Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the 20th Anniversary screening of Apollo 13 at the TCM Classic Film Festival. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
The Disneyland Locations from “Saving Mr. Banks”
In February (on what turned out to be an exorbitantly crowded day), the Grim Cheaper and I visited The Happiest Place on Earth with Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and her husband, Keith Coogan. Since I had just recently watched – and fallen in love with – Saving Mr. Banks, I decided to do a little stalking of the Disneyland locales that appeared in the flick while I was there.
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In Saving Mr. Banks, which chronicles the making of the 1964 film Mary Poppins, Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) takes P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to Disneyland for the day in the hopes that the trip will soften the prickly author and make her more a bit more agreeable to work with. When P.L. arrives at the park, she is driven right through the main gates and up to the the back side of Disneyland Railroad’s Main Street Train Station, where Walt is waiting for her.
The Main Street Train Station and Disneyland Railroad are both original attractions, opened the same day that the park was on July 17th, 1955. The Victorian-style station is one of four located throughout the property and is serviced by five different trains. The locomotives, which run on bio-diesel fuel, are all historically accurate in their design, with one, the C.K. Holiday train, boasting a special caboose named the Lilly Belle. The Belle, which was originally part of the now-retired Retlaw 1 train, was redesigned with luxurious appointments in 1974 in order to act as a special passenger car for VIPs. You can check out some photographs of it here. The car is still in operation to this day and is open to the public, pending availability. If you would like to ride the Lilly Belle, inquire at the front desk of the Main Street Railroad Station as soon as the park opens and, if it is running that day and is available, you and your party will be given a scheduled ride time. Passengers are even given special train tickets to commemorate the experience. (There are rumors floating around the internet that the public is no longer allowed on the Belle. While this website claims the rumors have been confirmed, I am not sure if that is accurate.)
While outside the Main Street Train Station, Walt is shown jovially greeting admirers and handing out pre-signed autographs, which never ceases to crack me up as your chances of catching Tom Hanks happily interacting with fans are slim to none. The guy’s a great actor, but not AT ALL friendly – in fact he was downright mean to me when I met him a few years back. He was also deemed one of The Top Ten Worst Autograph Signers of 2013 by Mike the Fanboy – and rightly so. You can read Mike’s write-up here.
Walt and P.L. then make their way down Main Street, U.S.A. Mid-walk, Walt gazes up longingly at a window that bears his father’s name.
That window, located above the Emporium (Disneyland’s largest gift shop), is, too, a park original and has been there since opening day. It reads “Elias Disney, Contractor, Est. 1895.” Elias held a number of different jobs throughout his lifetime, including mail carrier, orange farmer and railroad crewman. He also did some work contracting houses in Chicago and it is believed that he might have started his own contracting business in 1895, hence the year listed on the window.
Walt then manages to get P.L. on a ride – the King Arthur Carrousel – although she does so very begrudgingly.
The King Arthur Carrousel (which utilizes a British spelling) is also a Disneyland Opening Day attraction and has been in operation since 1955. (It was in fact a carousel, the one at Griffith Park, that inspired Walt to create Disneyland in the first place.) The merry-go-round was originally built in 1922 and, prior to its relocation to The Happiest Place on Earth, had been a part of Sunnyside Beach Park in Toronto, Canada. Walt had the ride enlarged and remodeled before it made its Disney debut. The carousel features 68 hand-carved wooden horses (each has a name – supposedly, you were once able to stop by Disneyland City Hall and pick up a list of those names), one chariot and 3,328 sparkling bulb lights. Jingles, the horse that P.L. rides in Saving Mr. Banks, is one of the attraction’s actual steeds and its most ornately-decorated. In an ironic twist, on April 8th, 2008, as part of the park’s 50th anniversary celebration, Jingles was dedicated to none other than Mary Poppins herself, actress Julie Andrews.
The Disneyland locations can be seen briefly in the Saving Mr. Banks trailer, which you can watch by clicking below.
For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Disneyland Resort is located at 1313 Disneyland Drive in Anaheim. You can visit the park’s official website here. The areas used in Saving Mr. Banks include the rear side of the Main Street Train Station, just beyond the park’s front entrance; the Elias Disney window, which can be found on the west side of Main Street, on the second floor of the Emporium, next to and just south of the Crystal Arcade storefront; and the King Arthur Carrousel, which is in Fantasyland, just north of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.
The “Larry Crowne” Cul-de-sac
The last Larry Crowne location that I stalked recently – and there will be more coming, believe me, because Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has found quite a few others – is the cul-de-sac where Larry Crowne (aka Tom Hanks) and his garage-sale-hosting neighbors, Lamar Johnson (aka Cedric the Entertainer) and wife B’Ella Johnson (aka Taraji P. Henson), lived. Mike tracked down this locale quite a few months back, long before I had ever even seen the movie, in fact. Thanks to the flick’s production notes, he knew that the cul-de-sac was located somewhere in Northridge, so he searched aerial views of the area and, sure enough, it was not long before he found the right place. Whoo hoo! So, last weekend, before heading to West Hollywood to grab some cocktails at Nobu, aka the Ferris Bueller Day’s Off restaurant which I blogged about yesterday, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the San Fernando Valley to stalk the Larry Crowne houses.
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Larry’s one-story, ranch-style residence, which he eventually gives back to the bank due to a foreclosure, shows up countless times throughout the movie.
I absolutely love the outfit Larry wore on moving day, by the way. I am so gonna have to get something similar for the GC! 
But I digress.
In real life, Larry’s house is pretty darn huge, although its appearance from the street is somewhat deceiving. While its façade seems to be rather small, the dwelling actually boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, a whopping 3,900 square feet of living space, and a .52-acre plot of land. I am very happy to report, though, that aside from a change in paint color, the place looks pretty much the same in person as it did onscreen. For some reason, producers covered over the front window and window-box with a large amount of foliage during the filming, though. I am guessing that was done to make the home appear more masculine, ’cause nothing screams “a single man lives here” like a window box full of red annuals. His garage also seems to have been covered over for the movie, most likely to make the residence appear to be smaller than it actually is.
According to the Larry Crowne production notes, the interior of Larry’s house, where he learned the benefits of feng shui, was a set that was built inside of a soundstage at what, I believe, was Universal Studios.
Lamar and B’Ella’s house also shows up numerous times throughout the movie.
And it, too, looks much the same in person as it appeared onscreen.
What I was not expecting, though, was that the Larry Crowne houses were not both located at the end of the cul-de-sac, as they seemed to be in the movie. As you can see above, while Larry’s house is located at the end, Lamar and B’Ella’s is actually on the side.
I had originally envisioned the properties to be situated in the same manner that the two houses are situated above and was a bit thrown off when I got there and realized that they were actually located kitty-corner to where they had seemed to be onscreen.
You can see where the homes are situated in the aerial view pictured above.
And while Larry and Lamar’s street name was referred to as “Derby Court” in the movie, producers did use both of the properties’ real life address numbers.
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Larry Crowne’s house from Larry Crowne is located at 8656 Balcom Avenue in Northridge. Lamar and B’Ella’s house is located next door at 8642 Balcom Avenue.
Mercedes’ Apartment Building from “Larry Crowne”
The only Larry Crowne filming location that fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, did not track down was the mid-century-style apartment building where East Valley Community College professor Mercedes Tainot (aka Julia Roberts) – that’s “T-A-I-N-O-T, not Tae Bow, not Tai Chi, not Tie Knot” – lived with her philandering husband, Dean Tainot (aka Bryan Cranston). And I just have to say here that I absolutely LOVED the scene in which “professional blog writer” Dean, trying to defend the fact that he does not have an actual job, says to Mercedes, “I had four postings today alone! Blog-caster . . . Sky-scan . . . Parse-it-twelve.com . . . ”, to which she responds, “They are not postings, they’re comments!” Cracks me up every time! Anyway, although Mercedes’ apartment building looks very much like a San-Fernando-Valley-area structure, I had an inkling that it might actually be located in Pasadena and, sure enough, it was! A quick input of the terms “Larry Crowne”, “filming” and “Pasadena” led me to this link on the Before the Trailer website, which stated that the flick had done some shooting at 325 South Orange Grove Boulevard on May 25th of last year. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend.
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Mercedes and Dean’s apartment building showed up numerous times throughout Larry Crowne and, because I just really liked the look of the place, I had been absolutely desperate to stalk it.
And I am very happy to report that it did not disappoint – the complex looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen! The portion of the building that appeared in Larry Crowne is not actually the structure’s main entrance on Orange Grove Boulevard, but a side entrance located just around the corner on Arbor Street.
Which is the same area where Dean was dropped off by a taxi cab after spending the night in jail.
While we were stalking the place, we happened to speak with some residents of the building who honestly could NOT have been nicer. They not only answered all of my silly little questions about the filming and told me that Tom Hanks had been extremely nice and that the shoot, which took one day to complete, was an incredibly fun experience, but they also pointed me in the exact direction of Mercedes’ apartment. Whoo-hoo!
So I, of course, just had to take a photograph in front of her door. 
As you can see above, Mercedes’ apartment looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.
As does the neighbor’s apartment, which appeared in the background of the scene in which Larry Crowne (aka Tom Hanks) brought Mercedes home on his scooter.
Only the exterior of the apartment building was used in the filming. According to the Larry Crowne production notes, the interior of Mercedes and Dean’s (what they call) townhouse was just a set that was built inside of a soundstage at what I believe was Universal Studios. I am seriously in love with the Tainot’s kitchen, by the way. Sigh!
And I also so LOVE how the art department matched the interior detailing of the apartment to the real-life iron detailing of the building, as you can see above. Talk about attention to detail!
The actual unit where filming took place, Unit 325, which measures 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 1,396 square feet, was for sale recently. As you can see above, the interior looks nothing like the set that was created for the filming. You can check out the place’s real estate listing here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Mercedes’ apartment building from Larry Crowne is located at 325 South Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena. The side of the building that is shown in the movie can be found on Arbor Street, just around the corner from the main entrance.
The “Larry Crowne” Apartment Building
Two additional Larry Crowne filming locations that I stalked this past weekend were Talia’s, the vintage clothing store owned by Talia Francesco (aka the adorable Gugu Mbatha-Raw), and the apartment building where Larry Crowne (aka Tom Hanks) lived at the very end of the flick, both of which are housed inside of the same corner edifice in Altadena. I found this locale thanks to fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who, while doing some online research on the movie, came across an old listing on the Cazoodle Apartment website which not only announced that Tom Hanks’ Larry Crowne apartment was then available for rent, but also provided its exact location. Yay! So last Saturday afternoon, while doing some New Year’s Eve stalking, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place.
The non-descript two-story building shows up several times in Larry Crowne – first in the scene in which Talia, while driving around on her scooter, notices a “For Rent” sign in a vacant storefront window and stops to take a closer look.
It next appears in the scene in which Larry stops by Talia’s new store to reprimand her for dropping out of East Valley Community College. It is while there that he informs her that her new tattoo does not in fact spell out “courageous spirit” in Japanese as she had intended, but “soy sauce”. LOL
And finally, the building is featured in the ending scene in which Larry invites his former teacher Mercedes Tainot (aka Julia Roberts) to his new apartment for some homemade French toast. (If you’ll notice in the first screenshot pictured above, the apostrophe in the signage for Talia’s store is ostensibly missing. Larry was right – Talia definitely should have stayed in school. Then perhaps she would not have made such an egregious error. 
It looks like I need to submit this one to When Write is Wrong, my good friend Owen’s typos and grammatical errors blog.)
As you can see above, Talia’s store (or should I say Talias store? ) was dressed heavily for the filming of Larry Crowne and does not look at all in person as it did onscreen. The building was vacant during the time of the filming (and still is today), so producers were able to do with it what they wanted without having to disturb any operating businesses.
And although we are only given a brief view of the interior of the store through the front windows in the movie, I just had to snap some pics of it, nonetheless.
When I first watched Larry Crowne, I had assumed that the little courtyard area outside of Larry’s apartment had been a set due to the fact that it was so incredibly idyllic and picturesque. But I am very happy to report that the courtyard is, in fact, real!
Sadly though, as you can see above, the stairwell that leads to the second floor, where Larry’s courtyard is located, is gated and not accessible to the public. Boo! If only I had known about this place back when it was available for rent, I totally would have scheduled a viewing!
You can catch a minor glimpse of the courtyard if you venture across the street, though. According to the Cazoodle Apartment listing that Mike found, the 530-square-foot, 1-bedroom, 1-bath unit where Larry supposedly lived at the end of Larry Crowne was being offered for lease back in August of last year at a rate of $895 per month. And no, that was not a typo – the asking price was $895 per month for 530 square feet! Welcome to California. LOL
Pictured above are the photographs from that real estate listing and, as you can see, Larry’s apartment is pretty darn adorable.
In the movie, Larry’s address is noted as being 4225 Harbor #7.
And, as you can see above, producers even went so far as to change the address number plaque for the filming, so had the real estate listing not touted the apartment’s Larry Crowne connection, this would have been a very tough find! Nice work, Mike!
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On a Larry Crowne side-note – Back in June of last year, fave website AltadenaBlog posted a fabulous story about the filming, which you can read here. Apparently, during a break from the shoot, Tom Hanks wandered a few blocks up Lake Avenue to do some shopping at Webster’s Fine Stationers and not only posed for a picture with the owners, but also told them that he loved family-owned stationary stores. So incredibly cool! Especially since the GC and I had our own little run-in with Tom Hanks a few years back and let’s just say that he was less than friendly. Ah, let’s call a spade a spade here – the guy was a complete and total jerk and for a long while after that the GC refused to see any of his movies! But after reading the Webster’s Fine Stationers story on AltadenaBlog and after hearing how nice Tom was to Jose, the owner of Frank’s Restaurant where Larry Crowne filming also took place, it would seem that the actor has since changed his ways. One can hope, at least!
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Larry Crowne apartment building is located at 906 Boston Street in Altadena. Thalia’s store from the movie is located at 2104 North Lake Avenue in Altadena.
Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant from “Larry Crowne”
A few days before Christmas, while I was wallowing in a horrible head cold, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch the 2011 flick Larry Crowne. Neither of us had very high hopes for the movie as it had received such horrible reviews, but I am very happy to report that we both ended up loving it. So much so that we watched it again a few days later when my parents came to town to celebrate Christmas with us. The whimsical storyline centers around Larry Crowne (aka Tom Hanks), a middle-aged former Navy chef who is forced to rethink his life after being fired from his job at the local U-Mart Store. He decides to enroll in a nearby community college where he not only makes friends with a group of wildly eccentric and endearing characters, but also finds his life finally start to take shape. If you have yet to see Larry Crowne, I highly recommend ignoring the critics and renting it! Anyway, one of the main locations featured in the flick was Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant – a Burbank-area eatery that I had passed by countless times during my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles, but had, for whatever reason, never dined at. So I immediately added the place to my “To-Stalk” list and dragged the GC right on out there as soon as we returned home from visiting my grandmother in Reno this past weekend.
As we pulled up to Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, I spotted an article about Larry Crowne posted on the café’s front door and knew right away that I was going to LOVE the place.
And I am very happy to report that I did! Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, which is also sometimes called Frank’s Steak House, first opened its doors in 1957 and not much has changed since. Walking into the diner is like stepping back in time about fifty years – and I mean that in the best way possible.
The interior of Frank’s, with its dark vinyl booths, popcorn ceiling, and Formica countertops, is straight out of the 1950s and it is not at all hard to see why countless location managers have flocked there over the years. The place also serves up some FABULOUS food at very reasonable prices, which pleased the GC to no end. I opted for a mushroom cheeseburger with French fries and a side of ranch dressing and it was all simply amazing – especially the steak fries, which were extremely thick and seasoned in a way that was reminiscent of the fries served at fave restaurant chain Red Robin. The GC ordered the homemade split pea soup and it was also out of this world.
I was absolutely floored when I spotted a photograph of Tom Hanks posing with Jose, Frank’s owner, on display on the wall next to the kitchen. As fate would have it, Jose happened to come over to chat with us while we were dining and, let me tell you, the guy could NOT have been nicer! He sat with us for a good twenty minutes and filled us in on the Larry Crowne shoot, which took six days to complete. Jose informed us that the cast and crew were some of the nicest that he has ever encountered – and he has encountered quite a few. He also told us about the restaurant’s vast filming history and showed us countless photographs that he had stored on his cell phone of the various filmings that have taken place on the premises and the numerous celebrities that have posed with him. As you can imagine, I was pretty much drooling the entire time.
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In Larry Crowne, Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant is featured repeatedly as the eatery where Larry and his scooter-riding friends hang out.
Later on in the movie, Larry gets a job working as a line cook in the restaurant’s kitchen.
That kitchen is pictured above.
Jose, who has been a chef for over forty years, actually acted as Tom Hanks’ cooking consultant during the filming of Larry Crowne and at one point had to step in to do some chopping for the actor. The hands you see above, which are supposedly Larry’s in the movie, are actually Jose’s. So incredibly cool!
In the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Squash It”, the exterior of Frank’s stood in for the Reno, Nevada-area diner where Valerie Malone (aka Tiffani Thiessen) convinced Ray Pruit (aka Jamie Walters) to return to Beverly Hills.
As you can see above, though, a different restaurant was used for the interior filming.
Jose informed us that Frank’s Coffee Shop had been featured in no less than 5 episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, one of which is the upcoming “Willows in the Wind”, which just so happens to be Marg Helgenber’s final episode. Unfortunately, Jose was unsure of the titles of the other four episodes filmed on the premises, but I was able to do some digging and tracked down two of them. Then, after publishing this post, a CSI message board led me to the other two. Win! Frank’s first appeared in the Season 6 episode titled “Rashomama” as the supposed Las Vegas, Nevada-area coffee shop where the car belonging to Nick Stokes (aka George Eads), as well as all of the crime scene evidence inside of it, was stolen.
And in the Season 7 episode titled “Law of Gravity”, Frank’s stood in for the restaurant where Michael Keppler (aka Liev Schreiber) ran into Frank McCarty (aka Len Cariou).
In the Season 9 episode titled “Mascara” (CSI’s 200th episode), Frank’s is where Dr. Raymond Langston (aka Laurence Fishburne) met up a few times with his former thesis student Sylvia Mallick (aka Aimee Deshayes).
And in the Season 11 episode titled “The List”, Catherine Willows (aka Marg Helgenberger) met up with Detective Vartann (aka Alex Carter) to discuss the case she was working on.
In the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Ron and Tammy”, Frank’s stood in for the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area restaurant where Ron Swanson (aka Nick Offerman) took his ex-wife, Tammy Swanson (aka Megan Mullally), out for lunch.
Jose also let us know that Frank’s was featured in the 2003 flop Gigli, but I scanned through the movie yesterday while doing research for this post and did not see it anywhere. I did, however, spot it briefly in the flick’s trailer, so the scene that was filmed at Frank’s appears to have been left on the cutting room floor.
That scene can be viewed at the 2:18 mark when Larry Gigli (aka Ben Affleck) tells Ricki (aka Jennifer Lopez), “I got a confession. I think we’re good together.”
Fellow stalker Jason also let me know that Frank’s Restaurant was featured in Chris Daughty’s “No Surprise” music video.
Chris Daughty–“No Surprise” Video Filmed at Frank’s Coffee Shop & Restaurant in Burbank
You can watch that video by clicking above.
Jose also told us that Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant was featured in the A&E Network mini-series Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, but I scanned through it yesterday and did not spot the restaurant anywhere. He also told us that Criminal Minds had filmed on the premises recently, but I scanned through all of the Season 7 episodes that have aired so far and did not see it, so I am guessing that it will pop up in an upcoming episode in the very near future.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, from Larry Crowne, is located at 916 West Olive Avenue in Burbank.
The Quality Café
While stalking in Downtown Los Angeles a couple of weekends ago, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves hungry so I suggested grabbing some lunch at the Quality Café on West 7th Street – a diner that has appeared in countless productions over the years. When we showed up to stalk the place, though, we were shocked to discover that it was completely boarded up. I was even further shocked to discover, once I returned home, that, aside from some brief blurbs about its filming history, I could not seem to find any information about the place online. I was extremely curious if the cafe had ever been an actual working restaurant or if it had only ever existed as a film set. So I contacted fellow stalker Harry Medved, author of one of my very favorite stalking tomes – Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors – who was nice enough to give me the scoop on the former greasy spoon. As it turns out, the Quality Café was indeed a real life restaurant at one point time. It closed its doors a few years back and is now used solely for filming, although word on the street is that the place might re-open as an eatery once again in the near future.
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Being that it is completely boarded up and there is not a whole lot to see while there, the Quality Café does not make for a great stalking venue, but because it has such an incredibly vast filming history, I figured it was worthy of a blog post.
In Catch Me If You Can, it is while dining at the Quality Café that a waiter clues Carl Hanratty (aka Tom Hanks) into the fact that Barry Allen, the alias Frank Abagnale Jr. (aka Leonardo DiCaprio) has been using, is the actual name of the comic book character “The Flash”.
In 1995’s Se7en, Tracy Mills (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) confesses to Detective Lt. William Somerset (aka Morgan Freeman) that she is pregnant with Detective David Mills’ (aka Brad Pitt’s) baby over a cup of coffee at the Quality Café.
Morgan Freeman returned to the Quality Café in 2004 to film the scene from Million Dollar Baby in which his character, Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, takes Maggie Fitzgerald (aka Hilary Swank) out to celebrate her birthday.
In Gone in Sixty Seconds, the Quality Café is the diner where Helen Raines (aka Grace Zabriskie), the mother of Memphis (aka Nicolas Cage) and Kip Raines (aka Giovanni Ribisi), works.
In Training Day, Detective Alonzo Harris (aka Denzel Washington) and Jake Hoyt (aka Ethan Hawke) meet up at the café on their first day of working together.
In Old School, Mitch Martin (aka Luke Wilson) takes Nicole (aka Ellen Pompeo) to the Quality Café and tries to convince her that he is actually a nice guy.
In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, John Smith (aka Brad Pitt) and Eddie (aka Vince Vaughn) meet up at the Quality Café to discuss the failed assassination attempt of Benjamin Danz (aka Adam Brody).
In 2001’s Ghost World, Enid (aka Thora Birch) and Rebecca (aka a very young Scarlett Johansson) spy on some supposed Satanists while dining at the Quality Café.
In 2009’s The Stepfather, the Quality Café is where David Harris (aka Dylan Walsh) asks Michael Harding (aka Penn Badgley) to be his best man.
In Sex and Death 101, the Quality Café is where Death Nell (aka Winona Ryder) tells Roderick Blank (aka Simon Baker) her life story.
In 2008’s The Midnight Meat Train, the Quality Café is where Leon’s (aka Bradley Cooper’s) wife, Maya (aka Leslie Bibb), works.
In 1993’s What’s Love Got To Do With It, the Quality Café is where Ike Turner (aka Laurence Fishburne) takes Anna Mae Bullock (aka Angela Bassett) out to dinner for the first time.
The Quality Café was the site of a triple murder in the Season One episode of CSI: New York titled “Outside Man”.
In the Season One episode of Mad Men titled “5G”, the Quality Café stood in for the Delight Café where Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) met up with his half-brother, Adam Whitman (aka Jay Paulson), whom he had been estranged from for years.
Harry Medved also let me know that, according to Marty Cummins, the key assistant location manager for 500 Days of Summer, the Quality Café is where Summer (aka Zooey Deschanel) broke up with Tom (aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) at the beginning of the flick.
And while the exterior of the restaurant appeared as a local hangout in 2004’s You Got Served . . .
. . . as you can see in the above screen captures, a different restaurant was used for the interior filming.
EMBED-The Quality Cafe in Movies Mash-Up – Watch more free videos
You can watch a fabulous compilation from the Screen Junkies website of several different movies that have been filmed at the café by clicking above.
Big THANK YOU to Harry Medved for filling me in on the restaurant’s history.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Quality Café is located at 1238 West 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The restaurant is currently closed to the public and is only available for film shoots, so I can’t say that I’d really recommend stalking it as there is just not a whole lot to see.
The Athenian Inn from “Sleepless in Seattle”
Another location at the very top of my Must-Stalk-While-in-the-Pacific-Northwest list was the Athenian Inn Seafood Restaurant and Bar, which made a brief, but quite memorable appearance in the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle. I had been absolutely dying to stalk the restaurant for what seemed like years for a couple of reasons. One, because as I’ve mentioned before, Sleepless has long been one of my very favorite movies. And two, because fellow stalker Kerry had previously visited the place and told me that there were numerous photographs of the filming displayed on the restaurant’s walls. As you can imagine, I could NOT wait to see those photographs for myself! So, after grabbing a coffee at the very first Starbucks store, which I blogged about a couple of weeks ago, Kerry, her husband Jim, the Grim Cheaper, and I all headed across the street to Pike Place Market, where the Athenian Inn has been located for over a century. Yes, you read that right! The Athenian Inn, which was founded by the three Pappadakis brothers, who hailed from Greece – hence the “Athenian” in the name – first opened over one hundred years ago, in 1909. Originally a bakery/candy shop/luncheonette, the establishment later transformed into a bar (in 1933, it was one of the first places in Seattle to be granted a liquor license to serve wine and beer) and then eventually into a full-blown restaurant. In 1964, the Inn was purchased by Bob and Louise Cromwell, who added a lounge and a balcony to the premises, and although Bob passed away in 2002, Louise still owns and manages the place to this day. You can read a more comprehensive history of the restaurant here.
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In Sleepless in Seattle, the Athenian Inn was the restaurant where Sam Baldwin (aka Tom Hanks) and his friend Jay (aka Rob Reiner) discussed dating in the ‘90s, “cute butts”, and the mystery that is tiramisu. And even though the scene that was filmed there took up only one minute and thirty-eight seconds of screen time, it made such an impact on the movie-going public that seventeen years later the place is STILL one of Seattle’s top tourist attractions! Isn’t that amazing?!?! Less than two minutes of screen time in a movie that is almost two decades old and the restaurant is still drawing crowds! INCREDIBLE! It reminds me of what happened with Magnolia Bakery in New York – a cupcakery that appeared in a one minute and seventeen second scene from an episode of Sex and the City which first aired over a decade ago, and fans are STILL lining up around the block to catch a glimpse of the place. I think it is so incredibly cool when a movie or television show creates such a monumental impact like that! But I digress.
The Sleepless in Seattle scene that was filmed at the Athenian Inn was shot at the northwest corner of the restaurant’s counter, right near the main entrance.
Not that I really need to explain that here, though, because the restaurant actually has plaques which denote the exact location where filming took place. How incredibly cool is that???? Oh, how I wish EVERY filming location would honor its cinematic history by doing something similar. LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!!
And fellow stalker Kerry and I, of course, just had to recreate the Sleepless scene while we were there!
Thankfully, little has changed at the Athenian Inn in the more than 17 years since Sleepless was filmed there and the place looks pretty much EXACTLY the same today as it did then.
In fact, from what I’ve been able to discern, it seems that not much has been changed in the more than hundred years since the historic restaurant first opened. The neon sign that was first hung over the establishment’s front door by the Pappadakis brothers in 1933 is still hanging in the very same spot to this day! So darn cool!
I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Athenian Inn enough! The food was great, the prices reasonable, the views of Elliot Bay amazing, and the staff super friendly. Not to mention the many nods to the restaurant’s cinematic history which are proudly displayed on the walls. 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The Athenian Inn from Sleepless in Seattle is located at 1517 Pike Place, inside Pike Place Market, in Seattle. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. In Sleepless, Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner sat at the northwest corner of the restaurant’s counter.
Jessica’s House from “Sleepless in Seattle”
One of the locations that I was most excited about stalking while visiting Seattle this past May was the home where Jonah Baldwin’s (aka Ross Malinger’s) best friend Jessica (aka Gaby Hoffman) lived in fave movie Sleepless in Seattle. Fellow stalker David, who I had the pleasure of meeting and doing some stalking with during my brief three-day vacation, managed to track down Jessica’s house just about a week before I headed up to the Pacific Northwest. He found the locale after posting an inquiry on this area filming locations thread on the West Seattle Blog website. David had spent quite a bit of time trying to find the house on his own without much luck, so thankfully the West Seattle Blog readers offered to lend a hand and through some amazing detective work came up with the right address. YAY! So, I immediately put the home high up on my must-stalk-while-in-Seattle-list and could NOT have been more excited about seeing it!
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The exterior of Jessica’s house was actually only featured in one very brief scene in Sleepless in Seattle in which BFF’s Jonah and Jessica mail a letter to Annie Reed (aka Meg Ryan) which they have written on behalf of Jonah’s father, Sam Baldwin (aka Tom Hanks). After putting the forged letter in Jessica’s mailbox, the two sit on her front porch and wait for the mailman to come pick it up.
Even though the home appeared only once, and very briefly at that, I was still absolutely floored over seeing it in person because, as I’ve mentioned before, Sleepless in Seattle is one of my very favorite movies of all time. And I am happy to report that Jessica’s house still looks very much the same today as to how it appeared onscreen in Sleepless, which is pretty darn amazing being that filming took place over 17 years ago! Sadly, though, the mailbox where Jessica and Jonah mailed Annie’s letter is not there in real life. I am fairly certain that it was never truly a part of the house, but was a prop that was brought in solely for the filming. 🙁 So sad! Also missing, of course, was Jessica’s mom’s “Four Winds” travel agency sign that was displayed on the home’s front porch in the movie.
I am fairly certain that the actual interior of the house was used in the filming, as well.
According to a comment posted by a West Seattle Blog reader named “westseattledood”, a home located just a few doors down from Jessica’s stood in for the Chicago-area residence where Sam and Jonah lived during the beginning of Sleepless. Only the interior of that house was shown in the movie in the scene in which Sam’s sister, Suzy (aka Rita Wilson), tells Sam how to prepare the food she has made for him.
And even though the residence’s exterior was never shown in Sleepless, since we were less than a block away, I just had to stalk that property, too! 🙂
Big THANK YOU to David and to the West Seattle Blog readers for their help in finding these locations! 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Jessica’s house from Sleepless in Seattle is located at 1816 4th Avenue North in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. The home used for the interiors of Sam and Jonah’s Chicago residence can be found just down the street at 1701 4th Avenue North.
The Tam O’Shanter Inn from “Glee”
A couple of weeks ago I dragged my fiancé out to stalk the Tam O’Shanter Inn which appeared in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “Dream On”. I found this location thanks to an eagle-eyed stalker who recognized the restaurant immediately while watching the episode back in May. And even though I no longer consider myself a “Gleek” (gasp!), I just could not resist stalking the place. And yes, you read that right – I am no longer a huge fan of Glee. In fact, I can’t even really say that I like the series at all anymore, let alone love it like I used to. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, the show has gone WAY downhill ever since it returned from its four month hiatus this past April. I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that it became such a humongous hit in such a short period of time or if the writers just simply got lazy, but somewhere along the way the show lost its heart. It’s become more about the music and less about the characters that I grew to love so deeply in the first part of the season. While the series used to be over-the-top and fun, in recent months it’s become ridiculous and largely unbelievable – Kurt and Mercedes joining the cheerios, Olivia Newton-John asking Sue Sylvester to star in a re-make of her “Physical” video, and Shelby Corcoran – the coach of Vocal Adrenaline – adopting Quinn and Puck’s baby???? Like, huh??? I could go on and on and on. Not to mention the fact that Mr. Shue, who was in my eyes the real heart of the show, has become a complete and total jerk – i.e. cheating on Emma, pretending to be in love with Sue Sylvester (I don’t even know what to say about that one!), and hooking up with his arch-enemy and head of the rival Glee club, Shelby Corcoran. Sigh. The whole thing makes my head hurt. Although I did love it when all of the kids were calling him “Man Whore” in the “Bad Reputation” episode. Anyway, despite all of that, because I loved part one of the series’ first season SO much, I still find it fun stalking locations featured on the show. Which is how my fiancé and I ended up at the Tam O’Shanter Inn two weekends ago.
Tam O’Shanter Inn actually has a long and celebrated Hollywood history. It was first opened in June of 1922 by Lawry’s restaurant chain founders Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp and has the distinction of being Los Angeles’ oldest restaurant that is still operating in the same location and by the same family. Art director/humorist Harry Oliver, designer of the Spadena House in Beverly Hills (aka the Witch’s House from Clueless), was commissioned to design the original building in what is called the “storybook-style” of architecture. In fact, the restaurant’s original interior closely resembled that of a ride at Disneyland. The property was extensively remodeled and expanded in 1968 at which time it was renamed the “Great Scot”. In 1982, in honor of the restaurant’s 60th anniversary, the original name, which refers to a style of hat worn in Scotland, was restored and it has remained to this day.
In the “Dream On” episode of Glee, Will Schuester (aka cutie Matthew Morrison) takes frenemie and former Glee-club-rival Bryan Ryan (aka guest star Neil Patrick Harris) to the Tam O’Shanter Inn for a drink to convince him to not shut down the Glee club. Will finally gets Brian to concede and the two wind up singing a rousing rendition of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”.
When we first walked into the Tam O’Shanter Inn, I asked the hostess who greeted us at the door where exactly the “Dream On” episode had been filmed. Well, let me tell you, she could NOT HAVE BEEN NICER! She immediately sat us in the bar area in the exact spot where Matthew Morrison and Neil Patrick Harris were sitting in the episode. She also told us the direction the cameras were facing during filming, what areas of the restaurant could be see in the background, and asked if we wanted to reenact the “Piano Man” scene while she took photographs of us. LOVE IT! I was SO down with reenacting the scene, by the way, but the Grim Cheaper was having none of that! 😉
Filming for the yet-to-be-released Larry Crowne movie, which stars Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, also took place at the Tam O’Shanter Inn earlier this year. According to the bartender we spoke with, producers had the above-pictured green rug made especially for the filming and then gifted it to the restaurant after shooting wrapped. SO DARN COOL!
Besides being a filming location, the restaurant is also a long time celebrity hangout. Just a few of the luminaries who have been spotted there over the years include Mary Pickford, John Wayne, Fatty Arbuckle, and Tom Mix. Walt Disney loved the place so much that he frequented it on an almost daily basis and on one visit gifted the owners with the above-pictured cartoon, which he personally drew of Lawrence Frank. According to the restaurant’s website, Disney executives dined at Tam O’Shanter’s so often that the place became known as “Disney’s studio commissary”. Apparently Walt’s favorite table was #31, while John Wayne preferred #15.
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I honestly cannot say enough good things about the Tam O’Shanter Inn. I absolutely LOVED the place! Especially their fried calamari appetizer!
On a Glee side note – For those of you who have not yet seen Heather Morris, who plays Brittany on Glee, performing “Single Ladies” live with Beyonce at the 2009 American Music Awards, you can do so now by clicking above. Apparently, Heather was not originally being considered as a cast-member for Glee, but was first called in by series creator Ryan Murphy to teach series regulars Chris Colfer and Jenna Ushkowitz the “Single Ladies” dance for the Season 1 episode titled “Preggers”. Fate stepped in, though, and Murphy ended up liking the actress/professional dancer so much that he immediately cast her in the role of ditzy cheerleader Brittany. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Tam O’Shanter Inn from Glee is located at 2980 Los Feliz Boulevard in the Atwater Village section of Los Angeles. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.