Holly’s Nashua House from “The Office”

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Another location from The Office that I stalked recently was the supposed Nashua, New Hampshire-area house that Holly Flax moved into in the Season 5 episode titled “Employee Transfer”.  I found this location, yet again, thanks to fellow stalker Owen who went on a mission a while back to try to track down as many Office locales as possible.  So, thank you, Owen!  Ironically enough, though, I actually didn’t need his help on this one because as soon as I first saw the “Employee Transfer” episode, I was fairly certain that the Nashua house scenes had been filmed either on or near Carroll Avenue in the Angelino Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles – an area which boasts the city’s largest concentration of Victorian-era  homes.  I was already quite familiar with Carroll Avenue and its architecture as the haunted house from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and the Halliwell residence from the television series Charmed are both located there.  And, sure enough, my stalking instincts were right on!  While Holly’s house is not actually located on Carroll Avenue, it can be found just around the corner from it.

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In the “Employee Transfer” episode, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Darryl Philbin (aka the hilarious Craig Robinson) move Michael’s girlfriend Holly Flax (aka Amy Ryan) into her new home in Nashua, after she has been transferred back to the Dunder Mifflin branch where she formerly worked.

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And I am very happy to report that the residence looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did on the show.  Holly’s house is absolutely GORGEOUS and it is not very hard to see why producers chose to film there, although, in my mind at least, it looks far more like a San Francisco-area home than one that would be found in Nashua.  I’ve never been to New Hampshire, though, so don’t quote me on that one.  😉 

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Holly’s Nashua house, which is known as the Jesse Hall Residence in real life, actually has quite a bit of history to it, as do most properties in the neighborhood.  The Hall Residence was designed by contractor John M. Skinner in 1887 for $6,000 and it is a carbon copy of the property located directly to the east of it, which is known as the Henry G. Hall Residence.  Because the homes are identical in appearance and were both owned by families with the last name of Hall, they are known in architectural circles as “the Hall Twins”.  And while the house was originally a single-family dwelling, in 1915 Jesse Hall’s son, Tracey, transformed the property into a duplex and it remains so to this day.  The Hall Twins were both designated Historic-Cultural Monuments in June of 1979.  You can read more about their history on the Big Orange Landmarks blog here.

On an Office side note – EW Magazine is reporting that Amy Ryan will be back for a whopping eight episodes during the show’s upcoming seventh season.  YAY!  You can watch a clip of Amy appearing on fave show Chelsea Lately in which she talks about how she landed her recurring role as Michael Scott’s love interest  Holly Flax.  Apparently, after she was nominated for an Oscar for the movie Gone, Baby, Gone, she told her agent that she wanted to use her newfound Hollywood clout to land a guest spot on The Office, which was her favorite show.  She ended up landing the part of Holly and when she arrived on the set the first day and told Rainn Wilson the story of how she booked the role, he told her “You really should aim higher.”  LOL  I first watched that interview long before I had ever seen an episode of The Office and remember being absolutely fascinated by the fact that Amy loved the show THAT much.  But now that I’ve become an Office devotee, I TOTALLY get it.  If I was nominated for an Oscar, I, too, would so try to use my clout to land a role on that show.  🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Holly Flax’s Nashua house from The Office is located at 1347 Kellam Avenue in the Angelino Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.  The house from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video is located just around the corner at 1345 Carroll Avenue and the Charmed residence is located at 1329 Carroll Avenue.

Jim and Pam’s Wedding Church from “The Office”

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Another wedding-themed location that I stalked recently was the San Fernando Valley-area church where Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) married Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) in the Season Six episode of my new favorite show The Office titled “Niagara”.  I found out about this location quite a while ago, thanks to both fellow stalker Owen, who had told me about it in an email, and fellow stalker Snidely Whiplash, who posted a comment about it on my site.  And literally, as soon as I finished watching the “Niagara” episode a few weeks back, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place.  Unfortunately, I must have been having a blonde moment at the time, though, because we stalked the church on a Saturday evening when it was, sadly, locked up and closed.  SUCH A BUMMER!  The experience taught me a very valuable lesson, though – if you are going to stalk a church, do so on a Sunday morning when it is almost guaranteed that the property will be open to the public.  😉

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In real life, the supposed Niagara Falls, New York-area church where Pam and Jim tied the knot, which was referred to as Spruce Avenue Presbyterian Church in the episode, is known as the Congregational Church of the Chimes and it can actually be found right here in Southern California, in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Sherman Oaks.  Jim and Pam’s wedding did not take place in the church’s main building, though, but in the smaller Walter H. Staves Chapel, which is pictured above.

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And while I didn’t get to see the inside of the chapel, my fiancé and I were able to wander around the church grounds quite a bit and, thanks to some very friendly parishioners who pointed me in the right direction, I got to stalk the fountain where Jim and Pam posed for the photograph that appeared on their official wedding website.  YAY!

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We also got to stalk the patch of grass where Jim kicked around a soccer ball before the wedding, so the day wasn’t a total loss.  🙂 

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My good friends, fellow stalkers Lavonna and Melissa, who were Office aficionados long before I was, stalked the church when they were in town this past April and had much better luck than I did.  As fate would have it, they happened to pull up to the property just as the church’s wedding coordinator, a super nice woman named Lila, was locking the chapel up.  They told her that they were major Office fans and asked if she might let them take a quick peek at the interior and she happily obliged!  Thankfully, Lavonna and Melissa were kind enough to loan me the photographs they took that day to use in this post.  Thank you, ladies!

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Not only did the two of them get to stalk the inside of the chapel, though, but Melissa also got to re-create the “Forever” dance routine that the Office staff performed during the ceremony!  Sigh!  I had SO wanted to do that very same thing while I was there!  Ah well, looks like I’ll just have to re-stalk this place again sometime soon . . . on a Sunday, of course.  “:)

You can watch Jim and Pam’s wedding scene from the “Niagara” episode by clicking above.  And I am not ashamed to admit that I absolutely CANNOT watch that scene without crying – even though I’ve probably seen it a dozen times by now!  It literally gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME!  Especially when Jim says, “And Plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago.  Pretty much the day I met her.”  Sigh!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Owen and Snidely Whiplash for finding this location and to Lavonna and Melissa for allowing me to post their photos of it on my blog!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Jim and Pam's Wedding Church Map

Stalk It: Congregational Church of the Chimes, aka Jim and Pam’s wedding church from The Office, is located at 14115 Magnolia Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.  You can visit the church’s official website here.  Jim and Pam got married in the Walter H. Staves Chapel, which is located on the southwest portion of the church grounds and is denoted with the blue arrow on the above map.  The fountain where the couple posed for their wedding photograph is located inside of the Katharine Gibson Chapel of the Garden and is denoted with a gold star on the above map.  The patch of grass where Jim played soccer before the ceremony is located in the center of the property and is denoted with a pink “X” on the above map.

Jim and Pam’s Wedding Hotel from “The Office”

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Now that I have watched all six seasons of The Office, I can honestly say that my favorite episode hands down has to be the Season 6 episode titled “Niagara” in which Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and Pam Beasley (aka Jenna Fischer) finally get married.  I loved the episode for two very different reasons – one, because Jim and Pam’s relationship is so incredibly sweet, and two, because it so perfectly captures what it is like to plan a wedding.  Whoever wrote “Niagara” must have gone through the ordeal that is planning a wedding just prior to penning it, because, let me tell you, they got things absolutely, one hundred percent SPOT ON!  And right now I can TOTALLY relate.  Yes, planning a wedding is fun and exciting and heartwarming, but, at the same time, dealing with people is just not my forte.  I honestly want to call up some of our guests and/or vendors and scream, “NO, I will not provide you with shade during the ceremony, NO, I will not pick you up from the airport on the morning of my wedding, and NO, it’s not OK that you RSVP-ed yes, but are now backing out even though I have already given my caterer the final head count!” – all of which were recently said to or asked of me and my fiancé!  Sigh!  The scene in which Pam says to Jim, “Everyone’s driving me crazy.  This is supposed to be our wedding day!  Why did we invite all these people?” especially resonated with me when I watched the episode and I can’t tell you the number of times since then that I’ve seriously considered jumping on a ship to tie the knot sans guests just like Pam and Jim eventually did.  😉  Anyway, while watching “Niagara”, I immediately recognized the hotel where Jim and Pam’s guests stayed during their wedding as the historic Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City.  So, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk it when we were in the area two weekends ago.

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The Sportmen’s Lodge Hotel has been around since the early 1880s, but at the time it was named Hollywood Trout Farms thanks to the fact that it was surrounded by a series of man-made lakes and piers from which guests could fish for trout which would then subsequently be cooked and served to them for dinner by the staff at the main restaurant.  In 1962, a new, larger hotel was built on the property, which had since been re-named the Sportsmen’s Lodge.  It is that structure that still stands today. 

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And while the trout lakes have long since been removed, the hotel now boasts an Olympic-sized swimming pool, numerous ponds and waterfalls, and eight picturesque acres of land.  Due to its proximity to the Hollywood studios, the Lodge has long been popular with movie stars, including Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Doris Day, David Lee Roth, Billy Bob Thornton, Trisha Yearwood, Spencer Tracy, Lauren Bacall, Tallulah Bankhead, Lena Horne, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, and Bette Davis, all of whom have been spotted there at one time or another.  In 2007, the hotel was purchased by real estate developer Richard Weintraub who set about extensively renovating the property.  And, unfortunately, along with that renovation came quite a bit of change.  🙁

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In The Office’s aptly named “Niagara” episode, Pam and Jim head to Niagara Falls to tie the knot.  And while the interior scenes were filmed at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, as I mentioned above, the exterior shots were filmed at an actual Niagara Falls lodging named the Red Coach Inn.  And, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the two hotels look nothing alike.

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The Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel actually has two lobbies, and it is the back lobby, which is located off of Coldwater Canyon Avenue, that was used in the episode.  Unfortunately, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, that lobby looks MUCH different today than it did when The Office was filmed.  During the recent remodel, all of the back lobby’s wood was covered over with white paint, making the space appear much less lodge-like. 

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Gone, too, is the hotel’s former stone-covered fireplace, which has been revamped to look like an ordinary, everyday fireplace.  Such a shame!  The hotel, which used to have a very kitschy feel to it, now appears traditional and run-of-the-mill.  I am actually quite surprised that Weintraub had the place remodeled in such a way, as I am sure that it is no longer quite as appealing to producers and location managers. 

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And I have to say here that I absolutely LOVE the scene in which Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) shows up to the hotel’s front desk and informs the clerk that he doesn’t have a reservation because Jim and Pam have “blocked” rooms for their guests.  LOL LOL LOL  Man, I can SO see that happening in real life!  I don’t know what it is about a wedding that renders seemingly normal, intelligent people into helpless, self-absorbed morons, but, let me tell you, it happens!

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Several of the Lodge’s hotel rooms were also featured in the “Niagara” episode, including Room 642, where Pam’s grandmother, Meemaw, stayed;

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Room 644, where Pam stayed;

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Room 641, where Dwight stayed;

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and Suite 639, aka the “Honeymoon Suite”, where Andy stayed.

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All of the rooms featured in the episode can be found in the same hallway, which is located on the hotel’s second floor, directly above the main lobby.

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I could NOT for the life of me find the ice/vending machine closet where Michael spent the night in “Niagara”, though.  Oddly enough, according to the housekeeper that I spoke with, the hotel only has one ice machine area and it is located next to the pool.  I checked it out, though, and it looks nothing like the room pictured above, which leads me to believe that producers either created a fake room in one of the hotel’s storage closets for the filming or that the ice machine room where filming took place was removed during the recent remodel.

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The very same back lobby which appeared in The Office was also the site of the graduation dance in the Britney Spears’ movie Crossroads.  I obtained this information from a crew member while I was working as an extra in the movie and I actually thought it was a bit odd being that a vast majority of the flick was lensed at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel.  It seems like it would have been a whole lot easier to just shoot the dance sequence in one of the former hotel’s many ballrooms since the cast and crew were already filming on location there, but, then again, what do I know?  😉

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And, of course, I just HAD to pose on the Sportmen’s Lodge’s stairwell since Britney had once been there.  🙂

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The actual dance scene in Crossroads was filmed in the Lodge’s Starlight ballroom.  And, as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the room’s light fixtures and the banister surrounding the dance floor still look the same today as they did in 2002 when Crossroads was filmed.  YAY!

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The hotel was also where Lynette Scavo (aka Felicity Huffman) stayed after leaving her husband Tom (aka Doug Savant) in the Season 2 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Remember (1)”.

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And if you look at the room where Lynette stayed in that episode, you will notice that it is a perfect match to the room Lucy Wagner (aka Britney Spears) and Henry (aka Justin Long) rented after the dance in Crossroads, which is extremely odd as I would have guessed – once again – that that scene would have been filmed at the above-mentioned Ambassador, as was the case with all of the other hotel room scenes in the movie.  So odd!

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The front entrance of the hotel also appeared in Crossroads.

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The wedding from the end of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was filmed at the Lodge, in the hotel’s  lagoon area, and, according to a staff member I spoke with, the movies Leverage, Made, and Day the World Ended, and episodes of the television series Reno 911, Columbo, and Falcon Crest were also all filmed at the Sportsmen’s Lodge,

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Sportmen’s Lodge, aka Jim and Pam’s wedding hotel from The Office, is located at 12825 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.  In the “Niagara” episode, Pam stayed in Room 644, Dwight in Room 641, Pam’s Meemaw in Room 642, and Andy in Suite 639.  All of the rooms that were featured in the episode are located in the same second floor hallway of the hotel, directly above the main lobby.  The back lobby, which appeared in the both The Office and Crossroads, can be reached via Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

David Wallace’s House from “The Office” – Part II

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Another filming location from The Office that I dragged my fiance out to stalk two weekends ago was the large Colonial-style estate belonging to Dunder Mifflin Paper Company CFO David Wallace (aka Andy Buckley) on the show.  This is not the same Pasadena-area property that stood in for the Wallace residence in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Branch Closing” that I blogged about two weeks ago, however.  For an unexplained reason, after shooting the “Branch Closing” episode, producers chose to use a different, but similar-looking home located in the Encino-area, to stand in for the Wallace residence.  I found this location, as usual, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, who tracked down a slew of Office filming locales long before I ever even watched the show.  So, thank you, Owen!
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Owen had warned me before I stalked the house that the property was not only gated, but set quite a ways back from the street and was most likely not at all visible to the public.  I am very happy to report, though, that the stalking gods were smiling down upon us when we arrived to stalk the house because miraculously the front gates were standing WIDE OPEN!  YAY!  I am also happy to report that the home looks exactly the same in person as it did on the show.
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I honestly can’t get over how large the Wallace residence is!  The place is absolutely gargantuan!  And it is currently for sale!  According to its real estate listing, the home, which is currently being offered at $4,998,000, boasts 6 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, 6,000 square feet of living space, and sits on a whopping 3 acres of what the listing describes as “park-like” land.  The home also features a separate 700-square foot guest house, working horse stables, a tennis court, a pool, and a spa.
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The home first appeared in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Cocktails”, in which David Wallace and his wife, Rachel, throw a party at their house for all of the Dunder Mifflin managers.
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And, as you can see in the above screen captures as compared to these interior photographs of the home, the real life inside of the house and even some of the actual furniture was used in the filming of that episode.
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I have to say here that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the scene in “Cocktails” in which Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) turns to a party guest who is eating shrimp and says, “You know that line on the top of the shrimp?  That’s feces.”  LOL LOL LOL  That scene especially resonates with me because someone once told me that very same thing when I was a little girl and I have NEVER forgotten it and now can’t eat shrimp unless that “line” has been removed.
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One VERY odd anomaly that I noticed while watching the “Cocktails” episode today was that the trash cans pictured in the background of the scene in which Michael and Dwight trade shirts were all spray-painted with the number “1485”.  And while the home where that episode was filmed is numbered “5133”, the Pasadena residence that stood in for David Wallace’s house in the previous “Branch Closing” episode was in fact numbered “1485”.  I don’t even know what to make of this development, as that shirt-trading scene was obviously not filmed at the Pasadena location.  I guess I’ll just have to chalk it up to being a very, very bizarre coincidence.
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David Wallace’s house also appeared in the Season 6 episode of The Office titled “Sabre” in the scene in which Michael goes to David’s home to get some advice on how to deal with the new corporation that has just taken over Dunder Mifflin.
Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: David Wallace’s (second) house from The Office is located at 5133 Louise Avenue in Encino.  You can visit the home’s real estate listing here.

Michael Scott’s Condo from “The Office”

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I am very sad to report that early last week I finally watched the Season 6 finale of The Office and am at this time all caught up on new episodes of the show.  I am not quite sure what to do with myself now and am seriously considering watching the entire series over again, even though it’s only been about three weeks since I began watching it the first time.  What can I say – I am absolutely obsessed!  Unlike me, though, my fiancé was extremely happy when I finished watching the series because as he said, “Yes, it’s a great show, but not when you are playing it on a 24-hour loop in our apartment.”  He was on so much Office-overload, in fact, that he had actually taken to watching random movies on his laptop computer every night while I commandeered our TV.  Poor guy.  Anyway, because there are no new episodes for me to watch, in order to satisfy my Office fix I spent this past weekend dragging my fiancé all over the Valley to stalk a bunch of locations from the show, the first one being the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania- area condominium where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) lives.  I found Michael’s residence thanks, once again, to fellow stalker Owen who was able to track the place down via a lucky Google search.  Thank you, Owen!

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While watching the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Dream Team”, Owen noticed the above-pictured “Exit on Laura Lane” sign displayed on a fence near the front of Michael’s house and figured it might just be an actual sign posted near the actual property.  He then simply used Google to search for a Laura Lane in Los Angeles and it wasn’t long before he stumbled upon one located in Reseda and, sure enough, just around the corner from it was Michael’s condo.  YAY!

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Before stalking the place, Owen had warned me that Michael Scott’s condo was located inside of a gated community and that it was most likely not visible to the public.  I am very happy to report, though, that Michael’s particular unit is the second house in from Wyandotte Street, which is a public road, and that it actually can be seen from the street!  YAY! 

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Sadly, Michael’s front door, which appears quite often on the series, is not visible, though.

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But, I was able to spy the front door of a different unit while I was there and I am very happy to report that it looks JUST LIKE Michael’s front door.  🙂

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Michael first purchased the condo in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “Office Olympics”.  It is while he is buying the residence that he gives this sage piece of advice to the audience: “There’s a basic principle in real estate that you should never be the best-looking person in the development.  It’s just sort of common sense because, if you are, then you’ve got no place to go but down.”  LOL 

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In that same episode, when Michael first points out his new condo to Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) he mistakenly shows him the wrong unit, which is located directly across the street from the one which he has actually purchased.   

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The condo has been featured in several episodes of The Office over the course of the series’ six-year run, including the Season 4 episode titled “Dinner Party”, in which Michael invites all of the office couples over to his house for dinner. 

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And, as you can see from these photographs of another residence in the same development, the real-life interior of the home was actually used in the filming of that episode.

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Michael’s condo was also featured in the Season 5 episode titled “Dream Team”, as well.

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My favorite part about this location is that if you look at it via Bing Maps, you can see several production trucks, star trailers, and craft services tents set up, which means that they were actually filming an episode of The Office when the aerial images were taken!!  SO DARN COOL!

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On a side note – I recently got a Brazilian Blowout treatment done to my hair and I have to say it was the BEST DECISION I EVER MADE!  While I’ve never had particularly difficult or unruly hair, it is very thick and very curly and because I’ve been growing it out recently for the wedding, it has become rather time-consuming to style.  My mom told me about the Brazilian Blowout treatment a few weeks ago after she heard it supposedly shortens the time it takes to straighten one’s hair.  I was leery to try it as not only is it very expensive, but I was afraid it might fry my locks.  I finally bit the bullet, though, last Wednesday, and, let me tell you, I am SO GLAD I DID!  It is no exaggeration to say that the treatment has been life-changing!    While it used to take me 90 minutes to blow-dry my hair straight, it now takes me 20!  NO JOKE!  And I no longer need to use any sort of product to style it – that’s right, no balm, no cream, no gel!  If you have been trying to decide whether or not to try the Brazilian Blowout, I honestly cannot recommend it enough!  I’ve gone from being so frustrated with my hair that I was ready to shave it all off ala Britney Spears to being a wash-and-go type of gal.  LOVE IT!!!!  LOVE IT!!!!   LOVE IT!!!!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Michael Scott’s condo from The Office is located at 7303 Bonnie Place in Reseda.  The condo which Michael mistakenly thinks is his in the “Office Olympics” episode is located at 7302 Bonnie Place.  Both residences are located within a gated community, so please be respectful and do not trespass.

The Coffee Gallery from “The Office”

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A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me about a coffee house in Altadena named the Coffee Gallery which was featured in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “Chair Model”.  He figured that because the place was both a coffee shop and a filming location that it would be right up my alley!  And how right he was!  So, yesterday I stopped by my parents’ house in the hopes that I could talk either my mom or my dad into accompanying me to stalk the place as I needed someone to take a picture of me while there.  Thankfully, my dad acquiesced and just before we were leaving my mom happened to ask what it was exactly that I wanted to stalk.  When I told her we were heading to the Coffee Gallery she informed me that one of her neighbors, a woman named Julie, actually owns the place!  Well, let me tell you, I just about fell over when I heard that and immediately ran down to Julie’s house to give her the third degree!  How I never knew that my parents’ neighbor owned a coffee house when I am a complete and total coffee fiend is BEYOND me, but I digress.  Unfortunately, Julie wasn’t home when I stopped by, so I was not able to get any behind-the-scenes scoop about the filming.  I’ve left word with her son, though, that I am VERY interested in speaking with her, so if I do find out any good trivia, I will for sure share it with my fellow stalkers! 

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The Coffee Gallery is a very cool place to hang out – and I mean that both figuratively and literally!  While it is a super hip little spot, it is also blissfully air-conditioned and after walking in from the 95-degree heat yesterday, I vowed never to leave!  😉  The Coffee Gallery actually reminds me a LOT of a place in San Mateo called the Coffee Critic where I used to hang out pretty much every afternoon when I was in high school, so walking through those front doors yesterday felt like returning home.  In fact, the cafes are so similar it was striking!  My dad even commented on how much alike they look, but I digress once again.  The Coffee Gallery is cozy and inviting and the barista who waited on us could NOT have been nicer.  I can say with certainty that I will for sure be frequenting the place regularly from now on.  Oh, and they serve up some great coffee, too!  😉

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In the “Chair Model” episode of The Office, Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) sets up her boss, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell), on a blind date with Margaret, her landlady.  The two decide to meet for the first time at the Coffee Gallery.

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At first, Michael mistakenly believes that the above-pictured blonde woman is Margaret, even though she explained to him that she has straight brown hair and that she will be wearing blue jeans and a black top.  When he first sees the blonde, though, he says, “I give her a ten for looks and a three for her ability to describe herself”.  LOL LOL LOL 

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When he finally meets the real Margaret, he blurts out, “Ugh!” and then proceeds to pretend that he is not actually Michael Scott.  He is found out, however, when the barista yells out his name to announce that his drink is ready.   God, I love The Office!

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The two then sit by the cafe’s front window and proceed to have a very awkward conversation about how “hot” Michael’s former girlfriend was. 

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The Coffee Gallery’s super nice barista also told me that the 2005 flick Must Love Dogs had been filmed on the premises, as well.  The exterior of the coffee house was featured in a scene towards the end of the movie in which Jack (aka John Cusack) meets his ex-girlfriend’s father, Bill (aka Christopher Plummer), for the first time.  According to the barista, the Coffee Gallery was left open during the filming of Must Love Dogs and both John Cusack and Christopher Plummer were extremely nice and posed for photographs with all of the people who stopped by on their morning coffee run.  Let me just say here that I would absolutely die if I showed up at my local coffee house one morning to find a movie being filmed!  Sigh!  🙂

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Coffee Gallery from Must Love Dogs and the “Chair Model” episode of The Office is located at 2029 North Lake Avenue in Altadena.  You can visit their official website here.

David Wallace’s House from “The Office”

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Fellow stalker Owen and I recently set out upon a mission to try to track down the Colonial-style residence belonging to David Wallace in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “Branch Closing”.  This proved to be a rather difficult find for us, though, being that we had virtually nothing to go on – no house number or street sign was visible in the background of the episode and neither Owen nor I had any idea of which city the house might be located in.  We figured that unless we were able to get ahold of a crew member and gather some inside information, we would never be able to track the place down.  That is until last week, when I stumbled upon this fabulous filming locations database, which, lo and behold, had photographs of the exact property which we were looking for!  And not only did the database state that the house was located in Pasadena, but it also gave us an address number – 1485.  YAY!  I immediately emailed the link to Owen and the two of us set about using Google Maps to search every 1400 block in the Pasadena area.  Three minutes later I got a text from Owen with the address.  And while he says that this one was a team effort, my hat is definitely off to him because there is absolutely NO WAY I ever would have found the place as quickly as he did.  So, THANK YOU, OWEN!  🙂

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In the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) come up with a plan to save the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company’s Scranton branch by driving to New York to make a personal face-to-face plea to CFO David Wallace (aka Andy Buckley) at his home, the address of which Dwight has stolen off of the company Christmas card list.  Because Wallace is not at home when they show up to confront him “Michael Moore-style”, they are forced to wait outside on the sidewalk all day and into the night with only a bottle of Gatorade to sustain them.  And while Dwight and Michael never end up getting the chance to confront Wallace in the episode, the Scranton Branch does eventually get spared from closure.

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I am VERY happy to report that the Wallace residence looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.  In fact, the only difference I noticed was that the bronze eagle that was affixed to the round portico above the front door in the episode was not there in real life.  Otherwise, though, the house looks exactly as it did on the show.  Love it!

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As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, producers even went so far as to have the house’s real life “San Marino Security” sign covered over with a “Mount Vernon Security” sign for the filming, which is so darn cool!

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And, of course, I just had to sit in the spot where Dwight and Michael were sitting at the end of the episode.  🙂

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On a side note – for whatever reason, in the episode of The Office titled “Cocktails”, which aired during the very same season as the “Branch Closing” episode, a similar-looking, but obviously very different, home stood in for the Wallace residence.  Have no fear, though, Owen also found that property, so I will be stalking it soon!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: David Wallace’s house from the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office is located at 1485 Lomita Drive in Pasadena.

The Hungry Fox Restaurant from “The Office”

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Another location that I stalked back in April while fellow stalker Lavonna and her daughter Melissa were in town was the Hungry Fox Restaurant, which appeared in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “The Negotiation”.  We found this location thanks to fellow stalker “Snidely Whiplash”, who posted a comment on my site a while back that listed an entire slew of Office locales.  Snidely currently lives in the Valley, where most Office filming takes place, and often recognizes area locales when they pop up on the show.  So, thank you, Snidely!  Unfortunately though, because at the time I had never before seen an episode of The Office, when we went to stalk the Hungry Fox I had no idea what it was exactly that we were looking for – or looking at, for that matter.  To further complicate things, Lavonna was under the mistaken impression that the restaurant stood in for Poor Richard’s Pub, the bar where Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) confessed to her ex-fiancé Roy Anderson (aka cutie David Denman, who also starred as hearing-impaired football player Brian Murphy in one of my very favorite movies – The Replacements) that she had cheated on him with Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) in the episode titled “Cocktails”.  Because the Hungry Fox looks absolutely nothing like Poor Richard’s, though, we figured we had gotten the location wrong.  It wasn’t until I recently sat down to watch The Office on DVD that I figured out which particular episode and which particular scene the Hungry Fox had actually appeared in.

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As it turns out, the Hungry Fox, which, according to the sign put up for the filming, serves up “Scranton’s Best Breakfast” (LOVE IT!), stood in for the restaurant where Roy took his ex-fiancé Pam to talk about their recent break-up and his rather violent reaction to finding out that she and Jim had kissed.  The two say their final good-byes to each other at the restaurant and Roy also rather meaningfully states, “I don’t get you, Pam”, to which she replies, “I know.”

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Roy and Pam’s good-bye scene was filmed at the table located immediately to the left of the Hungry Fox’s front door (as you enter the restaurant), right next to the place’s resident fish tank.  I have to say that the owner of the Hungry Fox was INCREDIBLY nice when we came in to stalk the place and told us that we were welcome to take as many pictures as we wanted, even though we weren’t actually eating there.  Yay!  And from what I’ve read on Yelp, we really missed out by not eating there, as the place apparently serves up some fabulous grub!

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As I mentioned above, none of us stalkers were entirely sure what scene exactly had been filmed at the Hungry Fox, so we all pretty much just took some random photographs of the place.  Whoopsie!  Looks like I’m just going to have to go back there in the near future!

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On a side note – After returning home, Lavonna did some cyber-stalking and found out that the bar which stood in for Poor Richard’s Pub on The Office is actually a place called Pickwick’s Pub in Woodland Hills.  Besides the “Cocktails” episode, Pickwick’s also made an appearance in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “Local Ad”.  Thank you, Lavonna!  I will FOR SURE be stalking this one!  🙂

Big THANK YOU to Snidely Whiplash for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Hungry Fox restaurant from “The Negotiation” episode of The Office is located at 13359 Sherman Way in North Hollywood.

Jim and Pam’s House from “The Office”

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One location that I stalked back in April while fellow stalker Lavonna and her daughter Melissa were in town was the house that Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinksi) purchased for his fiancé Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) in the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Frame Toby”.  At the time I had never actually seen an episode of the series despite the fact that pretty much everyone in my life (from fellow stalker Owen to my best friend Kylee) had been telling me how fabulous it was.  But then, a few weeks ago, I finally took the plunge and rented the show’s entire first season on DVD, and, let me tell you, once I sat down to watch it I simply COULD NOT STOP!  It practically became an addiction!  They say that laughter is the best medicine and from what I’ve experienced watching The Office that sentiment is absolutely true.  I started viewing the series during a particularly stressful time in my life and it brought me so many much-needed laughs that I was lifted right out of my funk.  In fact, I can honestly say that never IN MY LIFE have I laughed out loud at a show as much as I have these past few weeks while watching The Office.  It’s absolutely hilarious!  For those of you holdouts who have never watched the show, you simply must start!  But I digress.  Anyway, last night I finally saw the “Frame Toby” episode in which Jim and Pam’s house is first shown, which meant that I could finally, finally blog about the place!

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On The Office, Jim and Pam’s house actually first belonged to Jim’s parents.  He buys it from them as a gift for Pam because, as he says, he wants to help his parents out and because he was able to “save on closing costs”.  So darn cute!  🙂  I have to give major props to Owen on finding this location as producers actually changed the property’s address number in the episode in order to throw us stalkers off track!

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As you can see in the above photograph, in real life the house is numbered 13831.

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But, as you can see in the above screen capture, producers had the second “1” digitally removed from the scene.  UGH!  I SO hate it when they do that!  Changing address numbers has to be my biggest stalking pet peeve!  Thankfully though, Owen, acting on a tip from a fellow stalker, started searching the neighborhood surrounding the studio where The Office is filmed and found the house a mere two miles away.  YAY!

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And I am very happy to report that, aside from the address number, the property looks very similar in person as to how it appeared in the “Frame Toby” episode.  Producers very obviously roughed the house up a bit for the filming (i.e. the broken roof gutter, the leaves on the front lawn, and the overgrown foliage), but I am guessing that in the episodes to come, Jim will be shown fixing up the place for Pam.  I can’t say that for certain, though, as I am currently only halfway through Season 5, so I’ve still got some viewing to do before I catch up with the current episodes.  I’ve actually had to considerably slow down my Office-watching habit this past week, though, because I am absolutely DREADING having no more new episodes to watch.  I honestly don’t know what I’ll do with myself when that happens! 

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The home’s garage area, which on the show Jim converted into an art studio for Pam . . .

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. . . is sadly not visible from the street.

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Jim and Pam’s house from The Office is located at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys.

Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar from the “Happy Hour” episode of “The Office”

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As I mentioned yesterday, one location that fellow stalker Lavonna was absolutely dying to stalk while she was in town last week was Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar, the arcade/restaurant which appeared in the Season 6 episode of The Office entitled “Happy Hour”.  So, before her arrival, I called upon fellow stalker Owen for some help in tracking the place down, but, unfortunately, the two of us came up completely empty-handed.  My first instinct was that filming had taken place at one of the local branches of the popular Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain, but after looking at photographs of all of the D&B’s located in the L.A. area and comparing them to the screen captures of The Office that Lavonna had sent me, I couldn’t find a match.  So, after a few hours of searching, Owen and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that Sid & Dexter’s was most likely not a real location, but a set that had been built solely for the filming of the “Happy Hour” episode.  Lavonna was sorely disappointed over this discovery, as was I, because I knew how badly she wanted to stalk the place.  But then, this past Friday, while stalking Scranton Business Park, I had an inspired idea.  Because the security guard manning the front gate was so incredibly nice, I decided to ask her whether she knew where the “Happy Hour” episode had been filmed.  And, lo and behold, she did!  She told us that filming had taken place at a restaurant/arcade next to a bowling alley somewhere on Universal CityWalk.  And, let me tell you, I almost fell over when I heard that.  Usually when I meet crew members and ask them about locations, they have no recollection whatsoever about where a filming took place, even if they were actually on the set that particular day!  So, for the security guard to know where the “Happy Hour” episode was shot, when she had never actually been there was absolutely incredible to me!  Yay!  So, Lavonna, her daughter, Melissa, her friend, Debbie, and I immediately headed over to Universal CityWalk to try to track down Sid & Dexter’s!

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My initial plan of attack was to visit each and every restaurant located on Universal CityWalk until we found the right one.  Thankfully, though, that wasn’t necessary.  Fairly immediately upon entering the outdoor shopping center, Lavonna spotted a sign for the chain restaurant Jillian’s and thought it might be the right spot.  And, sure enough, it was!  In actuality, Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar is a restaurant/arcade/bowling alley/billiards bar named Jillian’s.  Sadly, though, it has been completely remodeled since its onscreen appearance and no longer looks anything like it did when filming took place.  According to one of the super nice bartenders we spoke with, The Office filmed at Jillian’s for an entire week, just after the place had closed its doors to the public to begin the remodel process.  As soon as filming wrapped, the ENTIRE place was completely gutted and the rebuilding began.   The single, solitary decor item that remains from the old design is the above pictured cartoon which is now hanging on a wall in the billiards room.  Such a bummer!

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The Jillian’s staff could NOT have been nicer, though, and took us on our own personal tour of the restaurant to show us where filming took place and to explain what the former layout used to look like.  As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the place is COMPLETELY unrecognizable from its Office appearance.  🙁

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Thankfully, though, the ticket machines still look identical to how they appeared on the show, so, at least there’s that.  🙂 

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Lavonna had desperately wanted to see the zebra-print wall which appeared in the background throughout most of the “Happy Hour” episode.  Sadly, though, it had been thrown out during the remodel and that area was then transformed into the ticket redemption counter (pictured above).

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And while Jillian’s still makes use of the actual pool tables which appeared in The Office, they have since been moved to a different part of the restaurant.

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Lavonna also wanted to see the Whac-A-Mole arcade game that Dwight (aka Rainn Wilson) and Isabel (aka Kelen Coleman) played on the show, but the bartender informed us that that particular game was brought in by producers solely for the filming.  The dance machine that Andy (aka Ed Helms), Kelly (aka Ellie Kemper), Ryan (aka B.J. Novak), and the other Kelly (aka Mindy Kaling) played on, however, is a real game that can still be found at Jillian’s.

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So, of course, Melissa and I just had to pose on it.  🙂

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The bartender ended up asking Jillian’s two general managers to come out so that we could ask them all sorts of silly questions about the filming of The Office, and, let me tell you, they could NOT have been nicer.  They talked to us for a good twenty minutes and when they heard how upset Lavonna was over not being able to see that zebra-print wall, they ended up giving her the above “Sid & Dexter’s” sign which appeared in the “Happy Hour” episode!  How incredibly cool is that??  I mean, talk about the ultimate Office keepsake!   

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The managers also showed us a bowling pin that the entire Office cast had signed during the filming.  That’s Melissa posing with it in the above picture.  So darn cool!

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They also informed us that Justin Bieber had recently filmed his “Baby” video in the bowling alley located on Jillian’s second level.  So, of course, we had to go stalk that, too.   

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I am very happy to report that the bowling alley portion of the restaurant was not altered during the recent remodel and still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in the video.  Yay!

 

You can watch Justin’s “Baby” video by clicking above.  I so love the line, “She had me going crazy, Oh I was starstruck, She woke me up daily, Don’t need no Starbucks!”  LOL  Although, I don’t think there’s a guy in existence who could make it so that I didn’t need Starbucks in the morning.  😉

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While we were stalking Jillian’s bowling alley, we ran into another SUPER nice bartender named Rashid, who actually made a brief appearance in the background of the “Happy Hour” episode of The Office!  He was supposed to have a speaking role in the episode and producers even went so far as to make him shave his head for the part, but, sadly, as so often happens in Hollywood, his scene wound up on the cutting room floor.  🙁  We are hoping it will be featured in the “Deleted Scenes” section of The Office’s yet-to-be-released Season 6 DVD set, though.

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You can catch a glimpse of Rashid in the background behind the Sid & Dexter’s manager in the above pictured screenshot.  So cool!

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We had a blast hanging out at Jillian’s and I honestly cannot recommend stalking the place enough, even though it no longer bears any sort of resemblance to Sid & Dexter’s.  The staff truly could NOT have been nicer, the prices were very reasonable, the food was excellent, and the ambiance was lively and fun!  Jillian’s is definitely a place I will be returning to again and again!

On a Justin Bieber side note – For those who have yet to see his first appearance on Chelsea Lately which aired back in December, you really must tune in!  The kid is absolutely adorable and HILARIOUS and truly holds his own against Chelsea, which is a pretty amazing feat for a 15-year old!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Jillian’s, aka Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar from the “Happy Hour” episode of The Office, can be found at 1000 Universal Studios Boulevard, on Universal CityWalk, in Universal City.  The bowling alley where Justin Bieber filmed his “Baby” video can be found on the restaurant’s second level.  You can visit the Jillian’s website here.