Beverly Grove – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 8, 2017February 8, 2019

Carrera Café – Where Your Favorite Celebrity Can Be Turned into Latte Art

When not stalking or shopping, you can typically find me perusing fashion and beauty blogs. There are several I frequent daily including Gal Meets Glam, Atlantic-Pacific, Merrick’s Art, Cupcakes and Cashmere, and Hello Gorgeous. The latter was founded by Angela Lanter, wife of fave actor Matt Lanter. I started reading her site because of the Matt connection (obvs), but it didn’t take long for Angela to seriously grow on me and become one of my favorite online personalities. Her blog is worthy of a visit for the Halloween make-up tutorials alone (this one is my favorite), but she posts fabulous fashion, cosmetics, lifestyle and décor tips no matter what time of year. (Her beauty room is honestly the stuff dreams are made of!) Up until just recently, the Hello Gorgeous home page featured a photograph of Angela in front of an extremely picturesque wall dotted with pink and red lipstick marks. I was, of course, immediately taken with the colorful backdrop and set out to locate it. One quick Google search of the terms “wall,” “pink lips,” and “Los Angeles,” led me to this Los Angeles magazine article titled “Where to Find L.A.’s Most Instagrammed Walls IRL.” The blurb cataloged 9 of the city’s most photogenic backdrops, Number 7 being the “The Hello Lips Wall” at Carrera Café. Though a cursory internet search showed me the mural had long since been covered over with a new painting (the Beverly Grove coffee shop regularly changes up its exterior art), I became utterly intrigued with the place for a different reason.

[ad]

Google “Carrera Café” and, along with shots of the ubiquitous lips wall, your screen will be inundated with photos of lattes with perfect re-creations of celebrity images imprinted into the foam. One look at this pic of a frothy Leonardo DiCaprio had me absolutely smitten and I added the address of the coffee shop to the very top of my To-Stalk List. Though I wasn’t planning on traveling to L.A. for a couple of weeks, I set right out to determine which star would be donning my drink. After scouring pictures of Leo, actor Jeremy Renner, and cutie crooner Michael Bublé, I eventually settled on the image below, which was taken by fashion photographer Evaan Kheraj. At that point, I could hardly wait to head out to the café and when I finally did, the visit did not disappoint.

Carrera Café is able to create its latte masterpieces thanks to a machine known as the Ripple Maker. That’s it below.

The innovative and ingenious device is capable of etching any image or design onto the top of a frothy espresso drink. Oh, if only it was sold for home use!

The way the Ripple Maker works is quite simple. In order for the magic to occur, customers must download the Coffee Ripples app on their smartphones. Then, when in range of a café that utilizes the machine, they can upload an image of their choice to the app and crop and customize it to their liking. Hitting the “Ripple It” button sends the photo to the Ripple Maker and assigns the customer an order number. Patrons give that number to the cashier upon arrival and order an espresso drink of their choosing. (The Ripple Maker can even create images on top of iced drinks, which I was thrilled to learn as I am not a huge fan of hot coffee. In this case, though, I opted for a hot latte as I did not realize until later that iced versions were available.) The customer then pays for their drink at the register and the barista pulls the espresso and mixes the coffee confection, after which the cup is put underneath the Ripple Maker and voila, the uploaded image is stamped onto the foam topping!

Just a little bit excited to be drinking a Michael Bublé latte!

Best-looking java I’ve ever had!

The Grim Cheaper was not at all impressed with my image of choice, though, and ran his fingers right through the top of it as soon as I was done taking photos! Perhaps I was a bit too gleeful over my creation. Winking smile

Opened in late 2016, Carrera Café, which is named for the white and grey marble that forms its countertops, is an absolutely adorable little spot.

I was especially enamored of the bubble gum pink payphone.

Considering its charming décor, it is no surprise that the place has popped up onscreen. In the Season 7 episode of Vanderpump Rules titled “Tom and Tommer,” which aired in 2019, Lala Kent and Scheana Shay meet up at Carrera Café where they discuss Scheana’s tumultuous relationship with the rest of the Sur girls.

Besides espresso specialties, the café also serves a variety of sandwiches, salads, vegetable side dishes, and pastries.

The GC and I decided to grab a bite to eat while there, opting for the Il Tacchino sandwich, which consisted of roasted turkey breast, provolone cheese, iceberg lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, Dijon mustard, and mayonnaise. It was honestly one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had!

At the time that we visited, Carrera Café’s exterior wall was covered with a mural advertising ABC’s new show The Mayor. I have to say that I much prefer the pink lips painting. I really wish I had gotten to see it in person.

Otherwise though, our visit could not have been more perfect and I cannot wait to go back – which means I better get busy choosing the next celebrity image I am going to use to decorate my drink!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Carrera Café is located at 8251 Melrose Avenue in Beverly Grove. You can visit the eatery’s official website here and you can download the Coffee Ripples app here.

December 15, 2015December 16, 2015

Tracey Ross from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

‘Tis finally the season – the season for holiday-themed filming locations! As is the case every year, because Christmas locales in the L.A. area are rather limited, I waited to start blogging about them until the end of December. And I should mention here that my postings over the next two or three weeks will be fairly limited, as well, due to some holiday events and trips that I have planned, including a shopping visit to L.A. (I can’t wait! There’s no shopping like L.A. shopping!) Anyway, today’s locale comes from my favorite television show ever, Beverly Hills, 90210. While scanning through the Season 2 episode titled “A Walsh Family Christmas” prior to writing my post on Lake View Medical Center in October, I spotted an establishing shot of the store where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) briefly worked and got a bit distracted. I had not remembered an exterior of the shop ever being shown on the series and became very excited about the possibility of tracking it down, which I eventually did. As it turns out, though, Geoff, of 90210Locations, had already found the place and listed the address on his site, which would have saved me quite a bit of time had I known. #blondemoment

[ad]

In “A Walsh Family Christmas,” Brenda lands a sales job at a local Beverly Hills boutique a few days before Christmas. The exterior of the boutique was shown several times in the episode and I was thrilled to see that both a store name, Tracey Ross, as well as a 105 address number were visible.

So I got to Googling and discovered that, while Tracey Ross is no longer currently in existence, there did indeed used to be a boutique by that name located at 105 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Grove. Today, that location houses an outpost of Lululemon.

At the time that “A Walsh Family Christmas” was filmed, the building that housed Tracey Ross looked considerably different due to the fact that the bottom level was split up into five different spaces, as you can see in the Google Street View imagery below from August 2007.

Tracey Ross was located in the northern portion of the building, two storefronts south of Alden Drive.

At some point in 2008, Rock & Republic opened an outpost on the premises and combined the building’s two northern units (including the one formerly occupied by Tracey Ross) into one big space. Though R&R has since moved out, that storefront has remained one unit ever since.

Thankfully, some recognizable elements remain despite the many changes that have taken place since 90210 was filmed. As you can see below, the Robertson storefront is still recessed, much like it was when it was featured in “A Walsh Family Christmas.” And the black-tiled facade of the suite next door is still a direct match to what appeared onscreen.

A close-up view of the storefront next door is pictured below.

Tracey Ross’ actual interior was also used in “A Walsh Family Christmas.”

In the episode, Brenda’s boss, Deirdre (Rebecca Staab), kicks a homeless man dressed as Santa Claus out of the store on Christmas Eve. When Brenda leaves the shop later that night, she sees some police officers harassing Santa and, in classic Walsh style, winds up rescuing him and bringing him home to her house for Christmas Eve dinner. Ironically, the shop visible across the street in the scene is Les Habitudes, the very same shop that designed the wedding dress that Tori Spelling wore in Beverly Hills, 90210’s final episode, “Ode to Joy.” The only reason I know that random factoid is that I worked as an extra in the episode and overheard Tori discussing the gown with a crew member.

Because the name Les Habitudes is so unusual, it stuck with me. When I happened to pass by the shop a couple of weeks later while walking on Robertson Boulevard, I recognized the moniker immediately. The boutique has since moved a few blocks south, but whenever I pass by the stone-covered building where I originally spotted it (which is currently vacant), I am immediately flooded with warm memories of being on the set of 90210.

Tracey Ross also appeared in the next episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, titled “Fire and Ice” (which is one of my favorite episodes of the series ever).

As if kicking Santa Claus out of the store on Christmas Eve wasn’t bad enough, in “Fire and Ice,” Deirdre steals a large commission from Brenda. But instead of immediately quitting, Cindy Walsh (Carol Potter) helps her get even.

Dressed as a wealthy Beverly Hills socialite, Cindy heads to Tracey Ross and proceeds to select thousands of dollars worth of items to purchase. When she receives receiving a parking ticket in the middle of her shopping expenditure, Deirdre offers to pay it for her, at which point Cindy announces that she doesn’t actually want any of the items, nor does she care for Deirdre’s attitude, but that she appreciates the ticket being taken care of. She then turns on her heel and stomps out of the store. Ah, snap!

The actual Tracey Ross has a much better reputation than Deirdre. Raised in Long Beach, the fashionista worked at several upscale Los Angeles boutiques after dropping out of UCLA in the ‘80s. She was a natural at selling clothes and eventually began styling celebrity clients, which led to her opening her own store in 1990. It was wildly successful. In 1996, when the rent was raised at her Robertson Boulevard space, Tracey moved to a new storefront at Sunset Plaza and it was a hit, as well. During its heyday, the boutique, which even had an onsite manicurist, became the stomping ground of such stars as Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, Natasha Henstridge, Courtney Love, Bob Dylan, Melanie Griffith, Lindsay Lohan, Ellen Pompeo, Nicole Richie, Kelly Lynch, Virginia Madsen, Linda Gray, Samantha Ronson, and Kate Hudson. Sadly, the Sunset Plaza shop was shuttered in 2009 due to the poor economy. You can read two great Los Angeles Times articles about Tracey here and here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Tracey Ross, aka the store where Brenda worked during Season 2 of Beverly Hills, 90210, was formerly located at 105 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Grove. Today, that space houses a Lululemon. In “A Walsh Family Christmas,” Brenda rescued Santa on the southwest corner of Alden Drive and South Robertson Boulevard. The former Les Habitudes storefront, which can be seen across the street in the scene, can be found at 101 North Robertson.

October 29, 2014September 29, 2017

The Silent Movie Theatre

I am very excited to announce that I recently started writing for the L.A. Tourism & Convention Board website, Discover Los Angeles. I have done two posts for the site so far – one on iconic horror movie locations and another about area hotels that have been immortalized onscreen. Before I was given my first assignment, my editor emailed me a few articles to use as examples, one of which was written by my buddy Scott Michaels, of the Find a Death website. The 2013 column, titled The 13 Scariest Places in Los Angeles, had me practically foaming at the mouth. The vast majority of locations mentioned I had never even heard of before, let alone stalked, and one in particular had me especially intrigued – the Silent Movie Theatre in Beverly Grove, where owner Lawrence Austin was shot to death in 1997.

[ad]

The Silent Movie Theatre was originally constructed in 1942 for silent film buff John Hampton and his wife, Dorothy. John, an Oklahoma native, had collected silent movie reels and showcased them at his home from the time that he was a young boy. In 1940, the couple headed west and settled in Los Angeles. The following year, they purchased a vacant plot of land and commissioned a small, two-story silent movie theatre to be built on the premises. The upstairs floor served as their apartment.

The theatre opened for business in February 1942. By that time, silent movies were a thing of the past and John wanted to pay homage to the almost-forgotten genre. You can check out what the property looked like in its early days here. According to the Dead History Project website, a 1943 Los Angeles Times article described the 250-seat movie house as having “staggered seating,” a “bowl-shaped floor,” and “acoustical sound.” The theatre proved extremely popular and such celebrities as Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith were even known to stop by from time to time to catch viewings of their early films.

John had long been in the habit of restoring and redeveloping old films in his bathroom. The Dead History Project states, “Mr. Hampton transformed his bathtub into a film lab, dyeing and redeveloping old, nitrate film. His Phantom of the Opera, probably the best version of the original in existence, took acquiring eight separate prints over five years. Then, for over two months, he rebuilt the film – spliced the best parts of each print into a single version and meticulously dyed the frames to make sure they matched.” Sadly, in 1980, the harsh chemicals used in the process caught up with John and he developed cancer. He closed the theatre during his long battle with the disease and eventually passed away in 1990. A friend of John and Dorothy’s named Lawrence Austin purchased the theatre shortly thereafter and and renovated the space. He also changed the wording on the marquee from “Old Time Movies” to “Silent Movie.” The space re-opened for business on January 18th, 1991. You can check out a photo of what the property looked like after Austin took over here.

During the renovation process, Austin had hired a man named James Van Sickle to paint the Silent Movie Theatre. Despite a forty-year age difference (Austin was 67, Van Sickle was 27), the two hit it off romantically. Van Sickle eventually moved into the upstairs apartment with Lawrence and began working as the theatre’s projectionist.

On the evening of January 17th, 1997, the theatre was set to air a showing of Sunrise, proceeded by two short films. During one of the shorts, an audience member left the theatre and headed to the lobby, where Austin was standing behind the candy counter with Mary Giles, a concessions clerk. The man pulled out a .357 and first demanded that Lawrence hand over the money in the cash register. After he complied, the man shot him in the face. Lawrence died immediately. He was 74. The man then shot Mary twice in the chest, before turning back to Austin and shooting him two more times. Thankfully, Giles survived and was able to describe the shooter to the police, which eventually led them to a 19-year-old named Christian Rodriguez. It did not take long for Rodriguez to cave and inform detectives that he had been hired for $30,000 to kill both Austin and Giles and make the scenario look like a robbery. The person behind the scheme? None other than James Van Sickle, whom Austin had just recently named his beneficiary. Van Sickle was set to inherit the Silent Movie Theatre and over a million dollars in cash. Both James and Christian were eventually convicted of murder and are currently serving life sentences.

After the murder, the Silent Movie Theatre was put up for sale. A man named Charlie Lustman happened to pass by the property in 1999 and became intrigued. Though he knew nothing about silent films, he decided to purchase the theatre at a cost of $1.3 million. He remodeled the space and added a new marquee. The cinema re-opened its doors on November 5th, 1999. Besides showcasing films, Lustman also offered the theatre for special events. It proved to be a popular venue. In 2006, after falling ill, Charlie sold the property to Dan and Sammy Harkham. The brothers then formed Cinefamily, a “nonprofit organization of movie lovers devoted to finding and presenting interesting and unusual programs of exceptional, distinctive, weird and wonderful films.” The group currently showcases about 14 films a week at the Silent Movie Theatre. Last year, over 50,000 people attended screenings on the premises, none of whom were scared off by the ghosts of John Hampton and Lawrence Austin, who have been known to regularly haunt the historic venue.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Silent Movie Theatre is located at 611 North Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles’ Beverly Grove neighborhood. You can visit the official Cinefamily website here.