Ed O’Neill – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 24, 2011May 23, 2011

Pappa Don’s Delicatessen from “Modern Family”

I must apologize in advance for the length of today’s post. I spent most of my day yesterday at the Walk of Fame star ceremony for American Idol creator Simon Fuller – an event which I will be writing about later this week – and therefore did not have time to write a very lengthy blog post for today, so I am sorry. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a fellow stalker named Cait wrote a comment on my blog post about Carmine’s II Restaurant from the “Boy’s Night” episode of Modern Family alerting me to the fact that the series had filmed its Season 1 episode titled “Fifteen Percent” at Pappa Don’s Delicatessen in South Pasadena. In her comment, Cait said she “you probably already know this (you know everything!) . . .”, but I have to admit that not only did I NOT know that information, until reading Cait’s comment I had never even heard of Pappa Don’s! So I immediately added the restaurant to my lengthy “To Stalk” list and finally made it out there to stalk the place this past Thursday afternoon. Yay!

Pappa Don’s Delicatessen was originally founded by the eponymous “Pappa Don” in the early 1960s. Sometime during the 80s Pappa sold the restaurant to a chef named Harry – a man whom many diners came to refer to as the “Soup Nazi” due to his reportedly gruff exterior. Harry apparently had no tolerance whatsoever for patrons who added what he felt were inappropriate additions to his sandwich creations. LOL Sadly, Harry passed away unexpectedly in August of 2007 at the tender age of 58 and Pappa’s was forced to shutter its doors for a time. On February 28th, 2008, the deli re-opened, this time under new owners who thankfully made very few changes to the restaurant or its menu. Pappa Don’s Delicatessen is a VERY cool little spot that serves up some fabulous sandwiches at EXTREMELY low prices. Because I am diabetic and usually try to avoid carbs altogether, I was unfortunately not able to sample any of the deli’s grub, but I purchased one of their “Anchor” sandwiches – which consisted of tuna salad on sourdough with Swiss cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, and mayo, all for only $4.95 – to take home to the Grim Cheaper and he absolutely devoured the thing. Said it was one of the best tuna salad sandwiches he had ever eaten.

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In the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) runs into his father-in-law, Jay Pritchett (aka Ed O’Neill), who is hanging out with his group of friends in front of Pappa Don’s. While there Jay ends up introducing Cameron not as his son-in-law, but as “a friend of my son’s”.

When Cameron tells his husband Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) how he was introduced, Mitchell marches right on over to the deli to confront his father. While there, he ends up meeting Jay’s friend, Shorty (aka Chazz Palminteri), whom he is convinced is gay.

The deli showed up once again at the very end of the episode in the scene in which Shorty, who has spent most of the episode adamantly denying that he is gay, gifts Jay with two tickets to see “the great Michael Buble”, who “sings like an angel”. Ah, Shorty, I couldn’t agree with you more on that count! And he’s not bad to look at, either. Winking smile

Susanne, the SUPER-nice owner of Pappa Don’s, also informed me that the deli had been featured in the pilot episode of the new Fox television series Traffic Light, in the scene in which Mike (aka The Office’s David Denman), Adam (aka Nelson Franklin), and Ethan (aka Love Actually’s Kris Marshall) discuss the fact that Ethan can get away with saying anything, no matter how obnoxious, thanks to the fact that he has a British accent.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Cait for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pappa Don’s Delicatessen, from the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, is located at 303 Pasadena Avenue in South Pasadena. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Pappa Don’s is open Monday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the place only accepts cash, so make sure to visit an ATM before you stop by.

May 5, 2011May 4, 2011

Carmine’s II Restaurant from “Modern Family”

This past Saturday night, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk a historic restaurant named Carmine’s II, which was featured prominently in the recently-aired Season 2 episode of Modern Family titled “Boys’ Night”. Carmine’s has been a virtual West-L.A.-institution for almost four decades now, having originally been founded in 1972 by New York native Carmine Competelli, Sr. The eatery, which featured authentic Italian recipes from the “old country”, became an instant success and, thanks to its close proximity to both The Culver Studios and Sony Pictures Studios (formerly MGM), was extremely popular with the showbiz set. Just a few of the luminaries who dined there regularly during the heyday of Hollywood include Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Linda Ronstadt, Robert DeNiro, Milton Berle, Judy Garland, Lauren Bacall, Ronald Reagan, and Governor Jerry Brown. Carmine became such close friends with members of the Rat Pack, in fact, that according to this article written by original Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman, Dean Martin drove Carmine’s eldest son, Carmine Jr., to his senior prom! When Carmine Sr. passed away in 1982 at the tender age of 52, Carmine Jr., who was then only 19 years old, took over management of the restaurant. At some point shortly thereafter he shuttered the property and then re-opened it in 1995 under the new name Carmine’s II. And it is still going strong to this day.

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In the “Boys’ Night” episode of Modern Family, Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) go for a boys’ night out at Carmine’s II along with their friends Pepper (aka Nathan Lane), Longinus (aka Kevin Daniels), and Crispin (aka Craig Zimmerman). While there, they run into Mitchell’s dad, Jay (aka Ed O’Neill), and much to Mitchell’s dismay, his friends invite Jay to join them for a few drinks. A good time ends up being had by all, though, and Mitchell ends up seeing a whole new side of his father.

While watching the episode, I had noticed a neon sign in the window of the restaurant that read “Carmine’s”.

So, I wrongly assumed that filming had taken place at Carmine’s Restaurant and Bar in South Pasadena (pictured above), an eatery that I had driven by countless times over the years, but had never dined at. It was not until I walked through the establishment’s front doors that I realized how wrong that assumption was! Oh, how to put this nicely? The Carmine’s in South Pasadena is a complete and total dive! Now I am not the type of girl who necessarily dislikes dive restaurants. Quite the contrary, in fact. But this was more of a duck!-cause-a-bar-fight-is-about-to-break-out-type of place than the we-serve-chicken-strips-and-ranch-dressing-in-a-casual-setting kind of establishment that I so adore. Upon our arrival, the GC took one look at our surroundings and said, “We are SO out of here!” It was not until I got home and did some online research later that night that I discovered that there was another, completely unrelated restaurant named Carmine’s located in the West-L.A.-area. (And yes, I am such a huge dork that I actually posed for the above photograph before realizing I was in the wrong place! As Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, would say, “MAJOR FAIL!”)

I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am that I was eventually able to track the correct Carmine’s down, as it was honestly one on the BEST restaurants that I have ever had the pleasure of dining at. Both the GC and I loved, loved, loved it! The setting is intimate and cozy with a definite Rat-Pack-vibe, the staff is some of the friendliest I have ever encountered, and the food . . . oh, what do I even say about the food? It was magnificent! When our bartender found out that it was our very first visit to Carmine’s, he informed us that we were not allowed to leave without first sampling some of the restaurant’s famous deep-fried calamari and I can honestly say that it was, hands down, the BEST fried calamari that I have ever eaten in my entire life! OMG! I’m salivating right now just thinking about it! The Chicken Milanese entrée that the GC and I split was also nothing short of incredible. I honestly cannot say enough good things about this place! Carmine Sr. always prided himself on the fact that he made his diners feel “at home” and Carmine Jr. has definitely upheld that tradition. After just one meal there, I can honestly say that Carmine’s II is my new favorite restaurant.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Carmine’s II restaurant, from the “Boys’ Night” episode of Modern Family, is located at 10463 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

December 9, 2009December 8, 2009

Jay and Gloria’s House from “Modern Family”

Once fellow stalker Robert, from the website Movie Locations and More, tracked down Phil and Claire’s house and Mitchell and Cameron’s duplex from the new hit series Modern Family, I set my sights on locating the modern-style abode where Jay (aka Ed O’Neill), Gloria (aka Sophia Vergara), and their son Manny (aka Rico Rodriguez) reside on the show. For this task, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen, who I am happy to report found the home’s location almost immediately, even though he had yet to ever watch even one episode of Modern Family! LOL All I gave him was the home’s street number and the general vicinity where I thought it might be located and, voila, just a few minutes later he texted me back with an address! So, I, of course, immediately grabbed my camera and headed out to go stalk the place.

Jay and Gloria’s ultra-unique home is MUCH bigger in person than it appears to be on Modern Family. For some reason, the establishing shots shown on the series only feature one angle of the residence. In reality, though, the home has a whole other half which has never appeared on TV. The house is so massive, in fact, that I couldn’t get all of if to fit in my camera lens, but you can sort of get an idea of its true size in the above photograph. According to Zillow, the residence boasts five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and a whopping 6,359 square feet!

The ultra-modern style home, which in real life is known as the Sinnot Residence, was built in 1992 by the architecture firm Abramson Teiger and, unfortunately, is not very visible from the street thanks to a large concrete wall which surrounds the property. But have no fear because I managed to find a few interior photographs of the home online, which you can take a look at here. 🙂 Even with the exterior wall, though, the house is still very recognizable from Modern Family. 🙂

Jay and Gloria’s house shows up each week in Modern Family’s opening credits . . .

. . . as well as in establishing shots which appear throughout the course of each episode.

Quite a bit of on-location filming has taken place at the residence as well. In the episode entitled “The Bicycle Thief”, Manny waits for his father to pick him up out in front of the house.

In the episode entitled “Coal Digger”, the entire family jumps into the house’s real-life pool fully-clothed.

And in the episode entitled “The Incident”, Mitchell has a heart-to-heart chat with his father by the very same pool.

On a side note – If you did not catch Chelsea Lately’s interview of Sophia Vergara which took place this past October, let me tell you, it is a MUST-SEE! In fact, I might just go out on a limb here and say that it is my favorite CL interview EVER – and being that I watch her show nightly, that’s saying A LOT. Sophia Vergara is absolutely HILARIOUS and to see her match wits with Chelsea Handler makes for some awesome TV!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jay and Gloria’s house from Modern Family is located at 121 South Cliffwood Avenue in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles.