Café Figaro from “Jerry Maguire”

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (23 of 25)

Today’s post is a long time in the making.  Off and on for years now I have been trying to track down the restaurant where Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) got fired in the 1996 romcom of the same name.  I decided to actively revisit the search a couple of weeks ago and, this time, got Mike, from MovieShotsLA, involved.  He wound up finding the place shortly thereafter.  As it turns out, Jerry was let go from Sports Management International while at Café Figaro at 9010 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.  Sadly, the eatery was shuttered in 1997, but Mike and I headed right on out to stalk its former location nonetheless.

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Mike pinpointed the locale thanks to the unique trees visible outside of the restaurant during the firing scene.  Those trees can only be found on a few streets in the L.A. area, one of which is Melrose Avenue.  So he began his search at the start of Melrose (just east of where it intersects with North Doheny Drive) and, sure enough, found the right spot within a matter of minutes.  The only trouble was, the space had gone through so many iterations in the years since Jerry Maguire had been shot, that it was a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what restaurant had been in operation at the time of the filming.  Finally (after scanning through at least 25 Google search results pages), I came across this 2007 article which stated that an eatery named Café Figaro had once been located at 9010 Melrose Avenue and that its walls had been covered with “ticky tacky newspaper decoupages.”  Eureka!  With that information in hand, I did a Google search for “Jerry Maguire” and “Café Figaro” and turned up this post which confirmed the find.  Woot woot!

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Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (6 of 25)

Café Figaro first opened its doors in 1969.  (Apparently, Bill Cosby was one of the initial investors.)  It was founded by Tom Ziegler, who, in the 1950s, had pioneered a coffee shop of the same name on the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker Streets in Manhattan.  When a rent hike forced Tom to close that eatery in 1969, he packed up all of its interior decor and migrated west to Los Angeles where he launched a new, larger Figaro.  You can read a 1970 news article about the L.A. site shortly after its opening here.  (Interestingly, a man named Ben Fishbein re-opened the Manhattan Café Figaro in 1975, six years after Ziegler had been forced out.  The re-vamp proved extremely successful and remained in operation until 2008.  You can read more about the East Coast Figaro’s history here.)

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (13 of 25)

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (7 of 25)

Café Figaro closed down in 1997, a whopping 28 years after its founding.  The interior of the space was subsequently gutted and the Kass Bah steakhouse, which you can see of a photograph of here, opened in its place.  By the summer of 2001, the Kass Bah had called it quits.  Following that closure, the property went through numerous iterations – it was the Parisian Room, then Santo Coyote and then Murano, prior to which it was completely gutted once again.  When Murano shuttered, the site became The Artichoke’s Heart, then, after yet another remodel (this one not as major as the first two, which were complete overhauls), Smoke.  Since Smoke’s closing in 2013, the venue has remained vacant.  It absolutely boggles my mind that Mike was able to locate a spot that had not only changed hands no less than six times, but had been completely gutted twice.  Hats off to him!

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (10 of 25)

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (5 of 25)

In Jerry Maguire, Café Figaro stood in for Cronin’s, the “crowded” restaurant where Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr) rather comically fired Jerry.  During the scene, Bob delivered this diatribe, one of my favorite from the movie – “What about me?  You know what I went through knowing I was gonna have to fire my mentor?  Carrying that around in my head for a week!  Could you get past yourself for a second?”

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Not surprisingly, while the general structure and set-up remain the same, the restaurant’s interior looks completely different today than it did onscreen.  You can check out some photographs of Café Figaro’s interior from the early 1970s here and here, though, and see that it did indeed match what appeared in Jerry Maguire.

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (4 of 25)

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (3 of 25)

Café Figaro’s exterior (which was only seen in a limited view in Jerry Maguire) has also been remodeled since filming took place, but is still somewhat recognizable.

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Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (9 of 25)

Thankfully, the space across the street, which was a children’s gym at the time that Jerry Maguire was filmed, has not changed over the years and still looks pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen.

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Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (1 of 25)

As does the building located next door to Café Figaro, which Jerry rushes by in the scene while on his way back to his office.

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Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (14 of 25)

Mike and I were both floored to see that the manhole cover that was shown in the close-up of Jerry running was still there.  Love that!

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Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (20 of 25)

Me doing my best Jerry impersonation.  Winking smile

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Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (25 of 25)

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!  Smile

Cafe Figaro Jerry Maguire (12 of 25)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The former Café Figaro space from Jerry Maguire is located at 9010 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.  The building that Tom Cruise runs by in the movie is located next door at 9006 Melrose Avenue.  The manhole cover that he walks over can be found just east of that building’s front door.

The Mercantile from “Major Crimes”

The Mercantile Major Crimes (11 of 26)

During a recent stalking adventure with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the two of us passed by a unique building in Hollywood housing a restaurant named The Mercantile.  While we did not have time to stop in that day, I made a mental note to revisit it for a meal at a later date.  So I was absolutely floored to see the place pop up last week in the Season 3 episode of Major Crimes titled “Letting It Go.”  I immediately texted Mike and told him we had to re-stalk the eatery as soon as possible and we ended up doing just that this past Thursday while I was in L.A. for a brief visit.

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The Mercantile was originally founded in November 2009 by restaurateur George Abou-Daoud, who also opened Delancey pizzeria, aka Tom’s Bistro from Parks and Recreation which I blogged about here.  Abou-Daoud owns so many area eateries that he is often referred to as the “unofficial mayor of Hollywood.”

The Mercantile Major Crimes (6 of 26)

The Mercantile Major Crimes (5 of 26)

The Mercantile is housed in a two-story 1928 Spanish Churrigueresque-style building that boasts spectacular sculptural detailing.  I fell in love with the place upon sight.

The Mercantile Major Crimes (9 of 26)

The Mercantile Major Crimes (8 of 26)

The interior of The Mercantile is just as picturesque.

The Mercantile Major Crimes (21 of 26)

The Mercantile Major Crimes (23 of 26)

I would give my eye teeth for the reclaimed wood table pictured below.  I so want it for my apartment!

The Mercantile Wood Table

The combination gourmet market/restaurant/wine and cheese bar offers a pretty spectacular menu (50+ wines by the glass!), but, sadly, Mike and I did not get a chance to eat while we were there.  I am definitely planning a re-visit with the Grim Cheaper in the near future, though.

The Mercantile Major Crimes (16 of 26)

The Mercantile Major Crimes (15 of 26)

You can check out a photograph of what the exterior of the building looked like prior to The Mercantile opening here.

The Mercantile Major Crimes (22 of 26)

The Mercantile Major Crimes (25 of 26)

In the “Letting It Go” episode of Major Crimes, The Mercantile was where Detective Amy Sykes (Kearran Giovanni) took rape victim/murder suspect Corporal Laura Day (Nikki DeLoach) for a cup of coffee to sober her up.

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As you can see below, The Mercantile’s name and signage was visible in the scene, which is how I recognized it.

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The Mercantile was also very briefly featured in the Season 3 episode of Scandal titled “We Do Not Touch the First Ladies” as Darcy’s Cafe, the spot where David Rosen (Joshua Malina) went to meet a reporter and wound up being kidnapped.

Speaking of Major Crimes, I am dying to track down the motel that was used in the series’ Season 3 promotional photographs.  Does anyone happen to recognize it or know where it is?  I have a feeling that the structure might have been digitally altered for the picture, but I would love to find it nevertheless.

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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.

The Mercantile Major Crimes (3 of 26)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Mercantile, from the “Letting It Go” episode of Major Crimes, is located at 6600 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

Happy Fourth of July!

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I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very happy Fourth of July!  I will be celebrating the holiday today with my family, but will be back on Monday with a whole new location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Marilyn Monroe’s Former Burbank Apartment Building

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (6 of 10)

Shortly before I headed to Los Angeles for my weeklong birthday celebration with out-of-town friends Kim, Lavonna, Katie and Kaylee (that’s Katie and Kaylee in the above pic), I came across a Curbed post that mapped 43 properties where my girl Marilyn Monroe once lived.  The blurb practically had me foaming at the mouth, obvs.  I immediately sent the link to Lavonna and she added several of the addresses to her To-Stalk list, one of which was an apartment building located directly across the street from Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank.  Since the girls had already scheduled a WB VIP Tour for the trip, this particular locale was quite convenient and we included a stalk of it on that day’s itinerary.

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Prior to reading the Curbed post, I had no idea that Marilyn had ever called Burbank home.  According to the article, she lived in an apartment building at 131 South Avon Street for a very brief period during the summer of 1947 in what seemed to be some sort of house-sitting arrangement.

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (7 of 10)

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (1 of 10)

Per Realtor.com (and several other websites), the 13,283-square-foot structure (which I believe is comprised of 13 units) was originally built in 1835 – 179 years ago.  Yeah, that seems a bit ridiculous to me, too.  My guess is that the 1835 date is a typo (that somehow got picked up by numerous sources) and that the building was actually constructed in 1935.

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (3 of 10)

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (2 of 10)

  Realtor.com also notes that the property was renovated in 1995.  As you can see below, it definitely seems to have received a facelift at some point because the façade looks rather modern, especially the front doors and windows.

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (9 of 10)

Because the building does look so new, I had originally wondered if Marilyn’s former domicile had been torn down at some point and a different edifice built in its place.  That does not appear to have been the case, though.  Pictured below is a 1972 aerial view of the property, as well as a current one.  As you can see, the structure of the building seems to be the same in both images.  Which means that Marilyn’s former home is actually still standing!  How incredibly cool is that?

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A peek inside the front doors – courtesy of Lavonna.  Someone needs to tell the person in 102 that it’s time for the Christmas bow to come down.  Winking smile

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (10 of 10)

Marilyn’s former Burbank home is located two doors north of the “fake Fendi” building from Sex and the City, so we also did a little stalking of that locale.  And while we didn’t have any Fendi on us at the time, we were packing some Louis Vuitton (none of it fake, mmmkay!), so we just had to pose for a picture with it.  Winking smile

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (2 of 2)

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (1 of 2)

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.

Marilyn Monroe Burbank apartment (8 of 10)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s former apartment building is located at 131 South Avon Street in BurbankThe fake Fendi building from Sex and the City is located two doors south at 141 South Avon Street.