scenes featuring Mitch’s building, I noticed a Starbucks situated diagonally across from it (it’s denoted with a yellow arrow below, though the signage is a bit tough to make out due to some rather frenetic camera movement in the segment). The Starbucks is actually one I know well as it is a frequent stop whenever the Grim Cheaper and I are in the area. In fact, we even once randomly ran into Chas, of the Its Filmed There website, at the café, so it seems to be a popular sojourn spot for many stalkers! Once I recognized the place, I simply used Google Street View to head over to its location at the corner of 11th Street and South Grand Avenue and then rotated the screen around until I landed on the building kitty-corner from it. As it turns out, Mitch’s New York home can be found at 1050 South Grand.

Known as Ten50 in real life, the 25-story property, developed by Trumark Urban and designed by HansonLA, was completed in 2016.

The contemporary building is made up of 151 one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and penthouse condos.

Just about as upscale as it gets, Ten50’s amenities include concierge service, a fitness studio with an outdoor yoga deck, meeting space, gated parking with over thirty spots for electric vehicles, a screening room, a business center, a club lounge, and a fifth-floor sun deck with a pool, spa, cabanas, BBQs, indoor/outdoor kitchens, and a fireplace.

The building also boasts the city’s first landing pad made especially for drone deliveries. (I’m guessing that feature doesn’t get utilized much.)

Mitch’s building does not show up until the ninth episode of The Morning Show, titled “Play the Queen,” in which the fallen anchor returns to New York to try to orchestrate an interview with Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon). The lobby of Ten50, which you can see photos of here and here, is featured early in the episode.

Hannah Schoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) also later confronts Mitch about her assault outside of the building.

And I was thrilled to discover while poking around images of various Ten50 units I found online that the actual interior of Penthouse 2 was used as Mitch’s condo! Per a recent real estate listing, in which the unit was offered for a whopping $5,699,000, the 2-level space was custom–built by the Brown Design Group and boasts 2 bedrooms, 4 baths, 30-foot ceilings, 3,930 square feet, a whiskey den, floor-to-ceiling windows, a galley kitchen with Wolf and Sub Zero appliances, a large wrap-around balcony, a bonus balcony off the master bedroom, and an upper-level terrace. Worth every penny, I say! The place is pretty much my ideal living space. You can check out a video of the absolutely exquisite interior here.

As you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS photos above and below, it appears that The Morning Show made use of some of the condo’s actual furnishings including the kitchen island bar stools and the dining table.

The unit also appeared in the Season 1 finale of The Morning Show, titled “The Interview.” Not only do Mitch, Bradley, Chip Black (Mark Duplass), and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) powwow about Mitch’s upcoming secret interview in Penthouse 2’s living room . . .

. . . but Cory also later has a come-to-Jesus meeting with Mitch in the same spot and, in one of my favorite monologues from the series, very profoundly advises Mitch to confess to his assaults.

And it is in Ten50’s lobby that Mitch and Chip get into a fistfight at the end of the episode.

Thanks to fellow stalker Brett, I learned that Mitch’s penthouse is also where Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) lived in the recently-aired Season 3 episode of Westworld titled “The Absence of Field.”

And thanks to fellow stalker Tyler, I learned that the penthouse played the Moscow condo where Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin) resided in the series finale of Homeland, titled “Prisoners of War.”

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: Ten50, aka Mitch’s “New York” building from The Morning Show, is located at 1050 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the property’s official website here.

January 13, 2020January 10, 2020

Blossom Restaurant from “The Morning Show”

I have had to venture out to downtown L.A. several times over the past few months due to some medical issues my dad is having (his main doctor is there). The silver lining during this stressful time (besides the fact that things seem to be progressing in the right direction for him now, knock on wood!) is that the Millennium Biltmore, the hotel we booked for each of our stays, is within walking distance to the vast majority of filming locations from The Morning Show! Needless to say, I did a lot of stalking while in town! One spot I stopped by on our most recent visit was Blossom restaurant, which masked as the New York deli where Claire Conway (Bel Powley) called Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) to apologize in the freshman series’ Season 1 finale, titled “The Interview.”

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Blossom was founded by Vietnamese-born restaurateur Duc Pham in March 2006. Growing up in Anaheim (his family fled their native land following the war, which is a story in and of itself), Duc regularly helped his mom in the kitchen, where he learned how to prepare all of her favorite meals. Though a love of food and cooking was infused in him at a young age, his route to the restaurant industry was rather circuitous, with detours that included studying literature at Oxford and a brief foray into advertising. He ultimately left the business world in 2000 to help his sister establish a new eatery in Chinatown named Via Café. Six years later, he was ready to branch out on his own and opened Blossom.

For this new endeavor, Pham leased the street level corner unit of downtown L.A.’s Canadian Building, a 1904 structure that originally served as the local Canadian Consulate. Designed by the Parkinson & Bergstrom architecture firm, the property was abandoned in the 1960s and sat vacant for 15 years before being resurrected as a mixed-use residential complex. Prior to Blossom’s open, the corner space, which fronts Main and Winston Streets, housed an electronics store.

Directly involved with all aspects of his new eatery, Pham designed the contemporary interior himself, even going so far as to handcraft its wooden tables! Though Blossom was, unfortunately, closed when we showed up to stalk it, the inside was visible through the front windows and it is nothing short of charming. You can check out some photos of it here.

Popular from the get-go, the eatery soon underwent a series of expansions, a sister restaurant in Silver Lake was born, and Pham eventually took over Via Café, transforming it into his third Blossom location.

I first learned about the restaurant last May while poking around the area on Google Street View amid doing research for my post on the Western Union office from The Sting. I noticed Blossom, situated half a block away, immediately thanks to its decidedly New York feel. Figuring the place was a coffee shop, I made a mental note to stop by the next time I was in town. Further digging informed me Blossom was actually a full-service Vietnamese restaurant which intrigued me further. So when it popped up on The Morning Show a few months later, I recognized it straight away.

The blue street sign visible behind Claire in the scene was also a dead giveaway that the segment was shot in downtown L.A. and not NYC as purported on the show.

Blossom was dressed up a bit for the shoot, with large trees placed on either side of the front door. An enclosed area with sidewalk seating was also apparent in the scene. Though no longer intact, per Google Street View that patio was a real feature of the restaurant that has since, for whatever reason, been removed.

The Blossom space actually has quite the onscreen pedigree.

Paul Kimbrough (Max Kleven) lives in the Canadian Building and walks by the corner storefront in the Season 1 episode of Kojak titled “Requiem for a Cop,” which aired in 1973. At the time, the Blossom space was divided into two units, an eatery named The Red Apple and a jewelry repair store.

Though renumbered “3424,” the Blossom site appears twice in Devil in a Blue Dress – first in the 1995 drama’s opening sequence.

Later in the movie, Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) parks in front of the storefront while on his way to confront Joppy (Mel Winkler).

The locale portrays Waters & Sons Record Shop in an establishing shot of 1950’s Los Angeles in the 2004 biopic Ray. Look closely, though, and you’ll see that the image is actually re-used footage from Devil in a Blue Dress, interestingly enough.

In the 2009 dramedy (500) Days of Summer, Tom (Joseph Gordan-Levitt) lives in the Canadian Building, though the Blossom space is not seen.

And Blossom’s sister restaurant in Chinatown (the former Via Café space) has also appeared onscreen. It is there that Mia (Emma Stone) emails out invitations to her one-woman show in the 2016 musical La La Land.

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: Blossom restaurant, from “The Interview” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 426 South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. The Western Union office from The Sting is right around the corner at 118 Winston Street. The Blossom outpost featured in La La Land can be found at 451 Gin Ling Way in Chinatown.

January 10, 2020January 3, 2020

Ugo Café from “The Morning Show”

The Season 1 finale of The Morning Show might have been one of the finest hours of television ever created! It left me equal parts heartbroken, disgusted, and hopeful, with the last few minutes propelling me out of my seat, literally jumping for joy and teeming with spit and vinegar, ready to take on the world! It was a whirlwind of emotion, to say the least. I was also ecstatic to see Ugo café, yet another location I previously stalked, pop up onscreen. I learned of the DTLA eatery’s use on the freshman Apple TV+ series a while back thanks to an anonymous reader who works in the area and witnessed the filming. So I, of course, had to pop by while in town for a doctor appointment for my dad shortly before Thanksgiving.

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Ugo is a relative newcomer to the DTLA restaurant scene.

The charming coffee shop opened in early 2016 in a West 6th Street space that formerly housed a casual diner named Bruno Cafe.

Its sister eatery in Culver City has been an area staple since 2006, though. Per Ugo’s website, that location is “the only Italian restaurant on the westside of Los Angeles that is VPN certified for authentic Neapolitan pizza.” For those not well-versed in all things Neapolitan, such certification has only been granted to 94 spots in the entire U.S. and guarantees the pizza offerings are “prepared and served according to traditional standards with authentic ingredients. The same way the first pizza was created hundreds of years ago in Naples, Italy.”

The DTLA outpost offers Italian-inspired bites, including fresh-baked pastries, paninis made in-house, salads, pasta (they even have gluten-free noodles!), pizza, soups, coffees, teas, and homemade gelato, which is crafted daily on the premises.

Though I only popped by for a quick looksie and did not get to sample any of the fare, Ugo is an adorable little spot that seems a perfect addition to the neighborhood. Just steps from several hotels, including the Millennium Biltmore, Hilton Checkers, and Westin Bonaventure, not to mention countless office buildings, it makes for an inviting pit stop. And it does have a very New York feel to it, so it is no surprise that it wound up on the NYC-set The Morning Show.

It is at Ugo that Chip Black (Mark Duplass) brings his assistant, Rena (Victoria Tate), in on the plan to stage a secret on-air interview with Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) in the series’ finale, titled “The Interview.” Only the exterior of the restaurant is featured onscreen, though the interior is quite visible through the windows behind Chip and Rena throughout the segment.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ugo popped up onscreen again in other productions in the months to come. Who knows, it may even feature in the second season of The Morning Show, which, thank goodness, has been given the green light!

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: Ugo, from “The Interview” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 502 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

December 9, 2019April 23, 2020

611 Place from “The Morning Show”

I hope y’all aren’t sick of The Morning Show locations yet, cause I’ve got a few more up my sleeve, namely the site that portrays UBA Studios, where the titular show-within-the-show is filmed on the new Apple TV+ series. At first blush, I thought the locale was most likely in New York, where the program is set and partially filmed. But once I identified the Starbucks at 6th and Grand in downtown L.A. as the spot where Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) is invited to a birthday party in episode 4, “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” I quickly realized that the UBA scenes were lensed right across the street at a towering structure known as 611 Place. Fortunately, I happened to be in DTLA just a few days after my discovery, so I popped by to check it out.

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Constructed as the headquarters for Crocker-Citizens Bank in 1969, the building originally went by the name Crocker-Citizens Plaza.

The formidable modernist structure was designed by architect William Pereira, who also gave us Fox Plaza (aka Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard), Farralone (aka the former Frank Sinatra estate), and the Disneyland Hotel.

The 42-story cross-shaped tower, which sits atop a four-level block base, boasts vertical steel beaming, 715,000 square feet of office and retail space, a marble-clad lobby, and a ground-floor bank complete with a vault.

At 620 feet, Crocker-Citizens Plaza was the tallest building in Los Angeles at the time of its completion (and only the second to surpass the height of City Hall), a record it held briefly until ARCO Plaza (now City National Plaza) was constructed in 1972.

When Crocker-Citizens Bank vacated the locale in 1983, it was purchased by AT&T and renamed AT&T Center, though many referred to it (and still refer to it, in fact) as the AT&T Building.

AT&T’s tenure ended in 1999, at which point the Chetrit Group, a New York-based development firm, acquired the building and it was re-named once again, this time to 611 Place, in honor of its 611 West 6th Street address.

Per the Urbanize Los Angeles website, the upper floors have been mostly vacant for a decade and, while Chetrit is said to have obtained entitlements way back in 2007 to transform the office spaces into condos, those plans have yet to come to fruition. When I was stalking the place, though, I saw plenty of people coming and going from the elevators, making their way through the large lobby, so I am not sure how empty the building actually is. Regardless, filming is definitely one way the site is bringing in revenue.

611 Place repeatedly pops up as UBA Studios on The Morning Show.

The series makes use of the building’s Grand Avenue side.

Unfortunately, a UPS truck was parked right in front of the Grand Avenue entrance when I attempted to take a matching shot of the screen capture below, so Google Street View imagery will have to do.

It is not hard to see how 611 Place wound up on The Morning Show as it does very much have the look and feel of a New York building, especially with its brass revolving door which Bradley, Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) are regularly seen entering and exiting.

Some CGI trickery was employed to add to the building’s NYC feel in episode 4, “That Woman.” As you can see, imagery of the iconic Cartier Mansion on Fifth Avenue was superimposed in the background of a scene taking place outside of 611 Place.

The special effects team wasn’t very thorough, though, because seconds later, the Edwards & Wildey Building, the actual structure located in that spot, is clearly visible where Cartier stood just moments before.

The lobby of 611 Place also regularly appears on The Morning Show.

The friendly security guard on duty during my stalk was nice enough to allow me to snap interior photos of the lobby and even pointed out which areas of it were used! As you can see below, some turnstiles were added to the premises for the shoot, as were sconces above the elevator.

The interior of the actual studio where the show-within-the-show is shot was nothing more than a set built inside of a soundstage on the Sony lot in Culver City.

611 Place is actually a longtime screen star.

Way back in 1973, William Dorn (Chuck Connors) set off a bomb outside of the building, killing himself in the process, at the end of The Police Connection, aka The Mad Bomber.

611 Place served as the headquarters of MacGregor Oil in the 1983 drama Uncommon Valor.

That same year, it popped up as the office building where Caroline Butler (Teri Garr) worked in the comedy Mr. Mom.

Pinball’s (Dave Chappelle) body is tossed from a plane and lands on a car in front of 611 Place in the 1997 thriller Con Air.

It is seen briefly as the casualty of an earthquake in the 2000 disaster flick Epicenter.

The now vacant bank space on the building’s lower level is where Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) heads to empty his safety deposit box in 2003’s Matchstick Men.

Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown) base jumps off the neighboring KPMG Center at 550 South Hope Street in the 2004 romcom Along Came Polly, giving audiences a brief view of 611 Place during his descent.

And it recently popped up as the FBI office Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) and Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) visited 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: 611 Place, aka UBA Studios from The Morning Show, is located at 611 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The Starbucks featured in the series’ fifth episode, “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” is right across the street at 523 West 6th Street.

December 6, 2019April 1, 2020

The Wolves from “The Morning Show”

My obsession with The Morning Show is no secret. I’ve blogged about its locations four times already (here, here, here, and here) and it isn’t even on its eighth episode! Readers have obviously taken note because I recently received an email from one who works in downtown Los Angeles informing me that some filming of the new Apple TV+ series had taken place at an area bar named The Wolves. One look at images of the watering hole had me absolutely drooling. Dark, old-timey and full of stained glass and rich woods, it was like no other spot I had ever seen. So to the top of my To-Stalk List it went and my mom and I headed out there just a few days later while in town for a doctor appointment for my dad. It wasn’t long after that The Wolves popped up on the series, appearing in the episodes titled “Open Waters” and “The Interview.”

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The spot that now houses The Wolves was previously home to the rather austere F Square Printing, which, per its signage, served as a copy/business center, art gallery, and karaoke venue all in one. The odd combo shop shuttered in 2013 and sat vacant for a time before being snapped up by restaurateurs Al Almeida, Daniel Salin, and Isaac Mejia, who saw potential in the stark storefront and spent the next two and a half years building it out to create an incredible Belle Époque-inspired bar. The two-story lounge opened its doors last September. Though the stunning exterior feels like a façade straight out of Paris, France, or perhaps Disneyland . . .

. . . the interior is the real sight to behold!

Knowing nothing of the site’s past prior to entering, I was convinced that the magical space, which is situated on the ground floor of the Alexandria Hotel, was some sort of historic ballroom. Owner Almeida, an incredibly friendly Jeremy Renner lookalike whom we had the great pleasure of chatting with, set me straight, though, regaling us with the complete lowdown on the design and background of the unique watering hole. It is incredible to think that just a few years ago it looked like this!

Though the Batchelder tiles that cover the floor are, amazingly, original to the space (you can even see them in this image of F Square Printing), the rest of The Wolves is the result of an incredible collation of antiques.

Inspired by turn-of-the-century Paris, Almeida, Salin, and Mejia sourced pieces from all over the globe to furnish the bar.

The mahogany booths that line the drinkery, authentic 1920s seating formerly situated in a restaurant in Seneca, New York, were a Craigslist find.

The mirrors situated at the back of each booth were also vintage discoveries.

The carved wooden doors are from Argentina circa 1890.

And the pièce de résistance, the dramatic domed ceiling, was an eBay score delivered in panels via flatbed truck that was procured from Paris, Illinois where it formerly canopied a train station.

Initially spanning 22 feet, to fit The Wolves’ 11-foot ceiling, the piece was split in half and the two sections installed adjacent to each other, forming a double arch atop the lounge’s main room.

The Wolves even boasts a secondary bar situated in the rear known as Le Neant (French for “the nothingness”), an intimate room cloaked in deep reds that is utilized for special events, as well as the many tastings and dinners hosted onsite.

Nothing about the bar is typical, not even the name, which is a nod to Martin Scorsese’s 2002 period drama Gangs of New York. Salin, a huge fan of the film, initially wanted to dub the watering hole in honor of one of the gangs portrayed in the story (my memory is failing me now – I’m going to blame the bubbly I consumed while speaking with Almeida – but I believe it was either the “Dead Rabbits” or the “Gopher Gang”), however the moniker just didn’t work for a saloon. So the owners brainstormed other animal names, eventually landing on “The Wolves.”

It is absolutely no surprise that the gorgeous bar found its way to the screen.

In the “Open Waters” episode of The Morning Show, Audra (Mindy Kaling) tries to poach Daniel Henderson (Desean Terry) for her own series over lunch at The Wolves.

The two journalists sit in one of the lounge’s antique booths in the scene.

And in the series season finale, Yanko Flores (Nestor Carbonell) drinks his troubles away at The Wolves after being dumped.

The Wolves was also featured in another recent Reese Witherspoon production! It is at the bar that a young Elena Richardson (AnnaSophia Robb) parties with her boyfriend Jamie Caplan (Luke Bracey) on their last night in Paris in 1976 in the Season 1 episode of Little Fires Everywhere titled “Duo.”

Per Almeida, a couple of photo shoots have also taken place at The Wolves and I have no doubt the bar will be popping up in many more productions in the near future.

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 Wolves, from the “Open Waters” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 519 South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. It is open from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily. You can visit the bar’s official website here.

December 2, 2019November 28, 2019

The CalEdison from “The Morning Show”

L.A. never ceases to amaze! Case in point – the CalEdison. Built in 1931, the Art Deco masterpiece is not only a sight to behold, but its grand lobby is open to the public! Somehow though, I never knew about the place until last week when I was researching locations from The Morning Show.

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During my viewing of the new Apple TV+ series’ premiere episode, “In the Dark Night of the Soul It’s Always 3:30 in the Morning,” I became a bit mesmerized with what was said to be the Archer Gray Hotel in New York. With towering marble columns, ornate tile flooring, and intricate wrought-iron windows, the space was striking to say the least. Shocked I had never come across it in all my years of stalking, I immediately set out to track it down. Because The Morning Show is largely filmed in L.A., with only a few exteriors shot in NYC, I knew the Archer Gray had to be somewhere in SoCal. Its seemingly historic architecture led me to look first in the downtown area. But Google searches for “historic building,” “grand lobby,” and “marble columns” did not bring up images that even remotely resembled the place.

It was not until episode 5, “No One’s Going to Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” aired that I was able to pinpoint it. In a scene at the close of the episode, Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) attempts to secure the room number of her boss Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) from an uncooperative Archer Gray front desk clerk, during which a massive mural is visible behind her, as well as what appeared to be a coffee bar of some sort. Adding those elements to my search terms led me straight to The CalEdison, a historic office building in the heart of downtown. I was elated to discover upon researching the place further that it is open to the public! My parents just happened to be heading into L.A. a few days after my discovery and had booked a room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, located right across the street from The CalEdison. So I, of course, tagged along and ran right over to stalk the building immediately upon check-in.

The 14-story structure originally served as the headquarters of Southern California Edison and was known, appropriately, as the Southern California Edison Building.

Designed by the Allison & Allison architecture firm (who also gave us the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles and UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall), the property’s gorgeous exterior features a limestone and terracotta façade, bas-reliefs sculpted by artist Merrell Gage, and a towering two-story entry portico.

It is the interior that is the real stunner, though!

The expansive lobby boasts over 17 varieties of marble, 30-foot coffered ceilings, a mural painted by Hugo Ballin, and stunning friezes above each elevator.

Even the trash cans are elegant! And those building directories!

The CalEdison is more than just a pretty face, though. As the first seismically-retrofitted building in L.A., as well as the first to be electrically heated and cooled, it was incredibly technologically advanced.

Boasting 250,000 square feet of office space, The CalEdison cost a whopping $2.5 million to construct.

When SoCal Edison sold the place in 1972 in order to relocate to Rosemead, it was renamed One Bunker Hill. Its stellar architecture was mutilated in the decade that followed – its ceilings dropped, walls removed, and large fourth-floor patios enclosed with glass casings. I actually really like the look of the latter, which have been described as “greenhouse-like structures.” You can see what they looked like here. Thankfully, the lobby was left untouched during the renovations.

In October 2015, the grand building was bought by Hermes Investment Management of London, Limestone Investments and Rising Realty Partners for $92 million. The group renamed it The CalEdison and set about bringing the site back to its original glory, as well as renovating the many upstairs office spaces into creative work sites. The patio casings were also removed as part of the project. Though I wish those casings had been left intact, the rest of the work performed can only be described as perfection.

GreekOak Real Estate bought out both Hermes and Limestone earlier this year for $140 million, though Rising Realty continues to hold on to its share of the property.

While walking around the vast lobby, I couldn’t help but think how fabulous is it that this masterpiece exists and that it is open to the public for Angelinos and tourists alike to enjoy.

On The Morning Show, the Archer Gray Hotel is where network exec Cory checks in upon arriving in New York to deal with the fallout from the firing of Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell). Bradley also moves there in episode 5 after being relocated from The Standard, where she was initially put up. Only the lobby of the building is featured on the series. (My photo below is a little off on the angling, but shows the same area of The CalEdison as is pictured in the screen capture.)

Bradley’s room . . .

. . . as well as Corey’s are both just studio-built sets.

And the exterior of the Archer Gray Hotel is a building in New York that I have yet to identify.

The Morning Show is not CalEdison’s only claim to fame!

The building is also seen briefly in the 1953 noir The Bigamist in the scene in which Mr. Jordan (Edmund Gwenn) first arrives in L.A.

The property was used for interior shots of the office building Davey Osbourne (Henry Thomas) and Kim Gardener (Christina Nigra) try to infiltrate in 1984’s Cloak & Dagger.

Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) gets arrested for robbing a bank at The CalEdison before being rescued by Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) in the 2001 thriller Ocean’s Eleven.

Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) almost gets arrested there in the Season 8 episode of 24 titled “11:00am-12:00pm,” which aired in 2010.

That same year, the building served as the office of Victor Racine (Michael Ironside) in the Season 2 episode of Castle titled “Den of Thieves.”

Narcy (Paz Vega) heads to the bank on The CalEdison’s lower level to empty her dead husband’s safety deposit box in the 2015 Lifetime television movie Beautiful & Twisted.

During the second season of Big Little Lies, which aired in 2019, the offices of Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, located on CalEdison’s 12th floor, portrayed the office of lawyer Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare), as I detailed in this post. (I learned this tidbit thanks to a reader, but because only the 12th floor appeared in the episodes, I never took a look at images of the lobby or the rest of the building, which is why I was unfamiliar with it prior to trying to track down the Archer Gray.)

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 CalEdison, aka the Archer Gray Hotel from The Morning Show, is located at 601 West 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The building’s lobby is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.