Pappa Don’s Delicatessen from “Modern Family”

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I must apologize in advance for the length of today’s post.  I spent most of my day yesterday at the Walk of Fame star ceremony for American Idol creator Simon Fuller – an event which I will be writing about later this week – and therefore did not have time to write a very lengthy blog post for today, so I am sorry.  Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a fellow stalker named Cait wrote a comment on my blog post about Carmine’s II Restaurant from the “Boy’s Night” episode of Modern Family alerting me to the fact that the series had filmed its Season 1 episode titled “Fifteen Percent” at Pappa Don’s Delicatessen in South Pasadena.  In her comment, Cait said she “you probably already know this (you know everything!) . . .”, but I have to admit that not only did I NOT know that information, until reading Cait’s comment I had never even heard of Pappa Don’s!  So I immediately added the restaurant to my lengthy “To Stalk” list and finally made it out there to stalk the place this past Thursday afternoon.  Yay!

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Pappa Don’s Delicatessen was originally founded by the eponymous “Pappa Don” in the early 1960s.  Sometime during the 80s Pappa sold the restaurant to a chef named Harry – a man whom many diners came to refer to as the “Soup Nazi” due to his reportedly gruff exterior.  Harry apparently had no tolerance whatsoever for patrons who added what he felt were inappropriate additions to his sandwich creations.  LOL  Sadly, Harry passed away unexpectedly in August of 2007 at the tender age of 58 and Pappa’s was forced to shutter its doors for a time.  On February 28th, 2008, the deli re-opened, this time under new owners who thankfully made very few changes to the restaurant or its menu.  Pappa Don’s Delicatessen is a VERY cool little spot that serves up some fabulous sandwiches at EXTREMELY low prices.  Because I am diabetic and usually try to avoid carbs altogether, I was unfortunately not able to sample any of the deli’s grub, but I purchased one of their “Anchor” sandwiches – which consisted of tuna salad on sourdough with Swiss cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, and mayo, all for only $4.95 – to take home to the Grim Cheaper and he absolutely devoured the thing.  Said it was one of the best tuna salad sandwiches he had ever eaten.

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In the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) runs into his father-in-law, Jay Pritchett (aka Ed O’Neill), who is hanging out with his group of friends in front of Pappa Don’s.  While there Jay ends up introducing Cameron not as his son-in-law, but as “a friend of my son’s”.

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When Cameron tells his husband Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) how he was introduced, Mitchell marches right on over to the deli to confront his father.  While there, he ends up meeting Jay’s friend, Shorty (aka Chazz Palminteri), whom he is convinced is gay.

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The deli showed up once again at the very end of the episode in the scene in which Shorty, who has spent most of the episode adamantly denying that he is gay, gifts Jay with two tickets to see “the great Michael Buble”, who “sings like an angel”.  Ah, Shorty, I couldn’t agree with you more on that count!  And he’s not bad to look at, either.  Winking smile

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Susanne, the SUPER-nice owner of Pappa Don’s, also informed me that the deli had been featured in the pilot episode of the new Fox television series Traffic Light, in the scene in which Mike (aka The Office’s David Denman), Adam (aka Nelson Franklin), and Ethan (aka Love Actually’s Kris Marshall) discuss the fact that Ethan can get away with saying anything, no matter how obnoxious, thanks to the fact that he has a British accent.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Pappa Don’s Delicatessen, from the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, is located at 303 Pasadena Avenue in South Pasadena.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.  Pappa Don’s is open Monday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the place only accepts cash, so make sure to visit an ATM before you stop by.

Angela’s Substitute Teacher’s Apartment Building from “My So-Called Life”

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Well, it appears as if I am definitely on a My So-Called Life kick as of late because once I popped in my DVD of the series’ pilot episode last week, I have literally not been able to stop watching since.  The show has definitely withstood the test of time as it is still absolutely riveting to watch today, sixteen years after it originally aired, which is simply incredible to me!  Anyway, while watching the Season 1 episode of the series titled “The Substitute” earlier this week, I noticed an address number of “1008” in the background behind Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes) in the scene in which she goes to the apartment building where her substitute teacher, Mr. Vic Racine (aka Roger Rees), lives to confront him about deserting his family.  And while the outside of his building is never actually shown in its entirety in the episode – all that appears in the scene is a brick wall, a wooden fence, and a red door – I became rather obsessed with finding where it was located.  Not because I necessarily wanted to stalk it, but because seeing that “1008” was like a challenge, a little clue being dangled in front of my eyes, tauntingly daring me to track the place down.  As crazy as it may sound, for whatever reason, once I spotted that address number I was absolutely NOT going to rest until I found it!

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Railroad tracks - My So Called Life

I had also noticed railroad tracks in the background of the scene, so I was 99.9% certain that Mr. Racine’s apartment building was located in the South Pasadena area, somewhere in the vicinity of Andie’s house from the movie Pretty in Pink.  I immediately emailed my super-friendly and super-knowledgeable contact over at the South Pasadena film office to ask for her thoughts.  While waiting for a response, I decided to start searching aerial views of the the streets on either side of the city’s Metro Gold Line tracks and it wasn’t long before I came to a conclusion – Mr. Racine’s “apartment” was actually the side of the popular South Pasadena eatery Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop.  I emailed my contact once again to tell her my theory and to send along a set of screen caps from “The Substitute” episode and she wrote me back almost immediately saying that I was indeed correct – the scene had been shot on the side of Buster’s Coffee Shop.  YAY!  So, early yesterday morning I headed on over to South Pasadena to snap some pics.

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And let me tell you, I just about died upon realizing that the EXACT SAME “No Trespassing” sign that had appeared in the episode was still there in real life!  Seeing that sign literally gave me goose bumps, I was so excited!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  As you can see in the above photograph, the “1008” address sign was also there in real life, as well.

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The area looks quite a bit different today as the majority of it has been fenced off.

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But you can kind of catch a good glimpse of the spot where filming took place if you head north across the train tracks.  And while it does seem like a VERY odd spot for a substitute to live, or anyone to live for that matter, it does appear that there is some sort of small apartment complex located behind the wooden fencing pictured above.

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The door pictured above is actually the side entrance to Buster’s and it still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1994 when “The Substitute” episode was filmed.

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The tree and telephone pole that appeared in the background behind Angela also still look very much the same.

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And the electrical meters which appeared in the scene are also still there in real life.

South Pasadena Mr. Racine's Apartment

While I was taking photographs yesterday, one of the Buster’s workers came outside and inquired as to what I was doing.  When I explained that an episode of My So-Called Life had been filmed on the premises over 16 years ago, he said, “Oh yeah, I know!  Wow, I haven’t thought about that in a REALLY long time!”  As it turns out, he was there during the filming of “The Substitute” episode, although he doesn’t remember much of what went on.  I thought it was still incredibly cool nonetheless – I mean he actually witnessed the filming of one of the most ground-breaking shows on television!  Love it!  The front of Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop is pictured above.  The purple arrow denotes where “The Substitute” was filmed.  Ironically enough, Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located just across the train tracks from Mr. Racine’s apartment and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

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On a My So-Called Life side note – while watching the episode titled “The Zit” a couple of days ago, I was floored to discover that the department store where Angela and her mother, Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), shopped for make-up was none other than the former Bullocks Wilshire department store, now Southwestern Law School campus, near Downtown Los Angeles, which I blogged about back in December of 2009

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The Mother/Daughter Fashion Show scene from that same episode was also filmed at Bullock’s Wilshire, in the former department store’s Louis XVI Room.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Vic Racine’s apartment from “The Substitute” episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1008 Mission Street, directly behind Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop, in South Pasadena.  Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located right across the train tracks from Buster’s at 1000 Mission Street.  And the former hardware store, now Radhika restaurant, where Michael Myers stole a mask and some knives in the original Halloween is also located across the street from Buster’s at 966 Mission Street.

Bistro de la Gare from “Modern Family”

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This past Sunday morning, while grabbing some coffee with my parents and the Grim Cheaper at my new fave coffee house, Kaldi’s, my mom asked me if I happened to remember what day it was.  Looking at her with what I’m sure was a completely blank expression on my face, I told her that I had absolutely no idea.  It was then that she reminded me that it was exactly ten years prior, on February 28th of 2000, that my mom and I had waved goodbye to our little house in San Mateo and begun the five hour journey south to meet my dad – who had moved a few months ahead of us – at our new home in Pasadena.   Yes, this past Sunday was my family’s ten year anniversary of living in Southern California.  And while in some ways it seems like that journey occurred just yesterday, in other ways it feels like a lifetime ago.  And as I sat there and reflected on my past decade in LaLaLand, I’m not sure what surprised me more – the number of things that had changed in my life, or the number of things that hadn’t.  Over the last ten years, quite a few of my life circumstances have remained constant – I am still a struggling actress who makes zero dollars each year off her craft and I still dream each day of “making it big”, I still attend acting school – albeit a different one than the one I was attending when I first moved here, and I still live in Pasadena, although I finally moved out of my parents home two years ago – at the tender age of 30.  Ha ha.  But while so much of my life is pretty much exactly the same as it was the day I moved here, there have also been some huge milestones.  I met the Grim Cheaper and after eight and a half years of dating finally got engaged last May.  I have made some amazing new friends and, sadly, also lost a few.  I was voted valedictorian at one of my acting schools.  I starred in a commercial for State Farm Insurance.  And I became a blogger, which along with my fiancé and my friends and family, has been my saving grace over the past two years.  Just when I thought my frustrations with the acting industry were becoming too much to bear and that I was ready to throw in the towel, I found another, entirely different, creative outlet that I have as much love for and am just as passionate about as my acting career.  And while it’s definitely true what they say, that the more things change, the more they stay the same, what I’ve found is that while I was happy ten years ago, I am far happier now.  So, I want to thank you dear readers and fellow stalkers out there, for helping me to find a new – and, as I am quickly discovering, far better – path in this crazy world called show business.  🙂   Anyway, now that I’ve digressed for an entire paragraph, let’s get to the stalking!  Once I heard that it was my family’s ten year anniversary of being in L.A., I suggested that we go out to eat to celebrate the occasion.  And what better place to do so than Bistro de la Gare, the little South Pasadena restaurant that was recently featured in an episode of Modern Family.

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Bistro de la Gare, which roughly translates to “the restaurant by the train station”, was opened in October of 2005 by French restaurateur Eric Ulmer and quickly became a local favorite.  And, yes, it is in fact located adjacent to a train station – the Metro Gold Line’s Mission Street stop.  The bistro is an absolutely adorable little place, with dark red walls, a carved mahogany bar, white paned windows, French music playing on the stereo, and little signs with French sayings posted most everywhere, my favorite of which was the one which stated “Entree Des Artistes”, aka “Artists’ Entrance”.  🙂  The Bistro de la Gare staff could NOT have been nicer and not only answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of Modern Family, but also let me take all the photographs of the place that I wanted.  Oh, and did I mention the food?  Our meal was absolutely EXCELLENT and incredibly reasonably priced – my rosemary chicken entree was only $12.95 and our total bill for four people – with drinks – was a scant $120.00.  Not bad for a fabulous meal in a charming setting in Southern California. 

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As I mentioned last week, Bistro de la Gare was featured in the Season One episode of Modern Family  entitled “Moon Landing”.  In the episode, Claire (aka Julie Bowen) meets her former work frenemie Valerie (aka Minnie Driver) for a drink in the bar area of the tiny French bistro.

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The two later move into the restaurant’s main dining room to grab a bite to eat and to try to make each other jealous over their respective and very different lives.

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Bistro de la Gare has also appeared in an episode of Brothers & Sisters in a scene featuring Rob Lowe and Calista Flockhart, but because I have never seen the series, I am unsure exactly which episode it was.  And despite its remoteness from the West Side where most movie stars live, quite a few celebrities have been known to stop into the restaurant from time to time.  Actor Troy Evans has been spotted there on occasion and even has his autographed headshot displayed in the bistro’s entryway.  Ron Howard also recently patronized the place.  But when I asked our waiter if my girl Jen had ever dined there, he winked at me and said “I’ll never tell.”  😉   Bistro de la Gare is a fabulous, very inexpensive little restaurant and I am happy to report that it was the perfect spot to spend our “ten year anniversary”.  I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Bistro de la Gare, from the “Moon Landing” episode of Modern Family, is located at 921 Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena.  You can visit their website hereKaldi’s, the coffee shop that appeared in that same episode of Modern Family, is located just a block away at 1019 El  Centro Street.

Cup ‘N Cakes Cafe from “Modern Family”

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A few weeks back, a fellow stalker who identified himself as “Stepick” left a comment on my Step by Step house post informing me that a coffee shop in nearby South Pasadena had been featured in the recent episode of fave show Modern Family entitled “Moon Landing”.  Unfortunately though, Stepick did not specify exactly which South Pasadena coffee house it was.  So, I decided to do a little bit of digging to see if I could figure it out.  I came up empty-handed at first, until this past weekend when a blog named “Greetings from LA” published a post about Modern Family filming locations along with a link to this article about the coffee shop that had been used on the show.  Thank you, Greetings from L.A.!  In real life, that coffee shop is named Kaldi Coffee & Tea and, amazingly enough, I had never before heard of the place.  So, I, of course, had to run right out and stalk it, not just because I love Modern Family, but because, as those of you who read my site regularly know, I absolutely love coffee.  Like LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT.  Oh, what I won’t do for a good cup o’ joe.  But I digress.

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Kaldi Coffee & Tea, which has been in operation for over 15 years, is an incredibly charming little coffee house located inside of an old bank building.  With its brick walls, mismatched chairs, large couch, and chalk board menu, the place evokes memories of the Central Perk set from Friends.  So, needless to say, I loved it!  And, amazingly enough, when I walked through the front doors I immediately recognized the shop from another production besides Modern Family!  But more on that later.  Despite what some internet reviews have stated, I am very happy to report that Kaldi’s serves up some FABULOUS coffee.  I also indulged in a little veggie sandwich while there and I am happy to report that it, too, was fabulous!  The staff at Kaldi’s was EXTREMELY nice and not only answered all of my silly questions about the filming of Modern Family, but also let me take all the photographs I wanted.  Yay!  I loved the place so much, in fact, that I am fairly certain I am going to be a frequent stalker there.  😉

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The Kaldi’s scene from Modern Family starts out across the street from the cafe, on the sidewalk in front of the South Pasadena Public Library (a location which stood in for Haddonfield High School in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake).  In the scene, Gloria (aka Sophia Vergara) takes her son Manny (aka Rico Rodriguez) and her step-son/ lawyer Mitchell (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to the site of her recent car accident so that she can explain what happened.  After showing them where the accident took place, she heads over to Kaldi’s, which was called Cup ‘N Cakes Cafe in the episode, to grab some cupcakes, while Mitchell and Manny wait behind at the accident site to take pictures.  It is there that Manny tells Mitchell that his mother was actually at fault in the wreck.  When Mitchell asks why Manny didn’t tell his mom that, Manny explains “She can’t take criticism about her driving.  Once an old lady yelled at her at a crosswalk.  She honked so long, the horn ran out!”  LOL LOL LOL

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Only a small portion of Kaldi’s exterior is shown in the scene . . .  

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. . . but the interior is featured quite extensively while the threesome is eating their cupcakes. 

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And it is outside of Kaldi’s that Gloria gets into her second car accident of the week, crashing into the side of the cafe and knocking down Cup ‘N Cakes’ large pink cupcake sign, which was, of course, just a prop that was brought in for the filming.  The restaurant where Claire (aka Julie Bowen) met Valerie (aka Minnie Driver) for lunch in that same episode is located less than a block away from Kaldi’s.  It is named Bistro de la Gare, but I have yet to stalk the place.  Don’t worry, though, as it’s definitely on my list!    

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Kaldi’s also appeared in a brief scene in fave movie The Ugly Truth, in which Abby Richter (aka Katherine Heigl) and her best friend Joy (aka Bree Turner) fawn all over her new boyfriend Colin (aka Eric Winter).  Oddly enough, I had actually been searching for The Ugly Truth coffee shop for MONTHS, but couldn’t seem to locate it anywhere!  So, when I walked into Kaldi’s yesterday afternoon, I just about fell over as I immediately recognized it as the place I had long been searching for.  Funny how stuff like that happens.  😉

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The Ugly Truth also made use of the same stretch of sidewalk that appeared in Modern Family for the scene in which Mike Chadway (aka Gerard Butler) convinces Abby to purchase some hair extensions.  That sidewalk is located directly across the street from Kaldi’s.

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Kaldi’s was also featured in two scenes in the 2008 movie Role Models as Beth (aka Elizabeth Banks) and Danny’s (aka Paul Rudd’s) local coffee shop.  One of the scenes features a very funny rant by Paul Rudd over the fact that the term “venti” does not actually mean large in Italian.

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Producers completely remodeled Kaldi’s for the filming of Role Models, though, making it appear very Coffee-Bean-ish, so it almost unrecognizable from that flick.  Kaldi’s was also featured in the 2007 Anthony Hopkins’ movie Slipstream  and it will be appearing in an upcoming episode of the new television series Parenthood.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Kaldi Coffee & Tea, aka Cup ‘N Cakes Cafe from Modern Family, is located at 1019 El Centro Street, at the southwest corner of El Centro Street and Diamond Avenue, in South Pasadena.  Bistro de la Gare, the restaurant where Minnie Driver and Julie Bowen ate on Modern Family, is located less than a block away at 921 Meridian Avenue.