The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa from “The Bachelorette”

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I know I said yesterday that today’s post would be about a Behind the Candelabra location, but I wound up getting a bit distracted by a spot that I stalked well over two years ago – the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa which appeared on this week’s episode of The Bachelorette. So y’all will have to wait until Monday for more Liberace-related locales. In the meantime . . . in April 2011, the Grim Cheaper and I embarked upon a little stalking road trip up State Route 126. One of our stops along the way was the Ojai Valley Inn, which I had been absolutely itching to stalk as it was where guests had stayed the weekend of Jim Toth and Reese Witherspoon’s wedding just a few weeks prior.

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And I am very happy to report that the hotel did not disappoint! The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa is often referred to as “majestic” and I honestly can’t think of a better word to describe the place.

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Originally opened in 1923 as a private country club, the Inn was founded by a wealthy Ohio glass manufacturer named Edward Drummond Libbey who wanted to built a winter retreat/golf course for himself and his friends. He commissioned gold course architect (I hadn’t been aware there was such a thing) George C. Thomas to design the course and legendary architect Wallace Neff -who was also responsible for the house where Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) lived in The Holiday, the estate belonging to Viola Fields (Jane Fonda) in Monster-in-Law, Brad and Jen’s former manse, and The Biggest Loser Ranch – to design the clubhouse. That clubhouse still exists to this day and is known as the Neff Lounge. Sadly, Libbey passed away in 1925, only two years after his Spanish Colonial-style retreat had been completed.

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In 1942, during the midst of World War II, the property was transformed into Camp Oak, a training center for the U.S. military that hosted over one thousand army troops. Just a couple of years later, in 1944, the site was converted to a rest and recuperation facility for the Navy. In 1946, shortly after the war ended, the 100-room hotel was purchased by a group of investors that included film star Loretta Young and her then husband Tom Lewis and an industrialist named Henry Crown. It was reopened as the Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club and quickly became a retreat for wealthy vacationers and show business elite. In 1983, the Crown family took over full ownership of the property and three years later began an extensive $35-million renovation that added more rooms, eight new tennis courts, a second pool, a gym, and a 4,800-square-foot, 550-seat conference center.

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The Inn underwent another restoration in 2004, this one costing $90 million. Today, the 220-acre hotel, which is still owned by the Crown family, boasts 308 guest rooms, a kids’ camp, five restaurants, two pools (a family pool and an adults-only pool), an herb garden, countless meandering pathways, an aviary, and an 18-hole championship golf course. The 31,000-square-foot on-site spa, Spa Ojai, features two additional pools, a 50-foot bell tower, numerous treatment rooms, a gym, a café, a Mind & Body studio for yoga and meditation, an Artist’s Cottage where art classes are offered, and an Apothecary where guests can create their own perfume. As you can see below, the place could not be any more charming or idyllic.

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The hotel also boasts a huge, centuries-old tree known as the Friendship Oak Tree . . .

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. . . from which hang countless iron lanterns. I couldn’t help but think how gorgeous it must look at night, all lit up.

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The other trees on the property are just as unique and stunning.

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The area of the hotel that I was most excited to see was Jimmy’s Pub, where Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn very publicly canoodled the weekend of Jim and Reese’s wedding. Sadly, we could not grab a cocktail while we were there as we had a long drive home ahead of us.

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Besides ScarJo and Sean Penn, a few of the other stars who have vacationed at the AAA Five Diamond Ojai Valley Inn over the years include Walt Disney, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Anthony Quinn, Joan Crawford, George Gobel, Jane Wyman, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, Joe DiMaggio, President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy, President Gerald Ford, President Jimmy Carter, Jack Benny, Audrey Hepburn, Kate Walsh (who hosted her 2007 wedding reception at the hotel), Anthony Hopkins, Renee Zellweger, Kenny Loggins, Rebecca Romijn, Jessica Simpson, Drew Barrymore, Robert Pattinson, and Kristen Stewart.

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In the second episode of Season 9 of The Bachelorette, Desiree Hartsock took contestant Bryden Vukasin on a road trip up the coast of California, during which they visited the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. John DiScala of the Johnny Jet website happened to be staying at the hotel during the filming and it was not a pretty experience. You can read his article about it, which I could NOT get enough of, here.

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Quite a few areas of the hotel were utilized during the filming, including the main entrance;

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the spa’s Herb Garden Pool, where the two shared a rather awkward first kiss;

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and the Friendship Oak Tree, under which the couple ate a romantic meal. (As you can see, I was right – the tree is absolutely gorgeous all lit up at night.). It was during the meal that Bryden told Des about the car accident that he was in during his Freshman year of college in which he was badly injured. The accident, of course, made him the person that he is today and . . . “I actually just happen to have a couple of pictures of it that I can show you.” Um, OK. The episode was full of “tragic” backstories like this one, to the point that it became laughable and the GC and I could not stop making up our own stories that we dubbed in over the contestant’s dialogue while watching.

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The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa has actually been a filming location since way back in 1952 when it was featured in Pat and Mike, in the scene in which Patricia ‘Pat” Pemberton (Katharine Hepburn) played golf with her fiancé, Mike Conovan (Spencer Tracy) in the beginning of the movie.

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In the 1990 flick The Two Jakes, the Ojai Valley Inn was where J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes (Jack Nicholson) played a very bad round of golf against Julius ‘Jake’ Berman (Harvey Keitel) for “twenty bucks a hole.”

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The hotel’s front entrance was also shown briefly in the scene, although it has changed considerably since the movie was filmed. The Two Jakes did not mark Jack Nicholson’s first visit to the resort, though. Ironically enough, in November 1967, when he was a fledgling actor/up-and-coming screenwriter, Jack headed to the Inn for a drug-fueled scriptwriting session with director Bob Rafelson, producer Bert Schneider and The Monkees for what would become the 1968 flop Head.

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The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa was featured in two Season 3 episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It first popped up in “Uh Oh, Somebody’s Crying!”, in which Kim Richards decided to take the women to the resort for a peaceful, relaxing weekend getaway during which there would hopefully be no fighting and no drama. Ha! Fat chance of that, Kim! During their visit, the girls stayed at the resort’s private residence, Casa Elar. The gated, 10,407-square-foot, five-bedroom manse, which was built in 2005, boasts a pool, a spa, a separate entrance, four en-suite bathrooms, a golf cart, a private massage room, dry cleaning services, a library/entertainment room, an elevator (!), a fully-stocked pantry, and its own staff, including a Personal Estate Manager.

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As you can see below, the pad is simply uh-ma-zing!

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Especially the kitchen, which reminded me a lot of the kitchen belonging to chef Jane Adler (Meryl Streep) in the 2009 flick It’s Complicated.

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In the episode, the group dined at Maravilla, the Inn’s signature restaurant, during which they drank complimentary Schramsberg rosé sparkling wine. Um, yes please! Some serious drama also went down during the meal, pretty much ruining Kim’s hopes for a peaceful weekend. Housewife Yolanda Foster’s commentary on the evening: “Where are these women from? What planet are they from? I mean, one doesn’t seem to wish the other one well on a book deal, one tells the other one “Shut the f*ck up!” I mean, it’s like the Wild Wild West on that dinner table, you know?” LOL

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The resort was also featured in the following episode titled “Girls Gone Ojai ’ld”, by which time all of the drama had subsided – until the limo ride home, at least.

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In the episode, the women were shown racing around the resort in golf carts (made by Bentley and Escalade, natch!);

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playing badminton;

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and partaking of some spa treatments.

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You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, from Season 9, Episode 2 of The Bachelorette, is located at 905 Country Club Road in Ojai. You can visit the resort’s official website here.

The Dresden Restaurant

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A couple of months ago I was flipping through one of my favorite stalking tomes, Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, when I came across a blurb written about the legendary Dresden Restaurant in Hollywood.  And while I had actually eaten at the Dresden once before upon first moving to Southern California almost a decade ago, at the time I had no idea it was a filming location!  So, I immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and begged him to take me there that very night.  But being that we were just a few weeks away from our upcoming nuptials at the time, he quickly put a nix on my plans with the caution that “we shouldn’t be spending money right now”.  I acquiesced, but have been itching to stalk the place ever since.  Thankfully, the two of us finally made it out there for dinner two weeks ago, with the GC pretty much kicking and screaming the entire way.  But as it turned out he absolutely LOVED the place – and the $32 dinner bill that came at the end of the night.  Yes, you read that right – our dinner, including one cocktail a piece, was only $32!  We ended up eating in the Dresden’s bar area and ordering up a smorgasbord of happy hour items, including French onion soup and quesadillas, and, let me tell you, the food was not only INCREDIBLE, but the serving sizes were absolutely HUGE.  The staff there was also amazingly nice and answered all of my silly little questions about the extensive filming that has taken place there over the years.  All in all, it was quite the successful stalk and I honestly cannot say enough good things about the place! 

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The Dresden has been a Hollywood staple since it first opened in the 1950’s.  A paint store originally occupied the premises, but the space was converted into an eatery named Pucci’s Cafe sometime in the late 1930s.  It later became known as the Dresden Room, named so for the china dolls which decorated the restaurant interior.  In 1954, a man named Carl Ferraro purchased the restaurant along with his wife, Sara, and remodeled it twelve years later.  The interior has been left virtually untouched since that time and walking through the front doors is like stepping back in time a good fifty years.  One look at the restaurant and it is easy to see why the place has become a favorite of location scouts.

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The Dresden’s most memorable film appearance was in the 1996 flick Swingers, in the scene in which Mike (aka Jon Favreau) meets and makes a fool of himself in front of Nikki (aka The Replacements’ Brooke Langton), his neighborhood Starbucks barista.

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The scene also showcased the Dresden’s legendary long-running musical act, Marty and Elayne, who have been playing at the restaurant nightly since 1982.

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Ironically enough, the big fight scene in Swingers, which supposedly takes place outside of the Dresden’s rear entrance, was actually filmed a few miles away in the parking lot of the famous Musso & Frank Grill in Downtown Hollywood.  The Dresden’s real life rear entrance is shown above.  For the scene, the producers covered over Musso’s back awning with the word “Dresden” . . .

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. . . but forgot to cover over Musso’s “Oldest in Hollywood” sign, which can blatantly be seen in the background during the fight.

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In 1990’s The Two Jakes, the Dresden was used as the Green Parrot night club where J.J. Jake Gittes (aka Jack Nickolson) meets up with Tyrone Otley (aka Tracey Walter).

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In the 1996 flick That Thing You Do, the Dresden stands in for the Blue Spot jazz club where Guy ‘Shades’ Patterson (aka Tom Everett Scott) meets musician Del Paxton (aka Bill Cobbs).

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In the 2000 romantic comedy What Women Want, the interior of the Dresden was used as the Chicago-area Back Door piano lounge where Nick Marshall (aka Mel Gibson) and Darcy Maguire (aka Helen Hunt) meet up for a late night drink.  The restaurant was re-decorated considerably for the filming, with white twinkle lights being added to the walls and mirrors being added to the back of the booths.

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The Dresden was transformed into the Escupimos en su Alimento (which translates to “We Spit in Your Food” LOL) Mexican restaurant for the 2004 flick Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

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And while The X-Files also shot scenes at the Dresden at one point in time, I am not sure of exactly which episode it appeared in.  Supposedly the restaurant was also featured in Bugsy, but I scanned through that flick earlier today and did not see the Dresden pop up anywhere.

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The Dresden has also long been a celebrity magnet and even boasts an extensive headshot wall-of-fame at its front entrance to prove it.  Just a few of the luminaries who have dined there over the years include Dolly Parton, Nicolas Cage, Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Adam West, Danny Aiello, Jay Leno, Keanu Reeves, David Lynch, Frank Sinatra . . .

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. . . “Thriller” director John Landis . . .

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. . . and fellow stalker Owen’s main squeeze Jennifer Love Hewitt.

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I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Dresden enough!  When people say that L.A. has no history, it is places like this that I think of.  I cannot tell you how cool it was to be dining at a restaurant that has not only been in operation for over five decades, but also boasts an extensive film resume and has seen the likes of everyone from Frank Sinatra to Julia Roberts walk through its doors.  If that’s not history, I don’t know what is!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Dresden Restaurant is located at 1760 North Vermont Avenue in Hollywood.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.