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.

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!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

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.

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