West Hollywood – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 13, 2018July 12, 2018

TomTom from “Vanderpump Rules”

The Instagram world was set on fire (well, my Instagram world, at least) Wednesday night when the cast of Vanderpump Rules, along with other Bravolebrities and reality TV stars, began posting photos of the DailyMail.com & DailyMailTV Summer Party which took place at TomTom, the highly anticipated new bar venture by husband and wife restauranteurs Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd and their protégés/employees/junior partners Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz. The soirée served as a soft opening for the West Hollywood watering hole (per several sources the official opening won’t take place for three weeks) and I could not have been more excited to see the completed space, which VP fans witnessed the progress of throughout the show’s most recent season. I actually popped by TomTom in mid-May with my friends Kim and Katie, who were in town visiting from Kentucky. Though the site was just a construction zone at the time, it was an absolute thrill to see in person – especially because we wound up running into the entire Vanderpump/Todd family while there and were given a sneak peak at the place’s interior!

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The opening of TomTom has been a project years in the making. Ken first leased the WeHo space that now houses the bar way back in 2015 – without Lisa’s knowledge or consent. At the time, the site was home to an adult boutique named Chi Chi LaRue’s. The couple subsequently rented the place out short term to Showtime Clothing while deciding what they ultimately wanted to do with it. Per various building reports, it seems an eatery named Pinky’s Restaurant was originally going to be established there, but that plan was scrapped in 2016 as the idea for TomTom began to take shape.

There seems to be some confusion regarding the square footage of the TomTom space floating around online. In 2013, a comparable summary report noted the 1935 structure as consisting of 3,360 square feet, but a leasing brochure from 2017 listed it at 1,508. Either way, the property’s useable space has grown considerably since Lisa and Ken acquired it thanks to the addition of an upstairs kitchen area, as well as a large elevated back patio that overlooks West Hollywood Park.

When Vanderpump and Todd took over the site, it was incredibly non-descript – basically just four walls and a ceiling, as you can see here. What it has been transformed into is nothing short of spectacular. I cannot wait to head out there to experience the finished product in person. I was elated to see it all boarded up with black plywood back in May, though, being that it popped up countless times throughout Vanderpump Rules’ sixth season in the same state.

Audiences were actually given their first glimpse of the TomTom space on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, not Vanderpump Rules. In the Season 6 episode titled “Busted BBQ,” which aired in 2016, Ken brings Lisa to tour the site, which he has just leased out. The unique wares and décor of then occupant Chi Chi LaRue’s make transforming the space into a restaurant a bit hard for Lisa to envision. As she approaches the front doors, she says, “I don’t think I want to go in there. There are things in the window that make my eyes water. I’ve got my dark glasses on to protect myself.”

While Ken thinks the site is the perfect prospect for their next culinary venture, Lisa is more interested in some mini whips she finds on the shelves that she wants to bring home to her pet ponies.

The TomTom space does not appear on Vanderpump Rules until the December 2017 Season 6 premiere titled “Masquerade,” in which Sandoval and Schwartz tour the now vacant and gutted site with Lisa and Ken.

Sandoval really dresses the part for the occasion, but, come on, like anyone believes that tape measure is actually going to be used! Nice try, Sandoval.

During their tour, Sandoval gets quite the tongue lashing from Lisa over his negativity, arrogance, and unwanted advice on the venture. As she sarcastically pans, “What were we thinking? Doing 33 restaurants without Tom Sandoval. How the f*ck did we do it?”

The TomTom space is featured in numerous additional episodes throughout the season, including “It’s Not About the Pasta” in which the two Toms attempt to invest some sweat equity in the restaurant. (If only they can figure out how to put on their dust masks!)

It also appears in “Karma’s a Bitch,” in which Sandoval calls Lisa from Vegas to discuss hosting a “progress party” at the site for all of his friends . . .

. . . and “Reiki Breaky Heart,” in which Tom and Tom discuss the upcoming progress party . . .

. . . and Sandoval gets down on one knee, presents Schwartz with a rose gold and diamond “TT” lapel pin, and officially asks him to be his partner in the restaurant, which elicits this speech from Schwartz, “Katie’s my wife in life, but in business Tom is my wife and I’m ready to make that commitment and I hope we have beautiful business babies together.” Those two are so ridiculous, I swear.

The bar site gets its most screen time in the Season 6 finale titled “Welcome to TomTom,” in which the highly anticipated “progress party” takes place.

The space was still very much a work-in-progress at the time. It is truly amazing how far it has come.

As I mentioned above, while we were stalking TomTom, we had the pleasure of running into Ken. He could not have been more gracious and kind and not only posed for a photo with us, but opened up the front door so that we could take a peek inside the bar. Though it was still under construction, its beauty was apparent. As we were glimpsing the interior, a car pulled up out front and Ken informed us that Lisa was inside, but that she was not in the best of spirits as her brother had passed away just days before. We had not been aware of that fact prior to Ken telling us, otherwise we most certainly would not have approached him, let alone ask for a picture. When Lisa walked up, with Pandora in tow, we offered our condolences and she could not have been nicer and even talked with us for a bit before heading inside TomTom. As we ventured away from the bar, excitedly chatting about our good fortune of getting to see the inside of the space and meeting Ken and Lisa, who should walk by but their son, Max! Talk about crazy timing. (And no, we did not approach him, considering the circumstances.)

In another only-in-L.A. moment, minutes after this all took place, our group headed over to the Starbucks across the street (natch) and were floored to run into Jared Haibon from The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise! It was definitely a stellar day for celebrity sightings!

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: TomTom, from Vanderpump Rules, is located at 8932 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. The bar is not open to the public yet, but per several sources is set to open in about three weeks.

May 30, 2018May 29, 2018

Lux Nightclub from “Lucifer”

The recent network television cancellations left me reeling. Four – yes, four – of my favorite shows – Lucifer, Scorpion, Timeless and Brooklyn Nine-Nine – were given the ax. Though the latter was promptly rescued, I am still waiting for the #savescorpion, #savelucifer and #savetimeless cries to be heard. If not, the Grim Cheaper and I will have practically nothing to watch next season! Thank God Vanderpump Rules is still on the air, otherwise I’d be completely confounded! To cheer myself up, I recently did some stalking of the three spots that mask as Lux nightclub on Lucifer and, in the hopes of possibly persuading some of my readers to become viewers (hint, hint), thought it was the perfect time to blog about them.

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Though I gave a brief synopsis of Lucifer in my January post about the SmokeHouse restaurant, I figured it best to recap it once again here. The Fox series (or should I say “former Fox series”?) centers around Lucifer Morningstar (played to delightfully wicked perfection by Tom Ellis), aka the devil (yes, the actual devil) who has decided to leave Hell in order to lead a hedonistic existence in – where else? – Los Angeles. Through a random turn of events, he winds up joining the LAPD as a consultant and, using his unique gifts and otherworldly talents, helps detectives catch the city’s bad guys – all while running his successful night club, Lux, which he lives above in a decadent penthouse. Lux first appeared in Lucifer’s pilot and went on to become the show’s most prominent locale. In the inaugural episode, as well as several subsequent episodes, the El Capitan Theatre and Office Building in Hollywood masqueraded as the exterior of the opulent lounge.

The six-story Spanish Baroque-style structure was designed by the Morgan, Walls & Clements architecture firm in 1926 and in real life is comprised of the El Capitan Theatre and Disney Studio Store/Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop on the bottom floor and office space on the upper floors.

Only a small portion of the building was ever shown on Lucifer, with a doorway situated down an adjacent alley on the eastern side of the property masking as Lux’s main entrance. (I did not get a great shot of that door while I was stalking the place, so please pardon the Street View image below.)

To help give the site a club-like appearance in establishing shots, signage reading “Lux,” a succession of velvet ropes, and a long line of patrons were positioned outside.

Starting with the series’ third episode, titled “The Would-Be Prince of Darkness,” West Hollywood’s Sunset Tower Hotel was used in wide-angle establishing shots of both Lux and Lucifer’s penthouse. From that point on, imagery of the Sunset Tower was intermingled with imagery of the El Capitan on the show, though the former was utilized far more often than the latter.

I have written about the Leland A. Bryant-designed Sunset Tower numerous times. The Art Deco masterpiece even made My L.A. Must-Stalk List and My Guide to L.A. Hotels. The 1931 lodging is one of the prettiest spots in all of Southern California. Considering its striking architecture, it is no surprise that producers chose to feature it as the home of Hell’s most famous former denizen on the series.

The exterior of the Sunset Tower was altered quite a bit with CGI for the show. As you can see in the establishing shot as compared to the aerial view below, a floor was added to structure just below the penthouse level. The penthouse was also covered over with a wide roofline and another floor and large spire were added to the top of the building.

While the Sunset Tower does boast a penthouse suite (you can take a peek at it here), it was not utilized on Lucifer. The devil’s sleek penthouse is actually just a soundstage-built set.

Though I recognized both the El Capitan Theatre and the Sunset Tower Hotel upon seeing them on Lucifer, the interior of Lux was not familiar to me at all and because the space was so grand, so opulent and so massive, I assumed it was the stuff of a set designer’s imagination and not a real place. So I was shocked when I came across a forum on the Previously TV website in which a commenter named vampdetective mentioned that an actual Hollywood nightclub named The Emerson Theatre portrayed Lux in Lucifer’s pilot (images from that episode are pictured below) and that a set based upon it was constructed for all subsequent filming.

The set re-creation, which was built on a 2/3 scale by production designer Stephen Geaghan, is pictured below.

Though Hollywood clubbing is not at all my thing, I think I would have enjoyed spending time at The Emerson Theatre. Sadly, the site, which opened in January 2103, was shuttered in April 2015 and remains closed today, so I only got to stalk the outside of it.

The brainchild of interior designer Mark Zeff and SBE hospitality company, The Emerson Theatre was built to resemble a 1920s burlesque club and featured a sunken dance floor, large banquette style booths, a grand double staircase, strung Edison lights, two bars, a photo booth, and a patio area. More than just a nightclub, The Emerson Theatre also hosted live performances, hence the name. During its scant two years in operation, such stars as Paris Hilton, Vin Diesel, Trey Songz, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, Wiz Khalifa, Khloe Kardashian, Lamar Odom, Ashley Tisdale, James Franco, Chris Brown, and Dallas Austin were all spotted hanging out there.

You can check out some photos of The Emerson Theatre from the time it was still open here and here. Man, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

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: Lux Nightclub from Lucifer is a mashup of three different Los Angeles locales. The Sunset Tower Hotel, which is located at 8358 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, is used as the exterior of the club. The entrance to Lux is the east side of the El Capitan Theatre and Office Building located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. And the interior is based upon the now-closed The Emerson Theatre, formerly located just down the street at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

February 21, 2018February 20, 2018

Book Soup from “Bewitched”

I am a total bookstore junkie – as I’ve mentioned numerous times on this site. The rest of the world seems to be leaning in the opposite direction, though. Still I was shocked – and saddened – to learn of the recent shuttering of the Barnes & Noble on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, a place I patronized often during its 20-plus years in business. Reading about the closure got me to thinking about another L.A. bookseller I regularly frequent, one that is thankfully still in business and is also a popular filming location – Book Soup. I first visited the West Hollywood store for stalking purposes way back in October 2011 after seeing it in both Bewitched and Californication and intended on blogging about it shortly thereafter, but never got around to it. Though I’ve been back countless times since, I still somehow have yet to dedicate a post to the site. So I figured it was finally time to do so.

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Originally established in 1975, Book Soup was the brainchild of UCLA graduate student Glenn Goldman. Though the 24-year-old was studying arts management at the time, a lifelong appreciation of bookstores and a dream of one day owning his own led Glenn to change course. Armed with $50,000 in seed money, he took action shortly after earning his degree and settled on West Hollywood as the home of his future shop. As he explained to the Los Angeles Times in a 2000 article, “I really couldn’t contemplate a lot of places. There had been a period of upheaval here in the ‘60s – of thought and ideas – and I felt that the people who lived in the neighborhood would and could really support a bookstore.” Goldman enlisted his friend, architecture student David Mackler, to design the space.

Success did not come quickly, though. In 1992 Glenn told The New York Times, “The store was an immense failure. All this energy met with total indifference.” He wound up so broke, he had to move into the shop, sleeping on a mattress upstairs. It took years, but people did eventually find their way to Book Soup and its clientele grew exponentially, turning it into an area landmark. By the late 1980s, the site had become so popular that Goldman decided to move up the street to a much larger space that still serves as the store’s home today.

Sadly, Glenn passed away rather unexpectedly in 2009. The shop was subsequently purchased by Vroman’s Bookstore, another of L.A.’s most famous independent booksellers. (Vroman’s should be familiar to those who read my site regularly. You can check out a few of the myriad posts I’ve written about the place here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) Thankfully, little of Book Soup was changed following the acquisition and the shop is still going strong today.

One of Book Soup’s largest draws is its legendary book signings. Just a few of the luminaries who the store has hosted over the years include Martin Scorsese, Howard Stern, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal, The Doors, Mia Farrow, Mark Wahlberg, Ann-Margret, Ed McMahon, Jack Palance, and Annie Leibovitz. Stars have also been known to shop onsite. Drew Barrymore, Marlee Matlin, Nicolas Cage, Elton John, Madonna, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Paris Hilton, Faye Dunaway, Thora Birch, Leonard Nimoy, Ellen Pompeo, Alec Baldwin, Joan Collins, and Robert Downey Jr. have all been spotted perusing the stacks.

With such a vast celebrity clientele, it is not hard to see how Book Soup wound up on both the big and small screens.

In the oddly-shot 2000 drama Timecode, in which four frames of action are shown simultaneously throughout the entire film, Cherine (Leslie Mann) and Emma (Saffron Burrows) shop at Book Soup. The scenes featuring the store are pictured in the top right corner of the screen captures below.

It is at Book Soup that Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) first lays eyes on Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) in the 2005 romcom Bewitched.

Jack subsequently follows Isabel to Book Soup Bistro, a café that was formerly located next door to the bookstore in the Carolco building, in a sunken space situated adjacent to the newsstand.

By the time I stalked Book Soup in 2011, while the newsstand was still intact, the restaurant had closed and the space that once housed it was vacant.

The “Book Soup Bistro” signage was still in place, though.

The former restaurant area has since been completely taken over by the Carolco building (which underwent a massive renovation in 2014 and currently serves as the West Hollywood headquarters of IAC) and Book Soup’s newsstand has been moved to the front exterior of the store, as you can see in the recent Street View images below.

Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) meets an amorous fan named Nicole (Lindsay Sloane) at Book Soup in the Season 3 episode of Entourage titled “I Wanna Be Sedated,” which aired in 2006.

In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “The Whore of Babylon,” which aired in 2007, Hank Moody (David Duchovny) gets into a fist fight with director Todd Carr (Chris Williams) during a signing at Book Soup.

Though countless websites claim that Book Soup is also the spot where Hank first meets Mia Cross (Madeline Zima) in Californication’s pilot episode, that information is incorrect. Hank and Mia’s initial encounter actually took place at the now shuttered Equator Books, formerly located at 1103 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.

In the Season 1 episode of The Layover titled “Los Angeles,” which aired in 2012, Anthony Bourdain chronicles exciting places to visit during a stopover in L.A., one of which is Book Soup.

The store pops up a couple of times in Netflix’s 2017 film Sandy Wexler as the newsstand that Sandy Wexler (Adam Sandler) – and Arsenio Hall (playing himself) – regularly frequents.

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: Book Soup, from Bewitched, is located at 8818 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the shop’s official website here.

July 28, 2017July 27, 2017

Chasen’s Restaurant from “Enemy of the State”

I grew up about as far removed from Hollywood and the world of show business as you can get. But somehow I was familiar with Chasen’s, the West Hollywood restaurant that played stomping ground to the Tinseltown elite for close to six decades. I’m not sure where my knowledge of the famed eatery came from, but it is likely due to the countless celebrity biographies and magazines I read as a child and/or the fact that my mom has long been something of a chili connoisseur. For those not in the know, Chasen’s was noted as much for its legendary chili as it was for its acclaimed clientele. Sadly, neither my mom nor I ever got to dine at the restaurant. It was shuttered in 1995, long before we moved to Los Angeles. A portion of its Neo-colonial façade still stands, though (it’s now part of a Bristol Farms market), and I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk it way back in May 2013. Then I promptly forgot about it. Flash forward to last week. While researching Baltimore’s Hollywood Diner, I came across a mention that Enemy of the State had done some filming at the Charm City site. As it turns out, that information was incorrect, but I was thrilled to learn while looking into the matter that the 1998 thriller had actually shot a few scenes at Chasen’s. So I figured it was high time I blog about the place.

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Chasen’s was originally established in 1936 by New York-based Vaudeville performer Dave Chasen. Even the restaurant’s inception is steeped in Hollywood lore. As the story goes, Chasen came out to L.A. to act in a movie and began supplying his actor friends with his special homemade chili, just as he had done with his Vaudeville buddies back home. Depending on which version of the tale you believe, either director Frank Capra or New Yorker magazine editor Harold Ross suggested Chasen get out of show business and start a restaurant. He heeded the advice and on December 13th, 1936 opened the doors of Chasen’s Southern Pit. (Supposedly, Capra had to loan Dave his silverware from home for the opening.) The tiny BBQ joint, which consisted of a scant 6 tables and an 8-seat bar, was an instant hit with the show biz set, despite only serving spare ribs and Dave’s famous chili.

In 1942, Dave married a Sax Fifth Avenue beauty salon head named Maude Martin, whom pal Dom Amici had brought in to Chasen’s for dinner while she was in town on business. Dave was immediately smitten. Following the nuptials, Maude set about expanding both the restaurant’s menu and its square footage, employing renowned architect Paul Revere Williams to spruce up the interior with red leather booths and wood paneling. Williams was hired for a few additional expansions over the years as the restaurant’s popularity continued to grow.

For decades, Chasen’s was the place to see and be seen in Hollywood. Just a few of the legends who regularly dined on the premises include Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope, Kirk Douglas, Cary Grant, Walt Disney, Marilyn Monroe, Carol Burnett, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, and Jack Lemmon. Ronald and Nancy Reagan even got engaged there (the booth where Ronnie proposed is now on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library). And Elizabeth Taylor was so taken with Chasen’s chili that she reportedly had it flown to her regularly while she was on location in Rome filming Cleopatra. You can check out some photos of Chasen’s from its heyday here.

After Dave passed away in 1973, Maude ran the restaurant herself, greeting customers at the front door nightly. Chasen’s remained popular under Maude’s tutelage and attracted new celebrity clientele such as John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Elton John, Sharon Stone, Madonna, and Jack Nicholson. Aaron Spelling even hosted annual Christmas parties for the cast and crew of Beverly Hills, 90210 on the premises. Jason Priestley dedicated a chapter of his book, Jason Priestley: A Memoir, to one of the parties and you can see a photo of the December 18th, 1991 soiree here and the 1993 shindig here.

Sadly, Chasen’s started to see a decline in patronage during the ‘90s. Maude eventually sold the restaurant to a developer and its doors were officially closed on April 1st, 1995. Though there were plans to build a massive 2-story, 89,000-square-foot shopping center on the site, they never came to fruition largely due to neighborhood opposition. While development sat in limbo for the next few years, Chasen’s remained intact and was rented out for filming and private events. The project finally got underway in 1999 and the eatery’s interior décor, furnishings and restaurant equipment were auctioned off to the public in October of that year. The structure was razed shortly thereafter and a 29,000-square-foot Bristol Farms grocery store, which opened in 2000, was built in its place. Thankfully, the market’s owners decided to preserve a piece of the historic eatery. As I mentioned above, a portion of Chasen’s Beverly Boulevard façade was left intact during the demolition, was incorporated into the Bristol Farms exterior, and still stands today. That façade, with the restaurant’s former main entrance denoted with a pink arrow, is pictured below.

Most amazing of all, the Bristol Farms owners also re-created a section of Chasen’s interior inside the store. It serves as the market’s onsite restaurant.

Called Bristol Café, the space serves soups, salads, sandwiches, and other staples.

Oh, and Dave’s famous chili! For those who don’t live in the area, but want to know what all the fuss is about, you can make Chasen’s iconic chili at home – recipe here.

Though I never got to experience Chasen’s first-hand, Bristol Café was not a bad consolation prize thanks to the fact that the space boasts several of the original restaurant’s booths;

its knotty pine paneling and light sconces;

and doors. For anyone who hasn’t been, I highly recommend a visit.

In Enemy of the State, Chasen’s portrayed Pintero Social Club, the supposed Washington, D.C.-area Italian restaurant owned by mobster Paulie Pintero (Tom Sizemore). The eatery’s dining area was only shown briefly in the flick, though.

Most of the filming took place in Chasen’s kitchen, including the massive shoot-out at the end of the flick.

Only the interior of Chasen’s was utilized in the movie. Exterior scenes involving Pintero Social Club were filmed at a different location.

Enemy of the State is hardly the first production to feature Chasen’s. Columbo (Peter Falk) dines there – and, in a tongue-in-cheek moment, gets scoffed at by a waiter for ordering chili – in the Season 3 episode of Columbo titled “Publish or Perish,” which aired in 1974.

Simon Davenport (Henry Fonda) receives a telephone call from Harry Calder (George Segal) while he is at Chasen’s celebrating his wedding anniversary in the 1977 thriller Rollercoaster.

Bugsy Siegel (Warren Beatty) tells his wife he wants a divorce over diner at Chasen’s in the 1991 film Bugsy.

In the Season 3 episode of Melrose Place titled “Love Reeks,” which aired in 1994, Susan Madsen (Cheryl Pollak) has a job interview at Chasen’s.

Dede Truitt (Christina Ricci) and Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei) meet up with Bill Truitt (Martin Donovan) and Lucia DeLury (Lisa Kudrow) for a highly awkward dinner at Chasen’s in the 1998 comedy The Opposite of Sex.

Even Bristol Farms is popular with location scouts. In the Season 2 episode of Six Feet Under titled “Back to the Garden,” which aired in 2002, David Fisher (Michael C. Hall) waits for Keith Charles (Mathew St. Patrick) at Bristol Café in a very brief scene.

And in the Season 3 episode of The Osbournes titled “Pain in the Neck,” which aired in 2004, Ozzy Osbourne shops at Bristol Farms with his assistant.

Chasen’s also appeared in the second episode of the 1989 television series Nightingales, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the episode with which to make screen captures for this post.

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: Chasen’s restaurant, aka Pintero Social Club from Enemy of the State, was formerly located at 9039 Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood. The site is now home to a Bristol Farms grocery store.

March 3, 2017March 2, 2017

The Lounge – The Site of Britney and Justin’s Dance-Off

If you are anything at all like me, you eagerly tuned in to watch Lifetime’s Britney Spears biopic Britney Ever After the evening of February 18th. If not, you seriously missed out. It was amazing – in the way that only bad Lifetime movies can be amazing. The two-hour made-for-television flick chronicled a decade of the pop star’s life in the spotlight, from her rise to fame with the release of 1998’s . . . Baby One More Time, through her many turbulent years, ending with her 2008 comeback. The moment I was most excited to see re-created was the infamous dance-off that took place between Britney and ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake in 2002. The scene did not disappoint – and got me interested in tracking down the spot where the real life event occurred. Due to the highly transitional nature of the nightclub business, though, it required quite a bit of legwork to do so.

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Thanks to the place’s non-distinctive moniker, a Google search for “The Lounge” and “Los Angeles” did not provide much information. Adding “Britney Spears” into the search mix didn’t help. But when I swapped out her name for Justin’s, I started to make headway. Kicked back was a link to this 2003 MTV.com article which mentioned that the former *NSYNC-er was partnering with The Lounge owners Art and Allan Davis to open dim sum restaurant Chi. From there, I began searching for “The Lounge,” “Los Angeles,” and “Art and Allan Davis” and was finally yielded this 2002 image of actor Lukas Haas standing outside of the club. Though The Lounge was not visible in the photo, another restaurant was. While looking at the picture, I spotted the instantly identifiable yellow-paneling and green awning of Dan Tana’s in the background. The West Hollywood eatery has been a landmark since it was originally established in 1964 and the Grim Cheaper and I have dined there on several occasions, so I recognized it immediately. From there, it was not hard to discern that The Lounge was formerly located just west of Dan Tana’s at 9077 North Santa Monica Boulevard.

The Lounge saw its beginnings in January 1999 when the Davis brothers purchased La Masia, a decades-old Spanish restaurant/nightclub. The duo eventually revamped the site, re-opening it as the Latin Lounge in 2001.

The place was an instant hit with the Hollywood set, attracting such stars as Sarah Jessica Parker, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, and Ricky Martin in its first months of operation.

The two-level supper club, which eventually dropped the “Latin” from its name, featured a small dance floor, live music, furry sconces (yes, you read that right – the light fixtures were apparently covered in fur), a leopard print bar, a chandelier that scaled two stories, colorful murals, and a mirrored mezzanine.

It was not long before The Lounge was the place to see and be seen with the likes of Matthew Perry, Hank Azaria, Hilary Swank, Melissa Joan Hart, Nicole Richie, Gisele Bündchen, Demi Moore, Brittany Murphy, Dean Cain, Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton, Ethan Embry, and Tiffany Amber Thiessen all popping in regularly. Oh yes, and Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.

As reported at the time by Us Weekly, on August 1st, 2002, nearly 5 months after their split, Britney and Justin ran into each other at The Lounge. Britney reportedly got upset with Justin for dancing with his new flame, Jenna Dewan – yes, the Jenna Dewan that went on to marry Channing Tatum – and it resulted in a 90-minute dance-off between the former couple and their respective entourages. Britney later denied the report, but by then it had already become the stuff of pop culture legend. Britney Ever After’s depiction of the moment (pictured below) was absolutely delicious and completely ridiculous at the same time. Though I believe it was a fairly realistic re-creation of what actually happened that night. I mean, I can’t imagine a dance-off scenario that isn’t completely ridiculous. While researching this post, I came across two images (you can see them here and here) that show Britney leaving The Lounge I believe on the night in question. Though dated August 2nd, 2002, the day following the alleged dance-off, I am guessing by the time she left the club, it was after midnight the next morning.

Though The Lounge had a pretty good run, as is typical of most nightclubs, it did not last. By 2005, the site had become Lobby. When Lobby closed, the space was transformed into Foxtail, which was owned in part by Brett Ratner, and then later Mi-6. All three clubs were insanely popular with celebrities during their brief tenures.

The exterior of the property changed considerably during those ensuing years. At the time that The Lounge was in existence, the exterior was Spanish in style, as you can see here, here, and here. By 2008, the style had shifted to Art Deco and the building was covered with a screened façade.

In 2011, the space underwent an even more drastic remodel. As you can see in the Google Street View images below from April and July of that year, the property was taken down to the studs and completely rebuilt before re-opening as Italian eatery Mercato di Vetro. So, sadly, the building no longer looks anything like it did the night of Britney and Justin’s dance-off.

Today, the site houses a restaurant/club named Doheny Room.

Much like its predecessors, Doheny Room is a major celebrity hot spot, attracting the likes of David Spade, Chris Brown, Vanessa Hudgens, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and The Game on any given night.

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 Lounge, aka the site of Britney and Justin’s infamous 2002 dance-off, was formerly located at 9077 North Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. The locale is now the site of Doheny Room.

November 14, 2016November 10, 2016

Connor and Gigi’s Date Restaurant from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

Not every location from He’s Just Not That Into You was a challenge to track down. [As I mentioned yesterday and the day before, both Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben’s (Bradley Cooper) home and Conor’s (Kevin Connolly) row house listing proved to be real thorns in my side.] Case in point, the exterior of the restaurant where Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Conor went on a date in the 2009 flick. That site, which was actually the heavily dressed entrance to two neighboring Mount Vernon eateries named Thairish and The Helmand, was spelled out in a 2007 The Baltimore Sun article that was written while the cast and crew were in town shooting portions of the movie. I came across the piece shortly after I first saw He’s Just Not That Into You and jotted down the addresses in case I ever traveled to Baltimore, an opportunity that finally arose this past September.

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Gigi and Conner’s date restaurant, shown to be named “Red Seven,” only popped up once at the very beginning of He’s Just Not That Into You. As you can see below, due to massive set dressing, the locale looks quite different in person than it did onscreen. For the shoot, the exteriors of Thairish and The Helmand were covered over and made to appear as if they were one large brick and glass-clad space. The Baltimore Sun column states, “While the entrance of Thairish only was covered with cardboard, The Helmand underwent more drastic changes. The Helmand’s manager, Assad Akbari, says contractors with the film changed its sign and swapped out the front door.”

Another Sun article from around that same time went into further detail, stating, “In Mount Vernon, restaurants Thairish and The Helmand were temporarily redecorated Saturday with new lights, a new door and a new name: Red Seven.”

Thairish, a Thai eatery, was shuttered in 2016 and today Khun Nine Thai occupies the space. The Helmand, though, is still going strong. Originally opened in 1989, the Afghan restaurant is something of a Baltimore institution.

Unfortunately, there was a sidewalk fair set up right in front of the two restaurants when we showed up to stalk them, which made getting photographs rather difficult.

The neighborhood where The Helmand and Khun Nine Thai are located is absolutely adorable – and boasts quite a view of the Washington Monument, as you can see below. The Grim Cheaper and I spent quite a bit of time there, exploring the shops and admiring the handsome brick buildings.

Only the exterior of Khun Nine Thai and The Helmand were utilized in He’s Just Not That Into You.

At the time I started researching the movie’s locales, I was unsure where the interior of Conner and Gigi’s date scene was shot. Finding the right spot proved to be a snap, though. One look at photographs of the inside of both The Helmand and Thairish told me that interior footage was lensed elsewhere. My guess was that filming had most likely taken place in Los Angeles, where the majority of the romcom was shot. Red Seven, the name that producers had given to their fictional restaurant, seemed unusual to me. So unusual that I figured it was likely the moniker of a real place – either an actual Baltimore establishment filmmakers wanted to pay homage to or, possibly, the site in L.A. where interiors were filmed. Fingers crossed, I Googled “Red Seven,” “restaurant,” and “Los Angeles” and discovered that there is indeed an eatery by that name in West Hollywood! Images of it matched perfectly to the spot where Gigi and Conor enjoyed a beer and a Ketel-soda. Why the crew went to all of that trouble and did not just use a fake name or no name at all is beyond me, but I’m grateful they did as I might never have found the location otherwise.

As you can see below, filmmakers also went to the trouble of matching the entrance door of their fake restaurant to the actual walls of Red Seven.

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 exterior of Connor and Gigi’s date restaurant from He’s Just Not That Into You was created outside of both Khun Nine Thai and The Helmand, which are located at 804 and 806 North Charles Street in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, respectively. Interiors were filmed at Red Seven, which is located at 700 North San Vicente Boulevard, in the Pacific Design Center, in West Hollywood. You can visit Khun Nine Thai’s official website here, The Helmand’s here and Red Seven’s here.

April 1, 2016March 31, 2016

My Latest Mike the Fanboy Article – About Sur Restaurant

Be sure to check out my latest article for Mike the Fanboy, about my best advice for having a Vanderpump Rules experience. You can read it here.

November 19, 2015November 11, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Whisky a Go Go from “Wicked City”

Don’t forget to check out my latest Scene it Before post for Los Angeles magazine about the Whisky a Go Go from Wicked City. My articles typically get published in the early afternoon hours.

July 13, 2015July 12, 2015

The Den from “Sex and the City”

It goes without saying that I have a tendency to obsess on things (that fact should be apparent to even my site’s most casual visitors). Recently, I found myself obsessing over two locations featured in the L.A.-based Season 3 episode of Sex and the City titled “Sex and Another City.” The first locale I was itching to find was the coffee shop where Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) met up with her old friend “Letterman Lew” (Sam Seder). The second was the steakhouse where the two later had dinner. I wound up finding both thanks to Sam Seder. In late April, I tweeted the actor to see if he by chance remembered where the scenes had been filmed and he tweeted me back almost immediately with an answer. He informed me that the steakhouse was Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood (which I blogged about here) and, while he didn’t remember the name of the coffee shop, he did recall that it was located on Sunset Boulevard near The Standard hotel. So I immediately got to cyber-stalking and fairly quickly found the place.

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I managed to track the location down thanks to a set of tall, thin paned windows that was visible behind Lew in the episode. The windows were unusual and, from the cars speeding by in the background, obviously faced Sunset Boulevard. So, using Google Street View (which is HORRIBLE in its latest incarnation – don’t get me started!), I began perusing the Strip for those windows, starting at The Standard and working my way east.

I wound up spotting them at 8226 Sunset Boulevard, just one and a half blocks away from the hotel.

The site currently houses a restaurant named The Den, but one quick Google search of “8226 Sunset Boulevard” and “coffee shop” led me to this June 1999 Los Angeles Times article about Coffee House, which occupied the space from 1999 to 2003. Eureka! I tweeted my findings to Sam and he confirmed that I had the right spot. So I ran right out to stalk it a couple of weeks ago while in L.A. with my friends Kim and Katie (that’s Katie in the first image pictured in this post).

I was floored to discover upon arriving that a sign reading “Coffee House” was still installed on the front of the eatery.

Coffee House originally opened in May 1999, but founder Brent Bolthouse (yes, the same Brent Bolthouse from The Hills) first began the endeavor of establishing a 24-hour coffee shop on the Sunset Strip in 1995. He secured the location – a two-story cottage-like structure originally built in 1923 that once housed the infamous Fifth Estate coffee shop – easily enough, but converting it into what he had envisioned proved troublesome. Bolthouse, who also started the popular clubs Opium Den and Babylon, even wound up being sued by his partners at one point during the transition.

When it did finally open, Coffee House quickly proved popular with the Hollywood set, which makes sense being that Christian Slater, Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz, producer Andy Gould and celebrity hairstylist Jonathan Antin all had a stake in the place. Just a few of the stars who hung out there included Robert Downey Jr., Balthazar Getty, Tobey Maguire, Britney Spears, Anthony Kiedis, Paris Hilton and members of the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. Leonardo DiCaprio was said to have been so fond of the place that he visited daily!

The 1999 Los Angeles Times article described Coffee House as “a cross between a French country restaurant and an English cottage” with a large outdoor patio “fenced off by tree branches.” The place sounds as if it was idyllic, not to mention right up my alley! Lattes, a tree-lined outdoor patio AND Leonardo DiCaprio? If only I had known about it before it was shuttered in 2003!

After Coffee House closed its doors, the space operated first as Wacky Waffles and then as Hadaka Sushi. In 2009, restaurateur Michael Gans opened The Den at the site. While the restaurant looks adorable and charming, and the menu appears to be quite amazing – mac & cheese, fried chicken sandwiches, German pretzels, deviled eggs, wild mushroom and goat cheese flatbread – um, count me in – unfortunately, it was closed when we arrived so we could not venture inside. I was able to snap the photos below through the front windows, though.

In “Sex and Another City,” Coffee House masked as “The Flowing Tree,” a New Age café that according to Lew “is known for its green tea infusions.”

While some minor elements, like the windows, remain the same, sadly the space is virtually unrecognizable from its onscreen appearance.

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 Den, aka the former Coffee House from Sex and the City, is located at 8226 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit The Den’s official website here. The restaurant is open each Monday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., each Saturday from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., and each Sunday from 12 p.m. to 2 a.m.

April 28, 2015April 27, 2015

24/7 Restaurant

All stalkers have those locations – the ones that, despite years of searching, remain on our unfound list. Miraculously (and thanks to an insane amount of good fortune), I managed to track down one of mine recently, after over a decade of hunting for it!

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During the early 2000s, I had major girl crushes on both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. (Truth be told, I still love their movies, as evidenced in this post.) In 2003, I came across the image below in a magazine (though I can’t for the life of me remember which magazine), thought it was adorable, cut it out and pasted it to the front of my acting class notebook. Every time I looked at it, I wondered at which diner the photograph had been taken. From time to time, I would search for the place, but because I had so little to go on (I wasn’t even sure if it was in L.A.), I figured it would never be found. Flash forward to this past January when I randomly got inspired to do some sleuthing. I happened to spot the picture, as well as other images from the shoot, on the Mary-Kate and Ashley Fan website and was floored to see that the name of the photographer, Gail Albert, was mentioned. I did a Google search to see if I could find contact information for Gail, came across her website and emailed her.

That email was sent with feeble hope. For one, I never thought that Gail would get back to me and, if she did, I never thought she’d recall the diner’s location and, if by some miracle she did remember, never did I believe the place would still be in operation! Well, not only did she reply (within just a few hours, no less!), but she informed me that the shoot had taken place at the 24/7 Restaurant at The Standard hotel in West Hollywood, which, miraculously, is still in existence! My mind was absolutely BLOWN over the news and I could NOT have been more excited to get out there to see the restaurant for myself!

I have been to The Standard many times over the years (and even blogged about it back in 2008), but, for whatever reason, had never ventured inside 27/7 Restaurant.

The Standard was originally built in 1962 as the Thunderbird Motel. For a time it operated as the Hollywood Sunset Hotel and then as a retirement home before being taken over by hotelier Andre Balazs in 1998.

Balazs hired production designer Shawn Hausman to remodel the interior of the property and the result of her efforts is spectacularly unique. The lobby’s most famous feature is the glass display case located behind the front desk, which exhibits live performance art (usually of the nude variety).

The lobby also features shag-carpeted ceilings and walls;

hanging bubble chairs;

and a pool flanked by royal blue AstroTurf.

The property opened as The Standard, Hollywood Hotel in 1999 and, thanks to its retro-modern aesthetic and celebrity investors, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Cameron Diaz and The Smashing Pumpkins’ D’arcy Wretzky and James Iha, the place became an instant hit with the It Crowd.

27/7 Restaurant, which originally had no name but was simply referred to as “the restaurant,” is located off of The Standard’s lobby.

I was absolutely floored to see that virtually nothing about the place had been changed since Mary-Kate and Ashley’s 2003 photo shoot.

Unfortunately though, my server did inform me that a remodel might be occurring in the near future, so if you would like to see the restaurant in its current state, I would get out there quickly.

I cannot express how nice the wait staff at 24/7 Restaurant were! Their friendliness was such a welcome change from what I had experienced just a few hours prior at the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica. Not only did my server tell me that I was welcome to take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted, but when I asked if he could take a picture of me in the same booth where MK & A sat, not only did he happily oblige, but he snapped about a dozen pics just to make sure he had captured the correct angle!

For those fellow stalkers who also want to re-create the photo, Mary-Kate and Ashley posed in the fifth booth from 24/7’s entrance during the shoot.

The Standard, Hollywood Hotel is also a filming location. In the Season 3 episodes of Sex and the City titled “Escape from New York” and “Sex and Another City,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and the girls stayed at The Standard while vacationing in L.A.

The hotel was used quite extensively in the episodes.

If only I had a pair of different colored shoes!

In the episodes, Carrie stayed in one of The Standard’s real life rooms – Room 322.

The spot where Carrie had some trouble navigating up a hill in her rented stick shift can be found on the eastern side of the hotel, on North Sweetzer Avenue.

The Standard was also featured in the Season 3 episode of Entourage titled “I Wanna Be Sedated,” in the scene in which Turtle (cutie Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon) search for Saigon, who played himself.

Things do not quite go as planned and Drama winds up being hung upside-down from one of The Standard’s balconies.

The Standard was also where Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) threw a rather raucous hotel party at the beginning of the 2011 flick The Green Hornet.

Ally Hilfiger and Jaime Gleicher stayed at The Standard while visiting L.A. in the 8th episode of the MTV reality series Rich Girls, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the episode anywhere with which to make screen captures.

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: 24/7 Restaurant is located inside of The Standard, Hollywood Hotel at 8300 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.