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

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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.

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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.

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

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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!

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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!

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

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Best-looking java I’ve ever had!

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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

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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.

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I was especially enamored of the bubble gum pink payphone.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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: 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.

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.

The Coffee Pot from “90210”

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As I mentioned back in March in my post about Bar Keeper in Silver Lake, the whimsical little barware store that stood in for Upon Galley in the 2005 movie A Lot Like Love, one locale that I had been absolutely itching to stalk in recent weeks was the Coffee Pot, an Echo Park-area café that appeared in the Season 4 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Babes in Toyland”.  And while tracking down this location required minimal effort on my part, stalking it would be a different story altogether.

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The GC and I actually tried to stalk the Coffee Pot not once, but twice, and both endeavors proved futile.  Our first attempt took place on a Sunday when we just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by, only to discover that the shop is closed on Sundays.  Then, last weekend, we made a special trip out there, on a Saturday this time, only to be met with a sign on the front door announcing that the small café was closed because “I’m the mom and I said so!”  Um, OK.  And while it is said that “the third time’s the charm”, I think we will just cut our losses at two unsuccessful stalks for this location.  It is unfortunate, too, because the place looked absolutely adorable and I had a major hankering for some coffee at the time.

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I was so flummoxed over the shop being closed yet again that I completely forgot to have the GC take my picture out front.  I was able to snap two photographs of the Coffee Pot’s interior through the café’s front windows, though, and being that there was also a Starbucks located right across the street and I did manage to score myself a latte, I guess the trip was not a total loss.  Winking smile

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In the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210, troublemaker Vanessa (Arielle Kebbel) tries to sabotage Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) and Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) by sending them to the fictional “Echo Park Grill” for a fake meeting with the VP of A&R for Def Jam Records.  Oddly enough, three different locations were used to stand in for the restaurant in the episode.  The first establishing shot shown in the scene was of the 3900 block of West Sunset Boulevard in the Sunset Junction area of Silver Lake, where Bar Keeper is located.

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The second establishing shot was of Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz, which I I blogged about back in August 2011.  The exterior of Figaro also appeared in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much is that Liam in the Window”.

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And, finally, the Coffee Pot was used for all of the “Echo Park Grill’s” interior scenes, where Adrianna and Dixon waited futilely for the record executive.  As you can see above, the café is a pretty cute spot.

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Despite the conflicting establishing shots, this location was actually a snap to track down as I had noticed the words “Coffee Pot” on the door of the café while watching the episode.  A simple input of the terms “Coffee Pot” and “Los Angeles” into a Google search spit back a result of the Coffee Pot in Echo Park.  Yay!  Too bad it wasn’t quite as easy to stalk.

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Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, also let me know that the Coffee Pot had appeared as “Spark Plug Coffee” where Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) and Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) arrested a man for having placed a hidden camera in a women’s bathroom in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Risk”.

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Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of the Coffee Pot’s Southland appearance.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Coffee Pot, from the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210 and the “Risk” episode of Southland, is located at 2201 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.

Casbah Café from “A Lot Like Love”

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Today’s blog is going to be a short one as I am heading out to the eye doctor in a bit to have my eyes dilated, which, second to being on an airplane, is my least favorite activity in the entire world. Speaking of flying, US Magazine recently published an article about celebrity riders which featured actor Billy Crystal’s “Flight Preboard Information”. The “Other notes” section of Billy’s rider states, “Normally holds hands w/ family during takeoff and landing. Keep informed of turbulence.” Um, LOVE IT! Like Billy, I, too, hold my parents’ hands during takeoff, and I am absolutely PETRIFIED of turbulence! Oh, how I wish I were a celebrity so that I could submit my very own flight rider in which I demanded that the crew keep me informed of any upcoming turbulence. Winking smile But I digress.

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Anyway, just down the street from Bar Keeper – the store that stood in for Upon Gallery in fave movie A Lot Like Love, which I blogged about yesterday – is Casbah Café, a French Moroccan-style coffee shop that was also featured in the 2005 flick. And, even though I have already blogged about this location once before very briefly, I just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on back over there to snap some pics – and grab some coffee, of course! – while we were in the area doing our Christmas shopping last December.

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The Casbah Café, which first opened in 1997 and currently serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is a very unique and quirky independent coffee house/gift boutique that sells clothing, jewelry and home furnishings collected from various locales around the world, including India, Mexico, Morocco, and Argentina. The shop’s eccentric interior features blue- and orange-painted walls covered in large framed tapestries, a French-inspired chalkboard mirror menu and exposed ductwork. In the March 2004 issue of Toro Magazine, journalist Stephen Hunt hit the nail on the head when he described the Casbah as follows: “On first glance, the café evokes one of those places where Indiana Jones hung out in Cairo. An almost too perfectly shady establishment in which to exchange letters of transit, or a Maltese falcon . . .” The place also has a definite hipster vibe to it. The GC always jokes that he is not cool enough to hang out there because he does not own a pair of skinny jeans. Winking smile And he is right – the Casbah Café is a place where skinny jeans abound.

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Thanks to its fabulous coffee and free Wi-Fi, the Casbah Café has become insanely popular over the years – so popular, in fact, that curbside service has recently been added to provide for the many customers who cannot find a vacant table. Celebrities have even been known to pop into the eatery from time to time. Just a few of the stars who have gotten their caffeine fix there include Madonna, Mia Kirshner, Gwen Stefani, Sofia Coppola, Courtney Love, Patricia Arquette and clothing designer Diane von Furstenberg.

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In A Lot Like Love, Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) and Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet) stop by the Casbah Café to grab coffee after their “silent” New Year’s Eve dinner. It is while there that Emily tries to pay for Oliver’s coffee, to which he says, “No. I appreciate the reach – the acting classes are really paying off – but I got it.” LOL

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In a very brief scene in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Wednesday”, Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) eats breakfast at the Casbah Café – and checks out some girls on their way to a yoga class while doing so.

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The exterior of the Casbah Café shows up very briefly in The Freebie. According to a September 2010 Los Angeles Times article, Katie Aselton wrote the six-page outline for the 2010 indie flick while at the eatery and it even inspired one of the movie’s main storylines in which married man Darren (Dax Shepard) develops a crush on a barista at his local coffee shop. The Casbah will also be featured in the upcoming movie L!fe Happens, which stars Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, and Krysten Ritter.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Casbah Café from A Lot Like Love is located at 3900 West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. You can visit the café’s official website here.

Dwight’s Bar from “Burlesque”

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One Burlesque filming location that I had been trying to track down for what seems like forever now was Dwight’s Bar, which was featured in the movie’s opening scene as the supposed small-town, Iowa-area watering hole where Ali (aka Christina Aguilera) worked.  Even though the bar only appeared in one very brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it establishing shot, I was absolutely obsessed with stalking the place.  For whatever reason, though, I just could not seem to find it.  Then, like magic, just a couple of weeks ago fellow stalker Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, added the location to his Burlesque filming locations page and I just about died of excitement.  The place was, of course, immediately added to the top of my To-Stalk list and I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there this past weekend. 

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As it turns out, Dwight’s Bar is actually a vacant storefront located in Piru, California, a small town (according to Wikipedia its population was only 1,196 as of a 2000 census!) situated about 50 miles north of Los Angeles in the Santa Clara River Valley.   Piru (pronounced Pie-Roo) was originally founded in 1887 by a wealthy religious book publisher named David C. Cook.  Thanks to its Anytown, U.S.A.-look and proximity to L.A., Piru is an oft-used filming locale and has appeared in hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the years, including Melrose Place, Charmed, Murder, She Wrote, Desert Fury, A Star is Born, Enough, The Dukes of Hazzard, The California Kid, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Torque, Van Helsing, Happy, Texas, Reno 911!, and Race to Witch Mountain.  Piru’s historic downtown area, which consists of a tiny, one-and-a-half-block stretch of small brick buildings and which is the area of town most often seen onscreen, was reconstructed after being largely destroyed during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.  Since that time, many of the downtown storefronts have remained vacant, which only adds to the appeal of the place for location scouts as the area can be dressed to fit any sort of production. 

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Which was exactly what happened with Burlesque.  For the opening scene of the movie, Downtown Piru was dressed to look like a small farming town in rural Iowa where Ali lives.  And even though its appearance onscreen was brief, I cannot tell you how cool it was to see this location in person!

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Amazingly enough, according to the DVD commentary with Burlesque director/writer Steve Antin, the interior of Dwight’s Bar, where Ali sang “Something’s Got A Hold On Me”, was actually a set created inside of a soundstage at Sony Studios in Culver City and was not built inside of the vacant Piru storefront as I had originally believed.

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Because I had spent so many hours searching for Dwight’s Bar, I immediately recognized the place when it popped up recently in the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Farewell Letter”, in the scene in which Gaby (aka Eva Longoria) and Carlos Solis (aka Ricardo Chavira) return to Gaby’s hometown of Las Colinas, Texas.  In the episode, the two pull up in a taxi directly in front of the storefront that was used in Burlesque.

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Later on in that same episode, Gaby and Carlos venture out to a restaurant where Gaby is fawned over as the local girl who made good.

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In real life, that restaurant is known as the Railway Café and it has appeared in quite a few movies over the years, including 1984’s Rhinestone.

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The actual interior of the Railway Café also appeared in the episode.

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Sadly though, the place was closed when we showed up to stalk it, so I was only able to snap a few pictures of the interior through the front windows.

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The Railway Café can also be seen in the background of Alicia Keys’ “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready)” music video, which starred cutie actor Chad Michael Murray.

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You can watch that video by clicking above.

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And, thanks to the Seeing Stars website, I learned that just across the street from Dwight’s Bar is Poncho’s Place, the eatery which stood in for the supposed Bon Temps, Louisiana-area Crawdad’s Family Style Restaurant where Sam Merlotte (aka Sam Trammell) took Sookie Stackhouse (aka Anna Paquin) for a slice of pie in the Season 1 episode of True Blood titled “Sparks Fly Out”. 

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And even though I have never seen even one episode of True Blood, since we were right there I just had to stalk it.

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The real life interior of Poncho’s Place also appeared in the episode.

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Although, as you can see in the above photographs, it was decorated rather differently for the filming.

Big THANK YOU to Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, for finding this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Dwight’s Bar from Burlesque is located at 3951 East Center Street in Piru.  Poncho’s Place, aka Crawdad’s Restaurant from the “Sparks Fly Out” episode of True Blood, is located just across the street at 3944 Center Street in Piru.  And the Railway Café from the “Farewell Letter” episode of Desperate Housewives is located half a block down the road at 3989 Center Street in Piru.

Aroma Coffee & Tea Company in Studio City

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

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

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

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

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

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to the front porch;

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to the quaint backyard;

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

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

Cup ‘N Cakes Cafe from “Modern Family”

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A few weeks back, a fellow stalker who identified himself as “Stepick” left a comment on my Step by Step house post informing me that a coffee shop in nearby South Pasadena had been featured in the recent episode of fave show Modern Family entitled “Moon Landing”.  Unfortunately though, Stepick did not specify exactly which South Pasadena coffee house it was.  So, I decided to do a little bit of digging to see if I could figure it out.  I came up empty-handed at first, until this past weekend when a blog named “Greetings from LA” published a post about Modern Family filming locations along with a link to this article about the coffee shop that had been used on the show.  Thank you, Greetings from L.A.!  In real life, that coffee shop is named Kaldi Coffee & Tea and, amazingly enough, I had never before heard of the place.  So, I, of course, had to run right out and stalk it, not just because I love Modern Family, but because, as those of you who read my site regularly know, I absolutely love coffee.  Like LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT.  Oh, what I won’t do for a good cup o’ joe.  But I digress.

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Kaldi Coffee & Tea, which has been in operation for over 15 years, is an incredibly charming little coffee house located inside of an old bank building.  With its brick walls, mismatched chairs, large couch, and chalk board menu, the place evokes memories of the Central Perk set from Friends.  So, needless to say, I loved it!  And, amazingly enough, when I walked through the front doors I immediately recognized the shop from another production besides Modern Family!  But more on that later.  Despite what some internet reviews have stated, I am very happy to report that Kaldi’s serves up some FABULOUS coffee.  I also indulged in a little veggie sandwich while there and I am happy to report that it, too, was fabulous!  The staff at Kaldi’s was EXTREMELY nice and not only answered all of my silly questions about the filming of Modern Family, but also let me take all the photographs I wanted.  Yay!  I loved the place so much, in fact, that I am fairly certain I am going to be a frequent stalker there.  😉

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The Kaldi’s scene from Modern Family starts out across the street from the cafe, on the sidewalk in front of the South Pasadena Public Library (a location which stood in for Haddonfield High School in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake).  In the scene, Gloria (aka Sophia Vergara) takes her son Manny (aka Rico Rodriguez) and her step-son/ lawyer Mitchell (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to the site of her recent car accident so that she can explain what happened.  After showing them where the accident took place, she heads over to Kaldi’s, which was called Cup ‘N Cakes Cafe in the episode, to grab some cupcakes, while Mitchell and Manny wait behind at the accident site to take pictures.  It is there that Manny tells Mitchell that his mother was actually at fault in the wreck.  When Mitchell asks why Manny didn’t tell his mom that, Manny explains “She can’t take criticism about her driving.  Once an old lady yelled at her at a crosswalk.  She honked so long, the horn ran out!”  LOL LOL LOL

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Only a small portion of Kaldi’s exterior is shown in the scene . . .  

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. . . but the interior is featured quite extensively while the threesome is eating their cupcakes. 

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And it is outside of Kaldi’s that Gloria gets into her second car accident of the week, crashing into the side of the cafe and knocking down Cup ‘N Cakes’ large pink cupcake sign, which was, of course, just a prop that was brought in for the filming.  The restaurant where Claire (aka Julie Bowen) met Valerie (aka Minnie Driver) for lunch in that same episode is located less than a block away from Kaldi’s.  It is named Bistro de la Gare, but I have yet to stalk the place.  Don’t worry, though, as it’s definitely on my list!    

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Kaldi’s also appeared in a brief scene in fave movie The Ugly Truth, in which Abby Richter (aka Katherine Heigl) and her best friend Joy (aka Bree Turner) fawn all over her new boyfriend Colin (aka Eric Winter).  Oddly enough, I had actually been searching for The Ugly Truth coffee shop for MONTHS, but couldn’t seem to locate it anywhere!  So, when I walked into Kaldi’s yesterday afternoon, I just about fell over as I immediately recognized it as the place I had long been searching for.  Funny how stuff like that happens.  😉

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The Ugly Truth also made use of the same stretch of sidewalk that appeared in Modern Family for the scene in which Mike Chadway (aka Gerard Butler) convinces Abby to purchase some hair extensions.  That sidewalk is located directly across the street from Kaldi’s.

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Kaldi’s was also featured in two scenes in the 2008 movie Role Models as Beth (aka Elizabeth Banks) and Danny’s (aka Paul Rudd’s) local coffee shop.  One of the scenes features a very funny rant by Paul Rudd over the fact that the term “venti” does not actually mean large in Italian.

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Producers completely remodeled Kaldi’s for the filming of Role Models, though, making it appear very Coffee-Bean-ish, so it almost unrecognizable from that flick.  Kaldi’s was also featured in the 2007 Anthony Hopkins’ movie Slipstream  and it will be appearing in an upcoming episode of the new television series Parenthood.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Kaldi Coffee & Tea, aka Cup ‘N Cakes Cafe from Modern Family, is located at 1019 El Centro Street, at the southwest corner of El Centro Street and Diamond Avenue, in South Pasadena.  Bistro de la Gare, the restaurant where Minnie Driver and Julie Bowen ate on Modern Family, is located less than a block away at 921 Meridian Avenue.