New York – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 6, 2018September 26, 2018

The New York Yacht Club from “Hannah and Her Sisters”

While filming locations are, of course, my first love, I am all about discovering unique, off-the-beaten-path, non-Hollywood-related landmarks and hidden gems, as well (as evidenced here, here and here). So my interest was immediately piqued when, shortly before my 2016 trip to the Big Apple, my friend/fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, informed me of a building known as the New York Yacht Club that boasts highly unusual ship-like windows. Photos of the structure I found online only served to further my intrigue and I promptly added the site to my stalking itinerary. In person, it did not disappoint. I was completely taken with the whimsical property and snapped numerous photographs of it, never imagining it was a filming locale. So imagine my excitement when I spotted it pop up in Hannah and Her Sisters while scanning through the 1986 dramedy in preparation for my recent post on Bemelmans Bar. Though its appearance in the flick is extremely brief, I figured the building was still most-definitely deserving of a write-up.

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The New York Yacht Club was originally established in 1844 by 9 sailing enthusiasts. Though initially headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, the group moved to its current home, a Beaux Arts-style stunner located at 37 West 44th Street in Midtown, in 1901. Designed by the Warren and Wetmore architecture firm, who also gave us Grand Central Terminal, the stunning structure, which cost $350,000 to complete, features an elaborate maritime-inspired limestone façade with a grand main entrance, fourth floor rooftop terrace, and massive wooden pergola.

The building’s pièce de résistance, though, is a set of 3 towering bay windows that were built to resemble the sterns of 16th Century Dutch ships. The mammoth oriels, situated on the club’s second floor, are held up by carved cascading waves that appear seconds from spilling onto the pavement below.

The galleon-style windows are fanciful, cartoonish, and striking all at the same time and very reminiscent, to me at least, of those located at the rear of Captain Hook’s pirate ship.

Of the Yacht Club’s eccentric design, The New York Times stated in a 1906 article, “Except for the absence of motion, one might fancy oneself at sea.”

Though the NYYC’s exterior is exquisite, its interior is even more impressive, with a Grill Room modeled after the hull of a wooden ship, a sprawling library that houses more than 13,000 books, and an extravagant 100-foot long Model Room that is capped by a giant Tiffany-designed stained glass ceiling. Sadly, only members and invited guests are allowed past the front door to see the spectacle. The rest of us have to make due with admiring the stunning interior from afar via the various photos and videos that can be found online.

In addition to its architecture, the private, invitation-only club is famous for its extensive roster of prominent past and current members which include John Jacob Astor, William F. Buckley Jr., Ted Kennedy, Michael Bloomberg, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, Walter Cronkite, Ted Turner, J.P. Morgan, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The NYYC is also known for having not only won the America’s Cup in 1851, but managing to hang on to the coveted trophy until 1983, when it was lost to the Australia-based Royal Perth Yacht Club.

And the club can add “filming location” to its already-impressive bio. In Hannah and Her Sisters, David (Sam Waterston) takes April (Carrie Fisher) and Holly (Dianne Wiest) on a tour of some of his favorite architectural landmarks, which includes a brief drive-by of the New York Yacht Club.

The club is also visible in the background of the scene in which “Wall Street King” Eli Colton (Tate Donovan) and his drug dealer Harry Ingram (Will Brill) discuss a payoff in the Season 18 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled “Net Worth,” which aired in 2017.

Though some online sources have claimed that the Yale Club scene from the 2000 drama American Psycho was lensed at the NYYC, that is not, in fact, correct. The segment was actually shot at the Consort Bar at The Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto, Canada.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about and taking me to this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The New York Yacht Club, from Hannah and Her Sisters, is located at 37 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan.

July 2, 2018July 1, 2018

The Pierre Hotel’s Cotillion Ballroom from “Scent of a Woman”

“No mistakes in the tango, Donna. Not like life. Simple. That’s what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, if you get all tangled up, you just tango on.” So advises Lt. Col. Frank Slade (Al Pacino) in the iconic tango scene from the 1992 drama Scent of a Woman. Though the segment is widely regarded as one of the most famous in moviedom, conflicting rumors have raged online for years as to where it was shot. At the very least I knew filming had occurred in New York, so prior to my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple, I decided to take a flamethrower to all the misinformation floating around. The various reports I came across online and in stalking books stated that the bit was lensed everywhere from a Plaza Hotel ballroom to the Grand Ballroom at The Pierre to a Waldorf Astoria venue, but none of the spaces seemed to match what was shown onscreen. While perusing the internet for other possibilities, I finally came across an ad for The Pierre in a 1994 issue of New York magazine which mentioned that Scent of a Woman’s famed tango sequence had been shot in the property’s Cotillion Ballroom. One look at images of the site showed me that, although it had changed a bit since filming took place over 25 years ago, it was without a doubt the right spot. So I promptly contacted The Pierre’s marketing department to ask if I could tour the venue during my trip and was thrilled when a very friendly executive sent back an almost immediate response saying she’d be pleased to show me the space. Hoo-ah!

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Overlooking Central Park on New York’s Upper East Side, The Pierre was designed by the Schultze & Weaver architectural firm, who also gave us The Spring Street Tower, the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles, and the landmark Waldorf Astoria. Commissioned by Sicilian-born restauranteur Charles Pierre, the opulent 714-room lodging opened its doors to the public in October 1930, delighting guests with its Georgian-style detailing, large suites, and multilevel public spaces, including the Cotillion Ballroom which originally served as a supper club. (While The Pierre is a noted New York landmark and has played host to countless filmings over the years, for this post I thought it best to solely cover the Cotillion Ballroom. I will be blogging about the hotel itself soon.)

The stunning 91×45-foot ballroom boasts 19-foot recessed ceilings, gilded mirrors, a sunken main floor, two massive crystal chandeliers, Central Park views, tiered draperies, marble railings, relief wall sculptings, and a 500-patron capacity.

In Scent of a Woman, Frank and his young chaperone, Charlie Simms (Chris O’Donnell), pop into the Cotillion Ballroom for cocktails. While there, Frank, who is blind, takes note of a woman named Donna (Gabrielle Anwar) sitting nearby thanks to Ogleby Sisters Soap that permeates her skin and winds up inviting her for a spontaneous tango.

The ballroom was transformed into an luxe restaurant for the scene, with seating, tables, and a buffet set-up added to space.

Pillars, additional marble balustrades and a large bar were also installed for the shoot.

Though the Cotillion Ballroom has been altered over the years, certain elements, such as the ornamental mirrors that line the room and the railings that edge the two raised landings, remain untouched.

Thanks to those details, the Cotillion Ballroom is amazingly still recognizable from its onscreen appearance despite the passage of more than two decades.

Per the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, Scent of a Woman’s ten-minute tango scene took four days to shoot. For the dance itself, which lasted about two and a half minutes, Pacino and Anwar underwent three and half weeks of training with choreographers Jerry Mitchell and Paul Pellicoro.

According to an Entertainment Weekly interview with Anwar, she and Pacino never rehearsed the piece together as the actor “wanted to keep a spontaneity and a freshness to the dance.” His methodology worked because the duo’s performance is effortless, flawless and completely engaging. It is easily one of the best few minutes ever recorded on film.

You can watch the Scent of a Woman tango scene by clicking below. I viewed the clip numerous times while writing this post and could not stop smiling from ear to ear. It just makes me so gleeful. I swear I’ve never been happier writing a post than I was while penning this one!

A couple of other productions have made use of the Cotillion Ballroom, as well.

In the Season 3 episode of The Real Housewives of New York City titled “Rebuked, Reunited, Renewed,” which aired in 2010, Ramona Singer tours the Cotillion Ballroom . . .

. . . and winds up hosting the reception for her vow renewal there.

In the Season 2 episode of Jessica Jones titled “AKA Start at the Beginning,” which aired earlier this year, Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) receives a Women in Law award in the Cotillion Ballroom.

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 Pierre, from Scent of a Woman, is located at 2 East 61st Street on New York’s Upper East Side. The Cotillion Ballroom, where Frank and Donna tangoed in the film, can be found on the hotel’s second floor, just off the Rotunda.

June 29, 2018June 28, 2018

Kate’s Apartment from “Picture Perfect”

I wish I could say I’ve never met a Jennifer Aniston movie I didn’t like, but that is not the case. In fact, the opposite is more true – I’ve rarely met one I truly did enjoy. Picture Perfect fits into the “didn’t like” category. If you haven’t seen the film, this review Paul Tatara wrote for CNN perfectly encapsulates the not-so-titillating storyline. The 1997 romcom did manage to get a bit more interesting years after its release thanks to a 2010 Elle magazine interview with Jen’s costar Jay Mohr in which he had this say to say when asked about his most awkward interaction with a female celebrity – “Being on the set of a movie where the leading woman was unhappy with my presence and made it clear from day one. I hadn’t done many movies, and even though they screen-tested some pretty famous guys, I somehow snaked into the leading role. The actress said, ‘No way! You’ve got to be kidding me!’ Loudly. Between takes. To other actors on set. I would literally go to my mom’s house and cry.” The interviewer immediately surmised the female celebrity Mohr was referring to was JA, but he refused to confirm or deny the hunch. It did not take long for him to spill the tea, though. You can listen to various interviews he’s since given on the subject here and here. Jen’s animosity toward the comedian apparently stemmed from the fact that she wanted then boyfriend Tate Donovan to play her love interest, Nick, in Picture Perfect, but Mohr snagged the role instead. As he tells it, she made him pay dearly for the purported slight. The duo’s onscreen chemistry definitely attests to some friction. Aniston, as plucky ad-exec Kate, really plays the whole being-annoyed-at-Nick-thing a little too well throughout the film. Her disdain for him is palpable in practically every scene and the movie kind of suffers for it, to the point that it is not really believable when she inevitably falls for him at the end. Regardless, when I came across the address of Kate’s apartment from the flick in the book Manhattan on Film, I added it to my stalking itinerary for my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple and headed over there one (rather rainy) morning while in town.

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In Picture Perfect, Kate calls a charming building situated on the corner of West 21st Street and 8th Avenue in Chelsea home.

With its red brick edifice, arched detailing, carved columns, and teal-paned entrance doors, the structure is – dare I say it – picture perfect. It is not hard to see how it came to be used as the residence of the movie’s young, free-spirited, bohemian heroine.

In real life, the 5-story complex, which was originally built in 1900, boasts 13 units, a roof deck, a ground floor nail salon, and an elevator.

The building shows up twice in Picture Perfect. It first pops up in the scene in which Kate coaches Nick, who is posing as her boyfriend for a work event, on the ins-and-outs of their fake relationship.

The site then appears again toward the end of the movie in the scene in which an on-top-of-the-world Kate leaves her apartment to head to work after very publicly “breaking up” with Nick. Little does she realize, though, how much she’s going to miss him.

For whatever reason, at some point after the movie was shot, a secondary door situated just west of the one Kate was shown exiting in the scenes, was added to the building. As you can see in the photographs below as compared to the screen captures above, the white limestone-framed entry with the arched glass awning that stands to the left of Kate’s door was not in existence when Picture Perfect was lensed.

The interior of Kate’s apartment was just a set, which I learned via Mohr’s podcast was built on a soundstage at Silvercup Studios in Queens – a soundstage that Jen walked into on the first day of rehearsals and then promptly and loudly announced to Illeana Douglas (who played Aniston’s friend Darcy in the film) right in front of Jay, “Six guys they screen-tested. Six! The one f*cking guy I hate, that’s the one they hire!” Yikes. In the immortal words of Cher Horowitz, “That was way harsh, Tai!” The scenes shot inside of the apartment set were some of the last of Picture Perfect to be lensed and by that time Jen had decided she liked Jay and instead switched her vitriol to director Glenn Gordon Caron, though Mohr never forgave her for the hell he experienced during the tumultuous shoot. Who knows if Jay’s account of the situation is true, but, for reasons I am not going to get into here, I tend to believe it is. You can check out what the interior of one of the apartments in Kate’s building looks like in real life here and here. The actual units are much less colorful and far sparser than their onscreen counterpart.

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: Kate’s apartment building from Picture Perfect is located at 301 West 21st Street in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.

June 27, 2018June 26, 2018

The Valmont Mansion from “Cruel Intentions”

I have never been a fan of the movie Cruel Intentions (though the 1999 drama does feature one of my favorite onscreen moments). But during my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple, my good friend/fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, took me to stalk the Upper East Side estate that portrayed the Valmont Mansion – where step-siblings Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) lived and wreaked havoc on their friends and enemies – in the flick, and I pretty much fell in love with the place on sight. Known as the Harry F. Sinclair House as well as the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion in real life, the massive French Gothic-style pad is nothing short of stunning. So, in spite of my disdain for Cruel Intentions, I figured the residence was most-definitely blog-worthy.

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Commissioned by railroad tycoon Isaac Fletcher in 1897, the Harry F. Sinclair House took two years to complete. The impressive C.P.H. Gilbert-designed dwelling was modeled after William K. Vanderbilt’s Petit Chateau, formerly located about 30 blocks south at 660 Fifth Avenue. The limestone masterpiece was furnished with an extensively carved façade, a mansard roof, an ornate wooden staircase, a library, a parlor, a ballroom, and an elevator. When Fletcher passed away in 1917, he left the estate, as well as his extensive art collection, to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which immediately turned around and sold the place to industrialist Harry Ford Sinclair.

Shortly after serving 6.5 months in jail for his part in the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal, Sinclair departed the UES manse, selling it to longtime bachelor Augustus Van Horne Stuyvesant Jr., who lived out the remainder of his days there as a virtual recluse. Upon Stuyvesant’s passing in 1953, his furnishings and décor were sold off and the residence was left vacant.

Around that time, the Ukrainian Institute of America, a foundation established to promote Ukrainian art, culture, music, and literature, was looking to expand into a new, larger headquarters. The group quickly honed in on the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, snatching it up for $225,000 in 1955. Today, the site, which has been painstakingly restored and preserved, plays host to special events, art exhibitions, auctions, performances, concerts, lectures, and, of course, filming. Best of all – it is open to the public! Sadly, neither Owen nor I realized that when we stalked it, otherwise we most certainly would have ventured inside to see the stunning interior, which you can check out some photographs of here, here, and here.

The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion popped up numerous times throughout Cruel Intentions.

Only the exterior of the estate was featured in the flick, though.

The lavish interior of Sebastian and Kathryn’s home was just a set built inside of a soundstage in Los Angeles. Production designer Jon Gary Steele had this to say of his concept of the Valmont Mansion, “Most of the story takes place in modern-day New York, but when you walked into the Valmont townhouse, I wanted you to feel like you were walking into a Parisian ballroom. The furniture in the living room was very Louis XIV. We stripped the wood and reupholstered it in a much more modern fabric so the room didn’t feel totally period. Then we added bronze chairs and a bronze table. I didn’t want it to feel like only one piece of the film was period and everything else was modern-contemporary. I wanted the audience to feel like it was a period piece, but once they examined the room and noticed the detail, they would realize the contemporary additions. Because these people have blue-blood money and are very much world travelers, I put in a little bit of everything. There are a lot of French buildings in New York. It’s not uncommon to find people like this now living in places like this.” Interestingly, the set was constructed long before locations managers had secured an estate to serve as the exterior of the Valmont Mansion. When the Harry F. Sinclair House was ultimately chosen, Steele was shocked to discover that the interior closely mirrored his design, “right down to the similar moldings and comparable room dimensions.”

Cruel Intentions is hardly the first production to feature the pad.

In the 1987 comedy Hello Again, the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion portrays the home of Junior Lacey (Austin Pendleton), where Lucy Chadman (Shelley Long) and her sister, Zelda (Judith Ivey), go to ask for funding to start a day care center at the Knickerbocker Hospital.

The interior of the property appears in the movie, as well.

The manse pops up as the exterior of the Manhattan pied-à-terre of Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Ms. Dinsmoor (Anne Bancroft) in 1998’s Great Expectations. Interiors were shot elsewhere, though.

The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion appears numerous times as the both the 1876 and present-day interior of “Albany House,” the home of Leopold (Hugh Jackman), in the 2001 romance Kate & Leopold.

Only the inside of the pad is featured in the flick. The exterior of Leopold’s mansion can be found at 1 Hanover Square in New York’s Financial District.

The property also portrays the alternate-reality home of the Suarez family in the Season 4 episode of Ugly Betty titled “Million Dollar Smile,” which aired in 2010.

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, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for taking me to this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Harry F. Sinclair House, aka the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, aka the Valmont Mansion from Cruel Intentions, is located at 2 East 79th Street on New York’s Upper East Side.

June 18, 2018June 19, 2018

Bemelmans Bar from the “Sex and the City” Movie

I must be in a very New York state of mind because here I am yet again blogging about a Big Apple locale – a city landmark, actually – the iconic Bemelmans Bar, which is situated inside of The Carlyle Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. I first learned about the popular lounge thanks to its appearance in the 2008 Sex and the City movie and stalked it – as well as blogged about it – later that same year. I hardly took any photographs of the watering hole on that visit, though, so the place went right back onto my To-Stalk List for my April 2016 NYC trip. As fate would have it, the Grim Cheaper and I happened to pop in while the bar was closed one morning and the super nice employee we spoke with welcomed us inside to snap some pics. Since then I’ve managed to dig up a few more of Bemelmans’ onscreen appearances, so I figured the site was most definitely worthy of a re-post.

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Bemelmans Bar came to be in the 1940s when famed author and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans, creator of the beloved Madeline children’s book series, was commissioned by The Carlyle Hotel owner Robert Dowling to paint murals on the walls of a new lounge space. In lieu of payment, Ludwig asked for free onsite lodging for himself and his family while he completed the work. The installation, which he dubbed “Central Park,” was finished 18 months later and Bemelmans Bar opened its doors in 1947.

Bemelmans’ playful creation depicts animals such as elephants, rabbits, and dogs frolicking in Central Park during each of the four seasons.

It is the sole Bemelmans commission currently open to the public. As Regan Hofmann stated in a 2014 Punch article, “Of the many murals Bemelmans completed over the years—including the Austrian restaurant Hapsburg House in New York City, a Parisian nightclub on the Île St. Louis and the playroom on Aristotle Onassis’s yacht—the bar at The Carlyle is his only work still intact and available for public viewing.”

Truth be told, though, the murals are no longer entirely the work of Ludwig’s hand.

Not surprisingly considering their age, the pieces have required regular touch-ups and repairs over the years. In fact, The Carlyle Hotel staffs seven full-time painters just to maintain the murals. Their preservation weapon of choice? Wonder Bread! According to Edible Manhattan, during a 2001 restoration, it was found that the best way to remove nicotine stains from the prized paintings was a gentle application of wet slices of the classic white bread.

The bar’s understated décor was carefully chosen to accentuate Bemelmans’ work.

The Art Deco space is comprised of a black granite bar, sleek round glass tables, a 24-karat gold leaf ceiling, large leather banquettes, a grand piano on which live music is played nightly, and lamps with shades that mimic the murals.

The space is cozy, intimate and all-around wonderful.

Bemelmans Bar has long been the stomping ground of visiting elite and local luminaries alike.

Just a few of the public figures who have popped in for a libation or two include Harry Truman, Jackie Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Jean Reno, Al Pacino, Steve Martin, Frank Sinatra, Princess Diana, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, George Clooney, Robert Redford, David Bowie, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Lady Gaga, Liv Tyler, Drew Barrymore, Lorne Michaels, Kate Spade, Zac Posen, Cyndi Lauper, Nick Cannon, Angelica Huston, and Michael Kors.

It is not very hard to see how the site became such a bastion of old New York.

The lighting is dim and hazy (but in the best way possible), the atmosphere fanciful, and the drinks stiff. Some cocktails are even accompanied by a supplemental serving à la a classic diner milkshake. As Richard Carleton Hacker explains in a Robb Report article, “Elegantly presented by red-jacketed waiters, the dry martinis and Manhattans come with an extra-portion ‘sidecar’ carafe kept chilled in ice on the side, so that guests can top up their drinks.”

With its many quiet, tucked away spaces, warm ambiance, and array of film appearances, there is no better place in the city to enjoy an evening out!

In the Sex and the City movie, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) takes Louise (Jennifer Hudson) to Bemelmans for cocktails and the two discuss their respective broken hearts. At the end of the scene, Carrie gives Louise this sage advice on age – “Enjoy yourself – that’s what your 20s are for. Your 30s are to learn the lessons. Your 40s are to pay for the drinks!”

In the book Sex and the City: The Movie, producer John Melfi says, “For the scene where Carrie and Louise go out for drinks, we shot in Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel. No one had ever shot there before.” He is actually incorrect, though.

Back in 2002, six years before Sex and the City was filmed, Bemelmans was featured in Hollywood Ending as the spot where Val (Woody Allen) met up with his ex-wife, Ellie (Téa Leoni), to discuss working together on a new motion picture.

Bemelmans has also popped up in a few productions post-Sex and the City. Arielle (Bérénice Marlohe) has a rather awkward first meeting with Brian Bloom’s (Anton Yelchin) parents, Arlene (Glenn Close) and Sam Bloom (Frank Langella), at the bar in 2014’s 5 to 7.

Several vignettes from the 2015 Netflix Original Holiday Special A Very Murray Christmas were shot at Bemelmans, including Bill Murray’s duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with Jenny Lewis.

In the Season 3 episode of Younger titled “A Kiss Is Just a Kiss,” which aired in 2016, Charles Brooks (Peter Hermann) asks Liza Miller (Sutton Foster) to meet him at Bemelmans, but when she walks in and spots him chatting with her daughter’s friend’s parents, she runs away.

Bemelmans is not to be confused with Café Carlyle, an adjacent lounge boasting similar murals, these by Marcel Vertes. That site was featured in the 1986 dramady Hannah and Her Sisters as the spot where Mickey (Woody Allen) takes Holly (Dianne Wiest) to see a performance by Bobby Short, who played himself.

The exterior of Bemelmans was featured at the end of that scene when Mickey is shown walking home after leaving Café Carlyle.

Gabe (Josh Hutcherson) and Rosemary (Charlotte Ray Rosenburg) attend a concert at Café Carlyle in 2005’s Little Manhattan.

Café Carlyle also popped up a couple of times in A Very Murray Christmas.

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: Bemelmans Bar, from the Sex and the City movie, is located at 35 East 76th Street, inside The Carlyle Hotel, on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit the bar’s official website here.

June 15, 2018May 29, 2020

Tavern on the Green from “Ghostbusters”

I adhere to a “more is more” philosophy. There’s nothing wrong with a little extra! So I, of course, was a huge fan of the landmark Central Park restaurant Tavern on the Green during the time that it was run by the LeRoy family. Though many referred to the place as tacky, garish and over-the-top, I found it nothing short of magical and was devastated when it shuttered in 2010, its whimsical décor and furnishings auctioned off to the highest bidders, its famous Crystal Room dismantled piece by sparkling piece. New York, in my mind, would never be the same. When the property was re-opened under new leadership a few years later, I was curious how the space would compare to its prior self and promptly added it to my NYC To- Stalk List. The Grim Cheaper and I finally made it there for cocktails and appetizers, our good friends Kim and Katie in tow, during our April 2016 trip to the Big Apple. While definitely lacking in extra, the revamped Tavern on the Green did not disappoint. So even though I briefly covered the eatery in a 2008 write-up, I figured it was definitely worthy of a repost.

The Victorian Gothic-style building that now houses Tavern on the Green was originally constructed in 1870 (yes, 1870!) as a sheepfold (aka a sheep pen) for the hundreds of sheep that called Central Park home.

In 1934, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses decided the sprawling Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould-designed structure would better serve as a restaurant and set about repurposing it. The sheep were sent to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, their former barn given a massive renovation, and, voilà, Tavern on the Green was born.

Though popular, the moderately-priced pub went through several ownership changes and remodels in the years that followed. Finally, in 1974, it was purchased by Warner LeRoy, son of The Wizard of Oz producer Mervyn LeRoy and Doris Warner (daughter of Warner Bros. founder Harry Warner), who began an extensive $10 million remodel and expansion of the site that took three years to complete. The result of his efforts was a kitschy, fanciful masterpiece that had to be seen to be believed.

Thanks to LeRoy’s vision, everyday at Tavern on the Green was like Christmas. The 27,000-square-foot eatery was marked by Tiffany stained glass, Baccarat crystal chandeliers, topiaries, massive murals, hand-painted ceilings, mirrored walls, and thousands upon thousands of twinkle lights. The site’s most famous dining area, the Crystal Room, a glass-encased space overlooking the restaurant’s terrace and Central Park, was the glittering cherry on top. Sadly, I failed to take any proper photographs of Tavern on the Green during my visits, but you can check out some images of what it looked like during LeRoy’s tenure here.

It did not take long for Tavern on the Green to become an icon – a restaurant synonymous with the city itself and a must-see spot for locals, tourists and celebrities alike. Just a few of the luminaries who dined there over the years include Grace Kelly, John Lennon, Jennifer Aniston, Liza Minnelli, Seth Meyers, Jon Hamm, Christie Brinkley, George Clooney, Liv Tyler, Drew Barrymore, Alec Guinness, Christian Dior, Martha Stewart, Howard Stern, and Beth Ostrosky.

When Warner passed away in 2001, his wife and daughter took over operations and the place remained as popular and profitable as ever. In 2006, Tavern on the Green was one of the highest grossing restaurants in the U.S., second only to Tao Las Vegas. Sadly, the eatery was hit hard by the economy in 2008 and the following year it was announced that the Parks Department had opted not to renew the LeRoys’ lease. The family served their last meal on the premises on New Year’s Eve 2009 and a massive auction was held shortly thereafter in which all of the colorful décor was sold off. The space subsequently served as a visitor center, of all things, until 2012 when it was taken over by Philadelphia restauranteurs Jim Caiola and David Salama, who began a two-year, $20 million renovation. The new Tavern on the Green opened in April 2014.

Though undeniably beautiful, the restaurant is a far cry from its predecessor. Understated and classic, marked by wood detailing and patterned banquettes, the new Tavern is sleeker and more refined than the LeRoy version. While I did enjoy dining there, I couldn’t help but miss the old Tavern, with all of its over-the-top whimsy. Regardless, I am so thankful that the place is once again open to hungry patrons. The Crystal Room may have long since been razed, the twinkle lights removed from the trees, and the paper lanterns cleared away from the terrace, but the site does still retain some of its former magic.

I really think Caiola and Salama need to reinstate the twinkle lights, though. As I said above, there’s nothing wrong with a little extra – and the Edison bulbs currently strung across the patio just aren’t cutting it.

Thanks to Tavern on the Green’s unique beauty, location managers flocked to it during the Warner days. The eatery most famously appeared in Ghostbusters. It is there that Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) runs while being chased by the “terror dog” and unsuccessfully tries to catch the attention of the patrons inside in the 1984 hit.

Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) heads to the bathroom at Tavern on the Green to meet with the FBI and hand over his taped conversation with Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) at the end of 1987’s Wall Street.

CC Bloom (Bette Midler) and John Pierce (John Heard) take Hillary Whitney Essex (Barbara Hershey) and Michael Essex (James Read) to Tavern on the Green for dinner in 1988’s Beaches.

I am 99.9% certain, though, that only the exterior of the restaurant appeared in the movie and that interiors were filmed elsewhere, likely at an eatery in L.A.

That same year, Tavern on the Green was featured in the opening scene of the comedy Arthur 2: On the Rocks. It is there that Linda Marolla Bach (Liza Minnelli) tells Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) that she cannot have children.

In 2001’s Made, Bobby (Jon Favreau) and Ricky (Vince Vaughn) meet up with Ruiz (Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs) at Tavern on the Green to discuss a money drop.

Alfie (Jude Law) picks up Nikki (Sienna Miller) and her friends in his cab outside of Tavern on the Green one lonely Christmas Eve night in the 2004 movie Alfie.

Boy’s (Anton Yelchin) Senior Prom takes place at Tavern on the Green in 2009’s New York, I Love You.

Post-closing, Tavern played a central role in the 2011 comedy Mr. Popper’s Penguins as the restaurant Mr. Popper (Jim Carrey) tried to buy from Mrs. Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury). Only the exterior of the site was utilized in the filming, though.

Because the space had already been transformed into a visitor center and the Crystal Room had long since been dismantled by the time filming took place, the restaurant’s interior was re-imagined on a soundstage for the shoot. According to the movie’s production notes, production designer Stuart Wurtzel, “re-created the wood-paneled front vestibule of the Tavern, the famous Crystal Room with its ornate chandeliers and flower-filled décor, and approximately twelve feet of Central Park so the views outside the plate-glass windows would look authentic. ‘It’s a sort of emotional composite of how people remember it,’ he says.”

Following its 2014 re-opening, Tavern popped up in the Season 1 episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt titled “Kimmy is Bad at Math!” as the spot where Logan Beekman (Adam Campbell) took Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) on a date. While there, she exclaims, “I can’t believe I’m at the Ghostbusters restaurant!”

It was also there that Luann de Lesseps met with ex-boyfriend Jacques Azoulay to discuss their upcoming comedy show in the Season 12 episode of The Real Housewives of New York titled “Just the Sip,” which aired in 2020.

And while I thought that the Tavern’s lantern-strung terrace was the spot where Mr. Big (Chris Noth) and Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dined in the Season 2 episode of Sex and the City titled “The Caste System,” I contacted the episode’s director, Allison Anders, who informed me that filming actually took place on the rear patio of a private house on the Upper West Side that was dressed to look like a restaurant. Of the re-designed space, she said, “I was so thrilled with the result and that all these years later it rang true for you makes me very happy indeed.”

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: Tavern on the Green, from Ghostbusters, is located at Central Park West and 67th Street on New York’s Upper West Side. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

May 4, 2018May 3, 2018

Big and Carrie’s Apartment from “Sex and the City 2”

Apparently I did a lot of stalking during my April 2016 New York vacation because there are some places I do not even remember visiting. Case in point – while organizing my photos from the trip a couple of days ago, I came across several images of the stately building above which I had no recollection whatsoever of taking – nor did I have any clue what production the structure was from. Thankfully “1030 5th Avenue” was painted on the awning, otherwise I might never have figured it out! Address in hand, I scanned through my NYC stalking list and was shocked to discover that the locale was actually where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mr. Big (Chris Noth) lived in the 2010 flick Sex and the City 2. How I did not recognize it right off the bat is beyond me! I guess I have to chalk it up to some major stalking overload.

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The handsome 13-story property was designed in 1925 by J.E.R. Carpenter, the prolific architect/developer who was not only responsible for more than 25 buildings on the Upper East Side, but was dubbed “the father of the modern large apartment here in New York” in 1932’s The Real Estate Record & Guide.

The stunning 16-unit pre-war building is chock-full of modern amenities.

Deemed a “white-glove” property by StreetEasy, the neo-Italianate-style co-op features a fitness center, an elevator with an operator, a full-time doorman, a canopied entrance, a spacious lobby, and a laundry room.

Situated on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 84th Street, the structure also boasts stunning views of Central Park and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Each apartment is appointed with spacious dimensions, a multitude of rooms, high ceilings, and wood-burning fireplaces.

Considering its tony location and gorgeous trappings, it is not surprising that quite a few celebrities and public figures have called the place home over the years, including Academy-Award-winning producer Wendy Finerman, actor Robert Redford, journalist Diane Sawyer, director Mike Nichols, and CoreComm CEO George S. Blumenthal.

1030 Fifth Avenue pops up twice in Sex and the City 2. It first appears in a beginning scene that shows Carrie leaving her apartment and heading out to meet the girls at Bergdorf Goodman . . .

. . . before transitioning to a flashback of Carrie’s arrival in New York in the ‘80s. As you can see in my photographs as compared to the screen captures above and below, the building’s canopy was swapped out for a striped one during the shoot.

1030 Fifth is featured again a few scenes later when Big and Carrie return home from Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony’s (Mario Cantone) wedding.

In the movie, the building is said to be the same place where the couple purchased a penthouse in the first film. As Carrie narrates, “After Big and I sold the extravagant rooftop penthouse we thought we were meant to live in, we decided that maybe we needed to come a little more down to earth. So we did. Twelve floors to be exact.” In reality, the structure featured in the first flick is located two blocks south at 1010 Fifth Avenue. I blogged about that locale last July. The two sites do bear a striking resemblance to each other, though, as you can see below.

As to why the shift in locales was made from the first to second film, I am uncertain, but producers sure did find an extremely similar replacement.

In Sex and the City 2, Carrie and Big are shown to live in unit 12B.

In reality, the interior of their apartment was just a set built inside of a soundstage at Silvercup Studios in Queens where much of the movie was lensed. You can check out some photographs of what the actual twelfth floor unit, which takes up the entire level, looks like here. The stunning 6-bedroom, 6-bath space is currently for sale for a cool $38 million.

The last time I took a tour of Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, I was thrilled to see Carrie and Big’s “good” couch on display in the Property Department.

And their ottoman . . .

. . . where Carrie is sitting when Big gives her a black diamond wedding ring, which is my favorite scene in the movie. I absolutely love when Carrie says, “It’s gonna be just us two. Are we enough?” And Big responds, “Kid, we’re too much!”

1030 Fifth Avenue also pops up in the 2010 comedy The Good Guy as the building where Tommy Fielding (Scott Porter) lives. (Please pardon the graphics on the images below – I had to snag the captures from the movie’s trailer.)

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: Carrie and Big’s apartment from Sex and the City 2 is located at 1030 Fifth Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018

Tom’s Restaurant from “Seinfeld”

Considering it is one of New York’s best-known film locations, you’d think I would have stalked Tom’s Restaurant, aka Monk’s Café from Seinfeld, ages ago. That was not the case, though. While the Morningside Heights eatery had been on my To-Stalk List ever since my first visit to Manhattan back in 2005, due to the fact that it is located all way at 112th and Broadway, it kept getting pushed to the back burner. Then, while doing research prior to my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple, I came across the following passage in the book The Best Things to Do in New York – “As a rule, comfort food gets better the father uptown you go, and the melts, shakes, and fried chicken at Tom’s are close to perfect.” Near-perfect fried chicken? Say no more! I was not going to pass that up! So straight to the top of my To-Stalk List the restaurant went and the Grim Cheaper and I headed right on over there with our friend Lavonna one of our first days in town.

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Tom’s Restaurant was originally founded way back in 1940 by Greece native Tom Glikas.

He didn’t hold onto the place for long, though. A scant six years later, Glikas sold his namesake eatery to the Zoulis family who continue to own and operate it to this day.

Still situated on the same busy corner on which it was originally established, little of the restaurant has changed throughout the course of its almost 80-year history.

The quality Greek and American offerings, massive menu, affordable prices, and late-night hours turned the diner into a neighborhood staple from the get-go and it remains such today, with locals, tourists, and students from nearby Columbia University alike all popping in for superb comfort food, most of it made from scratch.

Even celebrities have been known to drop by. Over the years such luminaries as William Hurt, John McCain, Larry David, Madeleine Albright, Christopher Reeve, Mike Tyson, Richard Dreyfuss, Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, and Barack Obama have all been seen dining on the premises.

Considering Tom’s long history in New York, it is not surprising that the place found its way onscreen. On Seinfeld, the restaurant popped up pretty much weekly as the regular hangout of Jerry Seinfeld (played by himself), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George Costanza (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards). Though it is arguably the show’s most iconic location, its familiar exterior did not make an appearance until the Season 2 premiere titled “The Ex-Girlfriend.”

Prior to that, the outside of the gang’s favorite coffee shop was only featured on one occasion – in the pilot. For that episode, titled “The Seinfeld Chronicles,” a different exterior was utilized. Located at 208 Varick Street in the West Village, the site is currently home to a McDonald’s (pictured below via Google Street View), but it housed an independent diner at the time that the series started filming. Though the signage shown on Seinfeld reads “Pete’s Luncheonette,” I am fairly certain that was not the establishment’s actual name.

The same restaurant was also utilized in the 1984 comedy The Muppets Take Manhattan as the spot where Kermit the Frog lands a day job while trying to get his Manhattan Melodies musical onto Broadway. In looking at the imagery of Pete’s from both productions, I am fairly certain that what was shown in “The Seinfeld Chronicles” was just recycled footage from The Muppets.

Back to Tom’s. As you can see in the screen capture as compared to the photograph below, though some aspects of the eatery’s exterior, including the windows and wood framing, have changed since Seinfeld was shot, the place is still very recognizable from its onscreen stint. The interior is another story, however.

Only the outside of Tom’s Restaurant appeared on Seinfeld. As is the norm with sitcoms, which are shot in front of a live audience, all of the show’s interior filming took place on studio-built sets. In this case, the Monk’s Café scenes were lensed on a soundstage (Stage 19 during Seasons 1-3 and Stage 9 during Seasons 4-9) at CBS Studio Center, located at 4024 Radford Avenue in Studio City.

I got to see portions of the Monk’s set, including a booth and a wall, when I visited the Warner Bros. “Television: Out of the Box” exhibit at The Paley Center for Media in 2012. (Though, considering many of the items on display weren’t exactly authentic, I cannot say with certainty that the artifacts pictured below are indeed legit.)

The actual interior of Tom’s does not resemble the Monk’s set in the slightest, which made seeing the restaurant in person rather jarring.

Though the place does have a counter . . .

. . . and booth seating, it looks nothing like the spot made famous for its big salads.

While not a big restaurant by any means, Tom’s is also significantly larger than Monk’s. Regardless of the disparities, it was still a huge thrill to finally see the site in person.

And I am happy to report that the assertion made in The Best Things to Do in New York was not wrong. While I opted for chicken strips instead of the fried chicken meal (I never pass up chicken strips when I see them on a menu), they were outstanding – as was the ranch dressing they were served with!

For those wondering how the name “Monk’s Café” came to be, per an article Jerry Seinfeld wrote for New York magazine, the moniker was rather uninspired. He says, “We called the coffee shop Monk’s because there was a Thelonious Monk poster in the office where Larry [David] and I were writing, and we just needed a name.”

Tom’s Restaurant also appeared in the Season 3 episode of The Bionic Woman titled “Long Live the King,” which aired in 1978.

Because The Bionic Woman was filmed in Los Angeles, the eatery was only utilized for establishing shots in the episode. The scene taking place inside the restaurant was lensed elsewhere – either at a actual L.A.-area café or a studio-built set.

Italian director Gian Franco Morini made the eatery the subject of his 2014 film, Tom’s Restaurant – A Documentary About Everything.

That same year, Jerry Seinfeld paid homage to his former series by shooting a Season 3 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee at Tom’s along with fellow alums Jason Alexander and Wayne Knight.

The episode, titled “The Over-Cheer,” finally gave us a shot of George and Jerry sitting inside the actual Tom’s.

Not only is the eatery a filming location, but it also inspired a popular song – Suzanne Vega’s 1987 ditty “Tom’s Diner.” As the singer explained to The Guardian in a 2016 article, “When I was at college in Manhattan in the early 1980s, I used to go to Tom’s Restaurant on 112th and Broadway for coffee. I liked its ordinariness: it was the kind of place you’d find on any corner. One day, I was in there mulling over a conversation I’d had with a photographer friend, Brian Rose, about romantic alienation. He told me he saw his life as if through a pane of glass. I came out of Tom’s with the idea of writing a song about an alienated character who just sees things happening around him. I was walking down Broadway and the melody popped into my head. The line about the actor ‘who had died while he was drinking’ was true: William Holden’s obituary had been in that morning’s paper. The ‘bells of the cathedral’ were those of St. John the Divine up the street, though I made up the bit about the woman ‘fixing her stockings’ and changed ‘restaurant’ to ‘diner’ to make it rhyme.” A fan named David Hammar did a deep dive into figuring out the exact day Vega penned the song (a man after my own heart!) and posted the results of his quest on Suzanne’s official website. Parsing through old newspaper archives and weather reports, Hammar pinpoints the date as November 18th, 1981. Well, sort of. The article makes for a fabulous read. You can check it out here. (For whatever reason, the photo below was not actually taken at Tom’s Restaurant, but at a different establishment.)

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: Tom’s Restaurant, aka Monk’s Café from Seinfeld, is located at 2880 Broadway in New York’s Morningside Heights neighborhood. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

April 13, 2018July 5, 2018

The Barthman Sidewalk Clock

It has been said that you shouldn’t look down when you walk. There are two places in Manhattan where you ought to keep your eyes on the pavement, though. I blogged about one, Hess Triangle in front of Village Cigars, on Wednesday. The other, a clock imbedded in concrete outside of what was once William Barthman Jeweler in the Financial District, has been alerting overhead passersby of the time since 1899! I first learned about the historic curiosity while perusing the book The Best Things to Do in New York shortly before our April 2016 trip to the Big Apple and immediately decided it was a must-see. Even though the underfoot ticker is not a filming location (at least, not that I know of), since it is such an obscure and unique spot and definitely falls into the “Hidden NYC” category, I figured it was blog-worthy, as well.

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The sidewalk timepiece was first dreamed up by William Barthman in 1896 as a way to attract patrons to his downtown jewelry and watch store, which he opened on the corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane twelve years prior. Though large clocks posted at the entrance to boutiques were quite commonplace at the time, one embedded in the sidewalk was a definite novelty and Barthman figured such an unusual mechanism would pique the interest of all who stepped upon it. He conceived of the design himself and enlisted his associate Frank Homm to bring his vision to life. It took Homm more than two years to do so and the piece was finally installed outside of the shop in the fall of 1899.

The original Barthman Sidewalk Clock is not the one pictured above. As you can see in the screen capture below, which I grabbed from a fabulous video posted on the Hodinkee website, in its initial form the piece, a three-window jump hour mechanism with a built-in light that made it visible at night, looked much different. Though it did quickly become an area attraction, luring in those who walked by, in a rather unfortunate twist, when Homm passed away in 1917 he took the secret of maintaining the device to his grave with him. As such, the clock ceased to function, consistently broadcasting the incorrect time to all who took note of it (well, except for twice a day, as the saying goes). In the years following, it served as a source of embarrassment for the store and employees took to covering it over with cardboard each morning prior to opening.

Finally, in 1925, Barthman Jeweler replaced the busted gadget with a working Arabic-style clock. The apparatus has since been refitted and modified on several occasions throughout the years, including a 1983 revamping performed by none other than Cartier. The brass compass rose that currently encircles it was also a later enhancement. In addition to regular winding, the piece still requires quite a bit of maintenance, which is not surprising considering an estimated 15,000 people walk across it each hour during peak intervals. Thankfully, this time around more than one Barthman employee is experienced with the ins and outs of its upkeep and care. According to Gizmodo and The New York Times, the custom-made face, which can withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure, is removed for polishing twice a year and replaced altogether every four due to scratching and clouding. And how are maintenance and repairs achieved, you ask? Via an access point located underneath the sidewalk. You can check out what it looks like here.

Though William Barthman Jeweler is still in existence, it has since moved a few doors down to 176 Broadway and a Vitamin Shoppe outpost now occupies its original space.

Prior to the move, a replica clock was made with the intention that it would be installed in the sidewalk in front of the new store. That was not to be, though. As the Hodinkee website explains, when Barthman’s owners asked for permission for the project, in a rather iconic twist “the authorities had a simple answer: there is only one New York Sidewalk Clock.” The replica was eventually hung above the shop’s main door. Though I did not get any photos of it, you can see it in the Google Street View images below.

Despite the re-location, Barthman employees still maintain the clock via the underground access point.

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 Barthman Sidewalk Clock can be found on the northeast corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane, outside of The Vitamin Shoppe located at 174 Broadway, in Manhattan’s Financial District. William Barthman Jeweler is a few doors down at 176 Broadway. You can visit the jewelry store’s official website here.

April 11, 2018April 10, 2018

Village Cigars from “Just My Luck”

When planning a trip, my M.O. is to pore over as many area travel guides as possible and highlight spots I think the Grim Cheaper and I might be interested in seeing. I then pass the books along to him and he reads through all the passages I have marked, giving them a yay or a nay. One place that really piqued both our interests prior to our April 2016 NYC vacay was Village Cigars, which we learned about via The Best Things to Do in New York. Though the smoke shop is an institution in and of itself, the GC and I were most interested in stalking it because of a small triangular plaque located on the sidewalk out front.

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Originally established in the early 1900s, Village Cigars moved to its current home – a tiny triangular-shaped space situated at the intersection of 7th Avenue South, Christopher Street, West 4th Street and Grove Street in the heart of Greenwich Village – in 1922. Prior to that, a five-story apartment building known as the Voorhis stood at that site. Owned by Philadelphia-based landlord David Hess and his family, the property was acquired by the city via eminent domain in 1910 in preparation for a large subway expansion project that ultimately destroyed pretty much everything in its path – all in the name of saving a few bucks. In order to avoid the expensive process of deep bore tunneling, which would have preserved the buildings situated above, the government instead chose to use a ‘cut and cover’ procedure, i.e. removing streets to allow for subterranean digging and then replacing them upon project completion. As such, an entire stretch of about 300 city buildings, including the Voorhis, were razed and Seventh Avenue South was extended about a mile. A commenter named Tim on the Scouting New York website explains it best, saying, “Seventh Ave. used to end at Greenwich Ave. The cut to Varick St. was made in 1913 so the subway company didn’t have to spend big on expensive drilling, instead they convinced the City to demolish 9 city blocks worth of buildings – churches, businesses and apartments – anything in the path of the new Seventh Ave. South so they could use the cheaper ‘cut and cover’ method.”

You can read a great write-up on the massive undertaking on the Gothamist website here. Included in the article are the 1897 and 1916 maps pictured below (garnered from The New York Public Library Digital Collections) which provide a better visual of how the Seventh Avenue extension changed the landscape of the area. In 1897, the Voorhis (spelled incorrectly as “Vorhes” on the map) occupied lot #55, situated just southwest of Christopher Park (the green triangle denoted “park”). As you can see, the extension not only cut through that lot, but the ones numbered 51 through 54, as well.

Years after the Seventh Avenue expansion was complete, Hess’ heirs discovered that during the imminent domain process the government had somehow failed to secure ownership of a miniscule triangular portion of their former land. So they quickly claimed the rights to it. In an incredibly nervy move, the city then asked the Hess estate to donate the 500-square-inch section of sidewalk to New York. I’ve doctored the 1897 map below with an overlay showing the current position of Seventh Avenue and an arrow denoting the location of the land in dispute.

Not surprisingly, the Hess family refused to donate the plot and instead adorned it with a tile plaque reading “PROPERTY OF THE HESS ESTATE WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEDICATED FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES.” The black-and-white mosaic was installed on July 26th, 1922. To further drive their point home, the family even erected a fence around the signage at one point.

In 1938, the Hess heirs sold the land, one of the smallest plots still in private ownership in New York, for $1,000 to the proprietors of Village Cigars, who chose to leave the 25.5-inch by 27.5-inch by 27.5-inch plaque intact. Today, the tiny patch is known as “Hess Triangle.” You can read a fabulous accounting of the history of the triangle on the Chris Whong website here and here.

Though the plaque has never appeared in a movie or television show (at least that I know of – if I’m wrong please fill me in!), Village Cigars is a frequent screen star.

The store is visible twice in fave movie Just My Luck. It first pops up toward the beginning of the 2006 film in the scene in which Dana (Bree Turner) and Maggie (Samaire Armstrong) decide to test out Ashley Albright’s (Lindsay Lohan) good fortune by purchasing a lottery ticket for her at a magazine stand located across the street from Village Cigars to see if she wins. Spoiler alert – she does.

Later in the movie, after her luck has run out, Ashley heads to Christopher Park, across the street from Village Cigars, with Jake Hardin (Chris Pine) and accidentally sits on a park bench that has just been painted.

Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) passes by Village Cigars numerous times in the 1976 drama Next Stop, Greenwich Village.

At the beginning of the 1980 comedy Hero at Large, Steve Nichols (John Ritter) is dropped off in front of Village Cigars after a Captain Avenger media promotion.

Alice Detroit (Dyan Cannon) asks Ivan Travalian (Al Pacino) to meet up with her outside of Village Cigars in 1982’s Author! Author!

In the Season 2 episode of NYPD Blue titled “The Final Adjustment,” which aired in 1994, Detective James Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) and Leticia Beltran (Marta Martin) walk through Christopher Park with Village Cigars visible in the background.

Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) grabs a hot dog and “a lot of ketchup” with Julian ‘Frankenstein’ McGrath (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) across the street from Village Cigar in the 1999 comedy Big Daddy.

Village Cigars can also be seen in the background of the 2013 drama Inside Llewyn Davis in the scene in which Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) exits a Greenwich Village subway station with his friend’s cat.

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: Village Cigars, from Just My Luck, is located at 110 7th Avenue South in New York’s West Village. Hess Triangle can be found in the sidewalk just outside the shop’s front doors.