Rent-A-Swag from “Parks and Recreation”

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (10 of 15)

Back in early May, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me to let me know that he had just tracked down Rent-A-Swag – the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area high-fashion rental store for teenagers owned by Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) on fave show Parks and Recreation. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it – Starbucks in hand (but to be fair when do I not have a Starbucks in hand? Winking smile) – while visiting Los Angeles this past Memorial Day weekend.

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While watching the Parks and Rec Season 5 finale, which was titled “Are You Better Off?”, Owen had spotted an address number placard with a missing digit (120-9) on the exterior of the Rent-A-Swag storefront. His eye was immediately caught by that missing digit and his interest piqued, so he decided to begin searching for the locale. Thankfully, the hunt was an easy one and he wound up finding the shop at 12059 Ventura Place in Studio City.

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And while Owen and I had both assumed that the 5 had been removed during the Parks and Rec shoot in order to thwart the efforts of us stalkers, that does not appear to have been the case. As you can see below, the digit is missing in real life, too, which I was shocked to discover!

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (5 of 15)

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (6 of 15)

In real life, the Rent-A-Swag storefront is vacant and looks to have been so for some time, which is probably how it came to be used on Parks and Recreation. The 4,000-square-foot space, which is currently divided into two separate units, most recently housed a branch of the US Postal Service. In January, EaterLA reported that the property was rumored to be the site of the future Valley outpost of the popular mid-city restaurant Joan’s on Third. And while Joan’s founder Joan McNamara did talk about opening a cafe in a former post office on Ventura Place in this April 2012 Los Angeles Times article, as you can see below, the site is still presently available for lease, so that venture appears to have fallen through.

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (2 of 15)

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (1 of 15)

Unfortunately, the GC and I showed up to stalk the site on Sunday morning, smack-dab in the middle of the highly-popular Studio City Farmers Market which takes place directly in front of Rent-A-Swag, so I was not able to get the greatest of photographs.

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Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (13 of 15)

Rent-A-Swag first showed up in the Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Pawnee Commons” and has been featured fairly regularly ever since.

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In “Pawnee Commons”, Tom rents out a space, which he states in a later episode is located on Durham Avenue, to house his latest brainchild – a store in which he will lease his expensive threads to tweens. Of the new venture, he says, “I started a business where I rent my fancy clothes to teens so their parents don’t have to buy them nice things they’ll just grow out of. So if you see a 14-year-old kid wearing a Louis Vuitton cravat, you know who to thank – me . . . and Louis Vuitton, for making some dope-a*s cravats.” LOL In “Pawnee Commons”, Tom enlists his Parks and Recreation Department co-workers to help him get the space, which is in pretty dire straits, ready for the grand opening. The real life interior of the store, which you can see pictures of here, was also used in the episode, as well as in several episodes since.

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The group’s first go at the renovation turns out rather dire, as well, so they wind up remodeling it twice in the episode.

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The final result is pictured below.

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In an odd twist, while scanning through Season 5 episodes of Parks and Recreation to make screen captures for this post, I discovered that the other side of the Rent-A-Swag storefront (as I mentioned earlier, the space is currently divided into two separate units) was used as the Pawnee VideoDome/XXX Adult DVD Emporium in the episode titled “Bailout”.

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (9 of 15)

In “Bailout”, Councilwoman Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) petitions the city council to declare Pawnee’s local video store, Pawnee VideoDome, a historical landmark to prevent its impending closure. Leslie succeeds, but the site winds up re-opening as a pornographic video shop – owned in part by the government. LOL

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The real life interior of the space was also used in the episode.

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I was shocked to learn, while doing research for this post, that the very same location was used in another of Owen’s favorite shows – Seinfeld. The Rent-A-Swag storefront popped up briefly in the Season 4 episode titled “The Trip (2)”, which aired in 1992, as the spot where Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) and George Costanza (Jason Alexander) watched as two policemen arrested a man for attempted robbery. At the time, the space housed the Bicycle Shack bike store and looked quite a bit different than it does today. Although, structurally still the same, since the time that Seinfeld was filmed, a large awning has been added, significantly altering the look of the place.

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The location also appeared in 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III, in the background of the scene in which Det. Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) jumps out of a car to escape from Jon Flint (Hector Elizondo).

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You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (7 of 15)

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Rent-A-Swag from Parks and Recreation is located at 12059 Ventura Place in Studio City.

Diane’s House from “Parks and Recreation”

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Back in mid-November, a fellow stalker named Vinnie tweeted me to ask if I knew the location of the house belonging to Diane Lewis (whom I had no idea was played by Lucy Lawless, by the way!) – aka the spot where Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) fixed a pothole – in the Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “How a Bill Becomes a Law”.  As luck would have it, fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, had tracked down that particular abode and texted me its address on October 2nd, the very same night that the “How a Bill Becomes a Law” episode first aired.  So I passed along the info to Vinnie and the following day he tweeted me to let me know that he had visited the location and that the pothole patch was still visible!  Well, believe you me, once I heard that, I was bound and determined to stalk the place just as soon as humanly possible.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there a few days after Thanksgiving.

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Finding this location was a snap for Owen because he had done some previous cyber-stalking on the very same street (Margate Street in Sherman Oaks) a couple of years ago while searching for the house where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert (John Krasinksi) bought a lamp in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “Fun Run” (which I blogged about here).  As it turns out, the “Fun Run” home is located almost directly across the street from Diane’s dwelling.  In fact, you can see a sign for Margate Street in the background behind Jim and Pam in the episode.  Love it!

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In real life, Diane’s house, which was originally built in 1955 and is absolutely adorable in person, boasts three bedrooms, two baths, 2,095 square feet of living space, and a 0.20-acre plot of land.  You can check out some interior photographs of the place on an old real estate listing here.

Diane's house Parks and Recreation (2 of 10)

As fate would have it, while we were stalking the house, the super-nice owners came out and chatted with us about the filming of Parks and Recreation and a few other productions that had been shot in the neighborhood.  They also mentioned that they had met fellow stalker Vinnie while he was stalking the place just a few days prior.  Smile

Diane's house Parks and Recreation (10 of 10)

In the “How a Bill Becomes a Law” episode of Parks and Recreation, Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) decides to implement a 311 phone line at the Parks Department so that Pawnee citizens can report any municipal-related problems that they might be having.  While manning the line, Ron takes a complaint from Diane about a pothole that has remained unfixed for months on the street outside of her home.  He responds to that complaint by saying, “Well, Diane, for potholes, you want to speak with Public Works . . .  I understand you’ve tried them four times – government is inefficient and should be dissolved.”  LOL LOL LOL  Gotta love Ron Swanson!  Ron then decides to take matters into his own hands and heads over to Diane’s house to fix the pothole himself, along with a little help from Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt).  As you can see below, Diane’s residence looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did in the episode.

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Diane's house Parks and Recreation (5 of 10)

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Diane's house Parks and Recreation (6 of 10)

I was, of course, most excited to see the pothole patch that Vinnie had told me about, though.

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Diane's house Parks and Recreation (1 of 10)

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Diane's house Parks and Recreation (7 of 10)

I find it so incredibly cool that a vestige of the filming was left behind for all of us stalkers to appreciate for years to come.  LOVE IT!

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The house also showed up in the Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Halloween Surprise”, in the scene in which Ron apologizes to Diane for ruining her daughters’ Halloween.

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While the real life address number of Diane’s residence is 13155, crew members dropped the first 1 to make it 3155 for the filming of the “How a Bill Becomes a Law” episode.  Nothing unusual about that – house numbers are often changed for a film shoot.  But in an odd twist, that number was changed even further – to 155 – just a few episodes later for “Halloween Surprise”.  The Parks and Rec producers must think us stalkers aren’t paying attention or something.  Winking smile

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The owners of Diane’s house also informed us that the residence across the street was used in the “Halloween Surprises” episode, in the scene in which Ron breaks Diane’s daughter’s tiara.

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Parks and Recreation Halloween House (3 of 3)

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Parks and Recreation Halloween House (2 of 3)

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!  Smile

Diane's house Parks and Recreation (3 of 10)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Diane’s house from Parks & Recreation is located at 13155 Margate Street in Sherman Oaks.  The house where Ron broke Diane’s daughter’s tiara in the “Halloween Surprises” episode is located across the street at 13162 Margate StreetThe residence where Pam bought a lamp in the “Fun Run” episode of The Office is located next door to the “Halloween Surprises” house at 5306 Longridge Avenue.  And Oscar’s home from The Office is located just around the corner at 5232 Longridge Avenue.  Quite a popular neighborhood for filming, I’d say!  Smile

Pickwick Bowl from “Parks and Recreation”

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While watching the Season 4 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Bowling for Votes” back in June, I wondered aloud about at which bowling alley filming had taken place.  The Grim Cheaper, who happened to hear me, looked up from his ever-present laptop and said, “That’s Pickwick Bowl – part of Pickwick Gardens – in Burbank.”  Well, I just about fell right off my chair over the fact that he had recognized a filming location (that literally never happens!) and immediately grabbed my iPhone to look up photographs of the place to see if he was right.  Sure enough, he was!  Thanks, honey!  So the two of us ran right out to stalk the alley – and do some bowling – just a few days later.  And I have to say that we had an absolute blast while there!

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Pickwick Gardens, which, in its earliest incarnation, housed a trailer park and swimming pool, first opened in the 1940s and was known as Pickwick Swim Park.  There are rumors that the place was named after the “Mr. Pickwick” character from Charles Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick Papers.  As legend has it, the complex’s original logo featured a cartoon representation of Mr. Pickwick and some Disney imagineers, who worked just down the street, created a replica of it – in the form of a ghost hanging from a chandelier – for the ballroom scene of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride.  Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but it certainly makes for a good story.  Smile In the 1950s, the complex was sold to new owners who changed the name of the place to Pickwick Recreation Center and added an ice skating rink, a 781-space drive-in movie theatre (which has since closed), a restaurant named the Five Horseman Inn (which has also since closed), and a bowling alley.  The Pickwick Pool was, sadly, filled in sometime during the 80s and the area transformed into a spacious, two-and-a-half-acre garden, which is used today as a wedding and event venue and after which the complex is now named.

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On an interesting filming side-note – the Pickwick Drive-In Theatre was where a forlorn Danny Zuko (John Travolta) sang the song “Sandy” in the 1978 classic Grease.  The drive-in was sadly shuttered and demolished in 1989 in order to make way for a strip mall, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from the movie You’ve Got Mail. In an email to Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) writes, “People are always telling you that change is a good thing, but all they’re really saying is that something you didn’t want to happen at all has happened.  My store is closing this week.  I own a store – did I ever tell you that?  It’s a lovely store and in a week it will be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap.”  And while the Pickwick Drive-In strip mall does not currently house a Baby Gap, it does feature a Pavilion’s grocery store, an El Pollo Loco, a Staples, and a dry cleaner – all of which are just as equally depressing.  The one plus?  There is a Starbucks.  Winking smile You can check out some photographs of what the Pickwick Drive-In Theatre used to look like here.

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I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking Pickwick Bowl!  The GC and I spent the entire afternoon there and had such a fabulous time!  Although I was a little bummed out that the bar did not have champagne.  After I came back from inquiring about it, the GC said, “Did you actually think that a bowling alley would serve champagne?”  Um, yes, yes I did!

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Besides being a filming location, Pickwick Bowl is also something of a celebrity hot spot.  Adam Sandler rents out the entire complex each year for his Happy Madison holiday party, at which he has hosted such guests as Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes (and Suri!), AJ Michalka, Aly Michalka, Kate Hudson, Brett Ratner, Penelope Cruz, Jackson Browne, Maria Bello, Kevin James, Bryan Greenberg, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tom Green, Rob Schneider, Demi Moore, Nick Swardson, and David Arquette.  Man, what I wouldn’t give to score an invite to that thing!  Smile Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus were also spotted bowling at Pickwick back in February of 2011.

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In the “Bowling for Votes” episode of Parks and Recreation, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) holds a focus group to see how Pawnee citizens feel about city council candidate Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler).  One particularly crusty man in the group named Derek (Kevin Dorff) announces that he would not vote for Leslie because “she doesn’t seem like the kind of person you could go bowling with.”  Leslie, of course, becomes absolutely fixated by the man’s statement and convinces Ben to host a bowling night for her campaign at “Ricky’s Rock N’ Roll Bowl”, to which she invites Derek in an attempt to win him over.  That, of course, does not happen and Ben ends up punching Derek in the face after Derek calls Leslie a b*tch.  Gotta love P&R!

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While at the alley, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) tells Leslie that Ricky’s Rock N’ Roll Bowl has his “favorite restaurant in Pawnee”.  LOL

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And I just have to say here that I love, love, love that Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) showed up carrying a Louis Vuitton Ellipse MM as his bowling bag!  A man after my own heart, I swear!

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And I am not at all ashamed to admit – despite the fact that several people were laughing at me! – that, while at Pickwick, I bowled granny-style, just like Tom did in the episode.  And I scored more than a few strikes doing so.  Smile

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Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here.  You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And don’t forget to take a look at my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

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Stalk It: Pickwick Bowl, from the “Bowling for Votes” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 1001 Riverside Drive in Burbank.  You can visit the bowling alley’s official website here.

Four ‘N 20 – aka JJ’s Diner from “Parks and Recreation”

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A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Brandon (the very same stalker who told me about the Skyline Residence from fave movie Crazy, Stupid, Love., which I blogged about here) emailed me a list of over twenty Parks and Recreation locations that he had managed to track down.  The one locale on the list that intrigued me the most was the exterior of JJ’s Diner – the local Pawnee-area hangout, known for its superior waffles, that is featured regularly on the show.

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Ironically enough, the exterior of JJ’s Diner is not located in Los Angeles at all, but in Atlanta, Georgia of all places!  The restaurant used for the establishing shots of Pawnee’s most-famous breakfast joint is actually the Landmark Diner located at 2277 Cheshire Bridge Road NE.  I have no idea how producers came to use an out-of-state eatery on the series, but as you can see below, the (craptastic) Google Street View image of the restaurant matches perfectly to what appears onscreen.

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Once I found out that the exterior of JJ’s was located in Georgia, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down the restaurant used for the interior.  I ended up finding it thanks to the unique botanical pattern visible on the booths in the background of the many JJ’s scenes.  I had a hunch that the eatery was located in or around Van Nuys, where the series seems to do most of its filming, so I began searching through images of cafes in that area on Yelp (which is such a fabulous stalking tool, by the way!) looking for booths with that pattern.  Sure enough, it was not long before I came across one on the Yelp page for Four ‘N 20 restaurant in Sherman Oaks.  Yay!  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place a few days later.

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Once I saw the outside of Four ‘N 20 in person, I found it even more odd that producers had opted to use the Landmark Diner for JJ’s exterior because, as you can see below, Four ‘N 20 definitely has a Midwestern feel to it.

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The interior also has a Midwestern feel and it is not too hard to see how it came to be used on Parks and Recreation.  According to a commenter named Kiwi on the Chowhound website, when Four ‘N 20 first opened in 1969, it was located a few blocks north of where it is now.  When that spot was demolished to make way for a car dealership sometime during the ‘90s, Four ‘N 20 moved to its current location, which had formerly been the site of “Chicken, Steak and Chocolate Cake” – a buffet-style restaurant where guests were charged based on their weight!  Not kidding!  Apparently there was a large scale that diners would have to step on before being rung up!  Now if that doesn’t scream “Pawnee” – a city’s whose slogan is “First in Friendship, Fourth in Obesity” – than I don’t know what does!  A CS&CC-style restaurant so needs to be added to a future storyline!  P&R writers, are you listening?

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At the time that Four ‘N 20 first opened, it mainly served pies – hence the name, which the GC did not understand.  I am not sure who his nursery school teacher was, but he/she obviously did not do a very good job!  For those not in the know, the Four ‘N 20 name comes from the “Sing a Song of Sixpence” nursery rhyme, which goes like this: “Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye; Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie.  When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing; Was that not a dainty dish, To set before the king?”  Over the years, Four ‘N 20 expanded its menu choices and also opened up a sister restaurant in nearby Valley Village, but the place is still best-known for its pies.  CBSLosAngeles even named the diner’s pumpkin pie one of the “Best of L.A.”

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The Four ‘N 20 menu is wide and diverse with many comfort food offerings, as well as vegetarian and vegan options – and there’s even a “Fitness Menu” for the Chris Traegers in your life.  Winking smile Glaringly missing from the Four ‘N 20 menu, though, were waffles!  I almost fell out of the booth when I realized that the restaurant did not serve them and just had to make a suggestion to the manager that he add them to the menu – stat!  Heck, he could even create a whole “Pawnee Specials” section!  Man, why do I always have to be the one to think of everything?!? Winking smile For my lunch, I opted for the Crispy Chicken salad which, as you can see below, was amazeballs!  I literally do not think there was one scrap left on my plate by the time I was done with that thing!

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The GC and I had a fabulous time at Four ‘N 20 and the staff could not have been more friendly, although I think a few of them found it odd that we were only dining there because of the place’s many Parks and Recreation appearances. (Check out the super-nice cop we met during our lunch who couldn’t stop photo-bombing me! LOL)

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Four ‘N 20 has appeared in numerous episodes of Parks and Recreation, including Season 2’s “The Master Plan” and Season 3’s “Flu Season” and “Ron and Tammy: Part Two”, just to name a few.  On the show, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) describes JJ’s, which is owned by JJ Lipscomb (Brent Briscoe), as “the unofficial meeting place of Pawnee’s political elite”.

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JJ’s Diner and its waffles are also mentioned regularly on the series.  In the Season 3 episode titled “Time Capsule”, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) puts one of JJ’s menus in the Pawnee time capsule because, as he says, the restaurant is a “Pawnee institution” and “home of the world’s best breakfast dish, ‘the Four Horsemeals of the Eggsporkalypse.’” Just another item that Four ‘N 20 could add to its “Pawnee Specials” menu section! Winking smile

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Oddly enough, though, a different restaurant – Kountry Folks at 8501 Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills, which I have yet to stalk – was used as JJ’s during the show’s first season.  As you can see below, it looks nothing like Four ‘N 20.

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Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here.  You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here.  And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Brandon for finding the location of JJ’s exterior. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The interior of JJ’s Diner on Parks and Recreation is actually Four ‘N 20 located at 5530 Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.  The exterior of JJ’s is the Landmark Diner, which is located at 2277 Cheshire Bridge Road NE in Atlanta, Georgia.  You can check out the Landmark’s official website here.