Hummingbird Nest Ranch from “Book Club”

Mitchell's House from Book Club (2 of 15)

One of my favorite stalking stories involves the Grim Cheaper and Sex and the City: The Movie, which I saw right when it came out in late May 2008.  I was gifted Amy Sohn’s book about the film for my birthday just a few days later and while it did a fabulous job of breaking down the locales, one that I desperately wanted to find was only mentioned in passing.  Of the Mexican restaurant where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dined with the girls during her non-honeymoon, all that was said was that filming took place in Simi Valley.  As soon as I read those words, though, I knew what I had to do – call up every Mexican eatery in the area and ask if the flick was shot there, obvs!  Now I should mention here that I hate telephone calls.  The GC likes to say that I am scared of the phone and he’s not far off.  So I enlisted his help with this endeavor.  It was a rather humorous undertaking being that none of the people who answered his calls had any earthly idea what he was talking about.  Needless to say, after spending hours on the task, we came up empty – but the whole thing sure was good for a few laughs.  It was not until Mike, from MovieShotsLA, saw the film that the mystery was finally solved.  He recognized the Mexican restaurant, which – spoiler! – isn’t really a restaurant at all, as none other than Hummingbird Nest Ranch, an oft-filmed compound nestled north of the 118 freeway in Santa Susana.  The property is, unfortunately, closed to the public, but is available to lease for special events.  So, since I was newly engaged at the time, it went to the top of my list of spots to tour as a possible wedding venue.  I headed out there soon thereafter, but was struck with bad luck thanks to the reality series Tool Academy which had taken over the property for a weeks-long shoot, thereby severely limiting what I could photograph.  Regardless, when I saw the site pop up as the idyllic “Sedona” ranch belonging to Mitchell (Andy Garcia) in Book Club (one of my favorite movies of 2018 – available on DVD here and via streaming here), I knew I had to finally blog about it.

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Hummingbird Nest Ranch was the brainchild of Metro Networks founder David Saperstein who, in 2000, purchased a 123-acre plot of picturesque land in the hills of Simi Valley for his second wife, Suzanne.  Though a gorgeous 1920s home known as Sitting Bull sat on the property, David envisioned something grander for Suzanne and commissioned architect Richard Robertson to build a massive 17,000-square-foot Spanish-style estate on the grounds for the couple to live in.

Mitchell's House from Book Club (5 of 15)

Mitchell's House from Book Club (6 of 15)

Several other structures were also added including 3 riding arenas, 16 guest and staff houses, and a 20,000-square-foot barn.  That’s the barn below.  Yeah, I know – it’s grander than most homes!

Mitchell's House from Book Club (15 of 15)

There is also parking for 400 vehicles, numerous swimming pools, a spa, a large pond, a helipad, and a solar-panel farm on the premises.

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Mitchell's House from Book Club (14 of 15)

Saperstein filed for divorce from Suzanne in 2005 and subsequently put the ranch on the market in 2007 for $75 million.  When there were no takers, he switched gears and decided to turn the property into a massive 5-star resort complete with 105 rooms, 98 casitas, numerous restaurants and swimming pools, conference facilities, and a convention center.

Mitchell's House from Book Club (8 of 15)

Mitchell's House from Book Club (7 of 15)

The city of Simi Valley greenlighted the plan, but once the permits were in place in 2014, Saperstein changed gears yet again and re-listed the site, this time for $49.5 million.  It finally sold in December 2015 for $33 million.

Mitchell's House from Book Club (11 of 15)

Mitchell's House from Book Club (10 of 15)

Though the purchaser was said to be transforming the place into a wellness hotel, so far those plans have not yet come to fruition.

 Mitchell's House from Book Club (1 of 15)

Mitchell's House from Book Club (4 of 15)

Because the place sat largely vacant for close to a decade, it became the perfect venue for filming (not to mention a few celebrity weddings including that of Kaley Cuoco and Ryan Sweeting, Nazanin Mandi and Miguel Pimentel, and Morgan Stewart and Brendan Fitzpatrick).

Mitchell's House from Book Club (9 of 15)

Mitchell's House from Book Club (12 of 15)

For Book Club, producers chose to use Sitting Bull, Hummingbird Nest Ranch’s original 1920s house, instead of the massive main residence as Mitchell’s charming Arizona pad.  Per a 2018 Architectural Digest feature, the property was love at first sight for production designer Rachel O’Toole.  Of the home, she says, “It was just so perfect with the archways and the way that the light dapples through the yard and the pool.  Standing at the front door you can see all the way through the kitchen into a bathroom, through an arched brick passageway and then outside through leaded glass to a fountain.  I said to Bill [director Bill Holderman], ‘We shouldn’t waste our time looking elsewhere because this is it.’”

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Diane Keaton, who plays Mitchell’s love interest in the film, also became smitten with the dwelling.  When AD asked about her favorite Book Club locale, she responded, “I liked Andy Garcia’s house best.  Andy’s house is an old Spanish.  I wanted to buy it.  That place is gorgeous.”

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Of dressing the location for the shoot, O’Toole told AD, “For the color palette, we had burgundies and browns and tans with lots of textures like Persian rugs.  We wanted Andy’s character to be grounded and approachable with things he collected from all his travels.”

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Not much of the home was altered for the flick.  Along with digitally adding the Arizona desert into the background of a scene . . .

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. . . production also updated the pad’s 1970s kitchen, though it was only seen in a brief shot from outside the front door towards the end of the movie.

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Sitting Bull also portrayed Gregory Sumner’s (William Devane) ranch on the popular nighttime soap Knots Landing, which aired from 1979 to 1993.

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Though most of the Mexican resort scenes in Sex and the City: The Movie were shot at this house in Malibu, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masked as the hotel restaurant where a waiter guts Carrie by referring to her as “Mrs. Preston.”

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Shortly after Sex and the City: The Movie debuted, the ranch popped up as Destinies, the rehabilitation center where Joan McCallister (Judy Davis) worked during the second season of The Starter Wife.

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That same year, the ranch portrayed yet another rehab, this time on the Season 1 episode of 90210 titled “There’s No Place Like Homecoming” as the spot Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) was sent after almost overdosing.

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As I mentioned earlier, Hummingbird Nest Ranch was used extensively as the home of the competing couples on Tool Academy, which began airing in 2009.

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Also in 2009, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masqueraded as Calistoga Canyon Resort and Spa where the CBI team investigated a murder in the Season 1 episode of The Mentalist titled “Crimson Casanova.”

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In the Season 7 episode of NCIS titled “Rule Fifty-One,” which aired in 2010, the Nest portrays the Mexican estate of Paloma Reynosa (Jacqueline Obradors).

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The massive main house plays Steve Jobs’ (Ashton Kutcher) tony Silicon Valley mansion in the 2013 biopic Jobs.

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On July 27th, 2014, Scheana Marie (one of the most miserable brides ever!) married Michael Shay at Hummingbird Nest Ranch.  The event was chronicled in the Season 3 episodes of Vanderpump Rules titled “For Better or Worse” and “Ring on a String” which aired the following year.

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In the 2015 Entourage movie, the ranch masks as the Texas home of Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton) and his son, Travis (Haley Joel Osment).

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That same year, Hummingbird Nest showed up in the Season 1 episode of Stitchers titled “The Root of All Evil” as the mansion belonging to Joe Parks (Cameron Daddo) and his wife, Suzanne (Courtney Henggeler).

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Also in 2015, the ranch popped up as the home of Dr. Irving Pitlor (Rick Springfield) in the Season 2 episode of True Detective titled “Night Finds You.”

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Hummingbird Nest masked as the Palm Springs Hotel where Ace Amberg (Rob Reiner) trysted with Jeanne Crandall (Mira Sorvino) in the Season 1 episode of Hollywood titled “(Screen) Tests,” which hit Netflix in 2020.

The couple stayed in Sitting Bull in the episode.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!  Smile

Mitchell's House from Book Club (3 of 15)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Hummingbird Nest Ranch, aka Mitchell’s house from Book Club, is located at 2940 Kuehner Drive in Santa Susana.  You can visit the venue’s official website here.  Please be advised that the ranch is private property and not open to the public.

Via Quadronno from “Sex and the City”

Via Quadronna from Sex and the City-2869

Nothing makes me miss New York more than photographs of croissants.  That’s a weird sentiment, I know – especially considering I don’t even really like croissants.  But during one of my first trips to the Big Apple, I dragged my family to Upper East Side café Via Quadronno for breakfast after coming across a brief mention of the place and its fabulous cappuccinos in Real City: New York City (Real City Guides).  Though I opted for a liquid meal consisting of a creamy iced latte (which was absolute perfection) that morning, my mom ordered a croissant and, upon biting in and proclaiming it was one of the best she’d ever had, implored me to taste it.  I indulged her and was shocked at the outcome – the flaky pastry was one of the most delectable treats I’d ever sampled.  I promptly ordered one for myself and then proceeded to head right back to Via Quadronno the following morning and every morning the rest of our trip – and every subsequent trip, as well, including my 2016 visit to the Big Apple with the Grim Cheaper.  I cannot get enough of the place!  So even though I briefly blogged about the charming eatery way back in 2008, I figured it was most-definitely worthy of a redux.

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Via Quadronno was originally founded by Italian native Paolo Della Puppa in 1999.  A music publisher by trade, Puppa relocated to NYC in 1983, but continued to run his Italian-based company, Anyway Music, from afar.  After about a decade abroad, he found himself falling victim to poor conversion rates and in need of a new vocation.  So he turned to fellow Italian expat Hans Pauli, owner of the popular Sant Ambroeus café chain and former proprietor of the popular Milan paninoteca Bar Quadronno, which, thanks to chef/baker Giuseppe Tusi, became known for revolutionizing the panini.

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Via Quadronna from Sex and the City-1150302

Paolo trained under Hans at Sant Ambroeus for several years before the two eventually partnered up to establish Via Quadronno, which opened its doors on September 9th, 1999.  Giuseppe was, of course, on hand to teach the staff his magical version of panini-making.

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Via Quadronna from Sex and the City-1507

It did not take long for the cozy, intimate spot (the seating capacity is only 40!) to become a neighborhood icon with locals, tourists and celebrities alike all popping in for freshly baked goods, steaming cappuccinos, and those famous paninis.  Just a few of the stars known to frequent the eatery include Katie Holmes (along with Suri Cruise), Aviva Drescher, Christine Baranski, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Martha Stewart, Dylan Lauren, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Rutherford, Jerry Seinfeld, Sean Connery, Madonna, Robin Williams, Scarlett Johansson, Alex Rodriguez, Tom Hanks, and Matt Dillon.

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It is not very hard to see why Via Quadronno has become such a local favorite.  Not only is the dining room one of the most adorable in New York with tiny wooden tables and chairs, cheerful murals, and Italian posters dotting the walls, but the restaurant’s offerings are out of this world!  It is no surprise that the place has won countless “best of” awards over the years.  Heck, Martha Stewart even headed there when she wanted to learn how to make the perfect cappuccino.

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Via Quadronno is also a filming location – from two of my favorite shows, no less!

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In the Season 1 episode of Sex and the City titled “Models and Mortals,” Skipper Johnston (Ben Weber) forces Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) to call Miranda Hobbs (Cynthia Nixon) while standing outside of the restaurant to find out if he still has a chance with her.

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At the time the episode was shot in 1998, the Via Quadronno space housed a sweets shop named La Maison Du Chocolat, which opened on the premises in 1990.  Despite the change in tenancy, the site is still recognizable from its onscreen stint.  I find it incredible that Reinstein|Ross Goldsmiths, the fine jewelry store situated next door to the café whose signage was visible in Sex and the City, is still alive and well and operating in the same location twenty years after the fact!

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Via Quadronno also popped up on Gossip Girl.  In the Season 2 episode titled “Remains of the J,” which aired in 2009, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) heads to the café to pick up breakfast for Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), whom she has just secretly started dating again, and narrowly misses running into Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively).

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The Season 10 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee titled “Kate McKinnon: A Brain in a Jar,” which hit Netflix earlier this month, was filmed at Via Quadronno’s other location at 1228 Madison Avenue in NYC’s Carnegie Hill neighborhood (which Yelpers are reporting is now closed).

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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: Via Quadronno, from the “Models and Mortals” episode of Sex and the City, is located at 25 East 73rd Street on New York’s Upper East Side.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.  The Via Quadronno outpost from the “Kate McKinnon: A Brain in a Jar” episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee can be found at 1228 Madison Avenue in NYC’s Carnegie Hill neighborhood, though per Yelp that location is now closed.

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

Carrie and Big's Apartment from Sex and the City 2-1140607

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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 . . .

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. . . 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Big Carrie Apartment

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

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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.

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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.

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And their ottoman . . .

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. . .  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!”

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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.)

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

Carrie and Big's Apartment from Sex and the City 2-1140601

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.

Gray’s Papaya from “Sex and the City”

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You will never catch anyone calling me a “foodie.”  My palate leans much more toward comfort than epicurean with meals of choice consisting of chicken strips and ranch dressing, turkey and mashed potatoes, and hot dogs.  I am a hot dog fanatic.  My favorite spot to grab a ‘furter is Gray’s Papaya in New York.  Their franks are simply sublime!  I’ve sung the chain’s praises a couple of time on this blog – first in 2007 and then again in 2009.  I got a bit of my reporting wrong in the later, though, when I stated that a scene from the Season 5 episode of Sex and the City titled “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number” had been lensed at the company’s Upper West Side outpost.  A reader named Sabrina corrected me, commenting that SATC had actually been shot at the Greenwich Village Gray’s.  As she explained, “You can see the phone box right next to the exit Carrie uses.”   So I took a closer look at the episode and Sabrina was indeed correct!  In “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) grabs a dog at the GP located at 402 Sixth Avenue.  So I immediately added the address to my New York To-Stalk List.  Sadly, by the time I finally made it there in 2016, the eatery had closed and a Liquiteria juice bar had taken its place.  I still figured it was worth blogging about, though.

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For those who have never had the pleasure of downing a Gray’s Papaya frank, it truly is an experience.  The no-frills, walk-up hot dog stand was originally founded in 1973 by Paul Gray – a former employee of rival chain Papaya King – on the corner of Broadway and West 72nd Street on NYC’s Upper West Side.  The eatery quickly became a hit with New Yorkers who loved the quality of the dogs and the bargain prices.  It wasn’t long before additional outposts popped up around Manhattan, including the one at 402 Sixth Avenue which opened its doors in 1986.  Though I never visited it, you can check out what it looked like when it was still in operation thanks to the archived Google Street View images from June 2011 below.

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Sadly, though still insanely popular (you’d be hard-pressed to find any Gray’s location that is not crammed with people 24/7), the Greenwich Village outpost shuttered in January 2014 due to a rent hike.   It followed the closing of another Gray’s at 539 8th Avenue in Midtown in February 2011 for the same reason, leaving the UWS eatery as the chain’s sole locale.

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Things appear to be on the upswing, though.  Not only is the flagship UWS outpost still flourishing 45 years after its inception, but a new Gray’s was opened in 2016 at 612 Eighth Avenue in Midtown.  Customers have been lining up for the popular Recession Special – two dogs and a papaya juice drink or soda for $4.95 – ever since.

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In “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number,” which aired in 2002, a “palpably lonely” Carrie attends the party for her book release sans a significant other.  While heading home from the soiree, Carrie’s limo driver (Dena Atlantic) learns that Carrie has just written a book and insists on taking her somewhere to celebrate.  The two hit up Gray’s Papaya (long known for being open 24 hours) and when the driver informs the man taking their order about Carrie’s new book, he insists on giving them the dogs for free.  The scene was inspired by SATC writer Cindy Chupack’s first Emmy win.  Of the experience, she is quoted in Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell as saying, “I didn’t have a date for the Emmys the year we won, and I lost our Sex and the City people at one point during the night, so I felt very ‘minus one’ until my driver said, ‘You won an Emmy?  We have to celebrate this!’ and took me through a McDonald’s drive-through and told the guys in the window, ‘She won an Emmy!’  They gave me a free chocolate shake.  The limo driver we cast in the episode was very much like the driver I had – although in the episode, Carrie goes to Gray’s Papaya, which is more New York and is actually a favorite place of Sarah Jessica’s.”

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Though very little of Gray’s exterior is visible in the scene and what is shown is only via a blurry camera pan, as you can see in the screen captures below as compared to the Google Street View images, the restaurant’s red trim . . .

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. . . as well as the location and configuration of the side doors are a match to what appeared onscreen.

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And, sure enough, there’s that phone box that Sabrina mentioned.

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The Greenwich Village Gray’s has popped up in a couple of other productions, as well.  In the 2008 comedy Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Thom (Aaron Yoo) calls Nick (Michael Cera) while standing outside of the eatery to let him know that he has lost Caroline (Ari Graynor).

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 And Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) takes Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) to grab take-out there in the 2010 romcom The Back-up Plan.

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The other Gray’s outposts are popular filming locales, as well.  In the Season 3 episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations titled “New York City,” which aired in 2007, Bourdain heads to the now defunct Gray’s at 539 8th Avenue (which you can see a photo of here), his “favorite local eatery,” for a late-night Recession Special.  While there he extols the restaurant, saying, “But man, when I start missing New York, you know, this is one of the things I miss.  Ah, come on!  A good Gray’s dog!”

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It is the original Gray’s Papaya on the Upper West Side (pictured below) that is the most popular with location scouts, though.

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The Warriors encounter members of rival street gang The Baseball Furies outside of the Upper West Side Gray’s in the 1979 crime drama The Warriors.

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Doug Ireland (Michael J. Fox) brings Andy Hart (Gabrielle Anwar) there for a quick bite in the 1993 romcom For Love or Money.

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In 1995’s Die Hard with a Vengeance, John McClane (Bruce Willis) and Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) take a phone call from Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) at the payphone across the street from the UWS Gray’s.

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Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) briefly dines with Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) there shortly before heading out to meet NY152 at the end of 1998’s You’ve Got Mail.

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The last time I visited New York, my friends Kim, Katie, Lavonna and I tried to pose for a photo a la Kathleen and Joe in Gray’s front window, but the reflection wreaked havoc with the image.  If you look closely at the screen captures above, it actually appears that the restaurant’s window was removed for the filming of the You’ve Got Mail scene.

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Lance Barton (Chris Rock) takes Sontee Jenkins (Regina King) for a meal at the UWS Gray’s in the 2001 comedy Down to Earth.

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The eatery was shown in an establishing shot in the Season 1 episode of How I Met Your Mother titled “The Limo,” which aired in 2005, though no actual filming took place there.

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Michael J. Fox returned to Gray’s in 2013 to shoot a scene for the pilot episode of his self-titled series The Michael J. Fox Show, in which Mike Henry (Fox) and Harris Green (Wendell Pierce) discuss the possibility of Mike returning to work while standing across the street from the restaurant.

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The restaurant chain was also mentioned in the Season 4 episode of Glee titled “Makeover” and was a pivotal plot element in the 1997 romcom Fools Rush In, though neither production did any filming on the premises.  And while several websites claim that the Season 3 episode of Louie titled “Telling Jokes/Set Up” and the 1998 romance Crossing Delancey were filmed at Gray’s, both were actually lensed at Papaya King outposts.

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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: The Gray’s Papaya from the “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number” episode of Sex and the City was formerly located at 402 Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village.  Today, the site is home to a Liquiteria.  The Gray’s that appeared in Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations was formerly located at 539 8th Avenue in Midtown.  That spot now houses a Cohen’s Fashion Optical.  The Upper West Side Gray’s, from You’ve Got Mail, is still in operation and can be found at 2090 Broadway.  A second Gray’s outpost is located at 612 8th Avenue in Midtown.  Gray’s Papaya restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Many Apartments of Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City”

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While it is quite common for locations to shift after the pilot episode of a television series is shot (as I’ve mentioned countless times before on this blog), changes are typically few and far between from that point forward.  The vast majority of my favorite shows tend to play fast and loose with their locales, though.  On Beverly Hills, 90210, for instance, not only did two different pads portray the residence of Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), but three exteriors were used to represent both the family home of Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and that of Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris).  Then there’s Sex and the City, which completely thumbed its nose at any sort of location continuity.  Though said to be at 245 East 73rd Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, no less than five properties were utilized as the apartment building where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) lived during the program’s six-season run.  The initial site, a third-floor flat situated above a café (complete with a very New York-style neon “coffee” sign), which appeared in the series’ first two episodes, has long been a craw in my side.  Despite many attempts to track it down over the years, I could never seem to do so.  Then, a couple of months back, I decided to do a deep dive into identifying it and was finally successful.  As fate would have it, my good friend Kim visited NYC shortly after my discovery and graciously agreed to stalk the place on my behalf.  Thank you, Kim!  When I sat down to write a post on the spot earlier this week, I got a little obsessed with pinpointing the four other properties used, as well, and, after countless hours scouring the internet, managed to ID all but one!  So here I present to you a round-up of Carrie Bradshaw’s many Sex and the City apartments.

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Mention Carrie’s apartment to any SATC fan and visions of a grand brownstone with an idyllic stoop will undoubtedly come to their mind.  But the spot initially used as her dwelling was not a walk-up at all, nor did it have any sort of stoop.  Instead, Carrie was first shown living on the third floor of a rather non-descript building housing a coffee shop on its ground level, as I mentioned above.  The structure pops up twice in the pilot – first in an opening scene and then again in the episode’s closing when Mr. Big (Chris Noth) drops Carrie off at home after running into her at a club.  It is on the sidewalk in front of the property that the duo’s now iconic exchange takes place, during which Carrie asks Big, “Have you ever been in love?” to which he responds, “Absof*ckinglutely.”

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As was portrayed on Sex and the City, while the bottom two levels of the building are commercial space in real life, the upper floors house apartments.

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Though the apartments appear to have been modernized in recent years (as you can see here and here), I am fairly certain from the way the episode was shot that one of the units was utilized as Carrie’s in the pilot.

As you can see in the stills above from the pilot as compared to the ones below from the series’ second episode, “Models and Mortals,” Carrie’s apartment interior looked completely different in the inaugural episode than it did during the rest of the series.

In “Models and Mortals,” an establishing shot of the building appears twice.  While scrutinizing the shot, I noticed a sign situated below Carrie’s apartment in which the word “Clea” and partial word “Col” could barely be made out.  After a ridiculous amount of time Googling that phrasing along with “New York,” I finally landed on a mention on The Knot website of Clea Colet, a now defunct bridal wear vendor formerly located at 960 Madison Avenue.  A quick look at that address on Street View confirmed that it was, indeed, Carrie’s original apartment building.  Amazingly, while the second level windows were changed at some point in the 19-plus years since the first season of Sex and the City was filmed, the edifice otherwise looks much the same as it did onscreen.  Though there is an eatery named 3 Guys Restaurant situated on the bottom level (it’s been there since the ‘70s!), I am fairly certain that the coffee sign visible next to Carrie’s window was not a real feature of the property, but a prop brought in for the filming.

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As Kim noticed while stalking the place, a Christian Louboutin store is fittingly located right across the street.

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After “Models and Mortals,” the exterior of Carrie’s apartment building is not shown again until the twelfth episode of the series, Season’s 1 finale titled “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.”  By that time, shooting had shifted from the Madison Avenue building to a new spot – a handsome brownstone with a picturesque stoop.  In the episode, Carrie and Mr. Big break up –  for the first time – outside of the structure after he refuses to tell her she is “the one.”  Oddly, the site was only utilized in the one episode and while quite a bit of it was shown, I had a heck of a time tracking it down.

While doing my due diligence, I noticed that an address number of what I thought was “56” was visible on the building next door to Carrie’s brownstone in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.”  I examined pretty much all of the Upper East Side, as well as Greenwich Village, looking for properties numbered 56 that matched what appeared onscreen to no avail before finally calling in my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for an assist.  Though he put in a Herculean effort, spending hours perusing the Upper West Side, as well as re-tracing my searches of Upper East Side and West Village neighborhoods, he could not find the pad either.

Then fate stepped in when, while hunting for the place via Google Street View, it struck me that the number on the building next door might actually be “36.”  I dragged the little yellow man to the Upper East Side once again and started scrutinizing blocks in the 30 range for the right spot.  It was not long before I came across 36 East 62nd Street.  I had to do a triple take, though, because while the structure at that address matched what appeared on Sex and the City to a T, there was no brownstone adjacent to it.  Instead, as you can see in the Street View image below, situated directly next to the building is a vacant plot of land.  As I later learned thanks to this The New York Times article, a brownstone did once stand in the vacant space at 34 East 62nd Street, but it was blown up on July 10th, 2006 by its owner, who was involved in a bitter divorce and wanted to not only commit suicide, but to seek revenge on his ex in the process.  The blast incinerated the structure, as you can see in images here, here, and here.

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A photo of the home from when it was still intact is pictured below via Property Shark.  Hard to believe it is just gone.

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Carrie’s apartment doesn’t show up again until the third episode of Season 2, titled “The Freak Show.”  Well, it sort of shows up.  In the episode, Carrie walks in front of a row of brownstones at the end of her non-date with Ben (Ian Kahn) and at one point stops and says, “This is me,” but the exterior of a building is never actually visible.  All that is visible is a rather fuzzy view of several walk-ups with iron porch railings.

A few episodes later, in “The Caste System,” Carrie walks with performance artist/bartender Jeremiah (Sam Ball) to a row of brownstones and heads up a set of stairs, but, again, no real exterior is shown.  All that is visible is a row of buildings.

In Season 2’s “La Douleur Exquise!,” we finally get a definitive look at an exterior, though it is an overhead shot of Big leaving Carrie’s apartment – after yet another break-up – in which virtually nothing of the property is shown.  I believe the same set of brownstones was utilized in all three episodes, but since so little is visible, I cannot say that with any certainty, nor can I even begin to guess where they might be located.

In Season 2, episode 14, “The F*ck Buddy,” Carrie’s apartment exterior is shifted yet again – this time to a brownstone at 64 Perry Street in the West Village.  I found this locale thanks to a 2016 post on the StreetEasy Blog which mentioned the property’s use during the series’ early years.

 Though very little of the exterior of Carrie’s brownstone is shown in “The F*ck Buddy,” thanks to its distinctive porch railing and some landmarks visible in the background, I was able to discern that 64 Perry was indeed the spot used.

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64 Perry also appeared in Season 2’s “Was It Good for You?”

If the address sounds familiar, that is because the brownstone utilized as Carrie’s from the Season 3 premiere, titled “Where There’s Smoke . . . “, onward can be found right next door at 66 Perry Street.  Why production decided to shift locales yet again to a brownstone located literally one door away from the previous one used is a mystery.

Though 66 Perry is undeniably charming and picturesque (that’s a picture of me on the stoop taken way back in 2004) and it is not hard to see how it came to be used on the series, as why it wasn’t chosen for filming during Season 2 instead of its neighbor . . . well, your guess is as good as mine.

The stalker found it, its Carrie's apartment.

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

 Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for stalking Carrie’s first apartment for me and to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for helping in the hunt for her second apartment!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment from the first two episodes of Sex and the City is located at 960 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.  The brownstone used in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” was formerly located at 34 East 62nd Street, also on the Upper East Side, but no longer stands.  Her home from the latter part of Season 2 can be found at 64 Perry Street in the West Village.  And the brownstone used from Season 3 on is right next door at 66 Perry.

Carrie and Big’s Penthouse from the “Sex and the City” Movie

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I know I am in the minority when I say that I like the 2008 Sex and the City movie.  Was it the greatest flick ever?  No.  But I did enjoy it.  Seeing it was like being with old friends again, friends I’d missed ever since the HBO television series went off the air in early 2004.  The more I watch it, the more it grows on me.  Though, again, I know I am in the minority.  One aspect of the movie that audiences did pretty much unanimously adore was the exquisite penthouse apartment that Mr. Big (Chris Noth) purchased for longtime girlfriend Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker).  So last April, while visiting New York, I, of course, was all about stalking the Ziegler House, which was used for interior shots of the penthouse.  And, oh, what an interior it was!

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Before I get to the Ziegler House, though, I thought I should mention 1010 Fifth Avenue, the Upper East Side building that served as the exterior of Carrie and Big’s penthouse.  I covered the property in a brief post back in 2008, but, in the interest of being thorough, figured it would be appropriate to detail it once again here.

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The 15-story prewar building was designed by real estate developer Frederick Fillmore French in 1928.

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The Italian Renaissance-style property, which was converted to a co-op in 1979, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.

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Located across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the tony site is just the type of place I’d picture Mr. Big calling home.  You can check out what a unit in the building looks like here.

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1010 Fifth Avenue is also where Chuck Rhoades, Sr. (Jeffrey DeMunn) lives on the Showtime series Billions, though, as you can see below, the address is changed to “10101 Fifth Avenue” for filming.

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Now back to the penthouse interior!  As soon as Carrie and Big step over the threshold of 1010 Fifth, they are standing in the Ziegler House, located about 20 blocks south at 2 East 63rd Street.  I first learned of the locale thanks to a reader named Allie, who wrote a comment on my 2008 post tipping me off about where the inside shots were lensed.

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The historic residence was originally built in 1921 for William Ziegler, Jr., heir to the Royal Baking Powder Company fortune.

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Designed by architect Frederick Sterner, the ornate 4-story, 75-foot wide pad is laid out with all of the rooms surrounding a central brick courtyard with a fountain.  Along with said courtyard, the property boasts a grand entrance hall, two rear gardens, a library, a 25-foot by 40-foot living room, a formal dining room, a servants’ dining room, a massive kitchen that almost looks to be commercial-grade, two master suites (each with its own dressing room), and fireplaces galore.  You can see some interior photos of the place here.

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For whatever reason, Ziegler and his then wife, Gladys, only lived in the home for a year before moving out and putting it up for sale in 1925.  The dwelling finally sold in 1929 to Norman Bailey Woolworth, of Woolworth five-and-dime fame.  He owned the property for the next two decades before donating it to The New York Academy of Sciences, a scientific society that was originally founded in 1817.

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NYAS put the house on the market in 2001 and it sold four years later to billionaire financier Leonard Blavatnik for $31.25 million.  Blavatnik never moved in, though.  Instead, the site, which today goes by the name “Academy Mansion,” is mainly used as a special events venue and for filming.  While I really wish I could have taken a peek at the property’s stunning interior, I have to admit that the exterior is nothing to shake a stick at.

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Seriously, the photo below looks like a postcard!

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The Ziegler House popped up twice in Sex and the City.  It first appeared in the beginning of the movie in the scene in which Carrie and Big go apartment-hunting with their real estate agent at 1010 Fifth.  Sadly, the wrought iron and glass doors that Carrie and Big walk through in the scene cannot be seen from outside.  You can check out a photo of them here, though.

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The doors are actually located inside the home, behind the massive wooden entry doors pictured below.

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In the scene, the Ziegler House’s palatial entrance hall masked as the lobby of 1010 Fifth.  You can see a photo of what the entry hall looks like in real life here.

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The elevator situated at the rear of the lobby was faked for the movie.  In actuality, there is a doorway located in that area, as you can see here and here.

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That doorway leads to the Ziegler House’s stunning living room, which actually looks more like a grand ballroom.  It is that room that Carrie first sees upon entering the penthouse, causing her to exclaim, “Oh my God, I have died and gone to real estate heaven!”  You can check out some pictures of the living room here, here, and here.

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Carrie is next shown the penthouse’s rooftop terrace.  In actuality, that space is the Ziegler House’s central courtyard and it is located on the ground floor of the property, not on the roof.  You can see an image of it here.

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The penthouse’s master bedroom was just a set built on a soundstage at Silvercup Studios in Queens, where much of the movie – and the television series – was lensed.  You can check out images of the real Ziegler House bedrooms here, here, here, and here.

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The Ziegler House was also utilized in the scene at the end of the movie in which Carrie returns to the penthouse to retrieve her never-been-worn $525 Manolos.

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Though Carrie and Big have sold the penthouse by that point and broken up, when she sees him standing in the closet he built for her, all is forgiven, the two embrace, and Big gets down on one knee to propose.  Heartbreakingly, Carrie’s spectacular custom closet was just a set.   You can see what the Ziegler House’s dressing rooms look like here, here, and here.  They’re not too shabby, either!

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On a side-note – I actually have a version of the Timmy Woods Eiffel Tower purse that Carrie, ahem, carried in the scene in which she and Big first toured the penthouse!  A dear and incredibly thoughtful friend named Marie gifted it to me for my birthday last year.  I didn’t have it at the time I stalked the Ziegler House, sadly, otherwise I so would have posed with it outside!  Winking smile

Carrie's Eiffel Tower Purse

The Ziegler House has been utilized in a couple of other productions besides Sex and the City.  In the Season 2 episode of White Collar titled “Point Blank,” which aired in 2010, the property masqueraded as the Russian Heritage Museum.

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For the shoot, the Ziegler House’s living room, aka Carrie’s piece of real estate heaven, was dressed as a gallery and looked considerably different than it did in SATC.

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“Point Blank” also gave us a great view of the property’s terrace.

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In the Season 2 episode of Person of Interest titled “Masquerade,” which aired in 2012, the Ziegler House portrayed New York’s Brazilian Consulate.

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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: The exterior of Carrie and Big’s penthouse from the Sex and the City movie is located at 1010 Fifth Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.  The film featured the building’s canopied main entrance, which can be found around the corner on East 82nd Street.  The interior of Carrie and Big’s penthouse, aka the Ziegler House, aka Academy Mansion, is located at 2 East 63rd Street, also on New York’s Upper East Side.

Soup Burg from “Sex and the City”

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I am the first to admit that I get fixated on the most random things.  A few years back, I became obsessed with identifying the diner featured at the very end of the Season 1 episode of Sex and the City titled “Models and Mortals.”  Though the eatery only appeared briefly, I was consumed with tracking it down.  What can I say?  I love a good diner.  It took some legwork to find the place, but find it, I did.  Sadly, by that time, Soup Burg, at 922 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side, had long since closed its doors.  So while I never got the chance to eat there, I still ran right out to stalk its former location during my trip to the Big Apple last April.

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In “Models and Mortals,” Mr. Big (Chris Noth) and Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) run into each other at a fashion show after-party and strike up a conversation, during which he asks her where she writes her “cute” weekly newspaper column.  She responds, “Well, about half the time, I’m at my apartment and the other half I’m over at this coffee shop on 73rd and Madison.”  Flash forward to the episode’s final scene.  Big surprises Carrie by randomly showing up at said coffee shop, where they discuss men who date models.  During their brief conversation (he’s late for a meeting, you see), he informs her, “First of all, well, there are so many goddamn gorgeous women out there in this city.  But the thing is this – after a while, you just want to be with the one that makes you laugh.”  For those not well-versed in all things Sex and the City, Big is speaking about Carrie.  The two get together just a few episodes later.

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While scrutinizing “Models and Mortals” for clues as to the coffee shop’s whereabouts, I noticed that a sign reading “Soup Burg” was very briefly visible behind Mr. Big when he first sat down . . .

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. . . as well as on the door when he left the restaurant.

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So I headed to Google and quickly came across a Yelp page for a defunct eatery by that name which stated its former address as 1095 Lexington Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.  Eureka, right?  Wrong.   It was not long before I figured out that while Soup Burg was a longtime UES staple dating back to the ‘40s, during its heyday the restaurant actually boasted three outposts, none of which was still in operation.  The Lex Ave location did not open until 2004 and the third iteration at 1026 1st Avenue was also established around that same time.  Since “Models and Mortals” was lensed in 1998, I knew the episode could not have been shot at either of those two spots.  Filming had to have occurred at the original Soup Burg.  So back to the drawing board I went.  Another Google search led me to this 2014 The New York Times article which noted that the restaurant’s inaugural site was on the corner of East 73rd Street and Madison Avenue – exactly where Carrie had said it was in the episode!  D’oh!  The article also mentioned that the space was now home to a cashmere shop.  From there it was easy to pinpoint the eatery’s exact former address of 922 Madison.

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Soup Burg was originally established at the Madison Avenue site way back in 1948.  I am unaware of who initially founded it, but in 1964, the café was purchased by Greek native Peter Gouvakis, who had worked on the premises since 1958.  Soup Burg thrived under Gouvakis’ tutelage, becoming a veritable New York institution.

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During the 1970s, Peter’s son Jimmy started working at Soup Burg, eventually taking it over, along with his brother, John, and their brother-in-law, Timmy Vlachos.  The trio further grew the business and perfected the recipes.  Soup Burg became known citywide for its burgers, which Time Out NY rated as the third best burgers in all of Manhattan in 2004.  Though the two sister cafes were opened, the Madison Avenue location remained the best-loved.  Of the site, New York magazine had this to say, “There are a few places on the East Side with this name, each as small as your first – or current – apartment, each looking like it was built in two days, each routinely buffed to a high Formica shine, and each with a menu big enough to daunt the banquet kitchen at the Marriott Marquis.  Ignore all of them but the one at this address.”

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In July 2006, Jimmy was informed that the rent on the Madison Avenue site was increasing from $21,000 a month to $65,000.  Sadly, Gouvakis could not afford the increase and the restaurant (which, by that time, had been operating in the same space for 58 years!) shuttered later that month.  By November, the upscale Manrico Cashmere boutique had moved in.  You can see what the Madison Avenue Soup Burg looked like while it was still in operation here, here, here, and here.   And you can read two great articles on its closing on the Doktor Weingolb blog here and here.

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By that time, the 1st Avenue location had also closed its doors.  And though the Lexington Avenue outpost remained open and extremely popular with New Yorkers as one of the only spots in the neighborhood to get a decent, affordable meal, it, too, faced a rent hike in 2014 and shuttered in June of that year.  The increase was a pretty dumb move on the landlord’s part if you ask me, being that, per Google Street View, the space is currently vacant and does not look to have ever been occupied since Soup Burg moved out.

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Many mourned the loss of the last operating Soup Burg.  The New York Times journalist Anne Barnard had this to say about the closure, “The Soup Burg is – was – the archetype of what in today’s homogenized, all-American city is usually called a diner.  Premillennial, pre-Starbucks New Yorkers would call it a coffee shop.  Not the kind where you get a latte, though that item was grudgingly added to the menu.  The kind where you get a burger bigger than its bun, or home fries with sweet peppers and onions, or a chicken orzo soup with saltines.  Where you can sit down and eat for $10, with a bottomless, not distractingly good $1.50 coffee, and where they know your face, your order and sometimes even your name.”

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  I’m really sad I never got the chance to dine at any of the Soup Burg restaurants, but at least the original is forever immortalized onscreen thanks to Sex and the City.

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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: Soup Burg, from the “Models and Mortals” episode of Sex and the City, was formerly located at 922 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.  The space currently houses Manrico Cashmere.  Via Quadronno, one of my very favorite Big Apple eateries, is located right around the corner at 25 East 73rd Street.  It also appeared in “Models and Mortals.”  You can read my post on the restaurant here.

Strand Book Store from “Sex and the City”

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I have made no secret of my love for bookstores on this blog, especially in recent weeks (as evidenced here and here).  I literally cannot get enough of them!  So when I spotted a book boutique pop up in the Season 2 episode of Sex and the City titled “The Freak Show,” which I was re-watching shortly before my trip to New York last April, I knew I had to track it down and stalk it.  Come to find out, the place is one of NYC’s most famous and historic book sellers!

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Thankfully, the locale was not very hard to identify.  While scrutinizing “The Freak Show,” I spotted a red oval-shaped logo situated next to Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) with the word “Strand” centered in it and recognition immediately clicked.  I had come across mentions of Strand Book Store, or “the Strand” as it is more commonly known, countless times over the years while researching interesting spots to check out in the Big Apple.  Touted as one of NYC’s oldest and largest book shops, the place intrigued me and its name stayed lodged in my brain, but somehow I never made it a point to see it in person during any of my trips back east.  So I decided to remedy that and put the site at the very top of April’s New York To-Stalk List.

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Originally established in 1927, Strand Book Store was the brainchild of 25-year-old bibliophile Benjamin Brass.  The shop was initially located on Fourth Avenue’s Book Row, a six-block area in Greenwich Village comprised of no less than 48 book sellers.  Brass dubbed his emporium, which back then sold only used tomes, in honor of the famed Strand street in London where countless notable writers, including Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Virginia Woolf, have lived over the years.

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In 1956, Benjamin’s son, Fred, took over management of the Strand and moved it to its current home on the corner of Broadway and East 12th Street the following year.  Though Book Row and the 47 other boutiques once located there are no longer in existence, the Strand managed to not only survive throughout the years, but thrive.

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Fred eventually purchased the building housing the store and expanded his retail space.  Today, the Strand encompasses three and a half levels comprised of more than 2.5 million new and used titles – or as the Strand’s tag line states, “18 miles of books.”  The boutique, which is now co-run by Fred and his daughter Nancy and tended to by 240 employees, also stocks gifts, cards, and various other sundries.

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Unfortunately, the employee that I spoke with told me no photos were allowed inside the store, so I was only able to snap pics of the exterior.

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In “The Freak Show” episode of Sex and the City, which aired in 1999, Carrie dates a succession of men who all turn out to have freakish habits.  The segment shot at the Strand involved a broker named Max (Thomas Pescod) who, as Carrie learns, has a penchant for pilfering books.  The brief scene took place outside of the store among the bargain dollar carts stationed on Broadway.

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Sex and the City is hardly the only production that has been lensed at the Strand.  In the 1993 drama Six Degrees of Separation, Ouisa (Stockard Channing) visits the bookstore with some friends to look for a copy of Sidney Poitier’s biography in order to see if her houseguest, Paul (Will Smith), is lying about being his son.

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It is at the Strand that Julie Powell (Amy Adams) laments the unfavorable New York magazine article written about her to her friend Sarah (Mary Lynn Rajskub) in the 2010 biopic Julie & Julia.

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Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) works at Strand Book Store in the 2010 drama Remember Me.

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While the exterior of the Strand was featured briefly in the 2014 comedy They Came Together . . .

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. . . interior filming took place at Community Bookstore, located at 143 Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn.

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In the Season 1 episode of Master of None titled “Finale,” which aired in 2015, Dev (Aziz Ansari) contemplates his life choices while reading The Bell Jar at the Strand.

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That same year, Bryan Robbins (Josh Helman) popped into Strand Book Store while looking for his sister, Claire (Sarah Hay), in the Season 1 episode of Flesh and Bone titled “Reconnaissance.”

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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: Strand Book Store, from “The Freak Show” episode of Sex and the City, is located at 828 Broadway in New York’s Greenwich Village.  You can visit the shop’s official website here.

The Rum House from “Birdman”

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The Grim Cheaper typically could care less about filming locations, but he is absolutely obsessed with the movie The Godfather.  So I included a couple of locales from the 1972 Best Picture winner on the itinerary for our recent trip to the Big Apple.  One of those spots was Hotel Edison, a historic Theater District lodging that made a brief appearance in the flick.  While we were stalking the place, we happened to strike up a conversation with the super-friendly doorman who informed us that the property’s first-floor bar, The Rum House, had been featured in another Best Picture winner, 2014’s Birdman.  So we headed right on in to snap some photos of it.  As I’ve said many times before, stalking begets stalking.

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Commissioned by Milton J. Kramer, the 26-story Hotel Edison was originally designed by Herbert J. Knapp in 1931.  Thomas Edison was enlisted to turn on the property’s lights (albeit via a remote control from his home in New Jersey) during the grand opening ceremony.

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Despite a few renovations that have taken place over the years, the hotel still appears to boast much of its original Art Deco detailing.  You can check out a postcard with vintage images of the property here.

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At the time of its founding, Hotel Edison featured three onsite restaurants.  Today, there is only one eatery/bar in operation on the premises – The Rum House.

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The Rum House was originally established in 1973.  By the time its owners lost their lease in 2009, the place was in desperate need of a facelift.

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Thankfully, a group of restaurateurs including Kenneth McCoy, Michael Neff, and Abdul Tabini took over the space in 2011 and began a renovation.  The threesome kept much of the watering hole’s original charm intact, while adding some updates, including a new bar, lighting, and tile flooring.  Of the redesign, McCoy stated in a 2015 New York Post article, “We wanted to bring back the feeling of a Times Square piano bar in the 1940s or ’50s.”  You can see what it formerly looked like here.

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The renovated lounge quickly became a hit with New Yorkers, tourists, and celebrities alike.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Tony Danza, George Wendt, Jake Gyllenhaal, Molly Ringwald, and Jon Hamm.  Emma Stone and Bill Murray even tickled the ivories there together one night in 2014.

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The Rum House appeared twice in Birdman.  It first popped up in the scene in which Mike (Edward Norton) and Riggan (Michael Keaton) discussed their bad preview.

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The exterior of The Rum House was also featured in that scene.  Through a bit of camera trickery, the bar was made to appear as if it is situated next door to the St. James Theatre, where much of the film took place.  In reality, though, it is located three blocks to the north.

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Riggan returns to The Rum House to grab a drink in a later scene and winds up confronting theatre critic Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan).

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According to the Post article, location manager Joaquin Prange chose The Rum House, which shut down for a week to accommodate the shoot, because of its old school aesthetic.  He says, “The place needed to fit with Michael Keaton’s character.  He’s a recovering alcoholic.  Just the fact that he’s taking a drink is a big deal, and the look of the place needed to reflect that.  Rum House is dark and woody, with a bit of a patina, like the kind of place where Riggan Thomson would go for a drink by himself.  This is not about drinking during the good times, but we also wanted a bar that looked classy, a place that could make you a good cocktail.  It was not about finding a dive.”  The cast and crew wound up liking The Rum House so much that an impromptu wrap party was held there the last night of filming shortly after the final scene was lensed.

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As I mentioned earlier, Hotel Edison appeared briefly in The Godfather.  It popped up at the beginning of the scene in which Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) headed to meet with Sollozzo (Al Lettieri).  In the segment, Brasi is shown walking through the Edison’s rear hallway, which can be reached via 46th Street.  (Sadly, that area of the hotel was closed for renovations when we were there so I could not photograph it.)  When Brasi turned the corner to head into the restaurant where he ultimately met his end, though, he was at a different location entirely – a much disputed location.  While it has been reported in several books and online that Sollozzo killed Brasi in Hotel Edison’s now shuttered Sofia Ristorante Italiano, according to Scouting NY the scene was actually shot at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn.

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The same Hotel Edison hallway appeared in 1994’s Bullets over Broadway as the spot where David Shayne (John Cusack) argued with Julian Marx (Jack Warden) about hiring Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly) for a role in his play.

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I was floored to discover while researching Hotel Edison for this post that the site’s now shuttered Café Edison was used in an episode of Sex and the City!  In Season 5’s “Anchors Away,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) seeks shelter from the rain – and a bowl of matzo ball soup – at the eatery and winds up being seated next to a woman who has a penchant for lithium-laced ice cream.  Café Edison was a longtime Theater District staple that served meals onsite from 1980 through 2014 when its owners, unfortunately, lost their lease.  The space currently remains shuttered.  You can see some photos of what it used to look like here.

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The hotel’s Edison Ballroom also made an appearance in “Anchors Away” as the spot where Carrie and her friends party with the plethora of sailors in town for Fleet Week.  At the time, the space was known as Supper Club and, though it looks a bit different today, it is still recognizable from its SATC cameo.  You can check out some photos of what it currently looks like here.

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: The Rum House, from Birdman, is located at 228 West 47th Street, inside of Hotel Edison, in New York’s Theater District.  You can visit the watering hole’s official website here.

The “Sex and the City” Starbucks

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One of the best things about starting this blog is the people it has put me in contact with – a myriad of fabulous individuals who share my unique affection for filming locations.  One such fellow stalker, a New Yorker named Gary, has gifted me with countless Big Apple locales since we first started exchanging emails way back in 2010.  Most of Gary’s knowledge comes from driving a cab for three years.  The job took him all over NYC, made him familiar with its nooks and crannies, and he now knows the city like the back of his hand.  He has also come across quite a few filmings during his tenure in New York and, thanks to his hawk-like memory, can recall where each took place.  One such filming was of a Sex and the City episode that Gary witnessed being shot at the Starbucks at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue.  Well believe you me, when I read the words “Sex and the City” and “Starbucks,” I practically came unglued and added the locale to my NYC To-Stalk list.  And while Gary could not remember which episode the scene appeared in, it did not take me long to figure it out.

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In Season 4’s “The Good Fight,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) heads to the Eighth Avenue Starbucks for some respite after getting into a huge fight with then fiancé Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) over the lack of space in their newly shared apartment.  (You can watch that fight here.)  While there, she says, “I used to think those people who sat alone at Starbucks writing on their laptops were pretentious posers.  Now I know – they’re people who have recently moved in with someone.  As I looked around, I wondered how many of them were mid-fight, like myself.  The hard thing about fighting in relationships as opposed to Madison Square Garden?  No referee.  There’s no one to tell you which comments are below the belt or when to go to your separate corners.  As a result, someone usually gets hurt.  And it seems the closer a couple gets and the more stuff they have between them, the harder it is to figure out exactly why they’re yelling.  When it comes to relationships, I couldn’t help but wonder, what are we fighting for?”  Despite the fact that I have re-watched the entire Sex and the City series a copious amount of times, I often forget how ingenious the writing is.  When the Grim Cheaper and I first moved in together, we had Aidan and Carrie’s exact same fight.  In preparation for our move – and the tiny closet at our new apartment – I had thrown out countless outfits that I loved.  So when the GC showed up with six (six!) medium-sized boxes filled solely with white undershirts, I practically had a meltdown.  Thankfully, we survived our tiff (after five of those boxes of undershirts were thrown out, of course), but Carrie and Aiden did not.  They broke up just two episodes later.

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Most of the Starbucks scene was shot looking in through the property’s south window.

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Though the café’s exterior remains unchanged from its onscreen appearance in 2002, I somehow failed to snap a photograph of the correct window.

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You can check out Google Street View images of it below, though.

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While very little of the Starbucks interior was shown in “The Good Fight,” it is apparent that the space has been remodeled since filming took place and looks a bit different today.

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In the scene, Carrie sat at a tall shared table in the middle of the café.

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That exact table is no longer there, but a similar one currently stands in the same spot.

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I was excited to see that the seating that runs along the south window, which was visible in the scene, remains intact.

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It was raining when we showed up to stalk “The Good Fight” Starbucks and, as a result, the place was exorbitantly crowded, which made it a bit difficult to snap pics.  The deluge is also the reason I did not pose for my normal photograph out in front of the locale.  And although I hate rain pretty much more than anything, as I said that day to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, “I’ll take rain in New York over sun in Palm Springs any day!”  Smile

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gary for telling me about this location!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It:  The Starbucks from “The Good Fight” episode of Sex and the City is located at 124 8th Avenue in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.