This past Tuesday night, I received a very exciting text from fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, letting me know that one of his readers had finally, finally tracked down the exterior of the fictional Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant where Mia Wallace (aka Uma Thurman) took Vincent Vega (aka John Travolta) for dinner in the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. When I first saw Pulp Fiction just about seventeen years ago, I thought Jack Rabbit Slim’s, which Vincent describes as a “wax museum with a pulse”, was just about the coolest place ever! With its slot car race tracks, wait staff dressed up to resemble stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren, and James Dean, and booths fashioned out of classic cars, the restaurant could not have been more up my alley! In fact, the diner was one of the places I most wanted to stalk upon moving to Los Angeles a little over a decade ago. So imagine my surprise – and total devastation – when I found out that it was not a real place, but a set that had been created solely for the filming of the movie. Such an incredible bummer! I always thought the producers should have built a real Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant after the movie became so successful, but, alas, they never did. Why oh why do I always have to think of everything? 
Anyway, I could NOT have been more excited about Chas’ news, so I ran right out to stalk the place yesterday afternoon.
The exterior of Jack Rabbit Slim’s only showed up very briefly in Pulp Fiction, in the scene in which Vincent takes Mia out for dinner at a place of her choosing at the behest of her husband, Marsellus Wallace (aka Ving Rhames).
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It is while out in front of Jack Rabbit Slim’s that Vincent begs Mia to take him to another restaurant so that he can get a steak, to which Mia replies, “You can get a steak here, Daddio. Don’t be a . . . “ and she then proceeds to draw a square on the screen with her fingers, which was one of my very favorite moments of the film.
At the time of the filming, the building which stood in for Jack Rabbit Slim’s was a recently-shuttered bowling alley named Grand Central Bowl, which you can see photographs of here. The property is currently owned by The Walt Disney Disney Company and is a part of their Grand Central Business Center. The 125-acre center is on the site of Los Angeles’ first major airport – the now-defunct Grand Central Air Terminal, which shut down due to a decline in business in 1959. The space was transformed into a large office park shortly thereafter, much of which was leased by the Walt Disney Company beginning in 1961. In 1997, Disney purchased the entire 125-acre property and it currently serves as the headquarters for Walt Disney Imagineering. Because Pulp Fiction was produced by Miramax, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, it makes sense that producers chose to film the Jack Rabbit Slim’s exterior where they did.
Sadly, as you can see in the above photographs, the Jack Rabbit Slim’s building is currently surrounded by a large cement wall and is not very visible from the street.
According to Wikipedia, the interior of the Jack Rabbit Slim’s set was built in a warehouse in Culver City and, at a cost of $150,000, was the largest line item in the production’s entire budget!
Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, for letting me know about this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant, from Pulp Fiction, is located at 1435 Flower Street, on the southwest corner of Sonora Avenue and Flower Street, in Glendale. The property is located inside of Disney’s Grand Central Business Center, which is private property, so please do not trespass.
Let’s not ignore the fact that Steve Buscemi was the waiter!
Do you happen to know if the interior set that they created to be Jack Slim’s Diner is still entact/visits permitted? I know it is a set and not an actual diner but I would love nothing more than to visit such an iconic and legendary piece created!
There’s a Jack Rabbit Slim’s night club in Perth, Australia. It serves milkshakes and it’s got a dancefloor and a live music – http://www.jackrabbitslims.net/
If I had the money, I would totally open a Jack Rabbit Slim’s Restaurant. Then, out of respect for the. Brilliant mind who actually conceived it, I would give Quintan Taratino 20% of my profits every year. No strings. Just out of respect. Of course I would have to build it in a place that there would be plenty of customers and land to build it on. Probably close to the Hollywood Bowl. I personally think it would be a great idea. Too bad they never did it. Of course, security would be an issue. But I’m sure I could find some Pathfinder (US ARMY) buddies to make sure nothing would happen to it. Then to secure its success I would offer a percentage of ownership to my employees. If people have a stake in something they want to succeed. It would come to the understanding that if they ever did buy into the business as it were, they could never sell their shares. They would have to sell the shares back to me and I would give them the going rate. These shares would be protected in such a way that only a family member could inherit the shares. And, if those who inherit didn’t want them, they could sell their shares back to me or give them to another family member. They would have to prove they were family.
While not identical it seems they have borrowed several ideas for this place from the movie. http://www.jackrabbitslimsmke.com/
Disney has a restaurant in one of their theme parks in Florida called the Sci-Fi that is set up to look like a 50’s drive in complete with a giant movie screen and clips of old sci-fi movies. check out the photos on line. The park is Hollywood studios. The food is pretty good too. One of our favorite places to go while in Disney.
There is an actual Jack Rabbit Slim’s in the UK, a little ways north of York…
http://www.eatatjacks.co.uk/
Do they serve a royal with cheese there?
I was also upset when I found out there was no Greenbow Alabama! From what I understood, it was in the county of Greenbow.
I just learned that my friend Jacek designed the sets for this film, including Jackrabbit Slim’s. He says “there were a lot of imitators of Jack Rabbit Slim’s after the film came out”. Based on your interesting reportage, I am guessing he was given the shell of this building to design around in this case. He is an architect, not a set builder. I have shared the link to your article with him. Cheerio! –Andrea Winchester
http://www.usatoday.com/media/cinematic/gallery/2116087
Check out the 4th restaurant. Looks jack rabbit slims. It one of diseny worlds best restaurants.
is this in hollywood, ca or FL?
That’s crazy that it’s fictional, cause in the town I live in, there’s a billiards hall/sports bar called “Jack Rabbit Slims”, and I swear it’s the same logo and everything. It’s not all 50-ish like the JRS in Pulp, but it had me believing it was a chain. Would’ve been an awesome place.
Ohhhhh that sucks!!!! I’m so disappointed!!! I googled this because I’m watching PulpFiction as I type this and I thought…hey – what a cool restaurant! Is it real? Damn. I wonder if there is any similar?
I recommend “corvette diner” in San diego <3
Miramax was NOT owned by Disney at the time of filming Pulp Fiction, so the decision to use this location in the film I doubt had anything to do with Disney.
Miramax was purchased by Disney in 1993 – the same year that Pulp Fiction was filmed.
it wasn’t a square that mia drew with her fingers, it was a rectangle, always wondered about that—dan and lindsay, build chain of jack rabbit slims’ across the country…
Awesome! This might be the Holy Grail of film locations.
Nice job guys! This is a major coup! Do you know how many fans have been trying to track this place down without success?? I have literally been looking for this place for over a year and had heard a) that the exterior never existed and b) that it was an old bowling alley but I could never find it. Awesome work. It’s too bad about the green fence though. i wonder if that was specifically put up to keep out the Pulp Fiction fans??
By the way Lindsay, the producers actually had planned a chain of Jack Rabbit Slims after the success of the movie but Tarantino nixed the idea.
You can read about it here:
http://www.slashfilm.com/trivia-harvey-weinstein-had-plans-to-open-a-chain-of-jack-rabbit-slims/
OMG! He should have let them do it! Did you see on that site that the author said that the inside of a Mel’s Diner was used as Jack Rabbit Slim’s in the movie?!? LOL
Yeah I noticed … um no. That was the only glaring mistake. What’s funny is at one point I was half-hearted thinking of opening my own Jack Rabbit Slims and was wondering what the trademark implications would be on a fictional restaurant. I thought it would probably be a big success in L.A. though. Maybe someday! 😉
Oh I’m so glad you’re excited about this one. 🙂 I was, too. If the fence wasn’t put up to keep out the PF fans, I’m sure it’ll come in handy now. 😉
Love Pulp Fiction!