Blue Blues Café from “Big Little Lies”

Two episodes in to the latest season of Big Little Lies and I am still missing Blue Blues, the café that figured so prominently in Season 1.  As the Huffington Post recently stated, the loss has left a “Venti cappuccino-sized hole” in my heart.  So I figured it was only proper to devote a blog to the seaside coffee shop – or at least to the eatery that inspired it.  Those who have read my other posts on the hit HBO series (which you can check out here, here and here) know that Blue Blues was not a real place.  Though countless online sources claim that Big Little Lies’ café scenes were shot at Paluca Trattoria, a popular restaurant on Monterey’s Old Fisherman’s Wharf, that is not true.  Sadly, Blue Blues was nothing more than a set constructed on a soundstage at The Culver Studios, where the show’s inaugural season was lensed.  Paluca did serve as the model for the charming space, though, so when my friend Nat informed me that she was heading to Monterey a few weeks back, I recruited her to stalk it for me.

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Paluca Trattoria was originally established in 2000 by Sicilian-born chef Sal Tedesco and his wife, Ashley.  The duo opened the eatery, named after their two sons Paolo and Luca, in a picturesque corner spot on Old Fisherman’s Wharf that formerly housed Captain’s Gig, a landmark restaurant that had been in operation since the early 1970s.  You can check out some photos of the site during the Captain’s Gig days here.

Per a reader named Barbara who commented on my 2017 A Round-Up of Big Little Lies Filming Locations post, Captain’s Gig used to feature a basket that ran between the eatery’s first and second floors which the cook would put orders into and then lift to the top level for patrons to retrieve.

Today, the upscale restaurant, which serves Italian-inspired seafood dishes, is the definition of farmhouse chic, sporting shiplap walls, hardwood flooring, floor to ceiling windows, a large patio area, and stunning views of the bay.

Paluca’s use on Big Little Lies came about in a rather organic way.  While scouting Central Coast locales for Season 1, director Jean-Marc Vallée patronized the establishment and, in doing so, quickly befriended Sal.  As Ashley tells the Huffington Post, “The director would come over to our place and just hang out in the mornings and have coffee and come and have lunch and he just sort of chatted with my husband.  He’s there every day.  They sort of hit it off and that’s how it came to be, just on the fly.”  Per Eater, the Trattoria had the exact aesthetic Vallée was seeking – “a snug hideaway that’s just a bit rough around the edges.”  For a plethora of reasons, mainly having to do with the ever-present fog that plagues Monterey, it was decided that instead of filming on the premises, the eatery would be re-envisioned onstage in Los Angeles.  Eater explains, “The production team took measurements of the Paluca space, filmed the surrounding area, and re-created the restaurant at a studio using a green screen so that they could fill in plate shots of the harbor in post-production.”

Though a sign outside of Paluca Trattoria misleadingly proclaims, “Our little gem by the Bay was selected as one of the filming locations for the HBO series Big Little Lies,” no scenes were actually lensed there.  All filming took place on set.  As you can see in my images as compared to screen captures from the show above and below, though Blue Blues does greatly resemble Paluca, there are enough differences to know that the two places are not one and the same.

That is especially true when you take a look at the two interiors.

Of Blue Blues’ cozy, inviting inside, production designer John Paino told Eater, “I’ve done a lot of shows in Atlanta, and I’ve looked at a lot of cafés there that were run by women that had a lot of those silly knick-knacks that say, like, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’  I loved that aesthetic, that reclaimed farmhouse look, but in our case it would be reclaimed marine.”  Paino truly nailed the style he was going for.  Blue Blues was quaint, charming and warm – much more so than I find Blissful Drip this season.

The inside of Paluca, while pretty, is much less homey and much more sleek than its onscreen counterpart.

Nevertheless, many fans still contend that filming took place there.  I am here to assure you that none actually did.  Both the interior and exterior of Blue Blues were part of a large set that existed only on a soundstage.  Still don’t believe me?  I’ve got the receipts to prove it thanks to a couple of videos (which you can check out here and here) put together by REAL by FAKE, the Montreal-based production company that handled Big Little Lies’ digital effects.

As you can see above and below, I’ve compiled a bunch of screen grabs from the two reels as well as comparison shots from the series that show the whole café was studio-built and situated in front of a huge green screen.

The massive screen wrapped around the entire Blue Blues set so as to be visible from inside the café, as well.

During post-production, REAL by FAKE digitally swapped in a background showing views of Monterey Harbor that matched those of Paluca Trattoria.

The company also added faux sunshine and shadows to make the women appear to be outside while sitting on Blue Blues’ deck.

Of the process (which you can see take shape in this fascinating video), Big Little Lies visual effects coordinator Marc Côté says, “We did 1,428 visual effects for the entire series, about 220 per episode.  I hope you were not able to see them.”  Amazingly, that goal was achieved – the effects are perfectly seamless.  Green screen magic at its finest!

Despite the fact that Paluca Trattoria never actually appeared on Big Little Lies – or more correctly, because of the misinformation floating around about its supposed cameo – fans stalk the restaurant in droves.  I can’t tell you the number of Instagram photos I’ve come across of people posing at “Madeline’s regular table,” as evidenced here, here and here.  The place has become such a draw that Sal told Eater, “I had to go buy a bigger espresso machine because I couldn’t keep up with the coffee sales.”  Of their newfound fame, Ashley says, “We are shocked.  We cannot believe how many people come because of the show, still.  They found us.  We didn’t push it out there.  We didn’t push it out there at all.  We didn’t advertise it on our social media.  We were just really low key about it, but people sought us out.  We didn’t know it’d be such a big deal.  It’s been a nice little gift.  Things [like that] don’t happen often in life, and then when they announced the second season we thought, ‘Oh my gosh.  It’s like the bonus round.’  Even though we’re not in it, people are still coming because they’re excited about the show.”  Ah, the power of filming locations!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me! 

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Blue Blues Café, from the first season of Big Little Lies, is not a real place, but a studio-built set based upon the Italian restaurant Paluca Trattoria located at 6D Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.