Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant from “Larry Crowne”

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A few days before Christmas, while I was wallowing in a horrible head cold, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch the 2011 flick Larry Crowne. Neither of us had very high hopes for the movie as it had received such horrible reviews, but I am very happy to report that we both ended up loving it. So much so that we watched it again a few days later when my parents came to town to celebrate Christmas with us. The whimsical storyline centers around Larry Crowne (aka Tom Hanks), a middle-aged former Navy chef who is forced to rethink his life after being fired from his job at the local U-Mart Store. He decides to enroll in a nearby community college where he not only makes friends with a group of wildly eccentric and endearing characters, but also finds his life finally start to take shape. If you have yet to see Larry Crowne, I highly recommend ignoring the critics and renting it! Anyway, one of the main locations featured in the flick was Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant – a Burbank-area eatery that I had passed by countless times during my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles, but had, for whatever reason, never dined at. So I immediately added the place to my “To-Stalk” list and dragged the GC right on out there as soon as we returned home from visiting my grandmother in Reno this past weekend.

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As we pulled up to Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, I spotted an article about Larry Crowne posted on the café’s front door and knew right away that I was going to LOVE the place.

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And I am very happy to report that I did! Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, which is also sometimes called Frank’s Steak House, first opened its doors in 1957 and not much has changed since. Walking into the diner is like stepping back in time about fifty years – and I mean that in the best way possible.

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The interior of Frank’s, with its dark vinyl booths, popcorn ceiling, and Formica countertops, is straight out of the 1950s and it is not at all hard to see why countless location managers have flocked there over the years. The place also serves up some FABULOUS food at very reasonable prices, which pleased the GC to no end. I opted for a mushroom cheeseburger with French fries and a side of ranch dressing and it was all simply amazing – especially the steak fries, which were extremely thick and seasoned in a way that was reminiscent of the fries served at fave restaurant chain Red Robin. The GC ordered the homemade split pea soup and it was also out of this world.

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I was absolutely floored when I spotted a photograph of Tom Hanks posing with Jose, Frank’s owner, on display on the wall next to the kitchen. As fate would have it, Jose happened to come over to chat with us while we were dining and, let me tell you, the guy could NOT have been nicer! He sat with us for a good twenty minutes and filled us in on the Larry Crowne shoot, which took six days to complete. Jose informed us that the cast and crew were some of the nicest that he has ever encountered – and he has encountered quite a few. He also told us about the restaurant’s vast filming history and showed us countless photographs that he had stored on his cell phone of the various filmings that have taken place on the premises and the numerous celebrities that have posed with him. As you can imagine, I was pretty much drooling the entire time.

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In Larry Crowne, Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant is featured repeatedly as the eatery where Larry and his scooter-riding friends hang out.

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Later on in the movie, Larry gets a job working as a line cook in the restaurant’s kitchen.

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That kitchen is pictured above.

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Jose, who has been a chef for over forty years, actually acted as Tom Hanks’ cooking consultant during the filming of Larry Crowne and at one point had to step in to do some chopping for the actor. The hands you see above, which are supposedly Larry’s in the movie, are actually Jose’s. So incredibly cool!

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In the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Squash It”, the exterior of Frank’s stood in for the Reno, Nevada-area diner where Valerie Malone (aka Tiffani Thiessen) convinced Ray Pruit (aka Jamie Walters) to return to Beverly Hills.

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As you can see above, though, a different restaurant was used for the interior filming.

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Jose informed us that Frank’s Coffee Shop had been featured in no less than 5 episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, one of which is the upcoming “Willows in the Wind”, which just so happens to be Marg Helgenber’s final episode.  Unfortunately, Jose was unsure of the titles of the other four episodes filmed on the premises, but I was able to do some digging and tracked down two of them.  Then, after publishing this post, a CSI message board led me to the other two.  Win!  Frank’s first appeared in the Season 6 episode titled “Rashomama” as the supposed Las Vegas, Nevada-area coffee shop where the car belonging to Nick Stokes (aka George Eads), as well as all of the crime scene evidence inside of it, was stolen.

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And in the Season 7 episode titled “Law of Gravity”, Frank’s stood in for the restaurant where Michael Keppler (aka Liev Schreiber) ran into Frank McCarty (aka Len Cariou).

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In the Season 9 episode titled “Mascara” (CSI’s 200th episode), Frank’s is where Dr. Raymond Langston (aka Laurence Fishburne) met up a few times with his former thesis student Sylvia Mallick (aka Aimee Deshayes).

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And in the Season 11 episode titled “The List”, Catherine Willows (aka Marg Helgenberger) met up with Detective Vartann (aka Alex Carter) to discuss the case she was working on.

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In the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Ron and Tammy”, Frank’s stood in for the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area restaurant where Ron Swanson (aka Nick Offerman) took his ex-wife, Tammy Swanson (aka Megan Mullally), out for lunch.

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Jose also let us know that Frank’s was featured in the 2003 flop Gigli, but I scanned through the movie yesterday while doing research for this post and did not see it anywhere. I did, however, spot it briefly in the flick’s trailer, so the scene that was filmed at Frank’s appears to have been left on the cutting room floor.

That scene can be viewed at the 2:18 mark when Larry Gigli (aka Ben Affleck) tells Ricki (aka Jennifer Lopez), “I got a confession. I think we’re good together.”

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Fellow stalker Jason also let me know that Frank’s Restaurant was featured in Chris Daughty’s “No Surprise” music video.

Chris Daughty–“No Surprise” Video Filmed at Frank’s Coffee Shop & Restaurant in Burbank

You can watch that video by clicking above.

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Jose also told us that Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant was featured in the A&E Network mini-series Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, but I scanned through it yesterday and did not spot the restaurant anywhere. He also told us that Criminal Minds had filmed on the premises recently, but I scanned through all of the Season 7 episodes that have aired so far and did not see it, so I am guessing that it will pop up in an upcoming episode in the very near future.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, from Larry Crowne, is located at 916 West Olive Avenue in Burbank.

Larry’s Chili Dog from “The Office”

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Because fellow stalker Lavonna has been in town for the past few days and I have been doing some major stalking with her, today’s post is, unfortunately, going to be a short one.  Sad smile Sorry about that folks, but I do promise to be back tomorrow with a regular-sized write-up.  And now, on with the post!  One location that has been on my “To-Stalk” list since way back in early February is Larry’s Chili Dog – a tiny Burbank-area hot dog stand that was featured in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “The Search”.  As I mentioned quite a few months back in my post about Kung Pao China Bistro, the Chinese food restaurant that was also featured in “The Search”, fellow stalker Owen tracked down every single location which appeared in the episode.  And because, as I have also mentioned previously, this stalker absolutely loves herself some hot dogs, I was especially excited to stalk Larry’s, but for whatever reason had just never made it out there.  So, a couple of weeks ago, when the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves ravenously hungry after a shopping expedition at the Burbank IKEA, I knew exactly where to head!

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In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being left stranded at a local gas station sans wallet, money, and cell phone, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) decides to go on a “walkabout” through Downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania.   He first hits up a pet store and talks to a few random animals about love, before heading over to Larry’s Chili Dog where he orders a hot dog.  Because he has no means of paying, he tells the cashier that he will leave his “$45 watch” behind as a sort of marker, to which the cashier says, “We’re not a pawn shop.”  Michael tries to barter with the cashier further, but he is having none of it and Michael ends up yelling “You’ve just lost my business” before walking away empty-handed.  LOL  God, I love that show!  It has sadly gone downhill this season, but the reruns of the earlier episodes just never get old!

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Larry’s Chili Dog looks much the same in person as it did on The Office and I am very happy to report that the owners truly could NOT have been nicer!  They let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming.

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They also told me that Steve Carell was extremely nice and had posed for pictures with them during the filming.  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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Because the owners were so incredibly nice, it seriously pains me to say that I did not enjoy my hot dog all that much.  It was of the snap-skin variety, which, for whatever reason, gives this stalker the major heebie-jeebies!  As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am an extremely picky eater.  The GC absolutely LOVED his hamburger, though, and the French fries and ranch dressing were both A-MA-ZING, so all in all our lunch was not a total loss.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Larry’s Chili Dog, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 3122 West Burbank Boulevard in Burbank.

Halloween 2011 with Matthew Lillard

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Well, the stalking gods have definitely been smiling down upon me as of late because this year I experienced what was quite simply the Best. Halloween. Ever.  It was an absolute whirlwind and I honestly do not know how any future Halloween can ever compare!  It all started a couple of weeks ago when the fabulous Katie, from the Matthew Lillard Online website, announced that she would be giving away two tickets to the October 28th performance of Harbor, the new play in which the Scooby-Doo-actor stars, along with a meet-and-greet/photo-op.  I, of course, immediately entered my name in the contest and, as fate would have it, I won!  Because this stalker absolutely LOVES herself some Matthew Lillard, I was literally screaming at the top of my lungs when I found out.  What better way could there have possibly been to begin my Halloween weekend than by meeting one of the stars of Scream, my very favorite scary movie of all time?!?!  And while the Grim Cheaper was not nearly as excited about my big win as I was – he is not at all a fan of the theatre, especially Los Angeles theatre which tends to be a bit pretentious – the two of us found ourselves heading out to The Victory Theatre Center in Burbank this past Friday night.  And, let me tell you, I was literally bouncing out of my seat during the entire drive there!

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Amazingly enough, the excitement of the evening got started before the lights in the theatre even went down!  While the GC and I were standing in line waiting to pick up our tickets, I just happened to spot Mekia Cox – who not only played Sasha during Season 3 of fave show 90210, but was also one of Michael Jackson’s dancers on the ill-fated This Is It tour – standing in line behind us.  I, of course, just had to go up to her to ask for a photo and I am very happy to report that she could NOT have been sweeter.  Mekia said that she could not believe that I had recognized her as she usually does not get spotted when her hair is pulled back.  She obviously didn’t realize that she was talking to a stalker.  Winking smile I was like, “Are you kidding?  I noticed you the second you walked through the door!”  Smile

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Harbor, which was written by Jon Cellini, Matthew Lillard’s college roommate, is the story of a single mother who, upon the death of her father and the subsequent reading of his will, is forced to make contact with her ex-husband and his new wife.  And while it sounds as if that would be some rather depressing subject matter, the play is actually laugh-out-loud hilarious!  And Matthew Lillard absolutely SHINES in it.  His onstage persona is magnetic and he is nothing short of fascinating to watch.  The guy has got some major presence – one look at him onstage and it is entirely obvious how he became a movie star.  Truth be told, though, the entire cast was FABULOUS, the script superb, and the theatre warm and intimate.  I honestly could not have enjoyed the production more.   And I was not the only one!   Let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair when the lights went up at the end of the show and the GC turned to me and said, “That was the best play I’ve ever seen in my life!”  I mean, I knew Harbor was good, but the fact that the GC said that speaks volumes!  If you live in the L.A. area or are planning to visit in the near future, you really need to go see this show!!  I honestly cannot recommend it more!

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After the play was over, we headed to the lobby to wait for Matthew to come out, whereupon the GC met the producer of the show and promptly told her that Harbor was the best play he had ever seen.  He was so giddy over finally enjoying a live performance, I honestly would not have been surprised if he had started shouting about it from the rooftops!  Anyway, when Matthew came out, I walked up to him to introduce myself as the Matthew Lillard Online contest winner and he immediately said, “Oh!  I’m supposed to take a picture with you!”  Um, LOVE IT!  After posing for the above picture, which turned out ADORABLE (can you tell how excited I was to meet him??), Matthew hung around and chatted with us for quite a long time.  The guy truly could NOT have been nicer and when I told him that the two of us used to frequent the same Starbucks and that I had always tried to (accidentally Smile) run into him there, he jokingly started calling me a stalker!  Oh, if he only knew.  Winking smile Matthew was truly honored that I was such a fan and gave me a huge hug before going off to meet the many other fans of his that were in attendance.  Sigh!  What a complete and total sweetheart!   As I said – the evening could not have been a more magical start to my Halloween weekend.

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The following night, the GC and I headed out to Palm Desert, where his boss was hosting a prom-themed Halloween party.  And while I had originally wanted to dress up as Ali (aka Christina Aguilera) and Jack (aka Cam Gigandet) from Burlesque this year, as soon I heard the words “prom-themed”, my plans immediately changed and we instead went as Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty) and Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry) in their outfits from the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Spring Dance”.  As you can imagine, I could NOT have been more excited for this particular costume!

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And I, of course, just had to make the GC a vegetable boutonniere like the one Brandon Walsh (aka Jason Priestley) wore in the episode.  Smile

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I also just had to re-create the above photograph of Brenda and Dylan.  Oh, the crap I put the Grim Cheaper through!  It is honestly amazing that he ever proposed!  Winking smile And my Halloween excitement did not end there because I spent this past Monday night at a place that I am still pinching myself over, but more on that tomorrow.  Winking smile

A big, huge THANK YOU to Katie, from the Matthew Lillard Online website, for the tickets to Harbor!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Matthew Lillard will be starring in Harbor each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night now through December 3rd at The Victory Theatre Center, which is located at 3326 West Victory Boulevard in Burbank.  You can purchase tickets to the show here.

The Macy’s at Burbank Town Center Mall from “The Mentalist”

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One spooky-type location that I have had on my To-Stalk list for just about forever now is the Macy’s department store located inside of the Burbank Town Center Mall, which was featured as a murder site in the Season 2 episode of fave show The Mentalist titled “Redemption”.  And while I had recognized the location immediately while watching the episode way back in September of 2009 and had even stalked the Burbank Town Center Mall recently due to its appearance in another episode of The Mentalist, for whatever reason I had completely forgotten about Macy’s.  So I promptly dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place this past weekend after doing some shopping at a nearby Ikea.

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In the “Redemption” episode of The Mentalist, CBI Agent Teresa Lisbon (aka Robin Tunney) and her ne’er-do-well consultant Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) are called in to investigate the murder of a man in a supposed-Sacramento-area department store.  The scene in which the two arrive at the store was filmed at the bottom of the escalators on Macy’s Second Floor, next to the MAC Cosmetics counter.

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Lisbon and Jane are immediately escorted by Police Captain Bocanegra (aka Geoffrey Rivas) to the murder site in the store’s Men’s Department.  It was due to this particular segment of the scene, in which Patrick and Jane walk over some unique green tile and wood flooring, that I recognized the episode had been shot at the Macy’s in Burbank.  The GC and I once did some shopping in the Burbank Macy’s Men’s Department quite a few years back and while we were there I had commented on how pretty I thought the floors were.  They did not look like typical department store floors and made me think of the upscale Herald Square Macy’s on 34th Street in New York in which the Men’s Department is composed of dark woods.  Anyway, the image of those floors stuck with me, for whatever reason, so when I saw Lisbon and Jane walk over them in “Redemption”, I recognized them immediately.

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Lisbon and Jane are then shown the bludgeoned body of Ivar Rasmussen, which was found in a little waiting area outside of the men’s dressing rooms.  It is there that Patrick proceeds to smell the body in order to gather clues, infuriating Captain Bocanegra in the process.

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Sadly, the area used for the filming of that scene was being redressed when we showed up to the stalk the place and was not very accessible.

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But I did manage to snap a picture of a similar alcove located in a different section of the store.

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After properly “sniffing out” the body, Jane proceeds downstairs to the Ground Level Furniture Department in order to interview the patrons who were in the store at the time of the bludgeoning.

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It is there that he performs a ritual using the hands of one of the witnesses to lead him to the murder weapon, which turns out to be the base of a crystal wineglass.

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After the murder weapon is found, a huge fight breaks out among the killer and the security guards, which ends up causing $250,000 worth of damage to the store.  When Lisbon admonishes him for creating the ruckus, Jane says, “What?  The case is closed isn’t it?”  Ah, I so love Patrick Jane!  Smile

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That portion of the scene was filmed in Macy’s furniture/bedding/cookware department, which, amazingly enough, looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.  I thought for sure the production crew had dressed the area for the filming, but that does not actually appear to have been the case.

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On a Mentalist side note – A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, called me up for some help after she discovered that she had locked her keys inside of her car while doing some shopping at the Burbank Town Center Mall.  I headed over there and after calling Roadside Assistance and having them jimmy open the lock, we discovered that her keys were not, in fact, inside of the car after all.  So I ventured inside the mall to see if anyone had turned them in to the security office.  No one had and Pinky’s poor dad ended up having to drive all the way from Ventura to bring her a spare set – and, sadly, her originals have still yet to be found.  FAIL!  But every cloud does indeed have a silver lining, as they say, because a few days later I was watching the Season Premiere of The Mentalist, which was titled “Scarlet Ribbons”, and just about died when I noticed that a scene was filmed at the Burbank Town Center Mall security office!  As I mentioned in the post I wrote about the show’s Season 3 Finale back in June, Patrick Jane finally killed Red John (aka Bradley Whitford) in the middle of the Burbank Town Center Mall at the very end of the episode.  Well, when Agents Kimball Cho (aka Tim Kang) and Wayne Rigsby (aka Owain Yeoman) set out to investigate the killing in the Season 4 opener, one of their first stops was the mall’s real life security office, looking exactly as it had when I visited it only days before.  SO incredibly cool!

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That security office is pictured above.  I had to take the photograph a bit on the down-low as I was afraid that one of the security guards might get upset if he saw me snapping any pictures of the place.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Macy’s at Burbank Town Center Mall, from the “Redemption” episode of The Mentalist, is located at 200 East Cypress Avenue in Burbank.

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank from “Heat”

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While doing some stalking in the Burbank area way back in November of last year, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Bob’s Big Boy restaurant on Riverside Drive to grab a bite to eat.  And even though the eatery has quite a vast Hollywood history, is a filming location, serves fried food (my favorite!), and is currently the oldest remaining Bob’s in the entire restaurant chain, for whatever reason in my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles I had yet to dine there.  But, let me tell you, the place was well worth the wait!  Both the GC and I absolutely LOVED it!

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Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank was originally built in 1949 by franchise owners Scott MacDonald and Ward Albert, and was designed by Wayne McAllister, the legendary Googie-style architect who also designed the Biltmore Hotel’s Biltmore Bowl ballroom, the Sands Hotel and Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Cinegrill nightclub.  In 1993, after several changes in  ownership and a few dining room remodels, the property was purchased by the MacDonald family, who immediately set about an extensive renovation in order to restore the Streamline-Moderne-style eatery to its original glory.  The MacDonald’s also added a front patio to the premises, re-fabbed the famous exterior signage, and, best of all, re-instated car-hop service from 5 to 10 p.m. each Friday and Saturday night.  So incredibly cool!  In 1993, the restaurant was also deemed a California Point of Historical Interest.

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Visiting Bob’s Big Boy, one is immediately transported back in time, thanks largely to its curved counter and open kitchen ;

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cantilevered roof and petal-like umbrellas,

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and commanding 50s-style signage –

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the most impressive of which is the 70-foot-tall free-standing display sign pictured above.

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And the food!  Oh, the food!  I ordered the chicken strips and they were absolutely out-of-this-world!  And don’t even get me started on the ranch dressing!  I was almost ready to start eating it by itself, soup-style, it was so good!  The GC opted for the famous “Big Boy” double-decker hamburger, which he loved.  The “Big Boy” was originally invented by Bob’s Big Boy founder Bob Wian in 1937 and was the precursor to the now-legendary McDonald’s Big Mac.  He created the sandwich as a joke one night when one of his regular customers asked for a “different” kind of burger.  And the rest, as they say, is hamburger history.  Amazingly, Bob was also one of the very first restaurant owners to offer his employees a profit-sharing plan and medical insurance.

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Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank has been a celebrity hangout since the very beginning.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there over the years include Bob Hope (who was a regular), James Dean, Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Jonathan Winters, Alexis Smith, Debbie Reynolds, Craig Stevens, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Taylor Lautner, Tiffany Thornton, Tori Spelling, Melissa Joan Hart, David Henrie, Taylor Swift, Joey Lawrence, Cheech Marin, Selena Gomez, Jay Leno, David Lynch, Dennis Haskins, and Freddie Prinze Jr.  During the summer of 1965, all four members of The Beatles famously dined at one of the eatery’s back booths, which is pictured above.

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That occasion was marked with the gold plaque pictured above, which one employee told me has been stolen countless times over the years.  I cannot tell you how much I hate hearing things like that! Apparently, the owners were sick of constantly having to replace the sign, so for a time they left the wall in that area blank.  Thankfully though, the plaque was back in its proper place when I stalked the restaurant last year.

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And, as I mentioned above, Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank is also a filming location!  The diner was featured twice in the 1995 heist movie Heat.  It first popped us as the restaurant where a fresh-out-of-prison Donald Breedan (aka Dennis Haysbert) got hired as a janitor/cook.

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Towards the end of the movie, it shows up once again in the scene in which Neil McCauley (aka Robert De Niro), Michael Cheritto (aka Tom Sizemore), and Chris Shiherlis (aka Val Kilmer) convince Donald to be the driver for their upcoming bank heist.  Apparently there was once a plaque displayed in the booth where that scene took place commemorating the occasion, but it was stolen countless times as well and had yet to be replaced in November.

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In the Season 8 episode of Dancing with the Stars, Derek Hough took Lil’ Kim to Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank to get her into character for their upcoming 50s jive performance.  You can watch a clip of that segment being filmed here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the face of About Me!  There are only five voting days left – you can vote once every 24 hours now through Tuesday, September 20th.  Smile

Stalk It: Bob’s Big Boy, from Heat, is located at 4211 West Riverside Drive in Burbank.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.  Priscilla’s Coffee Tea & Gifts, from Desperate Housewives, which I blogged about back in December of 2009, is located just across the street from Bob’s at 4150 Riverside Drive in Burbank.

The “Father of the Bride” Grocery Store

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Due to my parents’ recent move and my dad’s recent hospital stay, I have sadly not had time to do much stalking as of late.  While in Palm Springs this past weekend my mom happened to ask me if I had some locations stockpiled (or should I say “stalkpiled”? Winking smile) for times such as this.  Well, as I explained to her, I have so many darn locations on my “To Blog” list that half the time I forget about them, which was the case with the spot I am writing about today – the grocery store from the 1991 movie Father of the Bride.  I stalked the market way back in early May and had completely forgotten about it until yesterday morning when I was going through my Picasa web albums and spotted the pictures I took while there.  So, don’t worry mom!  The problem lies not in there being a lack of locations to write about, but in me being able to recall them all!  Anyway, a couple of months ago I asked fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, to track down several locations from fave movie Father of the Bride, one of which was the grocery store where George Banks (aka Steve Martin) refused to buy “superfluous” hot dog buns.  Fellow stalker Owen had actually tried to find this location last year and had somehow managed to get into contact with actor Britt Leach who played the role of the assistant grocery store manager in the scene.  Britt, who has to be one of the nicest guys in the world, not only wrote back to Owen immediately, but subsequently wrote to me as well and did his best in helping us to find the place.  He informed us that the store was located in the Burbank area, possibly near the IKEA on North San Fernando Boulevard.  So with that information in hand, Owen and I tried to track the place down, but, for whatever reason, came up completely empty-handed.

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Enter Chas, who somehow managed to get in touch with a member of the Father of the Bride production team, one who not only remembered the exact address of the store, but who also informed him that it had sadly changed hands in recent years.  At the time of the filming, the market was owned by Vons, but the property was shuttered a couple of years back, whereupon it was purchased by Henry’s Farmers Markets and the interior was remodeled shortly thereafter.  Such a shame!  As you can see in these pictures of the former Vons location, though, the exterior, which was not featured in FOTB, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did before Henry’s took over.

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The interior, however, is another story altogether.  While it is a beautiful grocery store, the interior is, sadly, completely and totally unrecognizable from its appearance in Father of the Bride.

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In FOTB, George Banks heads to a local market in order to cool off after having had a bit of a meltdown over his daughter’s impending wedding.  While there, he has an even bigger meltdown over the fact that while hot dogs are sold in packages of eight, hot dog buns are sold in packages of twelve.  So, he decides to take a stand by ripping open packages to remove the four offending buns.  When a befuddled clerk tries to stop him, George says that the hot dog and hot dog bun corporations “are not ripping off this nitwit anymore, because I am not paying for one more thing I don’t need.  George Banks is saying ‘no’!”  LOL  He winds up getting arrested and is sent to jail, where his wife Nina (aka Diane Keaton) has to bail him out.

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And even though the store now looks completely different, I just had to find the hot dog bun aisle while I was there so that I could pose with a package of buns.  Smile

Father of the Bride hot dog scene–Henry’s Market in Burbank

You can watch the Father of the Bride grocery store scene by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location!  You can check out Chas’ Father of the Bride filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Henry’s Farmers Market, aka the Father of the Bride grocery store, is located at 1011 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank.

Burbank Town Center Mall from the Season 3 Finale of “The Mentalist”

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While watching the two-part Season 3 finale of fave show The Mentalist titled “Strawberries and Cream” a few weeks back, I just about died when I realized that the Burbank Town Center had stood in for the supposed Sacramento-area “Pinewood Shopping Mall” in the episode’s climatic final scene.  While Burbank Town Center is not actually my local mall, I immediately recognized the place as the Grim Cheaper had taken me there on our very first date, just a little over a decade ago.  We had first gone to see the movie Cast Away at a nearby theatre and then headed on over to the mall so that the GC could show me an antique carousel that used to be located there.  Prior to our date, I had no idea of the carousel’s existence and thought it was so incredibly cool that the GC knew little tidbits about LA like that.  I am pretty sure I fell in love with him right then!  Smile And while the carousel was sold a few years back (I hear it is now located in the San Diego area), because we had spent at least a half an hour looking down upon it from the Center’s second floor, when that area of the mall popped up on The Mentalist I recognized it immediately.  So yesterday, after getting my hair cut in Burbank, I decided to cruise on over there to snap a few pics of the place.

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In the “Strawberries and Cream” episode of The Mentalist (and a BIG warning here that there are major spoilers ahead, so if you have yet to watch the Season 3 finale and plan on doing so, you should STOP reading this post now), Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) sets up a sting operation in the middle of the mall in order to both prove that DLE Director Gale Bertram (aka Michael Gaston) is the CBI’s mole and to also hopefully discover the true identity of Red John, the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter.

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While there he ends up finally meeting and then killing Red John, who was played with perfection by The West Wing’s Bradley Whitford.

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In what turned out to be my very favorite part of the episode, after shooting Red John and causing mass pandemonium in the mall, Patrick sits down calmly, finishes drinking his tea, and then calls out to the waitress, “Check please!” before surrendering himself to the authorities.  LOL  As you can see in the above screen captures, the central area of the mall, where the antique carousel used to be located, was decorated to look like a café for the filming.

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Oh, how I wish they did actually serve espresso in that area of the mall!  In reality, though, after the carousel was removed, a small – and not-very-aesthetically-pleasing –  children’s train ride was placed there.  Note to Starbucks – the Burbank Town Center is in desperate need of a cute café, pronto!  Winking smile Photographs of the area which appeared on The Mentalist, taken from the mall’s second level, are pictured above.

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And a view of that area from the mall’s bottom floor is pictured above.

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The entrance to one of the Burbank Town Center’s garage areas was also used in the episode, but I completely forgot about that yesterday while I was stalking the place and failed to snap any pictures of it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Burbank Town Center, from the “Strawberries and Cream” episode of The Mentalist, is located at 201 East Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank.  You can visit the mall’s official website here.  The area where Patrick Jane shot Red John is located in the very center of the mall, on the bottom level, in front of Old Navy and Shiekh Shoes.  The parking garage entrance which appeared in the episode is located at 501 North Third Street.

Brenda’s Horseback Riding Center from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

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One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like forever now is the supposed Minnesota-area equestrian center where a childhood Brenda Walsh (a young actress stood in for my girl Shannen Doherty in this episode, but I, unfortunately, cannot seem to find her name anywhere online) went horseback riding in the Season 2 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Meeting Mr. Pony”.  For whatever reason, though, I just could not seem to track the place down.  I told the Grim Cheaper of my plight a little over a year ago and he informed me that filming had most likely taken place at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, where the classic 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman had also been lensed.  So the two of us promptly ran right out to stalk the place.  Oddly enough, though, when we got there, the center did not look at all familiar from 90210.  It wasn’t until after I got home and re-watched the “Meeting Mr. Pony” episode that I realized the GC had, in fact, been correct!  So I immediately added the place to my “To Re-Stalk” list and finally made it back out there this past weekend.

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In the “Meeting Mr. Pony” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Brenda goes to speak with a psychologist to deal with the fallout she endured after being robbed at gunpoint at the Peach Pit.  While there, the therapist asks Brenda to think back to a time in her life when she felt the most happy and the most secure.  Brenda immediately envisions her childhood riding sessions with her father, Jim Walsh (aka James Eckhouse), and her “beloved” horse, whom she actually calls both Sylvester and Sebastian in the episode!  LOL

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The area which appeared in the episode is the Los Angeles Equestrian Center’s main jumper ring which is located just east of the center’s main entrance.

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In the scene, Jim Walsh stood along the wooden fence that borders the southern edge of the ring, just north of the center’s main parking lot.  That portion of the ring looks slightly different today as the white fence which was located behind Jim has since been removed and the wooden beams located at the bottom of the fence have since been swapped out and replaced with round pieces of wood, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph. 

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The approximate spot where Jim stood is denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view. 

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The very same jumper ring was also the site of the polo match that Edward Lewis (aka Richard Gere) and Vivian Ward (aka Julia Roberts) attended in Pretty Woman.

Until next time , Happy Stalking!  Smile

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Stalk It: The Los Angeles Equestrian Center, aka Brenda’s horseback riding center from the “Meeting Mr. Pony” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 480 West Riverside Drive in Burbank.  You can visit the center’s official website here.  Both 90210 and Pretty Woman were filmed in the jumper ring located just east of the center’s main entrance, in the area denoted with a pink circle in the above aerial view.

The Smoke House Restaurant – Where Jim and Pam Held Their Rehearsal Dinner on “The Office”

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This past weekend, while out doing some Christmas shopping with the Grim Cheaper, the two of us found ourselves in the Burbank area absolutely ravenous.  For whatever reason, though, I could not think of a good place to eat, so the GC suggested we grab a bite at that “old Burbank restaurant across from Warner Brothers Studios”.  Because my blondness was in full force that day, I had no idea what on earth he was talking about and just about died when he pulled into the parking lot of the Smoke House Restaurant – the very spot where Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) hosted the rehearsal dinner for their wedding in the Season 6 episode of fave show The Office titled “Niagara”.  And although I have actually stalked this location once before and have even blogged about it, because it was long before The Office had shot there and long before I was even a fan of the show, I decided the restaurant was worthy of a repost.

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The original 46-seat Smoke House restaurant first opened in 1946 at the corner of Pass and Riverside Avenues in Burbank.  The eatery was a hit with the Hollywood set from the very start, with such stars as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra (who even has a steak named after him on the Smoke House menu), Judy Garland, Milton Berle, Jack Parr, James Dean, Burl Ives, Walt Disney, and Errol Flynn stopping in regularly to grab a bite to eat.  Due to its promise of serving up “fine food at fair prices”, the restaurant became such a Burbank staple that its owners were quickly forced to expand.  They started looking for a larger building to move into and, as fate would have it, found one in actor Danny Kaye’s recently constructed Red Coach Inn.  Due to city regulations and the Up In Arms actor’s busy filming schedule, Kaye was unable to open the restaurant/night club and in 1949 he sold the never-been-used property to the owners of the Smoke House.  The establishment is still located in that very building to this day.   And, six decades later, the place is still going strong.  In more recent years, such stars as Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Megan Fox, Andy Garcia, Miley Cyrus, Tish Cyrus, and the entire cast of Friends (who used to stop by regularly after filming) have all been spotted dining there.

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George Clooney is such a fan of the place that he named his production company “Smokehouse Pictures” in honor of the legendary restaurant.  The actor also did a photo shoot at the eatery in the booth pictured above.

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One look at the Smoke House interior and it’s not very hard to see why it has succeeded for over sixty years.  With it’s dim lights, dark red booths, and wood-paneled walls, stepping inside the eatery definitely brings one back to a forgotten era.  It’s exactly the type of place I’d imagine Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. hanging out at back in the heyday of Hollywood. 

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Oh, and did I mention the food?  During this particular visit I ordered the restaurant’s Cobb Salad and it was easily the biggest salad I’ve ever seen in my entire life!  I didn’t even get through one third of it and I was literally STARVING when we showed up at the restaurant.  On our previous visit, the GC and I ordered up the eatery’s famous “World’s Greatest Garlic Bread” and I can honestly say that the restaurant wasn’t being arrogant when they conceived that name.  It literally was the best garlic bread I’ve ever had in my life!  Smile  Truth be told, though, all of the Smoke House food is FABULOUS, but be forewarned, their portions are ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS!  The restaurant’s staff is also INCREDIBLY nice and, even though the place was pretty packed at the time, everyone I spoke with took the time to answer all of my silly questions about the filming that has taken place there over the years.

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In the “Niagara” episode of The Office, the Smoke House stood in for the supposed Niagara Falls-area restaurant where Jim and Pam held the rehearsal dinner for their wedding.  The majority of that scene was filmed in the restaurant’s back room, which, luckily enough, was being set up for a private party while we were there, so I was able to snap a bunch of photographs while the room was empty!

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Some filming also took place in the restaurant’s bar area.

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The Smoke House’s side room was used in the scene in which Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) are shown eating breakfast the morning following the rehearsal dinner.

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The Smoke House was also featured in the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Move On”, in the scene in which Susan Mayer (aka Teri Hatcher) sings a deeply personal rendition of the song “New York, New York” to her ex-husband Karl (aka Richard Burgi) while at a local karaoke bar. 

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The Desperate Housewives scene was filmed on the stage located in the restaurant’s bar area.

You can watch Susan’s karaoke scene by clicking above.

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  The eatery has also appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Cold Case, and in a Season 2 episode of the reality series The Two Coreys, but I cannot for the life of me figure out which episode and it is driving me absolutely crazy!  Does anyone out there know?

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Smoke House Restaurant, where Jim and Pam hosted their rehearsal dinner in the “Niagara” episode of The Office, is located at 4420 West Lakeside Drive in Burbank.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.