West Hollywood bars – IAMNOTASTALKER

April 10, 2012April 9, 2012

Pinches Tacos from “The Hills”

As always seems to happen when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I get together, while out doing some stalking in West Hollywood this past Thursday afternoon, the two of us stumbled upon a filming location without even meaning to do so. After stopping by the Sunset Strip’s new Pink Taco to grab some lunch and finding it inexplicably closed, we headed across the street to a different pink-hued Mexican eatery named Pinches Tacos. Upon ordering our food, we made our way to the restaurant’s patio area and, as I am apt to do when dining at a new place, I started doing some iPhone research to see if, on the off chance, Pinches had ever been used as a filming location. Well, let me tell you, I just about fell off my chair when I came across some behind-the-scenes footage of my girl Kristin Cavallari shooting an unspecified Season 5 episode of fave show The Hills in the very spot where I was then sitting! How I had missed that tidbit when the episode originally aired is beyond me, but needless to say I was absolutely floored over the information and promptly grabbed my camera and ran inside to snap some pics and speak with the manager.

The Sunset Strip Pinches Tacos was first founded in 2007 by brothers Miguel, Jorge and Javier Anaya – nephews of Jose Prado, the former longtime chef of The Ivy turned restaurateur who established The Original Cha Cha Cha in Silverlake, Cocina Primavera in Beverly Hills, Prado Restaurant in Larchmont Village, and Cha Cha Chicken in Santa Monica and Northridge. Everything that the fast-fix hot spot serves – from the salsa to the tortillas – is homemade daily using hundred-year-old secret family recipes from the Anaya brothers’ hometowns of Guadalajara and Jalisco. Thanks to its extremely reasonable prices, fresh fare, and late-night hours (Pinches is open until 3 a.m. each Thursday through Saturday), the eatery became insanely popular virtually overnight and three more outposts have since been launched. Besides West Hollywood, the chain currently boasts restaurants in Culver City and Santa Monica, all of which are family-owned and operated. And Alabama native Ty Taylor loved the place so much that he convinced the Anaya brothers to partner with him in founding an annex in Taylor’s hometown of Homewood. That restaurant opened in January of 2011 and is doing so well that the group is already looking to establish another outpost in Birmingham.

And for those wondering where the name “Pinches” came from, while a note on the eatery’s door states that the term is Spanish slang for “kitchen boy”, Google translate dug up a far more interesting (and far more NSFW) meaning, which you can take a look at here. All I can say is LOL.

While the interior of Pinches Tacos is quite adorable, the patio area, which overlooks the Sunset Strip, is where most people choose to eat, including Mike and me. I cannot tell you how cool it was to sit there, just feet from the bustling Strip, and watch all of the cars zipping by, not to mention the countless Hollywood tour buses – one of which you can see in the background of the above picture. Love it!

Because I am extremely picky about my meat, I opted to order Pinches vegetarian tacos and not only were they bursting with flavor – not something one expects from vegetables – and FABULOUS, but, at $2.95 a piece, were less expensive than a Starbucks latte! I am so going to have to bring the Grim Cheaper back there for lunch. Winking smile

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Oddly enough, the behind-the-scenes footage of The Hills that Mike and I watched while at Pinches did not look at all familiar to me, so when I got home I popped in my DVDs of the series and scanned through each and every Season 5 episode. As it turns out, the Mexican eatery appeared in the episode titled “It’s On Bitch” as the spot where Brody Jenner, Jayde Nicole, Stephanie Pratt, Lo Bosworth, Stacie the Bartender (I so love that she was never referred to by her full name), Justin “Bobby” Brescia, and my girl Kristin Cavallari celebrated Frankie Delgado’s birthday. “It’s On Bitch” was actually the very first episode of The Hills that KCav appeared in, so I am extremely embarrassed that I failed to recognize it. I must be losing my mojo or something! Winking smile Besides being a filming location, Pinches Tacos is also something of a celebrity hotspot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Kat Von D, Jesse James, Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Roberts, Megan Fox, Brian Austin Green, Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone, Gabriel Aubry, Balthazar Getty, Isabel Lucas, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pinches Tacos, from the “It’s On Bitch” episode of The Hills, is located at 8200 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant chain’s official website here.

April 3, 2012April 2, 2012

Fig & Olive Restaurant from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl Commercial

Ever since I first saw the ingenious “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V commercial that premiered during the 2012 Super Bowl on February 6th, I have been absolutely itching to track down the restaurant that appeared in it. Especially since, a few weeks beforehand, I had stalked and blogged about L’Orangerie, the eatery that stood in for Chez Quis in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the 1986 movie upon which the two-minute-and-twenty-five-second television spot was based.

Thankfully, this location was a fairly easy find. While watching the ad, I had spotted the name “Chez Neuz” painted on the awning of the restaurant – “neuf” being French for “nine”, which is, of course, the number of times Ferris Bueller was absent from school in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. (“Nine times?” “Nine times!” “I don’t remember him being absent nine times!” LOL) And while the establishment’s tongue-in-cheek moniker was obviously a fake, I figured that the other words – “kitchen” and the partially hidden “–ing bar”, which I guessed to be “tasting bar” – that were also visible on the awning were most likely real. And I was right!

Inputting the words “restaurant”, “Los Angeles”, “kitchen”, and “tasting bar” into Google led me to a website for a fairly new eatery in West Hollywood named Fig & Olive. One quick scan of the photographs pictured there proved that it was a match to what had appeared in “Matthew’s Day Off”. Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend. Fig & Olive, which was originally founded on the East Coast and has several outposts in Manhattan, first opened its West Hollywood location in March 2011 in an 8,000-square-foot, two-story venue on the corner of Melrose Place and La Cienega Boulevard. The bright and airy establishment features a 50-foot tasting bar, two patios, a lounge area and a Mediterranean-inspired menu that is brought to life each night by Executive Chef Pascal Lorange, a man who was once the personal chef to both singer Julio Iglesias and former President Bill Clinton.

Thanks to its trendy location, fab menu and chic interior, Fig & Olive became an overnight sensation and has served the likes of Amanda Seyfried, Robert Downey, Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Jason Bateman, Elizabeth Banks, Hilary Duff, Rebecca Gayheart, Julianne Hough, Ryan Seacrest, Jimmy Kimmel, John Stamos, Bob Saget, Ryan Gosling, Lea Michele, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Reese Witherspoon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Connolly, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Ryan Phillipe, Kellie Martin, Mila Kunis, Molly Sims, Zac Efron, Drew Barrymore and even President Obama. Oh, and me and the GC Winking smile , who both absolutely fell in love with the place. Before we arrived there, I had been convinced that Fig & Olive would be extremely snooty, but I am very happy to report that that was not at all the case. The entire staff was BEYOND nice, especially our bartender who loved the fact that we were only dining there because of the “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial. Smile

Because the establishment is on the pricy side, the GC and I opted to only grab drinks and a cheese plate appetizer, all of which were uh-ma-zing! I cannot wait to go back to there for a full meal sometime (ear muffs, GC!).

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Fig & Olive was featured three times in the “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial, which was directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips. The tasting bar area first popped up in the scene in which Walter Linder, Matthew’s agent, is shown eating lunch in front of a TV that just so happens to be airing the parade in which Matthew is singing.

Fig & Olive’s tasting bar is pictured above and, as you can see, the television set and the wall it was affixed to are not actually there in real life.

The exterior of Fig & Olive then appeared as Chez Neuf, the restaurant where Matthew dropped off his Honda CR-V with a valet, who then, of course, made off with it.

And the restaurant lastly popped at the very end of the commercial, in the scene in which Matthew reenacted his famous “You’re still here?” bit from Ferris Bueller.

Our bartender informed us that an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was also shot at Fig & Olive, but I scanned through both Season 1 and Season 2 of the series earlier today and did not spot it anywhere, so I am guessing that the scene wound up on the cutting room floor.

“Matthew’s Day Off” Super Bowl Commercial Filmed at Fig & Olive in West Hollywood

You can watch the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial by clicking above. Apparently, the team at RPA, the advertising agency that created the ad, hid over two dozen references to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the spot – some obvious, some more subtle.

Here are a few that I spotted (and I swear I could sit here all day doing this!) – 1. In the commercial, Matthew’s agent is named “Walter Linder”.

That same name was listed in the Chez Quis reservation book directly above “Abe Froman” in the movie’s iconic restaurant scene.

2. The woman that Matthew spoke with using his CR-V’s built-in Bluetooth in the commercial was named “Grace” – a nod to Ed Rooney’s dimwitted secretary Grace, who was played to perfection by Edie McClurg in the film.

3. In the scene in which Walter Linder spots Matthew driving, a man is pictured behind Walter playing a clarinet.

Ferris also played a clarinet in the 1986 film.

The trench coat that the clarinet player is wearing in the commercial is also a reference to the outfit Ferris wore when he picked up his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara).

4. In the commercial, the CR-V license plate reads “SOCHOIC”, which is a nod to Ferris’ line, “I must admit, I love driving it. It is so choice.” about the pilfered Ferrari. If you are not into searching for the ad’s many Ferris Bueller’s Day Off references, or “Easter eggs” as they are called, yourself, Entertainment Weekly scored a complete list of them from RPA, which you can check out here.

On a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off side-note – while making screen captures for today’s post, I happened to notice the number 652-9770 (as well as several other variations of it) on the phone Ferris used to call the police while at Chez Quis. On a hunch, I typed that number into Google, adding an area code of 310, and, sure enough, (310)652-9770 was the actual former number of the now-shuttered L’Orangerie restaurant where that scene was filmed. Oh, if only I had spotted those digits sooner, I not only would have bypassed countless hours of searching, but I also might have been able to stalk the place while it was still in business. Ah well! Hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Fig & Olive restaurant, from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial, is located at 8490 Melrose Place in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

April 2, 2012April 1, 2012

The Former Site of the Roxbury

In honor of my girl Shannen Doherty’s new reality series, Shannen Says, which premieres next Tuesday (can’t wait!), I thought I would blog today about one of the actress’ famed hangouts from her Beverly Hills, 90210 days – the Roxbury in West Hollywood. Back when I was a teenager and knee-deep in my 90210 obsession (ah, who am I kidding, I am still knee-deep in it!), I clamored for any and all magazines featuring the show’s stars. I would practically drool while reading of their various comings and goings, especially Shannen’s, and as her name became more and more synonymous with the Roxbury, the legendary Sunset Strip club became seared into my memory. I, sadly, never had the opportunity to stalk the place, though, as it closed its doors in 1997, long before I moved to Los Angeles. But back in 2002, after an acting class, one of my friends invited me to grab some drinks at a hot spot named Miyagi’s. Not being a nightclub kinda girl myself, I turned down the offer, to which my friend said, “Are you sure? Miyagi’s used to be the Roxbury, where your girl Shannen Doherty hung out.” Well, believe you me, once I heard those words, I was in! In true Hollywood fashion, not even Miyagi’s stood the test of time, though, and, as you can see above, today the location houses a newly-opened Pink Taco. But I figured since the site was hallowed ground for any 90210 fan, it was definitely blog-worthy.

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The building that stands at the corner of Roxbury Road and West Sunset Boulevard has long been the darling of the Sunset Strip. The spot’s first incarnation was a celebrity supper club named The Players, or The Players Club, that was founded in 1940 by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Preston Sturges. During its Players days, such luminaries as Humphrey Bogart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Rudy Vallee, William Faulkner, George S. Kaufman, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Howard Hughes all hung out there. Despite its popularity, the club started to falter by the early 1950s, though, most likely due to the fact that Preston often closed the three-story, 12,000-square-foot venue, which included a barber shop, a hydraulic stage, a burger stand, and three different restaurants, in order to host private parties for his famous friends. In 1953, his creditors sold the place to new owners who opened a Japanese restaurant named Imperial Gardens on the site. That eatery also proved to be quite popular with the Hollywood set and catered to such stars as John Savage, James Woods, John Travolta, and Olivia Newton-John.

In 1989, after an amazing 36-year run, Imperial Gardens closed and partners Brad Johnson and Elie Samaha purchased the establishment and transformed it into the Roxbury. Virtually overnight, the club became the place to see and be seen in Hollywood. The stars of 90210 flocked there like moths to a flame and were spotted partying on the premises virtually every night. Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to have been 21 and living in Hollywood at that time. Winking smile Besides Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green, Shannen Doherty and Mark Wahlberg (pictured at the club in a November 1992 People Magazine article), other celebrities that spent time at the Roxbury during its almost decade-long reign on the Sunset Strip include Cher, John Travolta, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Prince, Sylvester Stallone, River Phoenix, Christina Applegate, Eddie Murphy, and, of all people, Geraldo Rivera. The club was so popular that it even inspired the movie A Night at the Roxbury, although no actual filming took place on site. And Eric Huerta, the Roxbury’s longtime bouncer, became so well-known himself that a Los Angeles Times article was written about him in November of 1993. As usually happens with hotspots in Los Angeles, though, the Roxbury’s star began to fade and eventually closed in 1997. Shortly thereafter, Miyagi’s, a Japanese-inspired club/restaurant, opened in its place. I do not remember much of what Miyagi’s was like from my one visit there back in 2002, aside from the fact that the place was huge, the food was good, and, as I danced, all I could think about was that Shannen Doherty herself had one danced in the very same spot. I was practically pinching myself all night.

Miyagi’s closed its doors sometime in 2008 and was purchased by Harry Morton, owner of the Pink Taco restaurant chain and son of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton. The young restaurateur immediately set about gutting the interior of the place and wound up discovering some traces of the historic Players Club in the process – including the entrance to a former underground (now sealed) tunnel that once connected the hotspot to the Chateau Marmont and was used by celebrities who wanted to escape prying eyes. And while Pink Taco did not officially open until yesterday, a private birthday bash was held there on March 23rd in honor of Jared Eng, the blogger behind the JustJared website. Some of the stars who attended that soiree include Fergie, Rumer Willis, Kellan Lutz, Lance Bass, Natasha Bedingfield, Seth MacFarlane, Avril Lavigne, and a few of this generation’s 90210-ers including Shenae Grimes, Jessica Stroup, and my love Matt Lanter (sigh!).

Thankfully, the exterior of the Sunset Boulevard hotspot hasn’t changed much over the years and despite the fact that it is now painted a bright pink (and yes, that is a whole lotta pink!), it still looks much the same as it did in the 1940s. You can see what The Players used to look like here, Imperial Gardens here, the Roxbury here, and Miyagi’s here. And you can check out some interior pictures of the new Pink Taco on fave website EaterLA here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pink Taco, aka the former site of the Roxbury, is located at 8225 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant chain’s official website here.