Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant from “Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed!”

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They say you should always listen to your mother.  It’s good advice.  Case in point – about a decade ago, while stalking in Studio City, my mom, my dad, the Grim Cheaper and I passed by Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant on Ventura Boulevard and decided to pop in for a bite.  During our meal, my mom encouraged me to take photos of the place as she figured it had likely been utilized for filming at some point or had a celebrity connection.  I spent the next couple of minutes bothering the staff with inquiries about shoots on the premises, but no one was aware of any.  I snapped a few pictures regardless, but never did further research on the subject.  Flash forward to last month.  On the advice of my good friend/fellow 90210 aficionado Mike, from MovieShotsLA, I ordered a copy of the book Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed!, an authorized behind-the-scenes look at the series and its stars written by Bart and Nancy Mills in 1991.  When I got to the chapter on Jason Priestley and read the words, “He is all smiles and apologies as he arrives at Art’s Deli half an hour late because work had detained him,” I just about fell over!  Oh, how right my mom was!  Not only does the restaurant have a celebrity connection, but to my favorite show of all time, no less!  I was so thankful I had taken some pics of the place!  The only trouble was that when I went to locate the shots, they were nowhere to be found.  Fortunately, the GC and I had to head out to Burbank for an IKEA run last week, so we made a pit stop at Art’s while in the area.

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Art’s was established by New York native Art Ginsburg, who moved to Los Angeles as a teen and spent his junior college years learning the ins and outs of sandwich-making while working at a deli owned by his cousin.  Armed with $3,000, a collection of family recipes, and the support of his then girlfriend/later wife Sandy, he purchased a small Studio City eatery boasting a scant three and a half booths and twelve counter seats and opened it as Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant on June 22nd, 1957.

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Art’s quickly developed into an area staple, popular with locals, tourists and celebrities alike who flocked to the deli in droves for its authentic Jewish delicacies, homemade soups, and spectacular sandwiches.  It is the latter that the site became most famous for.  Considering the restaurant boasts the tagline “Where every sandwich is a work of Art,” that is no surprise.  Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold had this to say about the Reuben:, “Sometimes I suspect Ginsburg studies the Reuben the way other great scholars parse the Talmud — adjusting proportions, strength of dressing and sharpness of cheese, crunchiness and ooziness, sweet and tart, until the sandwich speaks simply if profoundly on its own.  Art’s is a good deli, but after the Reuben, all else is commentary.”  I did not sample that particular offering while there, but instead opted for the Turkey Club (with turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato on sourdough – along with added cheddar cheese) and it was honestly one of the best sandwiches I have ever had in my life.  I can count on one hand the delis I would travel great distances to visit and Art’s is now on that list!  (The others are Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese in Windsor Square, Sweet Lady Jane in Santa Monica and Sherman’s Deli & Bakery in Palm Springs.)

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Thanks to the restaurant’s massive popularity, it was not long before Art’s needed to expand.  The site has actually been enlarged four times throughout its sixty-year run, taking over five neighboring storefronts in the process, and its patronage only continues to grow.  Today, the deli seats 170 – and is typically packed at most hours.

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Art’s has also undergone a complete reconstruction.  While it survived the Northridge earthquake of 1994 with only a cracked wall, it succumbed to a massive electrical fire caused by an aftershock early the following morning.  There was never any doubt that Ginsburg would rebuild, though.  As he told the Los Angeles Times the day after the blaze, “The sign has been up there since 1957; it’s still up there and it’s going to stay up there.”  It took nine months to bring the eatery back to life, during which time the surrounding stores felt the brunt of the closure.  According to a different Times article, “By some merchants’ estimates, business on the block is down 40% since Art’s 1,000 customers a day stopped walking off their meals by window shopping along Ventura Boulevard.”  When the deli’s doors re-opened on October 19th, patrons were lined up outside anxiously awaiting their reunion with the best sandwiches in town.  Art’s has been going strong ever since.  According to a 1999 LA Weekly article, each week the restaurant goes through 1,000 pounds of corned beef, 4,800 bagels, and 480 pounds of turkey!

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Ginsburg himself was just as much a pillar of the community as his restaurant.  He not only founded the city’s business improvement district, but also sat on the board of the Los Angeles Valley College Foundation.  Even after retiring in 2010 due to health issues, Art would still pop into the restaurant on a daily basis to hold court with his regulars.  When he passed away in 2013, the entire neighborhood mourned.  Ginsburg’s son, Harold, carries on Art’s vision today, running the eatery with the same aplomb and conviction as his father.

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  Thanks to Art’s gregariousness and the restaurant’s proximity to a multitude of studios, the place has long been a celebrity haven.  Just a few of the luminaries who have been spotted dining on the premises include Delta Burke, Gerald McRaney, Tori Spelling, Leah Remini, Steve Martin, Rob Lowe, John Landis, Lew Wasserman, Ed Asner, Mickey Rooney, Richard Dreyfuss, Jaime Pressly, Ashley Tisdale, Sara Gilbert, Tom Green, Jonah Hill, Zoey Deutch, Lea Thompson, Howard Deutch, Sarah Silverman, and Justin Theroux.  Billy Wilder even hung out there in Art’s early days.  And in 2011, the deli was the site of an informal reunion for several St. Elsewhere cast members including Ed Begley Jr. and Abby Singer.

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One of the most famous movies of the ‘80s was even born over breakfast at the deli.  One morning in May 1983, Ivan Reitman, an Art’s regular, met up with Dan Aykroyd at the eatery to discuss a futuristic sci-fi flick the comedian was writing about teams of men who fought ghosts in outer space.  As Ivan explained to The Hollywood Reporter of their talk that day, “I said, ‘Look, I love this idea that there are people whose job is to catch ghosts and act like firemen.  But it should have a contemporary setting, a big city that we know, like New York.  There’s something [better] about seeing apparitions in a context that we understand, like in our living rooms or on our city streets, rather than in a void in outer space in the future sometime.  He said, ‘That’s cool.’  And I said, ‘Actually, the story of their formation would be good.’  And I pitched this idea that these guys were paranormal investigators — like, looking at paranormal studies at a university in some kind of postgraduate study program.  They get in trouble, they get kicked out, and then they fortuitously set up a business.  That was what I pitched at this breakfast and he said, ‘That’s all cool.’”  The result of that meeting was, of course, Ghostbusters.

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For his Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed! interview, Jason Priestley chooses to meet with the authors at Art’s, a favorite deli of his that sits in close proximity to the studio where the series was shot.  While there, over a meal of matzo ball soup and a bagel with a pickle on the side, he discusses his journey to becoming a household name through his iconic role of Minnesota teen transplant Brandon Walsh.  The eatery is referred to by name several times in the book and figures prominently in the chapter on Priestley.  One passage reads, “Sitting in Art’s Deli on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, Jason racks his memory to come up with a reason why he chose his life’s work while he still had his baby teeth.  To help himself think, he dunks his pickle in his soup.”  I find it so incredible – and fabulous – that the restaurant is still in operation thirty years after that interview took place!

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As my mom suspected, Art’s is also a filming location!

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In the Season 5 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee titled “Happy Thanksgiving, Miranda,” which aired in 2014, Jerry Seinfeld takes Amanda Sings (Colleen Ballinger) for a Thanksgiving meal at Art’s Deli.  The exterior . . .

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. . . and interior were utilized in the filming.

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Chelsea Handler dined with members of ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out) at Art’s Deli in the Season 1 episode of Chelsea titled “I Was a Ticking Time Bomb,” which aired in 2016.  Both the exterior . . .

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. . . and interior of the place appeared in the episode.

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Sandy Wexler (Adam Sandler) drives past Art’s in a very brief scene near the end of the 2017 Netflix original movie Sandy Wexler.

According to our server, Guy Fieri also recently filmed something at Art’s, but I am unsure of exactly what.

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant, where Jason Priestley’s interview for the book Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed! took place, is located at 12224 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

Alfred Coffee & Kitchen

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At one point last year, I mentioned that I would occasionally be blogging about stalk-worthy locales that do not have a film connection.  Today’s post chronicles one of those places.  A few months ago, fellow stalkers Becky and Anushika told me about Alfred Coffee & Kitchen, a quaint West Hollywood café that they thought I would adore.  They were right.  (To be fair, though, it was a pretty sure bet – I’ve yet to meet a coffee shop I didn’t like.  Winking smile)  When I first set foot inside the eatery, I immediately fell in love.  So I brought my friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria there for a cup of joe while they were in L.A. two weeks ago visiting from Ohio.

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Alfred Coffee & Kitchen was founded in 2013 by real estate developer Joshua Zad.  As a longtime area resident, Zad was frustrated that there was not a place to grab a coffee or baked good within walking distance of West Hollywood’s fashionable Melrose Place shopping district, so he decided to open one himself.   He found the perfect site in a charming yellow-hued building situated on the eastern end of the tree-lined road.  The entrepreneur had once lived on Alfred Street, just off Melrose Place, and named his new eatery in honor of his former address.  It opened on January 23rd.

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Thanks to its quaint charm and neighborhood-y feel, Alfred Coffee proved extremely popular from the get-go.

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While the exterior of the eatery is absolutely adorable . . .

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. . . it was the Manhattan-esque split-level interior that had me drooling!  Upon walking in the front door, patrons are greeted with a huge “But first, coffee” sign, that I, of course, loved.  Of being at Alfred, TimeOut Los Angeles said, “The experience is irresistibly Instagram-able (Seriously. That ‘But first, coffee’ decal should have its own handle.).”  I couldn’t agree more – in fact, I did Instagram that very decal during my first visit to the café.

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Alfred’s ground level boasts an intimate living room-like space for lounging, complete with a working fireplace.

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   The basement level features a seating area, as well as a large barista counter.  Both floors are constantly jam-packed with patrons.  One sip of an Alfred latte and you’ll understand why.  The coffee is spectacular!

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Alfred is most famous for its specialty espresso and macchiato drinks which come served in a four-ounce chocolate-dipped waffle cone cup.

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While not a filming location, Alfred is a major celebrity hotspot.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Vanessa Hudgens, Jaimie Alexander, Mickey Rourke, Dianna Agron, Jamie King, Jonah Hill, Jesse Metcalfe, Joe Jonas, (my boyfriend) Jerry Ferrara, Dolph Lundgren, Jennifer Meyer, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Ashley Tisdale, Emma Roberts and Camilla Belle.

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My favorite blogger, Cupcakes and Cashmere’s Emily Schuman, even shot an outfit post at Alfred back in mid-2013.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Anushika and Becky for telling me about this location!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Alfred Coffee & Kitchen is located at 8428 Melrose Place in West Hollywood.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

Hotel Shangri-La from “The Bachelor”

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This past Sunday morning (which was particularly cloudy, as you can see above), the Grim Cheaper and I headed out to Santa Monica to run a couple of errands and while there we happened to walk by the Hotel Shangri-La – a historic Art Deco masterpiece that I have wanted to stalk ever since early 2010 when it was featured in an episode of fave reality series The Bachelor. So the two of us decided to pop in to take some quick pictures – and we were not disappointed. Hotel Shangri-La is quite spectacular.

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The seven-story, reinforced concrete property, which was originally named the Shangri-La Apartment Hotel, was constructed beginning in 1939 at a cost of $400,000. The L-shaped site was designed by Beverly Hills-based architect William E. Foster and was owned by oilman Frank A. Gillespie. The structure, which at the time housed 61 individual apartment units, was the first Class A apartment building built in Los Angeles County following the stock market crash of 1929. Its doors were opened to the public on May 1, 1940. You can see a great photograph of the location from that time period here.

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During World War II, the building, which is a Santa Monica Historic Landmark, was used as a rehabilitation center by the United States Army Air Forces.

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In 1983, Hotel Shangri-La, which is of no relation to the Asian Shangri-La hotel chain, was purchased by an India-born real estate maven named Ahmad Adaya. The property is still owned by his family to this day.

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According to the book Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive!, in 2002 the site was seriously lacking in amenities and, for whatever reason, did not feature a pool, a restaurant, a bar, room service, or valet parking. All of that has since changed, though, thanks to a $35 million renovation in 2008.

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Today the Streamline Moderne-style property, which is currently owned and operated by Ahmad’s daughter, Tehmina Adaya, boasts 71 rooms and suites (almost all of which have views of the Pacific Ocean), an upscale restaurant named the Dining Room (where each entrée features ingredients from the famous Santa Monica Farmers Market), an open-air rooftop bar and lounge known as Suite 700 (which was voted one of L.A.’s top 5 rooftop bars in a 2013 The New Zealand Herald article), a pop-up spa known as the Sybaris Rejuvenation Lounge, custom-designed furniture, a solar-powered pool, valet parking, 24-hour in-room dining, and an indoor gym.

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Hotel Shangri-La has been popular with the Hollywood set ever since its inception. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there over the years include Drew Barrymore, Cyndi Lauper, Diane Keaton, Bill Murray, Matthew Broderick, Bill Clinton, Madonna, Tom Cruise, John F. Kennedy, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Sean Penn, Rashida Jones, and Andy Samberg. Supposedly, even my girl Marilyn Monroe once spent some time there.

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Thanks to its striking architecture, Hotel Shangri-La has been featured in numerous productions over the years. In the Season 14 episode of The Bachelor titled “Week 2”, Jake Pavelka hosted a group date at the Shangri-La where the female contestants took part in a rooftop photo shoot for InStyle magazine.

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After the shoot, the group headed down to the pool area for the remainder of the date, during which Rozlyn Papa was given the coveted rose.

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The Hotel Shangri-La rooftop was also featured in the music video for Randy Newman’s 1983 song “I Love L.A.”

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

In 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, Hotel Shangri-La was where Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) celebrated her Jeopardy! win with boyfriend Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson).

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The interior of one of the suites was also featured in the movie.

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In 1995’s The Net, the Shangri-La was where Dr. Alan Champion (Dennis Miller) got his former patient Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) a hotel room shortly after her identity was stolen.

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I am fairly certain that one of the hotel’s actual rooms was used in the filming, although the Shangri-La rooms look significantly different since the remodel, as you can see here.

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An exterior view of the hotel’s central stairwell was also shown.

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Thanks to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, I learned that the hotel was where Valerie Malone (Tiffani Amber Thiessen) stayed in the Season 7 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Graduation Day: Part II”, which aired in 1997.

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The interior of the Shangri-La was also shown in the episode.  (Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the 90210 screen captures that appear here.)

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Ella Simms (Katie Cassidy) and Jonah Miller (Michael Rady) walked by the Hotel Shangri-La after a business lunch with famed German film director Franz Keppler (Craig Robert Young) in the Season 1 episode of the new Melrose Place titled “Ocean.”

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Channing Tatum did a photo shoot with Mario Testino at the hotel for the August 2009 issue of GQ Magazine, which you can see photographs of hereAccording to the book Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive!, the hotel was also featured in an episode of the 1992 television series Bodies of Evidence and the 1988 Bruce Weber documentary Let’s Get Lost, but I was unable to verify that information.  And while Wikipedia states that the Shangri-La appeared in the 2004 rockumentary DiG!, I was unable to verify that information, either.

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For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hotel Shangri-La, from Jake Pavelka’s season of The Bachelor, is located at 1301 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

Grub Restaurant from “The Hills”

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While scanning through episodes of The Hills this past weekend looking for the scene that was filmed at Pinches Tacos in West Hollywood, which I blogged about yesterday, I just about fell off my chair when I spotted Grub Restaurant pop up in Season 5’s “Can’t Always Get What You Want”.  Amazingly, way back in February of 2011, I had dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Grub as part of his Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt across L.A. (during which we had stalked LACMA, Boardner’s of Hollywood, and the HMS Bounty Bar and Restaurant), but at the time I was completely unaware that the place was a filming location.  Thankfully, I snapped some pictures of it regardless, as I am always apt to do when visiting new eateries.  I first learned about Grub thanks to fave book Peaceful Places Los Angeles: 110 Tranquil Sites in the City of Angels and Neighboring Communities, which I read while planning the GC’s hunt.  Of the Hollywood hideaway, author Laura Randall had this to say, “Hidden by a high trellis bloom-full of seasonal morning glories, the restaurant’s small patio is marked by homey touches such as potted plants, mismatched umbrellas, and flea-market antiques.  It sort of feels as if you’re eating in a friend’s back garden.”  Because the place sounded so absolutely idyllic, I decided to make it the very first stop on our hunt.

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Grub Restaurant was founded in 2001 by former San Francisco actress Betty Fraser and Arkansas native Denise DeCarlo, BFF’s who originally met a few years prior while waitressing at a L.A.-area California Pizza Kitchen.  The two first launched a catering company in 1995, which they dubbed “As You Like It Catering” and ran out of a 1920s-era bungalow-style duplex in the heart of Hollywood’s Post-Production District.  When neighbors began suggesting that they open an eatery in the charming little space, they thought “Why not?” and Grub Restaurant was born.  The eclectic and humorous menu (one entrée is named “Our Friggin’ Amazing French Toast”) features upscale “California comfort food” with offerings such as the White Truffle Burger – a large patty topped with roasted mushrooms, Swiss cheese, caramelized onions, white truffle oil, and fresh arugula, and served on a toasted brioche bun – and the After School Special – a cheddar and Swiss grilled cheese sandwich on thick sourdough bread paired with a cup of homemade Creamy Dreamy Tomato Soup.  Um, love it!  Grub Restaurant has won countless well-deserved accolades over the years including LA Citysearch’s “Best Lunch Spot” in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and “Best Breakfast in Los Angeles” in 2009 and 2010, Los Angeles Magazine’s “Best Tuna Melt in LA” in 2009, and Zagat Survey’s “Top Five Breakfast Spots” in 2007.

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Thanks to Grub Restaurant’s proximity to various Hollywood studios and post-production offices, the place has become a mecca for celebs.  Just a few of the stars who have gotten their grub on there (see what I did there Winking smile) include Sacha Baron Cohen, Charlize Theron, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Tom Sizemore, Jim Caviezel, Bob Guiney, Galen Gering, Zac Efron, Luke Wilson, and Daryl Hannah.  Owner Betty Fraser is even a minor-celebrity herself, having appeared on Top Chef, The Today Show and Rachel Ray’s Tasty Travels.

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In the Season 5 episode of The Hills titled “Can’t Always Get What You Want”, Brody Jenner and my girl Kristin Cavallari discussed Brody’s tumultuous relationship with ex-girlfriend Jayde Nicole over breakfast at Grub.  Upon first arriving at the eatery, Brody turned to Kristin and said, “You swear by this place”, so I am guessing that KCav used to be a frequent customer.

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On a Hills side-note – while watching Season 5 of the series way back in 2009, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with the gold square-shaped necklace that KCav wore in almost every episode.  And while I spent countless hours scouring the web trying to figure out who made the darn thing, I came up completely empty-handed.  Then, last October, I happened to come across a post on the fabulous The Budgetista blog detailing exactly where I could order one.  I ended up buying a gold-plated replica of the necklace (the GC would have killed me had I spent $300 on the actual thing) and not only is it absolutely adorbs, but it is also now one of my favorites.  (I am wearing it in the above pic with Idris Elba.)  Can’t thank you enough, Budgetista!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Grub Restaurant, from the “Can’t Always Get What You Want” episode of The Hills, is located at 911 Seward Street in Hollywood.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

Pinches Tacos from “The Hills”

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As always seems to happen when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I get together, while out doing some stalking in West Hollywood this past Thursday afternoon, the two of us stumbled upon a filming location without even meaning to do so.  After stopping by the Sunset Strip’s new Pink Taco to grab some lunch and finding it inexplicably closed, we headed across the street to a different pink-hued Mexican eatery named Pinches Tacos.  Upon ordering our food, we made our way to the restaurant’s patio area and, as I am apt to do when dining at a new place, I started doing some iPhone research to see if, on the off chance, Pinches had ever been used as a filming location.  Well, let me tell you, I just about fell off my chair when I came across some behind-the-scenes footage of my girl Kristin Cavallari shooting an unspecified Season 5 episode of fave show The Hills in the very spot where I was then sitting!  How I had missed that tidbit when the episode originally aired is beyond me, but needless to say I was absolutely floored over the information and promptly grabbed my camera and ran inside to snap some pics and speak with the manager.

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The Sunset Strip Pinches Tacos was first founded in 2007 by brothers Miguel, Jorge and Javier Anaya – nephews of Jose Prado, the former longtime chef of The Ivy turned restaurateur who established The Original Cha Cha Cha in Silverlake, Cocina Primavera in Beverly Hills, Prado Restaurant in Larchmont Village, and Cha Cha Chicken in Santa Monica and Northridge.  Everything that the fast-fix hot spot serves – from the salsa to the tortillas – is homemade daily using hundred-year-old secret family recipes from the Anaya brothers’ hometowns of Guadalajara and Jalisco.  Thanks to its extremely reasonable prices, fresh fare, and late-night hours (Pinches is open until 3 a.m. each Thursday through Saturday), the eatery became insanely popular virtually overnight and three more outposts have since been launched.  Besides West Hollywood, the chain currently boasts restaurants in Culver City and Santa Monica, all of which are family-owned and operated.  And Alabama native Ty Taylor loved the place so much that he convinced the Anaya brothers to partner with him in founding an annex in Taylor’s hometown of Homewood.  That restaurant opened in January of 2011 and is doing so well that the group is already looking to establish another outpost in Birmingham.

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And for those wondering where the name “Pinches” came from, while a note on the eatery’s door states that the term is Spanish slang for “kitchen boy”, Google translate dug up a far more interesting (and far more NSFW) meaning, which you can take a look at here.  All I can say is LOL.

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While the interior of Pinches Tacos is quite adorable, the patio area, which overlooks the Sunset Strip, is where most people choose to eat, including Mike and me.  I cannot tell you how cool it was to sit there, just feet from the bustling Strip, and watch all of the cars zipping by, not to mention the countless Hollywood tour buses – one of which you can see in the background of the above picture.  Love it!

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Because I am extremely picky about my meat, I opted to order Pinches vegetarian tacos and not only were they bursting with flavor – not something one expects from vegetables – and FABULOUS, but, at $2.95 a piece, were less expensive than a Starbucks latte!  I am so going to have to bring the Grim Cheaper back there for lunch.  Winking smile

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Oddly enough, the behind-the-scenes footage of The Hills that Mike and I watched while at Pinches did not look at all familiar to me, so when I got home I popped in my DVDs of the series and scanned through each and every Season 5 episode. As it turns out, the Mexican eatery appeared in the episode titled “It’s On Bitch” as the spot where Brody Jenner, Jayde Nicole, Stephanie Pratt, Lo Bosworth, Stacie the Bartender (I so love that she was never referred to by her full name), Justin “Bobby” Brescia, and my girl Kristin Cavallari celebrated Frankie Delgado’s birthday.  “It’s On Bitch” was actually the very first episode of The Hills that KCav appeared in, so I am extremely embarrassed that I failed to recognize it.  I must be losing my mojo or something!  Winking smile Besides being a filming location, Pinches Tacos is also something of a celebrity hotspot.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Kat Von D, Jesse James, Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Roberts, Megan Fox, Brian Austin Green, Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone, Gabriel Aubry, Balthazar Getty, Isabel Lucas, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Pinches Tacos, from the “It’s On Bitch” episode of The Hills, is located at 8200 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.  You can visit the restaurant chain’s official website here.

The Historic Mayfair Hotel from “The Office”

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Fellow stalker John Bengtson, from the SIlent Locations blog, sent me an email last week after reading my post on Red Studios Hollywood from The Artist (a location that I had learned about from his website) informing me that he had tracked down some locales from Season 7’s “The Search” episode of The Office that I might be interested in stalking, most notably The Historic Mayfair Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Holly Flax (Amy Ryan) shared a rooftop kiss.  Ironically enough, my good friend, fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, had also sent me this location on February 4th of last year, the day after the episode had originally aired, along with a list of all of the other places featured in “The Search”.  And while I did stalk a few of them – Kung Pao China Bistro and Larry’s Chili Dog – for whatever reason, I never made it out to The Mayfair.  So, this past weekend, I decided to change that and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there.  (I am not sure what happened with the above photograph, but somehow it turned out a bit wonky and neither the GC nor I realized it at the time.)

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The Historic Mayfair Hotel was originally designed in 1927 by Alexander E. Curlett and Claud W. Beelman, the same architecture team who gave us the Park Plaza Hotel near MacArthur Park (an extremely popular filming location that I have stalked, but have yet to blog about), the Cooper Arms condominium building in Long Beach, and the Los Angeles Board of Trade Building in Downtown L.A.  The 13-story hotel, which at the time was named simply The Mayfair, was commissioned by Texas oil tycoons and was constructed at a cost of $1.5 million – and we’re talking 1920’s dollars!  In its heyday, the luxury property hosted such luminaries as Mary Pickford and John Barrymore.  Raymond Chandler even wrote and set his 1939 short story “I’ll Be Waiting” at The Mayfair, although he dubbed the place the “Windermere Hotel” in the tale.

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The property, which originally boasted 350 rooms, but now has just 304, was the largest hotel west of the Mississippi at one time and featured an immensely popular supper and dance club known as the Rainbow Isle Room, from which George Eckhardts, Jr. and the Rainbow Isle Orchestra would broadcast a live radio show each night.  In 2004, after suffering from a long period of neglect, the structure underwent a massive and much-needed $40 million renovation, at which point it was renamed The Historic Mayfair Hotel.  You can check out some great photographs of the place during its early days on The Mayfair’s Facebook page here.

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In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being stranded at a supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area gas station, Michael Scott goes on a walkabout which ends on the rooftop of The Historic Mayfair Hotel.  When Holly finds him there and Michael tells her how much he has missed her, the two finally kiss, ending several years worth of will-they-or-won’t-they-get-together storylines and allowing  audiences to finally breath a long-overdue sigh of relief.  Not surprisingly, the roof area of The Mayfair is closed to the public, so I was unable to snap any pictures of it.

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Mike, from MovieShotsLA, figured out that The Mayfair stood in for the supposed Chicago, Illinois-area The Addison Hotel where Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) attended her 15-year high school reunion in 1999’s The Deep End of the Ocean.

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It was from the lobby of The Mayfair that Beth’s 3-year-old son, Ben Cappadora (Michael McElroy), was kidnapped.

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As you can see above, despite the renovation, the lobby still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1998 when The Deep End of the Ocean was filmed.

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The super-nice front desk clerk that we spoke with while we were there informed us that both the interior and the exterior of the property had also appeared in 1994’s True Lies, as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area Washington Mayfair Hotel where Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger), on horseback, chased motor-cycle-riding religious zealot Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik) through a lobby.

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The Mayfair lobby was actually one of three different lobbies used in that particular scene.  Harry is first shown chasing Salim across the length of The Mayfair’s lobby.

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The two then turn a corner and are magically transported to the now-defunct The Ambassador hotel, the same lobby of which was used as the Regent Beverly Wilshire in 1990’s Pretty Woman.

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The duo then heads outside, “across the street” and into The Westin Bonaventure Hotel.  In reality, when the Ambassador was still standing, it was located a good two miles away from The Bonaventure.  Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

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Thanks to the Richard Dean Anderson Website, I learned that The Historic Mayfair Hotel was also used in the 1986 Season 1 episode of MacGyver titled “The Assassin”.

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I am fairly certain that only the exterior of the property appeared in the episode, though, and that all of the interior hotel scenes were filmed on a set.  And while IMDB states that The Mayfair was also featured in 2009’s Don’t Look Up, I scanned through the flick yesterday while doing research for this post and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers John Bengtson, from the SIlent Locations blog, and Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of its appearance in The Deep End of the OceanSmile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Historic Mayfair Hotel, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 1256 West 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

Fig & Olive Restaurant from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl Commercial

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Ever since I first saw the ingenious “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V commercial that premiered during the 2012 Super Bowl on February 6th, I have been absolutely itching to track down the restaurant that appeared in it.  Especially since, a few weeks beforehand, I had stalked and blogged about L’Orangerie, the eatery that stood in for Chez Quis in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the 1986 movie upon which the two-minute-and-twenty-five-second television spot was based.

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Thankfully, this location was a fairly easy find.  While watching the ad, I had spotted the name “Chez Neuz” painted on the awning of the restaurant – “neuf” being French for “nine”, which is, of course, the number of times Ferris Bueller was absent from school in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. (“Nine times?”  “Nine times!” “I don’t remember him being absent nine times!”  LOL)  And while the establishment’s tongue-in-cheek moniker was obviously a fake, I figured that the other words – “kitchen” and the partially hidden “–ing bar”, which I guessed to be “tasting bar” – that were also visible on the awning were most likely real.  And I was right!

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Inputting the words “restaurant”, “Los Angeles”, “kitchen”, and “tasting bar” into Google led me to a website for a fairly new eatery in West Hollywood named Fig & Olive.  One quick scan of the photographs pictured there proved that it was a match to what had appeared in “Matthew’s Day Off”.  Yay!  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend.  Fig & Olive, which was originally founded on the East Coast and has several outposts in Manhattan, first opened its West Hollywood location in March 2011 in an 8,000-square-foot, two-story venue on the corner of Melrose Place and La Cienega Boulevard.  The bright and airy establishment features a 50-foot tasting bar, two patios, a lounge area and a Mediterranean-inspired menu that is brought to life each night by Executive Chef Pascal Lorange, a man who was once the personal chef to both singer Julio Iglesias and former President Bill Clinton.

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Thanks to its trendy location, fab menu and chic interior, Fig & Olive became an overnight sensation and has served the likes of Amanda Seyfried, Robert Downey, Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Jason Bateman, Elizabeth Banks, Hilary Duff, Rebecca Gayheart, Julianne Hough, Ryan Seacrest, Jimmy Kimmel, John Stamos, Bob Saget, Ryan Gosling, Lea Michele, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Reese Witherspoon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Connolly, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Ryan Phillipe, Kellie Martin, Mila Kunis, Molly Sims, Zac Efron, Drew Barrymore and even President Obama.  Oh, and me and the GC Winking smile, who both absolutely fell in love with the place.  Before we arrived there, I had been convinced that Fig & Olive would be extremely snooty, but I am very happy to report that that was not at all the case.  The entire staff was BEYOND nice, especially our bartender who loved the fact that we were only dining there because of the “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial.  Smile

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Because the establishment is on the pricy side, the GC and I opted to only grab drinks and a cheese plate appetizer, all of which were uh-ma-zing!  I cannot wait to go back to there for a full meal sometime (ear muffs, GC!).

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Fig & Olive was featured three times in the “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial, which was directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips.  The tasting bar area first popped up in the scene in which Walter Linder, Matthew’s agent, is shown eating lunch in front of a TV that just so happens to be airing the parade in which Matthew is singing.

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Fig & Olive’s tasting bar is pictured above and, as you can see, the television set and the wall it was affixed to are not actually there in real life.

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The exterior of Fig & Olive then appeared as Chez Neuf, the restaurant where Matthew dropped off his Honda CR-V with a valet, who then, of course, made off with it.

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And the restaurant lastly popped at the very end of the commercial, in the scene in which Matthew reenacted his famous “You’re still here?” bit from Ferris Bueller.

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Our bartender informed us that an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was also shot at Fig & Olive, but I scanned through both Season 1 and Season 2 of the series earlier today and did not spot it anywhere, so I am guessing that the scene wound up on the cutting room floor.

“Matthew’s Day Off” Super Bowl Commercial Filmed at Fig & Olive in West Hollywood

You can watch the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial by clicking above.  Apparently, the team at RPA, the advertising agency that created the ad, hid over two dozen references to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the spot – some obvious, some more subtle.

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Here are a few that I spotted (and I swear I could sit here all day doing this!) – 1. In the commercial, Matthew’s agent is named “Walter Linder”.

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That same name was listed in the Chez Quis reservation book directly above “Abe Froman” in the movie’s iconic restaurant scene.

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2. The woman that Matthew spoke with using his CR-V’s built-in Bluetooth in the commercial was named “Grace” – a nod to Ed Rooney’s dimwitted secretary Grace, who was played to perfection by Edie McClurg in the film.

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3. In the scene in which Walter Linder spots Matthew driving, a man is pictured behind Walter playing a clarinet.

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Ferris also played a clarinet in the 1986 film.

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The trench coat that the clarinet player is wearing in the commercial is also a reference to the outfit Ferris wore when he picked up his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara).

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4. In the commercial, the CR-V license plate reads “SOCHOIC”, which is a nod to Ferris’ line, “I must admit, I love driving it.  It is so choice.” about the pilfered Ferrari.  If you are not into searching for the ad’s many Ferris Bueller’s Day Off references, or “Easter eggs” as they are called, yourself, Entertainment Weekly scored a complete list of them from RPA, which you can check out here.

Chez Quis phone number - Ferrsi Bueller's Day Off

On a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off side-note – while making screen captures for today’s post, I happened to notice the number 652-9770 (as well as several other variations of it) on the phone Ferris used to call the police while at Chez Quis.  On a hunch, I typed that number into Google, adding an area code of 310, and, sure enough, (310)652-9770 was the actual former number of the now-shuttered L’Orangerie restaurant where that scene was filmed.  Oh, if only I had spotted those digits sooner, I not only would have bypassed countless hours of searching, but I also might have been able to stalk the place while it was still in business.  Ah well!  Hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Fig & Olive restaurant, from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial, is located at 8490 Melrose Place in West Hollywood.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

The Former Site of the Roxbury

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In honor of my girl Shannen Doherty’s new reality series, Shannen Says, which premieres next Tuesday (can’t wait!), I thought I would blog today about one of the actress’ famed hangouts from her Beverly Hills, 90210 days – the Roxbury in West Hollywood.  Back when I was a teenager and knee-deep in my 90210 obsession (ah, who am I kidding, I am still knee-deep in it!), I clamored for any and all magazines featuring the show’s stars.  I would practically drool while reading of their various comings and goings, especially Shannen’s, and as her name became more and more synonymous with the Roxbury, the legendary Sunset Strip club became seared into my memory.  I, sadly, never had the opportunity to stalk the place, though, as it closed its doors in 1997, long before I moved to Los Angeles.  But back in 2002, after an acting class, one of my friends invited me to grab some drinks at a hot spot named Miyagi’s.  Not being a nightclub kinda girl myself, I turned down the offer, to which my friend said, “Are you sure?  Miyagi’s used to be the Roxbury, where your girl Shannen Doherty hung out.”  Well, believe you me, once I heard those words, I was in!  In true Hollywood fashion, not even Miyagi’s stood the test of time, though, and, as you can see above, today the location houses a newly-opened Pink Taco.  But I figured since the site was hallowed ground for any 90210 fan, it was definitely blog-worthy.

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The building that stands at the corner of Roxbury Road and West Sunset Boulevard has long been the darling of the Sunset Strip.  The spot’s first incarnation was a celebrity supper club named The Players, or The Players Club, that was founded in 1940 by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Preston Sturges.  During its Players days, such luminaries as Humphrey Bogart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Rudy Vallee, William Faulkner, George S. Kaufman, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Howard Hughes all hung out there.  Despite its popularity, the club started to falter by the early 1950s, though, most likely due to the fact that Preston often closed the three-story, 12,000-square-foot venue, which included a barber shop, a hydraulic stage, a burger stand, and three different restaurants, in order to host private parties for his famous friends.  In 1953, his creditors sold the place to new owners who opened a Japanese restaurant named Imperial Gardens on the site.  That eatery also proved to be quite popular with the Hollywood set and catered to such stars as John Savage, James Woods, John Travolta, and Olivia Newton-John.

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In 1989, after an amazing 36-year run, Imperial Gardens closed and partners Brad Johnson and Elie Samaha purchased the establishment and transformed it into the Roxbury. Virtually overnight, the club became the place to see and be seen in Hollywood.  The stars of 90210 flocked there like moths to a flame and were spotted partying on the premises virtually every night.  Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to have been 21 and living in Hollywood at that time.  Winking smile Besides Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green, Shannen Doherty and Mark Wahlberg (pictured at the club in a November 1992 People Magazine article), other celebrities that spent time at the Roxbury during its almost decade-long reign on the Sunset Strip include Cher, John Travolta, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Prince, Sylvester Stallone, River Phoenix, Christina Applegate, Eddie Murphy, and, of all people, Geraldo Rivera.  The club was so popular that it even inspired the movie A Night at the Roxbury, although no actual filming took place on site.  And Eric Huerta, the Roxbury’s longtime bouncer, became so well-known himself that a Los Angeles Times article was written about him in November of 1993.  As usually happens with hotspots in Los Angeles, though, the Roxbury’s star began to fade and eventually closed in 1997.  Shortly thereafter, Miyagi’s, a Japanese-inspired club/restaurant, opened in its place.  I do not remember much of what Miyagi’s was like from my one visit there back in 2002, aside from the fact that the place was huge, the food was good, and, as I danced, all I could think about was that Shannen Doherty herself had one danced in the very same spot.  I was practically pinching myself all night.

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Miyagi’s closed its doors sometime in 2008 and was purchased by Harry Morton, owner of the Pink Taco restaurant chain and son of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton.  The young restaurateur immediately set about gutting the interior of the place and wound up discovering some traces of the historic Players Club in the process – including the entrance to a former underground (now sealed) tunnel that once connected the hotspot to the Chateau Marmont and was used by celebrities who wanted to escape prying eyes.  And while Pink Taco did not officially open until yesterday, a private birthday bash was held there on March 23rd in honor of Jared Eng, the blogger behind the JustJared website.  Some of the stars who attended that soiree include Fergie, Rumer Willis, Kellan Lutz, Lance Bass, Natasha Bedingfield, Seth MacFarlane, Avril Lavigne, and a few of this generation’s 90210-ers including Shenae Grimes, Jessica Stroup, and my love Matt Lanter (sigh!).

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Thankfully, the exterior of the Sunset Boulevard hotspot hasn’t changed much over the years and despite the fact that it is now painted a bright pink (and yes, that is a whole lotta pink!), it still looks much the same as it did in the 1940s.  You can see what The Players used to look like here, Imperial Gardens here, the Roxbury here, and Miyagi’s here.  And you can check out some interior pictures of the new Pink Taco on fave website EaterLA here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Pink Taco, aka the former site of the Roxbury, is located at 8225 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.  You can visit the restaurant chain’s official website here.

The Redbury Hotel from “Entourage”

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Last July, while doing some cyber-stalking, I came across an article on the USA TODAY Travel website about the numerous Southern California hotels and restaurants featured in the eighth and final season of the hit television series Entourage.  One of the spots mentioned in the blurb was Tinseltown’s newly-opened The Redbury Hotel, which appeared in the episode titled “The Big Bang”, and, thanks to its dark crimson walls, unique architecture and old Hollywood vibe, I immediately became enamored of the place.  I, of course, added the locale to my “To-Stalk” list right then and there, but, for whatever reason, did not make it out there to actually do so until three weekends ago.

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And I am very happy to report that the place did not disappoint!  To say that I am in love with The Redbury would be a gross understatement.  The 57-room boutique hotel, which first opened in November of 2010, was the brainchild of sbe Entertainment Group founder/CEO Sam Nazarian and photographer/music video director Matthew Rolston.  The 5-story structure was originally conceived as a high-end, $50 million condominium project by the Palisades Development company, but that venture was forced to be scrapped during the real estate downturn.  In February of 2010, at which time the building was about 80-percent complete, it was purchased by the CIM Group, who re-envisioned the locale as an upscale hotel and hired Nazarian and Rolston to manage and design it, respectively.

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The name Redbury comes from a combination of “red”, the hue that Palisades Development had already painted the building, and “bury”, in honor of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district.  According to an August 2010 Los Angeles Times article, the hotel’s eclectic style is a mix of “bohemian, 1960s flower power and old Hollywood”.  Apparently, Rolston wanted the locale to feel “’theatrical’, a little bit like actually being in one of my photographs or music videos”.  And, as you can see above, he succeeded with that vision – in spades!  The Redbury is honestly like nothing I have ever seen before and absolutely does feel like a movie set come to life.  I so loved it that I was even tempted to book a room while we were there for a spontaneous little stay-cation, but the Grim Cheaper was, of course, having none of that.

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The Redbury staff was BEYOND friendly and, even though none of the hotel’s restaurants were open while we were stalking the place, I was allowed to go inside to take a peek at each of them and told that I could snap “all of the photographs you want” – six little words that I absolutely LOVE to hear.  The areas of the hotel that we visited included the Library Bar – which honestly feels more like the ultra-cozy living room of a very stylish friend’s house than a public bar;

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The Glade courtyard lounge – a huge terrace garden complete with teak decking, Moorish-style lanterns and outdoor couches and daybeds;

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and Cleo – an ultra-hip Middle-Eastern-style restaurant that is dominated by a large 1917 movie poster of actress Theda Bara dressed as Cleopatra.  The Library Bar, Glade and Cleo are all major celebrity hotspots.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted at the one of the three watering holes include my girl Kristin Cavallari, my man Matt Lanter (sigh!), Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Foxx, Hilary Duff, Joe Jonas, Ashley Greene, Audrina Patridge, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Sam Trammell, the entire Kardashian/Jenner family, Courteney Cox, Josh Hopkins, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Adam Brody, Neve Campbell, Carla Gugino, Nia Vardalos, Jesse Williams, Lauren Conrad, Lo Bosworth, Whitney Port, Busy Phillips, Stacey Keibler, David Beckham, Kirstie Alley, Cheryl Burke, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jessica Lowndes, Gillian Zinser, Sarah Hyland, Salma Hayek, Mila Kunis, and Ali Fedotowsky.

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In “The Big Bang” episode of Entourage, Cleo restaurant was where Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) ambushed Vanity Fair reporter Sophia Lear (Alice Eve) and tried to convince her that he was not a womanizer.  And while the USA TODAY Travel article stated that the series had filmed scenes “throughout the hotel, including its Library lounge”, I did not spot any other areas of the property in “The Big Bang” or in other episodes from Season 8, so I believe that information is incorrect.

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The yet-to-be released movie Between Us, which stars Julia Stiles, Melissa George and Taye Diggs, also did some filming at The Redbury.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Redbury Hotel, from “The Big Bang” episode of Entourage, is located at 1717 Vine Street in Hollywood.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

Eveleigh Restaurant from “Gossip Girl”

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Fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, emailed me a few weeks back to let me know that he had tracked down the open-air-patio-ed restaurant where Serena van der Woodsen (aka Blake Lively) and Charlie Rhodes (aka Kaylee DeFer) ate lunch in the Season 4 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Beauty and the Feast”.  And while that lunch was supposed to have taken place in Los Angeles and some scenes from that episode were actually filmed in the SoCal area, I had been absolutely convinced that Serena and Charlie’s restaurant was located in New York.  Not only did the place just look like a Manhattan-style eatery to me, but in the previous episode, which was titled “Yes, Then Zero”, Colonie, a restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, had been made to appear as if it was located in L.A.  So when I received Geoff’s email alerting me to the fact that Eveleigh Restaurant in West Hollywood had been used in the “Beauty and the Feast” episode, I practically jumped for joy and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it.  Because I was in the thick of my Haunted Hollywood postings at the time, though, I had not been able to blog about the place until today.  So here goes!

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I can honestly say that Eveleigh, which opened on November 1st, 2010 in a space that used to house a Kenneth Cole shoe store, is easily one of the coolest places I have ever been!  From the outside, the restaurant does not look like anything out of the ordinary.  In fact, with its large hedges, unmarked doorway, and sidewalk street sign that screams “Sunset Blvd”, the eatery could not seem any more “Hollywood”.  But when you step inside, it is a different story entirely.

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From Eveleigh’s airy front patio . . .

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. . . to its cozy fireplace, complete with armchairs . . .

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. . . to its central bar and wood-beamed ceilings . . .

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. . . to its couch-like and antique school-chair seating . . .

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. . . to its exposed wood tables and chalkboard menus . . .

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. . . to its sweeping views . . .

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. . . to its large, tented back patio – all I can say is, we are certainly not in Los Angeles anymore, Toto!  As you can see in the twenty-some-odd pictures I took while there, Eveleigh, named for a suburb in Australia, is entirely unique.  It is a little bit country, a whole lotta New York, with a dash of California thrown in for good measure.  And I absolutely fell in love with the place on site.  The GC and I ended up only having cocktails while there, though, as the menu was a bit too extravagant for my low-brow tastes.  The offerings are definitely geared toward “foodies” and not this stalker, who much prefers hot dogs, mac & cheese, and chicken strips to the upscale culinary feasts served at Eveleigh, which include duck rillettes, jidori chicken liver pate, roasted natural bone marrow salad, and crisp sonoma pork belly.  We will definitely be stalking the place again, though, and if I am feeling more epicurean-ly brave, I will surely branch out and sample some of the fare.

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In the “Beauty and the Feast” episode of Gossip Girl, Serena and Charlie, a fraud who is posing as Serena’s cousin, meet up at Eveleigh and discuss life in California and possibly living together.

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In the scene, the two sit on the restaurant’s tented patio, near the back bar.

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After their meal, they walk past Eveleigh’s main bar, through the front patio area, and out onto Sunset Boulevard.

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And our super-nice bartender informed us that the cover shoot for the Fall 2011 issue of Viva Magazine, which featured Paula Abdul, also took place at Eveleigh.

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Besides being a filming location, Eveleigh is also something of a celebrity hot-spot.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there over the past year include Ashley Greene, Paula Patton, Nicky Hilton, Nicole Richie, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Dakota Fanning, Kimora Lee Simmons, Lisa Edelstein, Marcia Cross, Rebecca Romijn, Jerry O’Connell, Robin Tunney, Ashley Simpson, Ali Fedotowsky, Sasha Alexander, Jordana Brewster, Pete Wentz, Samantha Ronson, Amy Smart, Rachel Leigh Cook, Dianna Agron, Jamie King, Jessica Capshaw, Busy Phillips, Elisha Cuthbert, Mindy Kaling, Nia Vardalos, Idris Elba, Pierce Brosnan, and Armie Hammer.  And the restaurant also has one more celebrity connection.  While researching this post, I discovered that back when the place was a Kenneth Cole shoe store, the front patio area was the site of the Kenneth Cole Walk of Fame – a take-off of the iconic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre forecourt in Hollywood.  At the KC Walk of Fame, such stars as Elizabeth Taylor (and her dog Sugar), Richard Gere, Matthew Modine, Patricia Arquette, Elizabeth Glaser, Rosie O’Donnell, Julianne Phillips, and Leeza Gibbons all placed their bare feet into blocks of cement outside of the store, with Kenneth Cole promising to donate a portion of sales on the day of each participating star’s birthday to AIDS research.  Sadly, when the store closed, the footprints were removed and I can find no information whatsoever about where they are now located.  I cannot tell you how said I am that I never got to see them!

On a side-note, I would like to wish my mom a VERY happy 60th birthday today!  I love you, Mom!  Smile

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Eveleigh Restaurant, from the “Beauty and the Feast” episode of Gossip Girl, is located at 8752 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.