Jaina Lee Ortiz – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 7, 2017July 5, 2017

Off Limits Cocktail Lounge from “Rosewood”

I’m still in quite a bit of shock – not to mention completely heartbroken – over the recent cancellation of Rosewood. The cancellation was especially stinging being that there are a couple of locations from the former Fox series that I stalked, but have yet to blog about – namely Off Limits cocktail lounge, the supposed Miami-area dive-y bar that Dr. Beaumont ‘Rosie’ Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) and partner Det. Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz) regularly frequented. In reality, the watering hole (which, like Rosewood, was recently shut down) can be found in Orange County – Anaheim, to be exact – where the vast majority of the Florida-set series was lensed.

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I discovered this locale thanks to an April 2016 The Orange County Register article in which Rosewood co-executive producer Vahan Moosekian was quoted as saying, “We were scouting locations for a bar and house and we looked all over and we found them in Anaheim. The house (on Lemon Street) looked like it belonged in Florida and then we found the (Off Limits) bar just a few miles away.” Thank you, OC Register!

Sadly, by the time I stalked the place in mid-March of this year, it had been shuttered, so I only got to see the exterior. Yelp still has photos of the interior posted, though. You can check them out here.

As I learned from commenters on Off Limits’ Facebook page, the bar’s owner passed away earlier this year and the property was subsequently sold. Much to the dismay of the many longtime regulars, the site’s future is currently up in the air.

Thankfully, the watering hole’s signage has been left intact for the time being.

And what fabulous signage it is!

I’m kind of obsessed. I absolutely love retro roadside signs.

Off Limits cocktail lounge was originally established way back in August 1990. Prior to that, the space housed an upscale cook-your-own steak eatery/piano bar known as The Roberts Room.

Off Limits first popped up in Rosewood’s second episode, titled “Fireflies and Fidelity.” In the episode, Villa explains to Rosie that she “basically grew up” at the bar, spending many afternoons drinking Arnold Palmers while her dad hustled money out of gullible pool players. Despite her classification of the place as a “dump,” it holds special meaning for her. She says, “It’s my sanctuary. Some people go to church. I come here.”

The bar went on to become Rosie and Villa’s regular hangout, appearing almost weekly on the series.

It was utilized so often, in fact, that I am surprised a set re-creation of it wasn’t built at MBS Media Campus, the Manhattan Beach studio where the show was shot. That does not appear to have been the case, though. From what I can tell, the many scenes that took place at Off Limits were actually shot on location at the bar.

Though it was Off Limits’ interior that was mainly featured on Rosewood, the exterior – with its fabulous sign – did show up on occasion.

Off Limits was only utilized throughout Rosewood’s first season. Though it was never discussed on the series, Rosie and Villa just stopped hanging out there during Season 2.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Off Limits cocktail lounge from Rosewood was formerly located at 819 South Euclid Street in Anaheim. The site is currently closed.

June 23, 2017June 21, 2017

Daisie Villa’s Houseboat from “Rosewood”

While I love the ocean, the thought of living on a houseboat has never appealed to me – that is until I caught a glimpse of the idyllic floating home belonging to Daisie Villa (Lisa Vidal) on the recently cancelled Fox procedural Rosewood. I became obsessed with the charming structure upon first seeing it in the Season 1 episode titled “Bloodhunt and Beats,” which aired in November 2015, and immediately attempted to track it down. I was unsuccessful in the hunt, though, and started to suspect that the picturesque liveaboard might be a façade built by producers solely for filming. Cut to May of this year. While doing some research on the Huntington Beach Civic Center, which masked as the East Miami Police Department on the series, I came across information about the houseboat’s location on Seeing Stars and just about passed out from excitement. The only problem was that when I took a look at aerial and street view imagery of the spot mentioned, there was no houseboat to be found. So I called in my friend/fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, who quickly figured things out for me.

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According to Seeing Stars, Daisie’s houseboat is located at Island Yacht Anchorage #1 at 1500 Anchorage Road in Wilmington. But as Owen discovered, the floating home can actually be found at Island Yacht Anchorage #2, which is at 700 Shore Road, on the opposite side of the promontory from Island Yacht Anchorage #1. Its exact location is denoted in the aerial view below.

A zoomed-in view of the houseboat’s location is pictured below.

Once Owen pinpointed the right locale, I rushed right out to stalk the place.

I was thrilled to discover that the houseboat is fully visible from the Island Yacht Anchorage #2 parking lot.

In person, the liveaboard did not disappoint.

As I mentioned above, the Rosewood houseboat first appeared in Season 1’s “Bloodhunt and Beats.” In the episode, recent Miami transplant Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz) temporarily moves in with her mom, Daisie, after the hotel where she has been staying closes due to a termite problem.

As you can see below, the pad is just as adorable in reality as it appeared to be onscreen.

Yeah, I think I could live here.

I could not find any information whatsoever about the property online. Because of its massive curb appeal, though, I would not be surprised if it has appeared in other productions.

Rosewood only utilized the houseboat during Season 1. In the episode titled “Thorax, Thrombosis & Threesomes,” Daisie leaves the structure for unnamed reasons and moves in with Annalise, who had found a home of her own in the interim.

Typically, only the north side of the property (pictured above) was shown on the series. That area is not visible from the Island Yacht Anchorage #2 parking lot, sadly. But in the episode titled “Paralytics & Priorities,” Villa has a discussion with Dr. Beaumont Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) on the porch of the home’s west side, which is visible.

From the way the episodes were shot, I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the houseboat was also utilized on the series.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend/fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Daisie Villa’s houseboat from Rosewood is located at Island Yacht Anchorage #2, which can be found at 700 Shore Road in Wilmington. The property can be a bit tricky to pinpoint via GPS. For those wanting to make the trip themselves, take Anchorage Road south to Shore Road and make a right. Shore Road curves around to the right and dead ends into the parking lot for Island Yacht Anchorage #2. Daisie’s houseboat is situated at the north tip of the parking lot.

May 19, 2017May 18, 2017

East Miami Police Department from “Rosewood”

I was saddened to learn of the cancellation of Rosewood last week. Yes, I said in recent posts (here and here) that the show had jumped the shark, but I was holding out hope that it would return strong for a third season. Unfortunately, as Fox announced last Tuesday, that is not to be. Even worse, because the series was given the ax after the Season 2 finale had already aired, there will not be closure to any of the main storylines, namely the will-they-or-won’t-they relationship of the two leads, Dr. Beaumont “Rosie” Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) and Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz). My fingers are crossed that the procedural will be rescued à la Timeless (which I am SO thrilled about it), but I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime, I thought I’d blog about one of the main locations used on the now defunct series – the Huntington Beach Civic Center, which stands, ahem, stood in for the East Miami Police Department where Rosie and Villa work, ahem, worked.

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The Huntington Beach Civic Center was constructed between 1972 and 1974 to replace the city’s former civic center, which was built in the early 1920s.

The 187,000-square-foot modernist complex, which sits on a 14.28-acre plot of land, was designed by both Meyer & Allen Associates and the Honnold, Reibsamen & Rex architecture firm.

The Meyer & Allen website states that the site was “designed for service to citizens, rather than a monument to government” with “a flexible, open-end plan that can adjust to and grow with the requirements of an expanding local government.”

The center, constructed mainly out of concrete, is comprised of 5 main areas – a 5-story Administration Building, which houses City Hall, a 1-story Development Building, a 1,000-seat amphitheatre, a Police/Public Safety Building, and Council Chambers.

It is the Administration Building that is used on Rosewood.

For those who are not familiar with the series, Rosewood is set in Miami, Florida. While almost all filming took place in Los Angeles, the pilot was actually shot on location in The Magic City. In the episode, Miami City Hall, located at 3500 Pan American Drive, masked as East Miami PD.

Beginning with episode 2, titled “Fireflies and Fidelity,” filming moved to the L.A. area (namely Orange County) and the Huntington Beach Civic Center made its first appearance as East Miami PD.

Both the west side of the Administration Building (pictured above) and the east side (below) are utilized on the series.

I was most excited to see the east side, which is where Rosie got his car back in Season 2’s “Mummies & Meltdowns.”

The spot where the gang waited for him, posed in front of his beloved canary yellow 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible, can be found at the bottom of the steps leading to the Civic Center’s east parking lot.

In person, the center looks much the same as it does onscreen, minus a few East Miami Police signs.

While I was posing for my obligatory photo in front of the location, a couple walked by and said, “Yep, you’ve found it! East Miami PD!” The friendly duo then told us that Rosewood had also done some filming at the Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center just up the street, so the Grim Cheaper and I headed right on over there. I so love receiving unexpected filming tips from locals! (If you missed my post on the library, you can read it here.)

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Huntington Beach Civic Center, aka East Miami Police Department from Rosewood, is located at 2000 Main Street in Huntington Beach.

March 24, 2017March 19, 2017

The Villa Del Sol from “Rosewood”

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon is a term used to describe the experience of coming across an obscure word, thing, or piece of information for the first time and then subsequently happening upon references to that same word, thing, or piece of information on a regular basis. I had never heard of it until fellow stalker/guest poster extraordinaire Michael (you can read the many articles he has written for IAMNOTASTALKER here) mentioned it to me while discussing Haskell’s Ice Cream Hut from The Brady Bunch, a locale he tracked down back in 2014 that he has since seen pop up in several other productions. We have encountered so many instances of Baader-Meinhof lately that Michael recently suggested we rename the phenomenon after the two of us in regard to filming locations. Case in point – while watching the Season 2 episode of Rosewood titled “Half-Life and Havana Nights” in early December, I became a bit fixated with the supposed “Cuba” courtyard where Dr. Beaumont Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) and Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz) interrogated a suspect. After a bit of research, I discovered that the courtyard was part of a historic building known as The Villa Del Sol in Fullerton. I had never heard of the place, but quickly added it to my To-Stalk List. Well, not 48 hours later, I was poring over the December issue of Westways magazine and was shocked to see The Villa Del Sol featured in a Local Outings blurb. The article made me even more obsessed with seeing the site in person, so when I found out that my dad had a doctor’s appointment in Orange County last week, I informed the Grim Cheaper that we would be tagging along in order to do some Rosewood stalking.

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The Villa Del Sol was originally built as a luxury lodging known as the California Hotel. Construction on the three-story property took place from January 1922 to January 1923.

The Spanish Colonial-style hotel was designed by architects Frank Benchley and Morien Eugene Durfee.

At its inception, California Hotel consisted of ground-level shops, 22 suites, 55 single rooms, and a courtyard that opened to what was then Spadra Road (today it’s Harbor Boulevard). You can see some photographs of what the picturesque site looked like during its early days here and here.

In 1964, the hotel underwent a renovation, was expanded, transformed into a commercial building, and re-named The Villa Del Sol. During the remodel much of the structure’s Spanish Revival detailing was removed. The building’s courtyard was also closed off from the street, creating a peaceful little oasis shaded by tall palm trees.

In 1992, the property was remodeled once again after being purchased by Dunlap Real Estate Investments. The group revitalized the site, bringing back much of its original design.

Today, the marketplace houses restaurants, boutiques, and office space. One of the eateries, The Cellar, is not only reportedly haunted, but was designed by the same people who were responsible for The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland! Sadly, it was closed when we were there, but it’s on my list for a re-stalk.

The Villa Del Sol is absolutely idyllic. It comes as no surprise that the quaint site is one of the O.C.’s most popular wedding venues. What is rather surprising is that, outside of Rosewood, I could find no other instance of filming on the premises.

In “Half-Life and Havana Nights,” Rosewood and Villa head to Cuba to get information from a fake I.D. maker named Lorenzo ‘Lo Down’ Veras (Roberto Sanchez).

They wind up encountering him in The Villa Del Sol’s courtyard, which masked as a busy Cuban marketplace.

In the scene, Lo Down was holding court in the southern section of the courtyard, near the entrance to Green Bliss cafe.

The Villa Del Sol’s second floor also appeared in the episode, portraying the Cuban apartment building where Michelle Kelly (Joy Brunson) lived.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Villa Del Sol, from the “Half-Life and Havana Nights” episode of Rosewood, is located at 305 North Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.