Counterpoint Records and Books from “A Lot Like Love”

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I obviously need to start paying closer attention to things because for years I was under the impression that all of the locations from fave movie A Lot Like Love had been tracked down.  But while scanning through the 2005 romcom to make screen captures for my recent post on the home where Oliver’s (Ashton Kutcher) parents lived in the flick, I just about fell out of my chair when I realized that one spot remained unearthed – the record/book store where Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet) met – or I guess I should say “re-met” – her future fiancé, Ben Miller (Jeremy Sisto).  Being that unknown locales plague me like no other and that there’s pretty much nothing I love more than a good book shop, I immediately set about IDing the place.  As fate would have it, the hunt turned out to be one of the easiest of my entire stalking career.

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In A Lot Like Love, Emily reconnects with Ben, after initially meeting him at a mutual friend’s wedding, at a spacious record/book store where the two banter over the last copy of an import CD they both want.  Feeling lucky, I headed to Google, inputted “large record bookstore Los Angeles” and the very first result kicked back was for Counterpoint Records and Books at 5911 Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood Hills.  One look at images of the place told me it was the right spot.  If only all of my searches were so simple!  So to the top of my To-Stalk List the site went and I headed right on over there a few weeks later.

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Counterpoint Records and Books was originally established by John Polifronio and his then girlfriend/now wife Susan way back in 1979 as a classical music boutique that operated out of the back of The Book Treasury, formerly located at 6707 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

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Because of the Boulevard’s rather sketchy nature at the time, the couple decided to relocate the following year and sublet a 600-square-foot portion of a frame store in the more shopper-friendly Franklin Village.

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Popular from the get-go, it was not long before John and Susan needed to expand, first taking over the entire frame shop and then spreading over into the storefront next door.

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The couple also soon decided to branch out.  Longtime collectors of rare and used books, John and Susan eventually found their home overflowing with volumes and elected to incorporate the excess tomes into their inventory.

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In 1997, the duo purchased the building that houses Counterpoint, which Susan said in a 2012 interview was the saving grace in the store’s longevity.

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The shop, which teems with colorful leaflets, thick novels, stacks of vinyl, copies of used VHS and cassette tapes, and racks upon racks of CDs, remains extremely popular today with locals and visitors alike.

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Even actor Ron Livingston is a fan and included Counterpoint in his itinerary for a My Favorite Weekend column for the Los Angeles Times in 2006.

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It is not hard to see why the store became such a neighborhood staple.  Counterpoint Records and Books is warm, friendly and inviting.  The employees that I spoke with not only invited me to take as many photos of the place as I wanted, but spent quite a bit of time chatting with me about the various filmings that have taken place on the premises over the years.  Though, shockingly, not a one of them knew about A Lot Like Love!

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In the movie, Emily and Ben reconnect while perusing the long CD rack in the middle of the store.  Though that area of the shop is largely unchanged from the time that filming took place, the sections around it have been moved.  During the shoot, the Religion, Philosophy and Occult sections were situated behind the CDs, but today those shelves house Fiction, as you can see below.

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Philosophy and Religion can now be found on the opposite side of the room.

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I was thrilled to see that, despite the move, the signage still looks exactly as it did onscreen.

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There seems to be a bit of confusion concerning some of Counterpoint’s other cinematic appearances floating around online, so I’ll do my best to clear up the misinformation here.

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The shop did pop up at the beginning of Prince’s 2004 “Musicology” music video, which you can watch here.

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While many websites state that Counterpoint made an appearance in the 2010 movie Beginners, it was only featured in the trailer (which is where the still below comes from), not the actual film.  It seems that the scene shot on the premises wound up on the cutting room floor.  To confuse matters further, a different L.A. book boutique – the now defunct Cosmopolitan Book Shop at 7017 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood – does cameo a few times.  It is there, not at Counterpoint, that Oliver (Ewan McGregor) and Anna (Melanie Laurent) peruse The Joy of Sex.

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Counterpoint Records and Books pops up in Olly Murs’ 2012 “Troublemaker” music video, which you can check out here.  (I would be remiss if I did not mention that Olly is such a cutie!  I had never heard of him until writing this post and was pleasantly surprised to find while watching his video that he reminds me quite a bit of Michael Bublé in looks and mannerisms.)

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Though Curbed Los Angeles reports that Joan Crawford’s (Jessica Lange) book signing in the Season 1 episode of Feud: Bette and Joan titled “You Mean All This Time We Could Have Been Friends?” was shot at Counterpoint, that information is incorrect.  Perplexingly, the website even goes so far as to say “According to [production designer Judy] Becker, the production team built a book-signing station for the scene, which Counterpoint opted to keep after filming concluded.”  But, as you can see below, the two-story venue that appeared in the episode looks nothing like Counterpoint.  Filming actually took place at the Philosophical Research Library at the University of Philosophical Research located at 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Feliz.  You can check out some photos of the space here and here.

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Counterpoint Records and Books, from A Lot Like Love, is located at 5911 Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood Hills.  You can visit the store’s official website here.

The “Swingers” Apartment Building

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One location that I stalked quite a few months back, but for whatever reason have yet to blog about is the Los Feliz apartment building where Mike (aka Jon Favreau) lived in the 1996 comedy Swingers.  I had actually been wanting to stalk this location for quite some time, ever since reading on the IMDB trivia page for Swingers that Jon Favreau had lived there while writing the screenplay for the movie and during the actual filming.  IMDB even had the address of the building – 5874 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz – listed on  its Swingers filming locations page, but when my husband and I showed up to stalk the place we discovered that such an address did not actually exist.  At first I thought that the Swingers building had quite possibly been torn down, but, as it turns out, the information posted on IMDB was actually incorrect.  While looking for the apartment numbered 5874, I noticed the building located at 5870 Franklin Avenue and thought it looked very similar to where Mike had lived in Swingers, so my husband and I ventured over there for a closer look.  And amazingly enough we found our answer in a very cool way while doing so!

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As it turns out, and as you can see in the above photograph, there is a Swingers poster hanging on the wall of the building’s lobby, which we spotted while peeking in through the front windows.  Once I saw that poster, I knew we had to be in the right place!  So incredibly cool!  I am not sure why there is also a Batman poster displayed in the lobby, being that Batman was filmed in its entirety in England, but I am guessing that maybe someone involved in the production had lived in the building at one time or another.

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In real life, the Swingers apartment building is named Chateau Marcella and it was originally built in 1928.  Due to the building’s detailing and character, I assumed it was mostly likely a historic structure of some sort, but sadly I could find absolutely no information about it online.  Like nothing, nada, zip.  Not even a single Yelp report stating whether or not it was a nice place to live!

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But I am happy to report that the building looks very much the same today as it did back in 1996 when Swingers was filmed.

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Not only did Jon Favreau live at the Chateau Marcella while Swingers was being filmed, but his real life apartment even stood in for Mike’s apartment in the flick!  Which makes sense because according to some of the behind-the-scenes information that I have found about the movie online, the Swingers’ shoot was a very low budget one.  So, I am guessing that to cut down on costs, Jon decided to use his own apartment for the filming instead of paying to rent out a location for days on end. 

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I believe that the filming of Swingers took place inside of apartment 382, as in the scene in which Mike comes home after first meeting Lorraine (aka Heather Graham), he opens his front door and a number is just barely visible.  I believe that number is 382, but don’t quote me on that as it is very hard to make out.  According to IMDB’s trivia page for Swingers, actor Adam Scott also lived at Chateau Marcella during the time that Swingers was being filmed.

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The apartment also boasts a fabulous view of the Hollywood sign.  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Chateau Marcella, aka the Swingers apartment building and actor Jon Favreau’s former home, is located at 5870 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz.  The 101 Coffee Shop, where Mike and his friends hung out in the movie, is located just a few blocks west of the apartment building at 6145 Franklin Avenue.

The 101 Coffee Shop from “Swingers”

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One location that I have wanted to stalk ever since moving to Los Angeles over a decade ago, but didn’t because there were numerous erroneous reports floating around online which stated that the place had since closed down, was the 101 Coffee Shop which appeared in the 1996 movie Swingers.  It wasn’t until Mike, from MovieShotsLA, pointed out the restaurant to me while driving by it after we finished our tour of Paramount Studios back in September that I realized the location was, indeed, still open for business.  I added the cafe to the top of my “To Stalk” list that very day and when fellow stalkers Lavonna, Beth, Debbie, and Connie came out from Ohio for a Hollywood stalking trip a few weeks later, we all hit the place up for a quick bite to eat.

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Apparently, there is quite a bit of confusion surrounding this particular location, so I thought I’d put all the mystery to rest with today’s post.  The diner, which is located on the first floor of the Best Western Hollywood Hills Hotel, originally opened in the 1930’s and was named the “Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop”.  In 1994, the restaurant, which was faltering at the time, was taken over by a French chef named Susan Fine Moore and her husband, Michael, who revamped the property’s interior and updated its menu to include an array of standard comfort foods along with some Mexican dishes.  Of the new menu, which vacillated greatly from L.A.’s typical low-fat fare, Fine said, “We kind of pride ourselves on being an oasis from all that craziness.  There’s a new diet, a new fad every week, but actually people seem a little bit less obsessed than they used to be about diets.  Otherwise we wouldn’t be so busy.  Generation X is lovely – they’ll eat anything.  And the older generation is figuring, I suppose, who wants to live to 108 if you can’t put butter on your potato?”  Love it!  The Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop really started to take off under the helm of Susan and Michael and it was at that point that the place, thanks to its high-quality food and laid-back attitude, started attracting celebrities.  A few stars who were known to frequent the diner include Brad Pitt, my girl Jen Aniston, Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnny Depp, Andy Garcia, Minnie Driver, Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, and Kevin Spacey.  After losing their lease in July of 2001, Susan and Michael moved their restaurant two miles east to a new location at 1745 North Vermont Avenue, but the place, sadly, closed down shortly thereafter.  In the meantime the former Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop space was leased to new owners – Warner Ebbink and Brandon Boudet of the Eat Heavy Restaurant Group – who opened a new eatery in its place.

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That new restaurant is named the 101 Coffee Shop and, let me tell you, it is a VERY cool place.  Ebbink, who has a passion for architecture as well as food, redesigned the property’s interior himself, modeling it after the old-time cafes of the ‘60s and ‘70s.  Boudet serves as the head chef and, under his tutelage, the eatery still serves up high-quality comfort food, including macaroni and cheese, meatloaf and gravy, and tuna melts.  For the foodies in your group, more highbrow offerings, like the Grilled Tandoori Salmon Sandwich, the Kale “Greek” Salad, and the Grilled Albacore Tuna Burger, are also on the menu.  And, despite the change in ownership, the restaurant is still a big time celebrity hotspot.  Fellow stalker Chas ran into both Nicolas Cage and Matt LeBlanc on two separate occasions while dining at the cafe.  So, while the Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop is no longer in operation, the 101 Coffee Shop is alive and well, and, despite the remodel, is still very recognizable from Swingers.

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Then out-of-work actors Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau actually wrote the screenplay for Swingers over several meals at the Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop.  (The restaurant seems to be something of a lucky charm for writers as the pilot episode of the extremely successful CBS comedy series Everybody Loves Raymond was also penned in one of the cafe’s back rooms.)  According to a November 1998 New York Times article, Favreau and his good friend Vaughn used to frequent the diner regularly.  Of the restaurant, Favreau said, “It was like a family atmosphere.  We didn’t have a lot of money, and I lived in a tiny apartment up the block.  I loved the people who ran the place, who made you feel like a big shot, even if you weren’t.  Very good portions – you never left hungry.”  Once the screenplay was sold, Favreau decided to use the restaurant as a filming location for no less than three scenes in the movie!  The Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop first appears in the opening scene in which Mike (aka Favreau) talks to Rob (aka Sex and the City’s Ron Livingston) about how to get his girlfriend back.

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That scene was filmed in the second booth to the left of the restaurant’s main door, which, despite the remodel, still looks very much the same today as it did in the movie.

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The scene in which Trent (aka Vince Vaughn) tells Mike that he is “all growns up” was also filmed at the cafe.  The booth where that scene was filmed is, sadly, no longer there.  It looks as if the restaurant also had some sort of a grocery section at the time the movie was filmed, but it no longer does today.

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The movie’s ending scene, in which Trent thinks a fellow diner is making goo-goo eyes at him, also took place at the former Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop.

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In more recent years the coffee shop stood in for Winkie’s, the diner where Lorelai (aka Lauren Graham), Rory (aka Alexis Bledel), and Emily Gilmore (aka Kelly Bishop) stopped to grab a bite to eat while on their way to North Carolina to attend Mia’s wedding in the Season 7 episode of Gilmore Girls titled “Gilmore Girls Only”.

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Randomly enough, Gilmore Girls filmed in pretty much the exact same spot where Lavonna, Debbie, Connie, Beth, and I ate lunch!  🙂  So cool!

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In the Season 1 episode of Entourage titled “Date Night”, Vincent Chase (aka Adrian Grenier), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (aka Kevin Dillon), Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly), and Turtle (aka Jerry Ferrara) grab some breakfast at the cafe on the morning of Vince’s big movie premiere.

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Some filming for that episode also took place outside of the coffee shop.

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The Entourage boys returned to the cafe to film the Season 7 episode of the show titled “Buzzed”, in which Turtle’s credit card is rejected after he tries to pick up the gang’s lunch tab.

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The coffee shop was also featured twice in the 2007 movie In the Land of Women. It was first seen in the opening scene in which Sofia Bunuel (aka Elena Anaya) breaks up with Carter Webb (aka Adam Brody).

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And it was used in the ending scene in which Carter meets Janey (aka fave actress Ginnifer Goodwin).

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The 101 Coffee Shop, aka the former Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop from Swingers, is located at 6145 Franklin Avenue, on the first floor of the Best Western Hollywood Hills Hotel, in Hollywood.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.