Aroma Coffee & Tea Company in Studio City

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As I mentioned in Monday’s post, despite my drama-filled day on Friday, this past weekend actually turned out to be pretty darn nice.  It all started with a Saturday morning stalking trip out to Studio City’s Aroma Coffee & Tea Company, which I had read about the previous week while doing some online research on the similarly-named Aroma Bakery & Café on Sunset Boulevard.  As it turns out, Aroma Coffee & Tea Company is a big-time celebrity hotspot and since I love all things having to do with coffee and celebrities, I was absolutely DYING to stalk the place!  So, bright and early Saturday morning I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there.  And let me tell you,  I pretty much fell in love with the place immediately upon walking through its front doors.  The full-service café is actually a former residence which owner Mark Gunsky transformed into a restaurant just about fifteen years ago.  And I have to say that the result of his work is quite possibly the most charming little café I have ever visited.

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The quaint little Aroma Coffee & Tea Company is tucked away on Studio City’s bustling Tujunga Avenue and one could easily walk right by it without even realizing it was there. 

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But that has apparently not been a problem because, as you can see in the above photographs, the place was absolutely JAM-PACKED when we showed up to stalk it.  We could hardly get in the door!  It is not very hard to see why the shop has become so popular over the years, though.

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There literally wasn’t one thing about the café that I didn’t absolutely LOVE – from the adorable little French bistro tables situated on the front sidewalk;

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to the charming living room area complete with working fireplace and built-in bookshelves;

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to the front porch;

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to the quaint backyard;

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to Portrait of a Bookstore, the teeny tiny little bookstore/gift shop tucked into the back of the Aroma space, which Yelp recently named “pound for pound, the coolest bookstore in L.A., if not the entire world”.  Every aspect of Aroma Coffee & Tea Company was warm and welcoming and I absolutely cannot wait to go back there for a re-stalk!  Oh and the coffee was FABULOUS, too!  It was just as good as Starbucks and while some people might consider that a jab, in my eyes there is no higher compliment when it comes to coffee! 

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Just a few of the stars who have been spotted at Aroma Coffee & Tea Company in recent months include Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, Rachel Bilson, Zac Efron, AnnaLynne McCord, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Vanessa Minnillo, Heather Morris (aka Glee’s Brittany Pierce), and William Shatner.  In fact, the place is such a celebrity hotspot that back in November of 2007 TMZ conducted a video feed of the premises which it streamed live on its site!  LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Aroma Coffee & Tea Company is located at 4360 Tujunga Avenue in Studio City.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

Granville Towers – Portia de Rossi’s Former Home

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I just recently finished reading Portia de Rossi’s new memoir Unbearable Lightness and I have to say that it was easily one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life!  I literally could NOT put it down.  The memoir is a harrowing account of the actress’ long-time eating disorder which consumed her life during the years she portrayed Nelle Porter on the hit television series Ally McBeal.  Besides being a fabulous read, the book’s topic really hit home with me as I was once told by an acting teacher that I was “stocky” and needed to lose weight if I wanted to make it in this business.  I was a size two at the time.  Needless to say the notion of “there is no such thing as too thin” is alive and well in Hollywood.  Thankfully I had a strong foundation to fall back on at home and was able to blow off my acting teacher’s words – and eventually her class.  Winking smile  But it is easy to see why someone like Portia, who was already deeply insecure over the fact that she was gay and whose family lived a world away in Australia, would falter in that sort of environment.  Her story is both heartbreaking and fascinating and I honestly cannot recommend reading it enough.  Anyway, in the book, Portia talks about living in a penthouse unit at the legendary Granville Towers in West Hollywood, so as soon as I finished reading the tome, I immediately ran right out to stalk the place.

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The Granville Towers, which was originally an apartment building named The Voltaire, was built in 1930 in the French Revival style by architect Leland Bryant, who also designed one of my favorite hotels in Southern California – the Sunset Tower Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.  The 7-story, 40-unit property was a celebrity magnet from the very beginning and such stars as Ann Sothern, Jack Lord, Arthur Treacher, Janet Gaynor, and Rock Hudson called the place home.  My girl Marilyn Monroe even stayed there for a brief while after her divorce from Joe DiMaggio in 1954.  In the 1980s, the property was transformed into a luxury hotel at which point it was renamed The Granville.  A few years later it was transformed yet again, this time into an upscale condominium building, and Hollywood luminaries once again began calling the place home.  Just a few of the celebrities who have lived there in more recent years include Nicole Scherzinger, Ashley Greene (her boyfriend Joe Jonas is a frequent visitor), Mickey Rourke, Brendan Fraser, David Bowie, Amy Locane, and Michael Michele.

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Portia de Rossi lived in the building’s north tower penthouse from the late 1990s through mid-2002.  Of first seeing the penthouse apartment, she said, “I felt as though I had been transported to an artist’s loft in a city like Philadelphia, which was much more exciting to me than where I actually was.  Where I was, was predictable.  But the apartment made me think there was more to life than being an actress on a David Kelly show.”  She signed the papers on the spot and immediately set about transforming the upstairs attic loft into a workout room.  Of her makeshift gym, she says, “The treadmill was really the only thing up there and was perfectly centered in the attic, between the wall of windows that showcased the industrial city that was the roof of the Sunset 5 and the east windows through which I could see all the way downtown.  The wall opposite the smokestacks acted as a bulletin board where I had taped pieces of paper.  Mostly the pieces were exaggerated to-do lists.  I say ‘exaggerated’ because they said things that were more like goals that I wanted to achieve than things that needed to be done.  The largest piece of paper with the boldest writing stated ‘I WILL BE 105 POUNDS BY CHRISTMAS’.”  She also fastened a list of cards to the wall just to the left of her to-do list.  Each card featured a number, beginning at 111 and  running backwards.  Portia was 111 pounds at the time and each time she lost a pound, she would remove a card.  Of her weight wall, she says, “It helped keep me focused and it helped me to remember that once I’d achieved the new lower weight and the card stating my previous weight was gone, that I could never weigh that much again; that the old weight was gone.  It was no longer who I was.  It was getting more difficult to lose weight as I got thinner, so I needed all the incentive and motivation I could muster.  Putting my weight on the wall was a clever thing to do as it always needed to be in the forefront of my mind, otherwise I might’ve forgotten and walked on the treadmill instead of run, sat instead of paced.  I once saw a loft where a famous writer lived, and all over the wall was his research for the novel he was writing.  He described the book to me as his life’s work, his magnum opus.  I felt like controlling my weight was my magnum opus, the most important product of my brain and was worthy of devoting a wall to its success.”  See what I mean?  Absolutely riveting – and harrowing – stuff!

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The Granville is a truly beautiful building and features a 24-hour doorman, valet parking, a lobby with a piano, an indoor pool and spa, and a large garden patio area complete with statuaries and fountains.  You can view some great interior photographs of the building here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Granville Towers is located at 1424 North Crescent Heights Boulevard, just south of Sunset Boulevard, in West Hollywood.

The Cullen House from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”

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Another location that I stalked while in Vancouver two weeks ago was the residence where the Cullen family – including Edward (aka Robert Pattinson), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone), Carlisle (aka Peter Facinelli), Esme (aka Elizabeth Reaser), Emmett (aka Kellan Lutz), and Rosalie (aka Nikki Reed) – lived in the 2009 movie The Twilight Saga: New Moon.  And even though I am not at all a fan of the Twilight series, nor have I yet to even see the New Moon installment, I was absolutely dying to stalk the home where filming took place ever since first seeing it in a real estate listing when it went on the market this past November.  From what I saw in the listing, the modern-style abode was nothing short of spectacular, so when fellow stalker Kerry mentioned that she knew the property’s location, I practically salivated and begged her to take me there.  And I have to say that, in person, the home definitely did NOT disappoint!  The Cullen house is absolutely breathtaking and I would give anything to live in something even remotely as beautiful.  And while I would have loved to have taken a peek at the interior of the property, unfortunately, due to the many inquiries about the home from various Twi-hards the world over, the real estate agent is currently only offering tours to serious buyers.

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Oddly enough, the exterior of the West Vancouver-area home never actually appeared in New Moon.   For the lone exterior shot featured in the flick (pictured above), producers used footage of the Hoke house in Portland, Oregon – the very same residence which stood in for the Cullen abode in the original Twilight movie.  When it was decided that the Twilight sequel would be shot entirely on location in Canada – where filming is much less expensive than in the U.S. – location scouts had to track down a home which had somewhat similar interiors to the residence that was used in the original flick. 

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  They found that home in West Vancouver and fans of the movie followed – in droves.  Apparently the residence has become quite the tourist attraction ever since New Moon was filmed there beginning on April 15th of last year.  The house was the setting for two scenes in the movie – the scene involving Bella’s ill-fated 18th birthday party and the scene in which the Cullen family is put to a vote to decide Bella’s fate.  Those relatively short segments took a whopping four days to film.  The same home will also be standing in for the interior of the Cullen residence in the upcoming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse movie.

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The 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 5,117 square-foot abode, which was completely remodeled in 2001 and is currently for sale for a whopping $2,998,000, features 20 foot ceilings, a media room, slate and concrete flooring, a pool, a spa, a koi pond, a chef’s kitchen with granite countertops and cherry wood cabinets, and a 1/2 acre of wooded, creekside land.  Ironically enough, the home’s real estate listing touts its numerous picture windows which allow for “bright sunfilled exposure” throughout – something I don’t think the Cullen family would have appreciated very much.  😉  You can view the home’s real estate listing here.

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Big THANK YOU to Kerry for not only finding this location, but for taking me to stalk it, as well!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Cullen house from The Twilight Saga: New Moon is located at 118 Stevens Drive in West Vancouver, British Columbia.  You can check out the home’s real estate website here.

The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Twilight”

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The other Los Angeles area filming location from Twilight that I mentioned in last Wednesday’s post is the Hyatt Regency Valencia Hotel.  In Twilight, the Hyatt stood in for the Phoenix area hostelry where Bella (aka Kristen Stewart), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), and Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run from the evil vampire James (Cam Gigandet) towards the end of the movie.  In reality, the hotel is, of course, not located anywhere near Arizona, but instead can be found just about four miles away from the home that was used as Bella’s mom’s house in the flick.  So, of course, since I was already in the area last week, I just had to stalk the place.  🙂  I found this location thanks again to the link that fellow stalker Kerry sent me last April while the first Twilight movie was still in production.  Thank you, Kerry!  🙂

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The Hyatt is, sadly, featured only briefly in Twilight, but I am happy to report that it looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen.   In the scene featuring the Hyatt, Bella, Jasper, and Alice are first shown hanging out in a hotel room discussing their current predicament.  And while the exterior set up shots for that scene were indeed filmed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, after looking at photographs of the hotel’s rooms online, I am fairly certain that the interior filming took place elsewhere.  My best guess is that the hotel room scene was either filmed on a soundstage or at a real hotel located somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, where the rest of the movie was filmed.

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We next see Jasper and Alice in the hotel’s lobby area waiting to check out.  And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, that particular scene was actually shot on location at the Hyatt Regency Valencia and the lobby area still looks pretty much the same in person as it did in Twilight.  Even the red flower paintings hanging behind the reception desk are there in real life.  🙂  Love it!

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In a subsequent scene, Bella is shown rushing out of the Hyatt Regency Valencia’s main entrance and into a waiting taxi cab.    And that pretty much covers the entire Twilight segment that took place at the Hyatt!  LOL  All told, the scenes probably last a little under 45 seconds.  As I said in the previous Wednesday’s post, though, it’s better than nothing!  🙂

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While stalking the hotel, I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the bellhops who truly could NOT have been nicer to me.  He even took the photograph of me featured at the top of this post.  🙂  According to the bellhop, the Hyatt is actually an oft-used filming location and has been featured in such series as CSI: Las Vegas, NCIS, and the reality show Make It Or Break It.  The bellhop said that a scene from Twilight was also filmed in the hotel’s parking garage, but he wasn’t sure which scene.  He also informed me that Robert Pattinson actually stayed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia for a few days during the filming of Twilight.  LOVE IT!   The Hyatt Regency Valencia is a really beautiful hotel, with a large swimming pool, picturesque gardens, and a beautiful wedding courtyard (pictured above).  I highly recommend stalking the place or even staying there while visiting the L.A. area.  Who knows – you may even wind up in RP’s former room!  🙂

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On a very random side note: Earlier today, while reading the fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook, I learned that the scene pictured above, in which Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, was actually filmed in Pasadena!  Apparently, the scene was originally filmed on location in Oregon, but director Catherine Hardwicke never ended up getting the exact shot she wanted.  So, a few months later, when the cast and crew was back in California, some reshoots were done, one of which was the Bella/Edward kiss scene.  For the re-shoot, a replica of Bella’s bedroom was built at the Elk’s Lodge in Pasadena.  🙂  So, as it turns out, there are actually three L.A. area locations that were featured in Twilight.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia, where Bella, Jasper, and Alice hid out in Twilight, is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia.  You can visit their website here.  The Elks Lodge in Pasadena, where Bella and Edward first kissed, is located at 400 West Colorado Boulevard.  You can visit their website here.