Studio City – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 30, 2016March 29, 2016

Vivian’s Millennium Café

I have to say that while I have always been a pretty big fan of Leah Remini (hello, Saved by the Bell! Who’s the Boss?! Living Dolls!), I don’t particularly love her reality show, Leah Remini: It’s All Relative. I was fascinated to learn through watching it, though, that Leah’s husband, mother, and stepfather run an eatery in Studio City named Vivian’s Millennium Café. This stalker loves herself some filming locations of the restaurant variety, especially ones that have a celebrity tie-in! But, while I immediately added the place to my To-Stalk List upon first seeing it on It’s All Relative way back in 2014, for whatever reason I never made it over there. Then, when I spotted it pop up in an episode of fave show Battle Creek (which was maddeningly cancelled after just one season!), Vivian’s moved to the top of the list and I finally managed to stalk it late last year.

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Sadly, Vivian’s was jam-packed when we arrived (from what I’ve since read on Yelp, it always is), so we were not able to eat there.

I was shocked to discover upon entering how small the eatery is in real life. The interior reminded me a lot of Café Lalo in New York, at least size-wise. It was too small (and far too crowded) to snap any interior photographs, unfortunately, but you can see what the inside of the place looks like here. Considering its scant size, it is pretty surprising to me that they were able to fit cameras inside to film.

The eatery, which is situated inside of a former house, was originally established by a couple named Vivian and Walter in 1963. The site changed hands several times over the years before being purchased by Leah’s stepfather, George Marshall, mother, Vicki Marshall, and husband, Angelo Pagan, in November 1999. They renamed the site Vivian’s Millennium Café in honor of that date.

The restaurant has proved popular over the years and on the weekends wait times for a table are often upwards of two hours! So if you plan on dining there, be sure to carve out an appropriate chunk of time.

Vivian’s also boasts a tree-lined back patio that is absolutely adorable, but was, sadly, standing-room only when we were there.

The café shows up regularly on It’s All Relative and has been the subject of several storylines.

In the Season 1 episode titled “What’s the Point, Mom?”, Leah attempts to redecorate the place, but her stepfather wants no part of it.

And in “Lady Is a Tramp Stamp,” also from Season 1, Leah’s sister, Shannon Farrara, starts working at Vivian’s.

And now we’ve come to the weird part of this particular post. I vividly remember Vivian’s popping up in an episode of Battle Creek and even have a notation about it in my stalking notebook. But I scanned through each episode twice (thank you, Netflix!) prior to writing this column and did not see it anywhere. So I’m either officially going crazy, remembering the wrong TV show, or just continually missing the place while scanning through Battle Creek. If any of my fellow stalkers happen to know which episode was lensed at the restaurant (if one actually was), please let me know as it is driving me nuts!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Vivian’s Millennium Café, from Leah Remini: It’s All Relative, is located at 10968 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

February 22, 2016February 22, 2016

Beeman Park from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”

I often get asked if I think that someday down the road I might run out of places that I am passionate about stalking. That is like asking if I will ever tire of shopping! The answer is a definitive no! As long as movies and TV shows continue to be made, this girl will continue a’stalking, passionately so! Heck, even if Hollywood did cease churning out new films and television series, my To-Stalk List would remain full. I am constantly discovering new-to-me productions that warrant stalking, not to mention the fact that there are countless locations from films and shows I have long been a fan of that I have yet to visit. Case in point – Studio City’s Beeman Park which was featured in the 1985 romcom Girls Just Want to Have Fun, one of my all-time favorite flicks. Fellow stalker Chas, of the It’s Filmed There site, tracked down the locale a few years back, but, for whatever reason, I failed to stalk it until recently. When I finally did make it out there, though, I could not have been more thrilled and was immediately brought right back to the first time I watched the movie over 30 years ago!

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Beeman Park, which is also known as Studio City Recreation Center, is a very cute little spot that I had never heard of until Chas discovered it, which is actually quite surprising being that it has appeared onscreen numerous times.

The 4.5-acre park features four baseball diamonds, a jogging path with fitness stations, two basketball courts, a picnic area, a playground, four tennis courts, barbeque pits, and an auditorium.

Studio City Recreation Center is a very peaceful space. While we were walking around, we saw couples jogging, adults reading, kids engaging in pick-up basketball games, and fathers and sons playing catch on the various baseball diamonds. Though there were plenty of people on the premises, it was still quite quiet and tranquil – the perfect spot to spend a shady afternoon.

Beeman Park is also quaintly picturesque and it is not hard to see how it has wound up onscreen so many times over the years.

In Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Studio City Recreation Center masks as the unnamed downtown Chicago park where the Dance TV auditions are held. Though it is only featured in one scene, it is a rather prominent scene and several areas of the park are shown.

Those areas are denoted in the aerial view below.

In the beginning of the scene, Jeff Malene (Lee Montgomery) and Drew Boreman (Jonathan Silverman) drive onto the property via an access way on the park’s eastern side located at approximately 4457 Beeman Avenue. The house visible in the background of the segment is located at 4456 Beeman. The residence’s exterior has been altered in recent years, but you can see what it looked like previously via the Google Street View image pictured below, which was taken in July 2007.

A current photograph of the house is pictured below.

Though the access way that Drew and Jeff drove through is still intact, it is no longer accessible to cars.

After entering the property, Drew and Jeff park on a patch of grass located in the southern portion of Studio City Recreation Center, just south of the baseball diamonds. The same area is pictured in the photograph below, albeit from a different angle. It is there that Drew accidentally hits on a young Maggie Malene (Shannen Doherty) and calls her a punk, which, FYI, is not as cool new wave, but is a lot better than preteen!

The building that was visible behind Drew and Jeff in the scene is still there today, although it currently looks a bit different than it did when Girls Just Want to Have Fun was shot.

The colorful (and definitely ‘80s-style) stage where the actual auditions took place was set up on top of the park’s southwestern-most baseball diamond, in the area pictured below.

And come on, fans of the movie – you can’t look at the screen capture below and not have the lyrics to “Dancin’ in the Street” come pouring into your head, am I right? “Callin’ out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat? Summer’s here and the time is right, for dancin’ in the street. They’re dancin’ in Chicago (dancin’ in the street), and down in New Orleans (dancin’ in the street), in New York City (dancin’ in the street). All we need is music – music, sweet, sweet, sweet music. There’ll be music everywhere – everywhere! They’ll be swingin’, swayin’ and records playin’ and dancin’ in the street!” I digress, but man, just one glimpse of that scene and all the lyrics come flooding right back!

I have always been obsessed with the Bob Fosse-style arm movements that Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) employed during her audition, so I, of course, had to re-create them while I was there. (If I only had a stage!) I mean, it’s no wonder that Jeff fell in love with her in that moment.

You can watch a portion of the Girls Just Want to Have Fun audition scene by clicking below.

Studio City Recreation Center was also where Perry Cox (John C. McGinley) and Jordan Sullivan’s (Christa Miller) divorce ceremony was held in the Season 4 episode of Scrubs titled “My New Game,” which aired in 2004.

Beeman Park was the site of a couple of Laire (aka “Live Action Interactive Role-playing Explorers”) events in the 2008 comedy Role Models.

In the movie, it was made to appear as if “The Burger Hole” was located across the street from the park, but, in actuality, the restaurant, which is a Shakers in real life, can be found about 15 miles away at 601 Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena.

Studio City Recreation Center was also where the Annual Pawnee Easter Egg Hunt was held in the Season 1 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Canvassing,” which aired in 2009.

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

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’s Filmed There website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Beeman Park, aka Studio City Recreation Center from Girls Just Want to Have Fun, is located at 12621 Rye Street in Studio City. From what I have been able to piece together, the stage was set up diagonally in the eastern portion of the park, in the spot denoted with a pink rectangle below, the parking area was in the southern part of the park, in the spot denoted with a blue rectangle below, and the place where Jeff and Drew drove into the park (which is no longer accessible to cars) is located directly across the street from the house at 4456 Beeman Avenue, and is marked with the purple arrow below.

March 12, 2015March 6, 2015

Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – A Guide to “Pawnee” Locales in Los Angeles

I am so excited for today’s Los Angeles magazine post, in which I compiled a guide to 21 memorable locations featured on the show Parks and Recreation. You can check it out here. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

June 5, 2014August 28, 2014

New “L.A.” Mag Post – The “Malcolm in the Middle” House

Don’t forget to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the Malcolm in the Middle house – here. My columns typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

March 4, 2014March 3, 2014

Lorenzo Lamas’ House from “Sex and the City”

This past weekend was hands down the best. Oscar. weekend. ever. I ended up stalking only one event (the torrential rain kept me indoors the rest of the time), but while there I got to meet one of my top-five celebrity crushes, Mr. Joshua Jackson from Dawson’s Creek. Like I said, best. Oscar. weekend. ever.

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I also met Alex Newell from Glee . . .

and The O.C.’s Peter Gallagher (who happened to be playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Palm Springs).

I also got to do a bit of location stalking during the few, brief moments when the sun was out, most of it Sex and the City-related. While doing research for my most-recent Los Angeles magazine Scene It Before post, about the backlot stoop where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) attempted to smoke a cigarette in the Season 3 episode titled “Escape from New York,” I got inspired to track down some of the missing locations from the episode and the one that followed it, titled “Sex and Another City.” (Both episodes took place in L.A.). The locale I was most intent on finding was the ultra-modern pad that Keith Travers (Vince Vaughn) took Carrie to look at in “Sex and Another City.” In the episode, the real estate agent informs Keith that the residence belongs to actor Lorenzo Llamas and that he has it listed at $3.4 million, but that it will probably go for $3.2.

When Carrie sees the inside of the place, she says, “This is not a house, this is an airport!”

Thanks to its modern style and stellar views, I was convinced that the residence was located somewhere in the West Hollywood area, so I was shocked to come across this listing which stated that it was actually in Studio City. From there, tracking down the home’s exact location was a snap. Sadly though, when I went to stalk it, I learned that the pad is located on a private road and is not accessible to the public. I did manage to catch a glimpse of it from a few blocks away, though.

According to this article, the unique home had a bit of a stilted start. Architect Michael Pearce completed building the exterior of the structure in 1996, shortly before it was acquired by the bank. A man named Robert Seltzer subsequently purchased it for $600,000 and commissioned architect David Kellen to finish the project. The residence was then put on the market in 2004 for, in a case of life imitating art, $3.4 million. It appears to have been put on the market again in 2013 for $2,795,000, but I do not believe that it ever sold.

According to the real estate listing, the property was in need of some repairs and TLC at that time. As you can see below, it does appear that some sort of work is currently being done on the place.

The stunning home boasts four bedrooms, five baths, 5,873 square feet of space, a 0.59-acre plot of land, an infinity pool, a spa, a rooftop deck, three balconies, twenty-foot ceilings, glass walls, a gourmet kitchen, three fireplaces, and a sauna. You can see some interior photographs of the pad here. According to this article, Leonardo DiCaprio (whom I was devastated did not win the Best Actor Oscar on Sunday night) even checked out the property at one point in time.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lorenzo Lamas’ house from the “Sex and Another City” episode of Sex and the City is located at 3596 Woodhill Canyon Road in Studio City. Woodhill Canyon Road is private and not accessible to the public, but you can catch a glimpse of the residence from Mound View Place, which is located just a few blocks east.

January 17, 2014January 16, 2014

The Former Site of the “Charles in Charge” House

In November, a fellow stalker named Fatri posted a comment on my site asking if I had any information on the Pembroke/Powell house from the 1980’s television series Charles in Charge. I had actually always wondered about the location, but had yet to do any research on it, so I sat right down to start. I quickly came across an IMDB thread in which it was said that the Pembroke/Powell residence was formerly located on an unnamed side street across from Universal Studios, but was demolished years ago to make way for the parking lot of the Universal City Red Line Station. The thread also mentioned that the house had been used in the Season 4 episode of Knight Rider titled “KITTnap.” It was thanks to that episode that I found the home’s exact former address. Come to find out, though, the location was not actually a home at all, but a condominium complex. But more on that later.

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On Charles in Charge, the “home” where college student Charles (Scott Baio) worked as a live-in babysitter for first the Pembroke family and then the Powell family was said to be located at 10 Barrington Court in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The establishing shots pictured below were used in the beginning of the opening credits throughout the series’ five-year run. And now that I really look at them, I am surprised it never occurred to me that the place was not a house. As you can see, the structure is very obviously an apartment/condominium building. In my defense, though, the images of the building were shown very, very briefly each week and because Charles in Charge aired in the pre-DVR days, it was tough to do much pausing. I find it very odd that producers chose to use the location to represent what was supposed to be the Pembroke and Powell’s large, upscale residence. Regardless, I cannot tell you how heartbroken I was to learn that the complex had been demolished, especially after wondering about its location for so long.

In “KITTnap”, the Charles in Charge “house” was the apartment building where Karen Forester (Janine Turner), Michael Knight’s (David Hasselhoff) latest flame, lived.

In the episode, a street sign reading “10700 Bluffside Drive” was visible.

As was a very blurry image of the building’s name, Universal Park. From there, it was not hard to discern that the Charles in Charge “house” was formerly located at 10711 Bluffside Drive in Studio City.

A view of the NBCUniversal building, the Sheraton Universal and the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City were also visible in the background of “KITTnap.”

A matching view taken from the Universal City Red Line Station parking lot is pictured below.

Thanks to Knight Rider Online, I learned that the Season 2 episode titled “Diamonds Aren’t a Girl’s Best Friend” was also filmed at the Universal Park building. In the episode, the site was again home to another of Michael’s flames. The guy seems to have had a new girlfriend in every single show!

A much clearer view of the Universal Park signage was visible in “Diamonds Aren’t a Girl’s Best Friend.”

As was an address number of “10711.”

According to a 1996 Daily News article, when the final location was chosen for the new Universal City Red Line Station, Universal Park homeowners “sought condemnation” for the building in order to “avoid living” directly across from an MTA parking lot. By February of 1996, all of the units in the building had been vacated and Universal Park was demolished shortly thereafter. A 1980 view of the site from Historic Aerials is pictured below. Universal Park is denoted with a pink arrow.

Pictured below is that same 1980 aerial view with an overlay of the current street layout on top of it. As you can see, during the course of the MTA construction, Bluffside Drive was moved quite a bit to make room for the Red Station parking lot.

A current view of that same spot is pictured below with Universal Park’s former location denoted with a pink “X.”

When looking at my photographs of the site, I can’t help but be reminded of the “Big Yellow Taxi” lyrics – “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Universal Park condominium building, aka the Charles in Charge “house,” was formerly located at 10711 Bluffside Drive in Studio City. The site is now part of the Universal City Red Line Station parking lot.

July 9, 2012July 8, 2012

The Smallest Park from “Parks and Recreation”

I just recently finished watching Season 4 of fave new show Parks and Recreation (and yes, I was devastated when I came to the end of the last episode being that I now have to wait until September to watch a new one!) and can honestly say that the episode titled “Smallest Park” had to be one of the best of the entire series. I found myself in tears when (spoiler alert!) Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) finally got back together. So when fellow stalker Owen gave me the address of the eponymous Smallest Park, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to Studio City to stalk the place. Well, truth be told, that’s not exactly how things happened.

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Earlier this year, before I had ever even seen an episode of the show, Owen had given me a list of several Parks and Recreation locales, one of which was the Smallest Park. I did not stalk any of them, though, until I finally started watching the series back in May. Flash forward to early June, when I was stalking April and Andy’s house (which I blogged about here), and realized that the abode was located just a short distance from the “Smallest Park”. So, even though I had yet to begin watching Season 4 at the time, since we were in the area, I decided to drop by and snap some pics. Because the Smallest Park is in actuality just a parking lot, Owen had only given me an approximate address for it. Well, as fate would have it, when we pulled up to that address, I noticed a vacant plot of land (pictured below) across the street and immediately assumed it was the right place. And while I did say to the GC, “It really doesn’t look all that small to me!” (LOL), I did not realize my mistake until a few weeks later when I watched the “Smallest Park” episode. I am SUCH a blonde sometimes! That’ll teach me to stalk a location prior to seeing the production in which it was featured!

It wasn’t until last weekend that I was finally able to get back out to Studio City to stalk the correct location – which, as you can see below, is the rear parking lot of a strip mall and does not look anything like a park, hence my original confusion.

In the “Smallest Park” episode of Parks and Recreation, Pawnee’s last remaining telephone booths are torn down, leaving a 0.000003-square-mile patch of concrete, on which Leslie and Ben (aka the “Dream Team”) decide to build the city’s “newest tourist attraction – the smallest park in Indiana”.

As you can see below, the Smallest Park was actually just a square plot of cement that producers placed at the western-most edge of the parking lot, covering up the first spot.

And while just a vacant parking lot, I could NOT have been more excited to stalk this location, most likely because the Smallest Park and the episode in which it was featured were both so incredibly memorable. It is at the park that, in what had to be one of the series’ cutest moments EVER, Leslie tells Ben how much she misses him and the two seal their reunion with a kiss. Sigh! I’m tearing up just looking at the screen capture below. Smile

And I, of course, just had to stand where Leslie stood while she was picketing the park in the episode (and announcing its nightly midnight fireworks show) – although I was having another blonde moment at the time and accidentally had the GC snap a pic from the opposite direction of what was shown onscreen.

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Smallest Park from Parks and Recreation was built in the northwesternmost parking space of the Valley Stores Shopping Center’s rear parking lot in Studio City. The lot can be found next to the property located at 4378 Kraft Avenue in Studio City.

June 22, 2012June 21, 2012

April and Andy’s House from “Parks and Recreation”

I hope y’all are not getting tired of my many Parks and Recreation posts, ‘cause here I am yet again with yet another locale from the series that was provided to me, per usual, by fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog – this time the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area residence where Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and later Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), live on the show. And I am very sad to say that I am currently about halfway through Season 4 and only have about ten new episodes left to watch before I am all caught up on the series. I honestly have no idea what I am going to do with myself when that time comes. Sad smile Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, while doing some stalking in the Studio City area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk April and Andy’s home – before I had even begun to watch Season 3 actually, the season in which the property was first featured.

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April and Andy’s house first shows up in the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Fancy Party” (which actually made me cry), in the scene in which the young couple throws a dinner party for their friends – a dinner party that turns out to be (spoiler alert!) their surprise wedding. Shortly thereafter, in the episode titled “Jerry’s Painting”, April and Andy’s roommate moves out and Ben, in turn, moves in and teaches the duo “how to be adults”. (As you can see below, a dang car was parked directly in front of the house when we showed up to stalk the place, so I was unable to get photographs to match the exact angles shown on the series.)

For the filming, producers had the address number of the house changed from “12718” to “1271” in what I am guessing was an attempt to thrwart the efforts of us stalkers. But, thankfully, it takes more than a simple address change to throw off Owen and his mad stalking skills!

I absolutely LOVE the screen capture pictured below in which there is snow in the home’s front yard! So wish I could have been there to see that in person! You can check out an article written by someone who did get to witness some P&R filming at the property in October 2010 on the Studio City Patch website here. According to the write-up, April and Andy’s house has been used in countless productions over the years (although I am unsure of which productions exactly) and, to attract even more crews, the owner has made the place very film-friendly by placing the kitchen island and most of the furniture on casters for easy movement or removal. So incredibly cool! If I was a homeowner, I would so do the exact same thing!

In real life, the Studio City residence, which was originally built in 1938, boasts four bedrooms, two baths, and 2,831 square feet, and looks exactly the same in person as it does onscreen.

Despite what was reported in the Studio City Patch article, only the exterior of the property is used in Parks and Recreation – and the place most definitely does NOT belong to Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) on the show, as was also reported. (You can read my post on the Altadena residence that is used as Leslie’s here.) As you can see in these images of the real life interior of the home here and here, it does not match what appears onscreen.

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: April and Andy’s house from Parks and Recreation is located at 12718 Valley Spring Lane in Studio City.

August 29, 2011August 28, 2011

Vitello’s Italian Restaurant from “The Deep End of the Ocean”

A couple of weeks ago, after doing some stalking in Beverly Hills, the Grim Cheaper and I decided to head over to the Valley to grab dinner at one of our very favorite eateries in all of Los Angeles – Vitello’s Italian Restaurant in Studio City. And even though I have blogged about the place twice before – first in June of 2008 and then again later that November – due to the fact that it is set to undergo an extensive – and when I say extensive, I mean extensive – renovation and remodel in the near future, I figured that it was most definitely worthy of a re-post.

Vitello’s was originally opened by Sal Vitello, a native New York baker, in 1964. Ironically enough, at the time the place was not an Italian restaurant, but a modest subway sandwich shop which featured fresh, homemade bread. In 1977, Sal sold his little eatery to brothers Joe and Steve Restivo, Sicilian natives who migrated to Los Angeles via Chicago. The brothers added down-home, hearty Italian-style staples to the Vitello’s menu, quickly turning the restaurant into a Los Angeles institution.

Thanks to its proximity to the many area movie studios, along with its fabulous fare, it was not long before Hollywood took notice of Vitello’s. As you can see above, the restaurant’s main entrance is literally covered with autographed headshots. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted dining at Vitello’s over the years include Frank Sinatra, Sally Kellerman, Ana Ortiz, Tony Danza, Jason Alexander (the one from Seinfeld, not Britney Spears’ ex-husband Winking smile ), Life Goes On’s Chris Burke, Candice Bergen, Melissa Joan Hart, Frankie Muniz, Michael Landon, Joanna Kerns, Dom DeLuise, Rick Fox, Scott Baio, Tom Smothers, and Wilford Brimley.

The restaurant’s most famous celebrity guest, though, has to be actor Robert Blake, who used to be a regular patron of the eatery, dining there at least three times a week. On the evening of May 4, 2001, Blake notoriously grabbed dinner there with his then-wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, in a booth that, according to the above photograph, was located in the bar area.

The actual bar area is pictured above. Shortly after the couple finished their meal, Bonnie was shot and killed just around the corner from the restaurant. And while Blake claimed that at the time of the shooting he had been walking back to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had inexplicably left behind in his booth, he was arrested and charged with Bakley’s murder on April 18, 2002. He was then acquitted of those charges in March of 2005, but a few months later was found liable for Bakley’s wrongful death in a civil court. Unlike was the case with Brentwood’s Mezzaluna Restaurant, where Nicole Brown Simpson ate her last meal and which closed shortly thereafter, Vitello’s association with the crime only seemed to further the eatery’s fame and made the place even more of a Valley hot spot.

In 2005, Joe and Steve Restivo, seeking retirement, sold Vitello’s to Matt Epstein, a Sherman Oaks real estate agent who had been a regular patron of the restaurant since childhood. And while Epstein kept the menu and décor largely the same for quite some time, earlier this year he brought in a new chef, Tonino Cardia, and completely revamped the menu. And I am very sad to report that it is not nearly as good as it used to be. Gone are the vast majority of the hearty Vitello’s staples that the GC and I had come to know and love and the few items that the new menu did retain have been completed made over. The chicken marsala – which used to be my favorite entree – is a lackluster version of its former self and Vitello’s famous garlic bread now tastes much like the kind that can be purchased in the frozen food aisle of your local supermarket. Such an incredible shame!

There are also plans in the works to gut the interior of the restaurant and give it a completely new look. Even the famous Vitello’s wall mural will be coming down, as will the vintage leather booths. The new design will apparently feature French doors in the entryway and a huge olive tree in the middle of the dining room. And while it all sounds lovely, I am of the mantra that “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. Vitello’s has been a veritable Los Angeles institution for decades, always packed to the gills whenever we have dined there. It is widely noted that 59% of new restaurants close within three years of their opening, so for an eatery that has remained successful for over thirty-four years, you have to wonder why the owners would change a thing! It is such a shame! And while the super-nice manager came over to speak with us after we had expressed our disappointment with the new fare and even offered to comp our meal (which we turned down – we were not looking for a free meal, but just wanted to voice our opinion that the former cuisine was one hundred times better than the current), I am sad to say that I do not think we will ever be dining at Vitello’s again – the food was that bad!

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Besides being a celebrity hangout, our super-nice waitress also informed us that Vitello’s has been used as a filming location! Ironically enough, it stood in for two different locations in the 1999 movie The Deep End of the Ocean. The interior very briefly appeared as the supposed Madison, Wisconsin-area Italian restaurant where Pat Cappadora (aka Treat Williams) worked towards the beginning of the flick.

And the exterior later popped us as Cappadora’s, the supposed Chicago-area restaurant that Pat founded with his father, Angelo (aka Tony Musante), in the middle of the movie.

And while the interior was (I think) just a set, with its orange-toned walls, painted murals, and brickwork, it very closely resembles the real life interior of Vitello’s. Our waitress also informed us that the restaurant will be featured in an upcoming episode of Whitney, the yet-to-be released television series which stars Chelsea-Lately-regular Whitney Cummings.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Vitello’s Restaurant, from The Deep End of the Ocean, is located at 4349 Tujunga Avenue in Studio City. You can visit Vitello’s official website here.

April 8, 2011April 7, 2011

The Other “Catch Me If You Can” House

A few years ago during an acting class, my very favorite acting teacher, Annie, happened to mention that the Catch Me If You Can house was located just around the corner from where she then lived in Studio City. She said she had been walking her dogs one afternoon back in 2002 and had stumbled upon a scene from the movie being filmed at a large, Colonial-style house that producers had dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow. Well, her story had me thoroughly confused as I knew that the large, Colonial-style house where Frank Abagnale Jr.’s (aka Leonardo DiCaprio’s) mother, Paula (aka Nathalie Baye), lived in the flick, which was dressed in Christmas décor and covered with fake snow for a scene, was located on East California Boulevard in Pasadena. Annie insisted, though, that the house was located in Studio City and that she had watched much of the filming take place. I didn’t think much of it at the time and figured it was just a case of producers scrapping one location for another mid-shoot, as has been known to happen sometimes during the course of a production. It wasn’t until I was scanning through Catch Me If You Can back in March to make screen captures for my post on the Barclay Hotel that I realized that, as incredible as it may sound, there were actually TWO large, Colonial-style homes that had been dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow in the flick! As it turns out, the house Annie had told me about appeared briefly in the very beginning of the movie as the supposed New Rochelle, New York-area residence where Frank Jr. lived with his parents before they lost all of their money.

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Once I realized that the house that Annie had told our class about had, in fact, appeared in the movie, I immediately got to work in tracking it down. I knew where Annie’s former residence was located, so it was just a matter of searching around her neighborhood for the property. Thanks to the home’s distinct corner location, it was not very hard to find. And I dragged the GC right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend. The Catch Me If You Can house is quite charming in person and is situated on an absolutely HUGE corner lot which measures .38 of an acre. And while the landscaping in front of it has changed quite a bit since filming took place, it is still very recognizable from the movie.

The residence appeared in two scenes in the movie. It first popped up in the scene in which Frank Abagnale Sr. (aka Christopher Walken) and his wife Paula dance in their living room after attending an awards ceremony at the local Rotary Club.

And it later appears in the scene in which the family is shown moving out of the house after having fallen upon hard times.

And, as you can see in these photographs of the home, the real life interior, including the living room area . . .

. . .and one of the bedrooms, was used in the filming.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frank’s parents’ house from the beginning of Catch Me If You Can is located at 12075 Valleyheart Drive in Studio City.