Dead to Me – IAMNOTASTALKER

June 24, 2020June 23, 2020

Michelle’s House from “Dead to Me”

The TV gods have blessed audiences the past few months with a plethora of stellar new shows! Hollywood, Home Before Dark, Upload, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector – the list goes on and on. The timing has been rather fortuitous considering the quarantine. Several sophomore series have also come back strong, namely Dirty John and Dead to Me. I was thrilled to recognize a few locations from the latter that I already stalked and blogged about, including Cindy’s Restaurant, where Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) made a pit stop on the way home from Angeles National Forest in “Between You and Me,” and the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, which portrayed the Antelope Valley lodging the ladies checked into in the same episode. One spot that I wasn’t familiar with, but promptly set out to find was the house where Judy’s new girlfriend, Michelle Gutierrez (Natalie Morales), lived with her ex, Detective Ana Perez (Diana Maria Riva).

[ad]

Though Michelle’s residence pops up several times on Dead to Me, the first – and only – full shot of the exterior shown is in episode 8, “It Had to Be You.” Thankfully, an address number of “13113” was also visible in the scene. (Aren’t the number placards gorgeous? I love the Art Deco-themed font!) The unique cupola pitched atop Michelle’s roof, a common decorative feature of San Fernando Valley homes, told me that it could most likely be found in the Sherman Oaks or Van Nuys area. I hit up Sherman Oaks first, doing a Google search for properties with 13113 address numbers, and the top result kicked back was for 13113 Weddington Street. I was thrilled when I headed over to Street View and saw that it was, indeed, the right spot!

In real life, the dwelling, which was built in 1951 and is located in Sherman Oaks’ North Hidden Woods neighborhood, boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,900 square feet, an open floor plan, a living room with vaulted ceilings, crown moldings and hardwood flooring throughout, a barn door, a laundry room, a 0.15-acre lot, a large deck, a pool, a spa, and a carport.

Oh, and a swing in the front yard, which I found absolutely idyllic!

Completely remodeled in 2016, the abode is stunning inside, as these MLS images attest to. You can check out what the home looked like pre-remodel here. Quite a difference! Though the place was put on the market in August 2018, it did not sell and was delisted three months later.

As I learned from the real estate listing, Michelle’s house is Mellenthin Traditional, a style I’d never heard of before. It denotes what Antonio Pacheco in The Architect’s Newspaper describes as the “birdhouse ranch” properties built by William Mellenthin throughout the San Fernando Valley in the mid-20th Century, many featuring dovecotes or cupolas atop their peaked roofs. Though I may not have been familiar with Mellenthin’s name, nor did I know what a dovecote was (turns out it’s a structure that houses doves), I was highly familiar with his homes and their most prominent decorative element. I’ve even blogged about a couple of Mellenthin-style residences, including the pad where Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) lived on The Office. In my 2010 post on that locale, I characterized the cupola feature as an “extra little roof gable above the garage.”

Though Mellenthin was responsible for over 3,000 homes in the SFV, the roof adornments can be found on countless more area properties thanks to the many architects who copied his style.

Calling the dovecotes in the region “ubiquitous,” Pacheco states, “Today there are hundreds of ‘Birdhouse’ homes throughout the Valley—many by builders who borrowed the cupola style. But there is only one original, and that is William Mellenthin.” Upon reading those words, I headed over to the City of Los Angeles Building and Safety website to look up the building permits for Michelle’s house. It turns out it is no imitator – the pad was, indeed, designed by Mellenthin!

As I mentioned earlier, we only get one full view of the outside of the residence on Dead to Me, though we do see the front door/carport in a scene that continues over from “It’s Not You, It’s Me” to “Where Do We Go From Here” in which Jen confesses to Detective Perez that she killed Steve Wood (James Marsden).

While the exterior shots are limited, the inside of Michelle’s home pops up several times. As you can see in the screen capture below as compared to the 2018 MLS image, the actual interior of 13113 Weddington was utilized on the series.

I am not sure if the tilework in the kitchen was redone after the MLS photos were taken or if the swap from white to blue was a change made specifically for the Dead to Me shoot. Otherwise though, the house looks much the same in the images as it did onscreen.

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: Michelle’s house from Dead to Me is located at 13113 Weddington Street in Sherman Oaks.

June 7, 2019June 5, 2019

The Friends of Heaven Grief Retreat Hotel from “Dead to Me”

You wouldn’t expect a show centered around grief to be funny. But the Netflix original Dead to Me, about the recently-widowed Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and her new BFF Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini), whom she meets in the Laguna Beach chapter of the Friends of Heaven grief group, is downright hilarious! One episode in particular, “I’ve Gotta Get Away,” in which Jen and Judy attend a Friends of Heaven-sponsored retreat, had me LOLing throughout. So I, of course, had to blog about the supposed Palm Springs hotel where the event took place, which, as it turns out, is a mash-up of several different L.A. spots. Two I’ve previously blogged about and recognized on sight (that’s the Sportmen’s Lodge above, which you may remember from this post) and the third I did a bit of digging to track down. What can I say – I always go the extra mile for my fellow stalkers. Winking smile

[ad]

The bulk of the Friends of Heaven Grief Retreat took place at The Garland Hotel Studio City, a spot I spent a few days at in 2015 and later blogged about. Numerous areas of the retro-fabulous property, which does have a very Palm Springs feel, were utilized in the episode including the Cabrillo ballroom, where Jen follows her new crush, Jason (Steve Howey), to a seminar titled “Big Question.” Though I stalked the space during my Garland stay, unfortunately the photos I took don’t jibe with the angles shown onscreen. Regardless, you can still see that the carpeting, wall color and chair railing match.

And while I failed to snap an image of the Cabrillo’s entrance, which appeared on Dead to Me, I did get a pic of the doors to another of the hotel’s venues, the Beverly Garland Theatre, which bears the same look.

The lodging’s Garland Ballroom was utilized for the Lost Angels: Finding Yourself After Pregnancy Loss workshop that Judy attends.

Again, my photos were taken from different angles than what was shown onscreen, but you can see that the chandeliers, mirrored paneling and carpet all match.

One of The Garland’s hallways was utilized in “I’ve Gotta Get Away,” as well.

And the hotel’s picturesque courtyard pops up twice in the episode.

It first appears toward the beginning of “I’ve Gotta Get Away,” in the scene in which Judy and Jen head to their respective seminars.

Later, Jen has a talk with Pastor Wayne (Keong Sim) there.

I am unsure if the two hotel rooms featured on Dead to Me are actual Garland rooms (which you can see images of here) or studio-built sets.

Though both suites do look very much like those of the hotel, there are some structural differences. For instance, Jason’s room on the show has louvered double closet doors . . .

. . . while The Garland’s rooms feature flat single closet doors with raised blue paneling.

On Dead to Me, similar blue paneled doors instead lead to the bathroom.

But The Garland’s bathroom doors are made of frosted glass.

Jason’s room also boasts crown molding and numerous ceiling beams . . .

. . . which the actual rooms do not, as you can see in the image below from the hotel’s website.

While I’m leaning toward the Dead to Me rooms being sets, the wallpaper and carpeting in both suites match those of the hotel precisely. It seems like duplicating those two décor items in such exacting fashion would not only be difficult, but rather pointless considering most viewers have likely never been to The Garland and would have no idea what the accommodations look like. So I’m really torn on this one.

And oddly, while The Garland does have a beautiful pool . . .

. . . for whatever reason, cast and crew headed three miles west to the Sportsmen’s Lodge for Dead to Me’s pool scene.

I have stalked Sportmen’s Lodge countless times in the past (you can read about one instance here), so I recognized the pool – and its signature orange chaises – immediately. Somehow though, I had never taken any photos of the area and when I recently headed back to the hotel to do so, I found it under massive construction. Despite the detritus, the pool is still recognizable from its appearance in “I’ve Gotta Get Away.”

In another odd twist, producers chose not to utilize any of the restaurants located at either The Garland or Sportsmen’s Lodge for the Carry On-Oke event that supposedly took place at the hotel bar. They instead made use of a Hollywood watering hole named Black. Though I have yet to stalk the place and actually had never heard of it prior to researching for this post, it was not very hard to identify thanks to its unique retro aesthetic. You can check out some photos of it here.

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: The Friends of Heaven Grief Retreat from the “I’ve Gotta Get Away” episode of Dead to Me took place at these three spots – The Garland Hotel at 4222 Vineland Avenue in Studio City, Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel at 12825 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, and Black bar at 6202 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood.

June 5, 2019June 3, 2019

Steve’s House from “Dead to Me”

I have a major thing for modern houses. So it’s no shock that my favorite locale from the new Netflix series Dead to Me is the uber-contemporary abode belonging to Judy Hale’s (Linda Cardellini) ex, Steve Wood (James Marsden). Huge, avant-garde and decidedly unique, I fell in love with the place as soon as it came into view in the pilot episode and set out to find it immediately. Though an address number of “232” was clearly visible on the front of the residence in many scenes, it turned out to be fake – which thankfully did not lead me astray. From the start, I had an inkling that the obviously newly-built home was located in the San Fernando Valley, most likely Encino. So I inputted “large modern house” and “Encino” into Google and the second result kicked back was this Peerspace listing for an “Ultra Modern Huge Mansion with Pool and Tennis.” One look at the photos posted told me it was the right spot! Though no address was given, the copy below the images stated that the pad was in Encino’s Royal Oaks neighborhood and from there it did not take me long to pinpoint its location as 4230 Valley Meadow Road. I ran out to stalk it a few days later and that’s when fate stepped in!

[ad]

While the Grim Cheaper and I were out front snapping photos, the owner happened to pull up. As he got out of his car, he noticed us and inquired as to what we were doing. Bracing myself for being told to leave immediately, I explained that I was visiting the house because of its appearance in Dead to Me and, amazingly, without hesitation, he invited us right in!

Yes, you read that right – he invited us inside the residence to take a closer look! I could not believe my luck!

Nor could I believe how impressive the house was in person! Though it obviously looked stellar on Dead to Me . . .

. . . close-up it was even far more remarkable!

The 3-story property, which is currently for sale, boasts 8 bedrooms (all en suite and with walk-in closets), 11 baths, 9-foot ceilings, a grand entry, multiple fireplaces, a theatre, a gym, an elevator, a laundry room, an entertainment area with a built-in bar, a detached in-law unit, and an 8-car garage!

All 10,400 square feet of it is stunning!

Everywhere you turn is like a work of art!

Even the hallways are dramatic.

And the theatre! Oh my gosh, the theatre! Can you imagine having that in your house?

Or the gym?

It is the master bedroom, though, that really had me drooling.

The spacious suite boasts both his-and-her bathrooms AND his-and-her walk-in closets.

While the male bathroom (pictured above and below) is nothing to shake a stick at . . .

– the GC was especially impressed with the fact that there was a urinal (me, not so much) –

‘

. . . and the male closet is nice, as well . . .

. . . the female bathroom is the stuff dreams are made of!

I mean!

When can I move in?

And don’t even get me started on the attached bathed-in-pink female closet!

The 0.92-acre grounds are pretty extraordinary, as well, with a 60-foot lap pool, a spa, a wading pool, a fire pit, a 70-foot waterfall, a built-in BBQ and bar, a tennis court, and a large cabana area situated off the master bedroom.

Yeah, I could hang here.

The home somehow manages to be sleek and modern yet warm and inviting at the same time.

And it can all be yours for a cool $7,495,000, which honestly I think is a bargain, considering.

As it turns out, the super-friendly owner was also the home’s builder. The lavish pad, completed in 2018, replaced the 1952 ranch house pictured below (which you can see more photos of here).

Producers made fabulous use of the property throughout Dead to Me’s ten-episode run.

Said to be in Newport Beach’s Harbor Ridge area, the home’s exterior appeared numerous times on the series.

The interior did, as well.

You can see why I fell in love with the place.

The landing just outside the elevator on the residence’s second floor was the site of one of my favorite scenes from the show in which the recently widowed Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) hosts an open house where she runs into her ex mother-in-law, Lorna (Valerie Mahaffey), and gets pressured into having a birthday party/memorial for her dead husband.

I was just a little thrilled to pose in that same spot, though my photo was taken from the opposite angle from which the scene was shot.

Interestingly, producers did not make use of the home’s master bedroom on the show. Instead, a set was built to portray Steve’s bedroom. Said set was much less plush than that of the actual house, as you can see below.

According to the owner, the pad will be making an appearance on the upcoming season of The Affair, as well.

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: Steve’s house from Dead to Me is located at 4230 Valley Meadow Road in Encino.

May 31, 2019May 30, 2019

Jen’s House from “Dead to Me”

The Grim Cheaper and I admittedly become obsessed with a lot of shows. But it is a rare occasion (at least as of late) to find ourselves consumed by a series filmed entirely in L.A. (Bosch and Brooklyn Nine-Nine notwithstanding). Darn runaway production! So I was ecstatic to discover the thrilling, hilarious AND locally shot Dead to Me. A few sites from the new Netflix original I recognized immediately, like The Warehouse Restaurant which masked as Dana Point eatery Point Bliss, where Bambi (Olivia Macklin) worked. Other spots I set about tracking down as soon we finished binging it. At the top of my list of to-find places was the supposed Laguna Beach abode where widow Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) lived with her two sons, Charlie (Sam McCarthy) and Henry (Luke Roessler), and new BFF, Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini). Fortunately, it was a snap to pinpoint.

[ad]

While plowing through the series’ ten episodes (which the GC and I did in just two days), I noticed an address number of “3847” visible on the curb in front of Jen’s house in several establishing shots. I had an inkling the pad was located somewhere in the Studio City/Sherman Oaks/Encino vicinity and hit pay dirt when I entered “3847,” “house” and “Sherman Oaks” into Google. An address of 3847 Deervale Drive was kicked back and, sure enough, it was the right place!

Aside from the front door which was painted bright yellow for the production, the Cape Cod-style dwelling looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen . . .

. . . right down to the script on the mailbox.

In real life, the charming property boasts 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 4,909 square feet of living space, a kitchen featuring Carrara marble and Caesar stone counters, a breakfast nook, French doors throughout, multiple fireplaces (including one outside), a formal dining room, a media room, a butler’s pantry, a pool, a spa, and a covered backyard loggia.

The 1960 pad, which was heavily remodeled in 2010, last sold for a whopping $2.5-million in January 2011.

Only the exterior of the home appeared on Dead to Me. All interiors were filmed on a studio-built set.

Said set was modeled very closely upon the residence’s actual inside, as you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS images from the 2011 sale above and below. In fact, the home so closely resembles its TV counterpart that at first I thought filming had taken place on location there. Upon closer inspection, though, I noticed a few differences. In the actual kitchen, for instance, there is no spacing between the windows and the upper cabinets that frame them, but the set windows are surrounded by a perimeter of wall space. And while the actual home’s real life lower cabinets are made up of drawers, the set’s aren’t.

Other than that, though, Jen’s kitchen is a dead ringer for that of the actual house.

As is the breakfast nook area just beyond it.

The living room set also closely matches the actual living room, though I am unsure why production added that odd yellow window-like insert to the otherwise sleek built-ins.

Lacking wallpaper, curtains and a shelving unit, the home’s dining room is much less ornate than its television dupe, though its shape, layout and wainscotting are the same.

Jen’s master bedroom also bears a similar layout and window/French door schematic to that of the actual house . . .

. . . though her bedroom’s side wall has a cut-out, which the real residence does not.

While the interior of 3847 Deervale was not utilized for filming, its backyard was.

The pool got a lot of airtime . . .

. . . and the outdoor fireplace made an appearance in the pilot (although it was closed off with white cabinet doors and a television installed above it for the shoot).

Shockingly, the guest house where Judy lived is not a real element of the residence. Much like the Cohen family’s pool house on fave show The O.C., the structure was a just a façade built for the production in the area adjacent to the pool.

The spot where it was constructed is home to a patch of grass in real life.

As was the case with Jen’s residence, the interior of the guest house was a studio-built set.

Jen’s pad is not the only Dead to Me location to be found on Deervale Drive! The property belonging to her neighbor, Karen (Suzy Nakamura), aka the Mexican Lasagna Lady (who Redditors have some interesting theories about), is right next door at 3869 Deervale.

It, too, looks much the same as it did onscreen.

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: Jen Harding’s house from Dead to Me is located at 3847 Deervale Drive in Sherman Oaks. Karen’s home from the series is right next door at 3869 Deervale Drive.

December 20, 2017May 11, 2020

Cindy’s Restaurant from “Surviving Christmas”

I have made no secret of the fact that I majorly ration Christmas locations from year to year. The sad truth is that few holiday flicks are lensed in the L.A. area (the city’s constant sunshine and lack of snow doesn’t exactly scream “Noel!”), which translates to a very minimal amount of holiday locales. So I tend to dole out my Yuletide-themed blog posts slowly for fear of exhausting the limited supply. Today’s location is a major throwback, though, even for me – one I stalked way back in 2014 with my friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria, who were in town visiting from the Midwest. I’m talking about Cindy’s Restaurant, which made an appearance in Surviving Christmas. While I wrote a brief Scene It Before post on the Eagle Rock eatery for Los Angeles magazine later that same year, considering the place is a virtual onscreen juggernaut I figured it was high time I penned a proper write-up on it.

[ad]

Though there seem to be some discrepancies regarding the diner’s history floating around online – this Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey contends that the eatery was built as an “L.H. Boody Restaurant” in 1940 and has been in continuous operation as Cindy’s Restaurant since 1963, while the Los Angeles Times asserts that the café first opened its doors in 1948 – I can safely say that the Googie-style property, which is situated on historic Route 66, has been attracting hungry patrons for at least six decades. Sadly, I was unable to dig up anything else about the place’s history – no mention of the site on newspapers.com, no blurbs on the café in my many books about L.A.-area restaurants, not even a reference to the Cindy for whom the eatery was named.

The diner’s recent years were far easier to chronicle. In January 2014, Cindy’s was purchased by Monique King and Paul Rosenbluh, the husband-and-wife-team behind South Pasadena’s popular Firefly Bistro, which sadly shuttered that same December after 12 years in business.

Monique and Paul immediately set about revitalizing the historic site’s interior and exterior, which required shutting the place down for several months. During the renovation, the couple brought new life to the café, which had grown somewhat tired over the years. Thankfully though, the original countertops, booths and wallpaper were left intact, as was the vintage signage, which was refurbished via a Kickstarter campaign. The restaurant re-opened, fresh from its facelift, in April 2014.

Cindy’s menu was given a reboot, as well. Typical diner fare like meat loaf and fried chicken are still offered, but patrons can also nosh on more high-brow items like chicken-fried mushrooms, falafels, and crab hash. While some local denizens were not fans of the changes, most took to the new Cindy’s like moths to a flame. As Paul said to the West Coast Prime Meats website, “There’s a certain amount of people who hate us. We’re not the old Cindy’s. We’re ‘hipsters.’ There are other people who love us for it and tell us, ‘We’ve been coming here for 30 years and this is the first time we’ve had good food.’ You get a little bit of everything.”

In a sad twist, a drunk driver crashed a truck through Cindy’s front windows in June 2016, just two short years after its re-opening, and the restaurant was subsequently shuttered for months while Paul and Monique rebuilt. (Oddly, that was not the first time a car plowed through the eatery – it suffered the same fate in July 2007.) The damage, which you can see photos of here, was extensive, though quite a bit of the décor was able to be salvaged. Cindy’s finally re-opened to much fanfare on December 9th of that same year and has been going strong ever since.

The restaurant boasts an extremely nostalgic palette, one that can be tweaked to represent an Americana diner from pretty much any era, so it is no surprise that studios have flocked to the place to shoot a slew of productions over the years.

Cindy’s portrays the supposed Chicago-area diner where the Valcos – Tom (James Gandolfini), Christine (Catherine O’Hara), Alicia (Christina Applegate), and Brian (Josh Zuckerman) – and Drew Latham (Ben Affleck), the millionaire advertising executive who hired them to pose as his family for the holidays, enjoy Christmas dinner at the end of 2004’s Surviving Christmas.

In the Season 6 episode of Sons of Anarchy titled “Poenitentia,” which aired in 2013, Cindy’s masks as the Reno café where Robert ‘Bobby Elvis’ Munson (Mark Boone Junior) meets up with several Men of Mayhem members.

The restaurant pops up a few times in the 2014 horror flick Ouija as the diner where Isabelle (Bianca Santos) works.

In the Season 5 episode of Parenthood titled “Promises,” which aired in 2015, Zeek Braverman (Craig T. Nelson) takes to eating at Cindy’s while his wife, Camille (Bonnie Bedalia), is out of town and soon befriends a fellow patron named Rocky (Paul Dooley).

Marc Maron, Dave Anthony, and Andy Kindler (all of whom play themselves) grab a couple of meals at Cindy’s in the Season 3 episode of Maron titled “Ex-Pod,” which aired in 2015.

Cindy’s masquerades as a Sunset Strip café named “Gladner’s Coffee Hut” on three episodes of the short-lived television series Aquarius. It first pops up in the 2015 pilot, titled “Everybody’s Been Burned,” in the scene in which undercover detective Brian Shafe (Grey Damon) busts Mike Vickery (Jason Ralph) for drugs and then subsequently gets arrested himself amidst a massive protest.

Shafe returns to Gladner’s Coffee Hut with his partner, Sam Hodiak (David Duchovny), to confront owner Art Gladner (Shaun Duke) in the episode that follows, titled “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game.”

Art eventually winds up dead in a back area of the restaurant in Aquarius’ third episode, “Never Say Never to Always.”

A subject interview is conducted in one of Cindy’s iconic orange booths in David Farrier’s 2016 documentary Tickled (which looks super interesting).

That same year, Cindy’s popped up in the Season 2 episode of Secrets and Lies titled “The Parent” as the spot where Kate Warner (Jordana Brewster) meets with her son’s adoptive mother, Belinda Peterson (Romy Rosemont).

The diner’s most famous onscreen appearance, though, is in Justin Timberlake’s 2016 “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” music video, which you can watch here.

As was noted on Cindy’s Facebook page shortly after the car crashed into the restaurant that same year, the booth where Justin sat in the video remains unscathed from the accident. Love it!

Most recently, Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) popped by Cindy’s Restaurant on their way home from Los Angeles National Forest in the Season 2 episode of Dead to Me titled “Between You and Me,” which just hit Netflix.

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: Cindy’s Restaurant, from Surviving Christmas, is located at 1500 Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

June 21, 2017May 11, 2020

The Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel from “The Office”

I typically have the memory of an elephant, but up until the Grim Cheaper and I recently started re-watching The Office over again from the beginning, I had honestly forgotten what a great show it is. I had also forgotten that several locations from it remain unknown and/or undocumented. One that I recognized immediately during our re-watch was the supposed Philadelphia hotel where Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) stayed in Season 3’s “The Convention.”

[ad]

Filming of the episode actually took place a good 2,700 miles west of the City of Brotherly Love. In reality, Michael, Dwight, and Jim checked into the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, a spot I originally visited in November 2011 when I met up with my friends/fellow bloggers Ashley, from The Drewseum, and Katie, from Matthew Lillard Online and Rumble Fish Online, for the very first time.

Because that meet-up took place a good year or so after my initial viewing of “The Convention,” I did not recognize the hotel. But as soon as I saw it onscreen for the second time, realization immediately hit and I ran right out to re-stalk the place shortly thereafter.

Situated on 12 acres directly across the street from the Bob Hope Airport, the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel boasts 488 rooms, 2 outdoor pools with cabanas and fire pits, a Jacuzzi, a fitness center, 45,000 square feet of meeting space, a coffee bar, and a business center.

The property also features two onsite restaurants, the Daily Grill and an outdoor lounge named E.D.B. – Eat, Drink, Be.

In “The Convention,” which aired in 2006, Michael, Dwight and Jim head to Philly to attend the Annual Northeastern Midmarket Office Supply Convention – or as Michael refers to it “a booze-fueled sex romp where anything goes.” The Marriott Burbank Airport was used extensively throughout the episode. Sadly, because the property has been remodeled twice since filming took place (first in 2008 and then again in 2015), it looks quite a bit different today than it did on The Office. It is still recognizable, though. Areas that were featured in the episode include the lobby;

the East Tower elevator bay;

the Convention Center (which you can see some photos of in my 2012 post about the Hollywood Show);

a couple of rooms;

a hallway;

the Daily Grill restaurant – which masked as the Scranton, Pennsylvania eatery where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) went on a double date with Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak), and Kelly’s neighbor, Alan (Robert Bagnell);

and the exterior hallway leading from the lobby to the East Tower . . .

. . . which, while enclosed at the time of the filming, was opened up during the 2015 remodel.

The Marriott Burbank also portrays the Antelope Valley hotel Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) pop into for a “shower pit stop” in the Season 2 episode of Dead to Me titled “Between You and Me.”

Their room, the presidential suite, was just a set, though, I believe.

Jen and Judy also party at the hotel’s Daily Grill, which poses as Whispers and Winks bar, in the episode.

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: The Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, from “The Convention” episode of The Office, is located at 2500 North Hollywood Way in Burbank. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

May 13, 2014May 29, 2019

The Warehouse Restaurant from “Anger Management”

While visiting L.A. last week, the Grim Cheaper and I stayed in Marina del Rey. One late afternoon, during a waterfront stroll, we found ourselves passing by a unique eatery that had long been on my To-Stalk List. Situated on the bustling Admiralty Way amongst upscale hotels and high-rise apartment buildings, the nautical-themed The Warehouse Restaurant is almost hidden from view. I first spotted the place years ago on another oceanside walk with the GC and was instantly intrigued as I had never before seen anything like it! The structure looks like a ramshackle beach hut, complete with a large man-made lagoon out front. My first thought was ‘This place has to have been in movies!’ During that particular visit, The Warehouse was, sadly, closed so I was not able to venture inside to inquire further. This time, though, we passed by just as the clock was reaching cocktail hour and I convinced the GC to pop in for some drinks.

[ad]

The Warehouse Restaurant was originally founded way back in 1969 by award-winning cameraman Burt Hixson. To decorate his eatery, Burt salvaged authentic nautical equipment from old San Pedro shipyards. The result is quite spectacular and utterly one-of-a-kind.

Actual wharf posts, boats, fishing nets and buoys flank the exterior.

The lagoon even boasts a large pier jutting out into its middle.

The interior is comprised of whiskey barrels, crates suspended from the ceiling, wooden oars and hanging lanterns.

The place feels like Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride come to life.

The establishment also boasts some pretty fantastic waterfront views.

The GC and I ate in the bar, which just so happens to be the area of the restaurant most often utilized in filming. But more on that later.

Thanks to its fabulous fare and kitschy aesthetic, The Warehouse Restaurant was a hit from the get-go. According to a Beaver County Times article, in 1973 it was the nation’s most successful restaurant. The eatery has also, of course, attracted its fair share of celebrities and has walls upon walls of photos of stars posing with Warehouse menus to prove it.

Just a few of the celebs pictured include Kirk Cameron;

a very young Michael Douglas;

‘N Sync boy-banders Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick;

and Cary Grant (at least I’m pretty sure that’s Cary Grant).

We even spotted a celebrity during our visit there – Two Broke Girls’ Garrett Morris, who was nice enough to pose for a picture with me. (Too bad it turned out a bit blurry.)

In the mid-80s, after opening several successful sister restaurants, Burt decided to establish a boutique hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and sold off his popular eateries. Today, The Warehouse Restaurant is owned by Lee and Martha Spencer, who also own another of my favorite Los Angeles hot spots – the Smoke House in Burbank, which I blogged about here.

Thanks to its unique tropical look, The Warehouse Restaurant has been immortalized onscreen several times over the years. In the 2003 comedy Anger Management, the site masqueraded as the Boston eatery where Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) forced Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) to hit on a random girl named Kendra (Heather Graham).

The following year, the eatery popped up in Meet the Fockers as the Miami, Florida restaurant where Bernie and Rozalin Focker (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, respectively) hosted an engagement party for their son, Greg Focker (Ben Stiller), and his fiancé, Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo).

The exterior of The Warehouse Restaurant was also shown briefly in the film.

In 2013, The Warehouse cameoed as the crab shack where the maritime law trial of Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) took place on Season 4 of Arrested Development.

The restaurant’s entrance was shown during the trial, as well.

The Warehouse also served as Bliss Point, the supposed Dana Point eatery where Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) confront Jen’s dead husband’s mistress, Bambi (Olivia Macklin), in the Season 1 episode of Dead to Me titled “I Can’t Go Back.”

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: The Warehouse Restaurant, from Anger Management, is located at 4499 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.