Atlas Sausage from “Surviving Christmas”

My blog is likely to be light on content over the next month, as I have quite a few trips and excursions planned.  As such, I figured there was no time like the present to begin my Christmas-themed postings.  So here goes.  (I also have a very exciting non-Christmas-related article hitting the blog next week, so stay tuned for that!)  Finding filming locations is often akin to solving puzzles for me – and I love solving puzzles.  So when I spot a clue in the background of a movie or television show, no matter how brief or insignificant the scene, it seems to call to me and I cannot help but attempt to figure out where the segment was shot.  Such was the case with the butcher shop featured fleetingly in Surviving Christmas.

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For those who have yet to watch the 2004 Christmas comedy (and you really should – it’s fabulous), it centers around millionaire ad exec Drew Latham (Ben Affleck), who, after finding himself alone at Christmastime, returns to his childhood home in Arlington Heights, Indiana and pays the family who now lives there $250,000 in exchange for them allowing him to move back in for the holidays.  During his stay, he upsets patriarch Tom Valco (James Gandolfini) by polishing off all of his beloved salami.  So Tom heads to his local butcher to replenish his processed meat supply, donning a Santa hat per Drew’s request.

While watching the scene, I spotted a sign pasted on the butcher shop door.  Though pictured backwards and partially cut off, it was apparent that the lettering spelled out “Atlas Sausage.”  Even though the segment was brief (like blink-and-you’ll-miss-it brief), seeing that sign was like kryptonite to me – I couldn’t not at least attempt to track the place down.  It turned out to be a short hunt – one quick Google search for “Atlas Sausage” and “Los Angeles” yielded a listing for a market by that name at 10626 Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood.  While the exterior of the butcher shop was not shown in Surviving Christmas, I knew I had hit pit dirt when I saw that the diagonally-placed entrance door visible via Street View matched the diagonally-placed door that appeared onscreen.  Sadly, Atlas Sausage closed down in the summer of 2003, shortly after Surviving Christmas filmed there in February of that same year, but I still headed right on out to stalk the locale nonetheless.

Atlas Sausage, or Atlas Sausage Kitchen as it was also known, was established in the 1940s and was a Valley landmark for the 60-plus years it remained in operation.  All of the sausages sold at the market were made by hand – on the original wooden smokehouse that was in place since the day the store opened.

After the market closed in July 2003 (much to the chagrin of SoCal meat lovers, some of whom would travel from as far as San Diego to get their hands on Atlas’ links), the site sat vacant.  In August 2006, Big Papi’s Rib Shack, or Big Papi’s Barbeque as it was also called, set up shop on the premises.  Google Street View images of the property during its Big Papi’s tenure are pictured below.

The eatery did not last long, shutting its doors in January 2008.

Today, the space houses State Automotive Supply, which is rather ironic as a 1992 Los Angeles Times article about Atlas Sausage described the market as being “located in an industrial neighborhood with more than its share of automotive repair shops.”

I ventured inside State Automotive while I was stalking the place and, sadly, the interior looks entirely different today than it did when it appeared in Surviving Christmas.  The space has actually been remodeled twice since Atlas Sausage closed, first when Big Papi’s moved in.  The inside of the restaurant is pictured below via images I snapped from this “How to Serve BBQ Sausage” tutorial that was filmed on the premises.  As you can see, it does not resemble the Surviving Christmas butcher shop in the slightest, though the rear brick wall that was visible in the movie was still intact at the time.  The site was then remodeled once again prior to State Automotive’s opening.  I did not take any photos of the inside as it is now rather cramped due to the fact that the vast majority of the building is currently used as storage for the shop’s inventory, which leaves just a small alcove area accessible to the public.  When Atlas Sausage was in operation, the Los Angeles Times said this of its interior, “Plain shelves on plain walls hold scores of mustards and dozens of rye breads.  The enormous collection of German beers, hidden away in a nondescript cooler, could easily be overlooked.  A deceptively modest display of sausages and unsliced cold cuts occupies several utilitarian butcher cases.”  All of that gibes with what was shown in Surviving Christmas.  Oh, how I wish I could have seen the place back then!  I absolutely love local specialty shops!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: State Automotive Supplies, aka the former Atlas Sausage from Surviving Christmas, is located at 10626 Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood.