Head over to Dirt to read about one of my favorite L.A. bars, The Wolves, which was recently featured in Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.
The Nate Starkman & Son Building from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”
Head to Dirt to read my latest post about the Nate Starkman & Son building which plays Paddy’s Pub on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
The Oviatt Penthouse from “Hollywood”
There’s no denying that Henry Willson (Jim Parsons), the Hollywood character based upon the real-life post-war power agent to the stars, is despicable. But he’s also, hands down, one of the best parts of the show! Those one-liners, amirite? I couldn’t help but smile every time he came onscreen. The only thing better than his pithy comments was his incredible, mid-century office! The ziggurat lighting sconces, shiny wood paneling, and marble fireplace were enough to make me drool! Thanks to the space’s unique detailing, I recognized it immediately as the Oviatt Penthouse, the sleek Art Deco former home of clothier James Oviatt. I got to tour the grand site, situated on the 13th floor of downtown L.A.’s Oviatt Building, while scouting wedding venues back in 2008 and was completely taken with it – so much so that I brought my mom back to see it just a few days later. She was equally taken, describing it as having the feel of an Old Hollywood train car. Though the Grim Cheaper and I did not end up getting married there, the Oviatt Penthouse left an indelible impression, so I, of course, identified it straightaway when it popped up on Hollywood.
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The exquisite 10-room suite was created in 1928 by Parisian interior design firm Saddler et Fils (French for “Saddler and Son”).
Replete with gleaming marble, ornate chandeliers, Lalique glasswork, moire wall coverings, hand-carved parquet flooring, and burled maple, mahogany and thuya built-ins, the Oviatt Penthouse is a definite stunner!
Interestingly, the master bath is one of the space’s most lavish and talked-about areas, featuring carved lacquer-covered terra cotta walls, a Lalique glass skylight, a brightly-tiled steam/massage room, two sinks (one strictly for shaving), a large step-down bathtub, and a bidet.
With a hideaway toilet, the powder room is also pretty darn unique! (And yes, I know it looks like our tour guide is flipping off the camera below, but, in reality, I just happened to catch him at an unfortunate moment while he was pointing out features of the latrine.) Now you see it . . .
. . . now you don’t!
The powder room features a hidden sink, as well!
The Oviatt Penthouse also has an upper and lower terrace, the latter of which is reached via the curved staircase pictured below. During James’ tenure, the spaces were comprised of a tennis court, a small pool, a putting green, gardens, and a sunbathing beach made complete with sand brought in from the French Riviera.
James, who lived as a bachelor there until marrying his wife, Mary, in 1945, called the penthouse his “castle in the air.” The couple remained on the premises until their deaths in the 1970s.
The Oviatt Penthouse was completely restored in 1977 and then again in 1988 and today is used as a special events venue.
During the latter renovation, a wall was taken down, combing the property’s second bedroom with the dining area to create more space for revelers.
The terrace accoutrements were also removed to make the outdoor area special-event friendly.
Otherwise, the flat was left largely unchanged and simply restored to its original glory. As a 1988 Los Angeles Times article states, “Guests stepping from the elevator now will see virtually the same flooring spaces that Oviatt and his architects laid out 60 years ago.” You can check out additional photos of the penthouse here, as well as a video tour here.
Henry Willson’s office appears several times throughout Hollywood, first popping up in the episode titled “Hooray for Hollywood: Part 2” in the scene in which aspiring actor Rock Hudson (Jake Picking) has his initial meeting with the agent.
The penthouse’s living room was utilized for all of Henry’s office scenes.
Though outfitted with a desk, bookshelf, and other furnishings for the shoot, producers really didn’t have to add much to transform the space into a 1940s-era talent agency.
For whatever reason, the room’s intricate chandeliers were swapped out with more conventional ones. The originals would have fit better with the time period, as well as the accompanying décor, so it was a bit of an odd move. Otherwise though, the office is perfection!
Additional areas of the penthouse appeared on Hollywood, as well, including the dining room, which portrayed Henry’s waiting room. The space was heavily dressed for the shoot and the wall mural covered over, rendering it largely unrecognizable as you can see in the screen capture and matching photograph below.
The master bedroom also made an appearance . . .
. . . as did many of its actual furnishings.
The penthouse’s spectacular hallway, which is capped by a canopied ceiling painted with a night sky, was featured, too. The bold geometric carpeting running the length of it is a nod to both The Shining and Murphy’s American Horror Story: Hotel (the latter was also shot at the Oviatt Building!). It looks as if the carpet was even left intact after Hollywood wrapped.
The Netflix series isn’t the penthouse’s first cameo.
Bugsy Siegel (Warren Beatty) very briefly takes a telephone call in the master bathroom in the 1991 biopic Bugsy.
Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) and Elleroy Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri) break up a party there in the 1996 drama Mulholland Falls.
And thanks to fellow stalker Gilles I learned that Mylene Farmer also shot her “California” music video at the penthouse in 1996.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Oviatt Penthouse, aka Henry Willson’s office from Hollywood, is located on the top floor of the Oviatt Building at 617 South Olive Street in downtown L.A. The space is not open to the public, but can often be viewed via the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Art Deco Walking Tour.
The Theatre at Ace Hotel from “Bosch”
The latest season of Bosch, which kept me thoroughly entertained during this quarantine, featured countless new-to-me restaurants that I am itching to stalk! I can only hope they are still in business when this craziness ends. Fortunately, I did spot one locale that I previously stalked but have yet to blog about – The Theatre at Ace Hotel, a gorgeous and historic venue that began life as the famed United Artists Theatre. I visited the auditorium via the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Broadway Historic Theatre and Commercial District Walking Tour (another enterprise I hope is still in operation when businesses are allowed to reopen) back on June 20th, 2015 and was thoroughly awed! I am thrilled to finally be able to dedicate a post to the place.
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The venue was initially built in 1927 as the flagship theatre for United Artists, the independent film studio established by Hollywood legends Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith.
The Spanish Gothic-style auditorium is situated on the bottom 3 levels of a 14-story building designed by Walker & Eisen.
Inspired by a recent vacation, Pickford and Fairbanks sought to include European elements in the design of the theatre itself and enlisted C. Howard Crane to realize their vision.
The finished product is nothing short of stunning, with gilded mirrors, elaborately carved plasterwork, and murals galore!
They truly just don’t build ’em like this anymore!
The detailing is absolutely remarkable!
I mean!
The auditorium itself is the real showpiece, though!
Its focal point is a circular mirrored and crystal dome that reflects light and color in an absolutely dazzling way.
Green lighting gels were in use when I visited, which cast the entire space in an emerald glow to magnificent effect.
It felt like I had wandered into the Land of Oz!
The Great Depression hit the venue hard. In the years following, it closed several times and went through several ownership changes before ceasing theatre operations entirely in 1989.
The following year, the site was leased to the Los Angeles University Cathedral church. The group occupied the theatre for the following two decades and even wound up purchasing the building that housed it at some point.
University Cathedral put the building on the market in 2010 and it sold to hotel developer Greenfield Partners the next year. The Ace Hotel was quickly tapped to manage the site and a restoration soon got underway.
The 189-room Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles opened to the public on January 6th, 2014. The former United Artists space became a special events/live performance venue known as The Theatre at Ace Hotel.
It’s also, of course, a filming location.
In the Season 6 episode of Bosch aptly titled “The Ace Hotel,” Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) tracks FBI Agent Maxwell (Carter MacIntyre), a murder suspect, to the Ace Hotel . . .
. . . and winds up chasing him through the theatre.
Bosch is hardly the first production to feature the space, though it hasn’t wound up onscreen nearly as much as I would have thought.
The United Artist’s lit and unlit marquee is visible a couple of times in the 1950 noir classic The Asphalt Jungle.
Benny Goodman (Steve Allen) plays there in the 1956 biopic The Benny Goodman Story.
The venue portrays a New York theatre in 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success.
Mr. T (Robert Hooks) breaks into the venue and then into one of the offices upstairs in the 1972 crime flick Trouble Man.
Ashe Corven (Vincent Perez) scales the building in 1996’s The Crow: City of Angels, though most of what we see is a model, per the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies blog.
Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) also auditions for a performing arts school spot at the theatre in the 2015 horror film Insidious: Chapter 3.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Theatre at Ace Hotel, from “The Ace Hotel” episode of Bosch, is located at 929 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the venue’s official website here and the hotel’s here.
The InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown from “The Morning Show”
Aside from flying, there is little I am afraid of. Spiders? Nope. Public speaking? Not even a lick! Heights? Not typically. But when the Grim Cheaper and I visited the new InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown inside Wilshire Grand Center, which stands at 1,100 feet, I almost had a panic attack! I am not sure why, but as soon as we stepped into the elevator and the GC pressed the 70th-floor button to head to the hotel’s sky lobby, my heart started fluttering and instinct had me running back out into the foyer before the doors could close. I finally got myself together and made it up to the building’s top (quite quickly, I might add – the elevators travel at 1,600 feet per minute!), but I never felt fully comfortable while there. In fact, my heart rate didn’t return to normal until my feet were firmly planted back on terra firma. I am sure glad I braved it, though, because not only is the hotel stunning, but it later popped up on The Morning Show!
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Construction on Wilshire Grand Center, which replaced the Wilshire Grand Hotel, began on February 15, 2014.
The Korean Air-backed metamodernist tower was designed by the AC Martin architecture firm. I had the pleasure of interviewing CEO and Chairman Chris Martin about the building for this 2015 Los Angeles magazine article and even got to tour the site mid-construction, both of which were highlights of my stalking career. That’s me perched atop what was then the property’s highest floor.
As I stated in the L.A. mag article, Wilshire Grand’s design was inspired by the California landscape, particularly Half Dome and Yosemite’s Merced River. Perhaps the most dramatic element of the building is the 240-by-60 foot skylight that hangs over the main entrance, which Martin dubbed a “river of glass.”
It truly does look like a wave cresting over the front doors.
Capped by a glass sail, Wilshire Grand is the only L.A. skyscraper sans a flat roof. Prior to its construction, all city buildings over 75 feet were required to have helicopter landing pads and, therefore, flat tops. Thanks to its plethora of fire safety measures which far exceed code requirements, though, the Grand was granted permission to instead have a small landing “platform,” allowing for a unique curved roofline. It definitely sets the place apart from the other structures in the skyline.
Officially, Wilshire Grand is L.A.’s tallest building, as well as the tallest edifice West of the Mississippi, though that is a point of contention among many as the distinction is only met thanks to its 294-foot spire. Runner-up U.S. Bank Tower, which stands at 1,018 feet, also dwarfs it due to its location atop Bunker Hill (as you can see here), further complicating the matter. But whether you think Wilshire Grand is deserving of the superlative or not, there’s no denying the tower is spectacular!
The mixed-use property, which is comprised of offices, retail space and the InterContinental, opened to the public on June 23rd, 2017. The 900-room hotel makes up the building’s upper 43 floors.
One of its most unique elements is its lobby, which can’t be found at street level, but all the way up on floor 70!
It’s a pretty striking place to check-in.
The sky lobby boasts plenty of comfortable spots to sit, windows galore, and a lounge serving food and drinks.
The construction beams . . .
. . . which stretch up to the ceiling . . .
. . . are an integral part of the space’s design.
As are the floor-to-ceiling windows.
When we first arrived at the sky lobby, I was too nervous to get close to the windows . . .
. . . which didn’t make for the best photos.
But I finally worked up the courage and, wow, once I did, I couldn’t get over the views!
Wilshire Grand seems to just tower over the neighboring buildings.
It felt like the entire city was stretched out below me.
Even the Hollywood Sign was visible!
Along with stellar views, the hotel boasts 3 restaurants, 3 bars (sadly, Spire 73, the rooftop bar, was closed when we were there), 94,977 square feet of event space, a 13,000-square-foot gym known as Attitude Fitness, and an outdoor pool (the latter three make up floors 5, 6 and 7 of the Wilshire Grand). The InterContinental really is a must-see for anyone visiting Los Angeles!
Considering its unique design, modern style, and stunning views, it is no surprise the place made its way to the screen.
The InterContinental was used several times throughout Season 1 of The Morning Show. It first showed up in episode 3, “Chaos Is the New Cocaine,” in the scene in which Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) delivers her great “You don’t have the power anymore!” speech to UBA network executives. The segment was filmed in one of the hotel’s sixth-floor board rooms, which you can see images of here and here.
Attitude Fitness (which you can see photos of here) is where Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) watches Bradley Jackson’s (Reese Witherspoon) first TMS taping in episode 4, “That Woman.”
In episode 8, “Lonely at the Top,” and briefly in episode 10, “The Interview,” the presidential suite (which you can see here) masks as Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) Las Vegas hotel room.
Alex and Chip Black (Mark Duplass) pass each other on the fabulous escalators leading up to the hotel’s conference area in episode 10, “The Interview.”
The InterContinental is most prominently used, though, as UBA President Fred Micklen’s (Tom Irwin) office, which first pops up in “That Woman,” but went on to appear in almost every episode following.
Fred’s office scenes were also shot in one of the hotel’s sixth-floor board rooms.
You can check out images of it here
Other productions have found their way to the InterContinental, as well. In the Season 7 episode of Silicon Valley titled “Exit Event,” which aired in 2019, Dinesh Chugtai (Kumail Nanjiani) scaled the staircase inside the rooftop sail.
That same year, one of the hotel’s boardrooms portrayed a meeting room at Núñez Incorporated in the first two episodes of The L Word: Generation Q, titled “Let’s Do It Again” and “Less Is More,” respectively.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, from The Morning Show, is located at 900 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown L.A. You can visit the property’s official website here.
The Fine Arts Building from “The Morning Show”
Considering I’ve been at this crazy hobby of mine for twenty years now, you’d think I’d have stalked every square inch of Los Angeles. While watching the second episode of The Morning Show, though, I was reminded of a site I had yet to set foot in – downtown’s Fine Arts Building. I’d heard of the celebrated property countless times, seen photos of its impressive lobby online and read up on its history, but somehow had never visited. So while in the area last December, I decided to amend that and got my first look at the marvel that is the Fine Arts Building.
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The landmark structure, a commission of the Fine Arts Building Company, was erected in 1926.
The 12-story, 107,000-square-foot property, designed in the Romanesque Revival style by architects Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen (who also gave us the Oviatt Building, the Gaylord Apartments and the Beverly Wilshire, aka the Pretty Woman hotel), initially housed studios, workshops, and galleries for local Los Angeles artists.
The impressive terra cotta exterior features castings by Burt William Johnson, including two figures perched on either side of the third-floor overhang, one symbolizing architecture and the other sculpture.
Though the ornate façade is nothing to sneeze at . . .
. . . the sweeping two-story lobby, designed in the Spanish Renaissance style, is the real stunner.
Almost unbelievably so!
Featuring tile work by Pasadena artist Ernest Batchelder, paintings and murals by Anthony B. Heinsbergen, a beamed ceiling, a blue-tiled fountain, and 17-foot-tall glass display cases which initially served as a place for resident artists to exhibit their wares, the 3,000-square-foot chamber truly is a sight to be seen.
Sadly, the Great Depression hit the artisans who rented space in the structure hard, causing many of them to terminate their leases and the property to be sold in 1930. It was then rebranded the “Signal Oil Building.” It went through numerous ownership and name changes in the years that followed until being taken over by the Ratkovich, Bowers Inc. development firm in 1983, at which time it was heavily rehabilitated and its original moniker restored.
Today, the Historic-Cultural Monument houses business offices, though the lobby remains a place for local artists to exhibit their works.
The Fine Arts Building serves as the office of Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) business manager, where he gets some bad news regarding his financial status following his firing, in the Season 1 episode of The Morning Show titled “A Seat at the Table.” It is as Mitch is walking out of the structure that he is accosted by a stranger who screams “Rapist!”, to which he not-so-calmly replies, “I’m not even accused of rape! Sexual misconduct is what I’m being accused of! Don’t you wave your f*cking hand at me! Have a nice day, you f*cking asshole!” I spotted the “811” address placard and the ornate carvings flanking the front doors as Mitch exited the building just before being yelled at and recognized the place immediately.
I believe the interior scene involving Mitch’s business manager’s office may have been shot elsewhere, though I am not sure where.
The Fine Arts Building is no stranger to the screen.
The site portrayed a Swiss Embassy in the 1997 action film Spawn.
It popped up as the location of Jane’s (Angelina Jolie) I-Temp Technology Staffing office in 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
And Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) shows Summer (Zooey Deschanel) the building, which he misattributes to architects Walker & “Eisner,” in the 2009 drama (500) Days of Summer.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Fine Arts Building, from the “A Seat at the Table” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 811 West 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The lobby area is open to the public daily. 7th Street/Metro Center Station, aka Penn Station from Cruel Intentions, is right next door at 660 South Figueroa Street.
Hotel Barclay from “Little Fires Everywhere”
Not only do The Morning Show and Little Fires Everywhere share a leading lady, Reese Witherspoon, but the two new series also seem to be sharing locations! Both made use of The Wolves, an insanely beautiful downtown Los Angeles bar that I blogged about in December, as well as Hotel Barclay, a historic and oft-filmed DTLA lodging that I covered way back in 2011. Considering the latter’s recent screen cred, though, I figured it was worthy of a redo.
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Hotel Barclay, which is also referred to as the “Barclay Hotel,” began life in 1897 as the Van Nuys Hotel.
Commissioned by businessman Isaac Newton Van Nuys, the Beaux Arts-style property was designed by the Morgan & Walls architecture firm.
During its early days, the 6-story hotel was the epitome of luxury, boasting a light-filled lobby lined with stained glass windows, a Ladies’ Parlor, a 150-seat formal dining room, a casual grill, a bar, a billiard room, a cigar stand, a newsstand, a buffet, a barbershop, and 160 rooms, each with both a long-distance and local telephone, as well as electric service. Per the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Barclay was, in fact, the first hotel in the city to provide those last two luxuries.
In 1929, ownership changed hands, the fancy dining room was closed and the property re-dubbed Hotel Barclay. The move kicked off a decline not only in the building’s exclusivity, but also its patronage.
Though it fell into some disrepair in the years that followed, eventually becoming a residential hotel (you can read up on the more sordid parts of its history here), the Barclay’s original interior somehow remained intact and still, miraculously, looks much as it did on opening day over 120 years ago!
During my 2011 stalk of the place, the manager invited me inside for a look at the lobby, which is where the interior photos in this post come from. I was practically giddy walking around snapping pictures of all of the historic enclaves! The hotel is like a time capsule come to life!
The Barclay, which, again per the Los Angeles Conservancy, is the city’s oldest continuously operating hotel, was put on the market in 2016 for $40 million and eventually sold in 2018 for $21 million. There are currently plans in the works to turn it into a luxury boutique lodging, though it does not appear as if that project has gotten off the ground yet.
In the “Duo” episode of Little Fires Everywhere, Hotel Barclay stands in for the exterior of New York’s fictional Varick Hotel, where Elena Richardson (Witherspoon) stays while visiting Manhattan.
Interiors were shot at The Mayfair Hotel, another historic DTLA lodging that has been completely revamped since my 2012 post on it, meaning I have to get back out there stat!
On The Morning Show, the Barclay also portrays a New York locale – the Manhattan apartment building where Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) lives, said to be at 103 Wooster Street in SoHo. The site initially appears at the end of episode 7, “Open Waters,” in a scene that continues into episode 9, “Play the Queen,” in which Mitch Kessler (Steve Carrel) asks Hannah to come forward and say that the network bosses were complicit in his predatory behavior.
The Barclay is also featured in The Morning Show’s Season 1 finale, “The Interview” in which (spoiler alert!) Claire Conway (Bel Powley) shows up to discover than Hannah has overdosed.
In the episode, it is apparent that a façade containing a fake set of stairs and an elevator was added just beyond the hotel’s front doors for the shoot.
In real life, the Barclay’s front doors open directly into the lobby, as you can see in the photo below.
Only the exterior of the Barclay was utilized on The Morning Show. I believe interior scenes involving Hannah’s apartment may have been shot at the Pan American Lofts, located at 253 South Broadway. You can check out what a unit in that building looks like here.
Hotel Barclay has quite an extensive film and television resume – so much so that it would be impossible for me to chronicle all of its appearances here. A few of the more notable include . . .
Way back in 1975, Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) chased a suspect through the hotel in the pilot episode of Starsky & Hutch.
The lobby is used extensively as Café 24 Heures, where Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) works and where Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) regularly dines, in 1997’s As Good As It Gets.
Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) gets kicked out of the place for writing bad checks at the beginning of Catch Me If You Can.
Hotel Barclay is the Columbian lodging where John (Brad Pitt) and Jane (Angelina Jolie) meet in 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
The lobby masks as the café where Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his friends hang out in the 2009 drama (500) Days of Summer.
Also in 2009, Detectives Flynn (Tony Denison) and Provenza (G.W. Bailey) dine in the hotel’s former restaurant, which sits vacant in real life, in the Season 5 episode of The Closer titled “Tapped Out.”
Leonardo DiCaprio visits the Barclay once again as Cobb in 2011’s Inception. This time it’s posing as a casino in Africa. (One of the hotel’s 2nd floor rooms is also where Cobb was dunked into a bathtub in an earlier scene).
Fellow stalker Anne informed me via a comment on my original post that a now-vacant anteroom at the lodging masked as Drake’s Magic Shop in the Season 3 episode of Castle titled “Poof, You’re Dead,” which aired in 2011. The show’s production team must really love the Barclay! The hotel was also featured in the episodes titled “Ghosts,” “Knockdown,” “Swan Song,” “Sleeper,” “XY,” and “The Blame Game.”
NYPD detectives interview a bunch of clowns outside of the Barclay in the Season 7 episode of CSI: NY titled “To What End,” which also aired in 2011.
In 2018, Hotel Barclay popped up as the supposed San Antonio, Texas-area Gunter Hotel in the Season 2 episode of Timeless titled “The King of the Delta Blues.”
And it portrays the supposed Lahore hotel where Bravo Team captures a terrorist in the Season 2 episode of Seal Team titled “Never Out of the Fight,” which aired in 2019.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Hotel Barclay, aka the Varick Hotel from the “Duo” episode of Little Fires Everywhere, is located at 103 West 4th Street in downtown Los Angeles.
Le Petit Paris from “Little Fires Everywhere”
Reese Witherspoon is deserving of a major ‘thank you’ from me! Per the actress’ recent productions, I have been introduced to two fabulous downtown Los Angeles restaurants! The first, The Wolves, popped up twice on her Apple TV+ series The Morning Show. And now, via Little Fires Everywhere, I’ve discovered Le Petit Paris, a striking French brasserie situated on the ground floor of the El Dorado Lofts building. I was actually tipped off about the eatery and the filming that took place there last year by a fellow stalker who works in the area. Though I had never heard of the place, one look at Google images had me transfixed! I was fairly certain I had never come across a more gorgeous space in my life. So my mom and I headed out there for happy hour mid-January while in town for one of my dad’s pre-surgical doctor appointments. We returned the following week for dinner after a long day at the hospital just prior to my dad’s surgery. Neither time did it disappoint.
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The El Dorado Lofts building was originally constructed as the Hotel Stowell in 1913. The 12-story, 264-room lodging, commissioned by financier Nathan Wilson Stowell, was designed in the Art Nouveau and Gothic Revival styles by architects Frederick Noonan and William Richards. You can see what the exterior looked like in its early days here.
Upscale and ornate, the hotel catered to wealthy businessmen called to the area for work, though some celebrities also checked in. Charlie Chaplin even lived there for a time, though, surprisingly, per the Paradise Leased blog, he later described it as “a middle-rate place but new and comfortable.” It sure looks like it was pretty fancy to me! Constructed with all locally-sourced materials, the sweeping two-level lobby boasted a grand staircase, gold leaf columns, and a plethora of Batchelder tilework.
Patronage declined during the Great Depression resulting in the building being sold in 1938. It eventually became a low-budget residential hotel known as the El Dorado. The place continued to deteriorate in the years that followed and by the 1980s, it sat abandoned and remained so for the next two decades. The Gilmore and Associates development team finally stepped in, purchasing the building in 2000 and transforming the former hotel rooms into luxury condos, a project that was completed in 2010. (You can check out images of two of the revamped units here and here.) The once-grand lobby was made available as a possible restaurant space and it was then that David and Fanny Rolland set their sights on it. (You can see what it looked like at the time here.)
The husband and wife duo, who hail from France and previously founded two eateries in Cannes, began transforming the 8,000-square-foot space into a magical Parisian-inspired oasis.
Le Petit Paris opened its doors in September 2015.
To say that the 300-seat restaurant is striking would be a gross understatement.
I mean, come on!
With massive skylights, sparkling crystal chandeliers, two bars, a large patio, a fireplace, a towering split staircase, subtle pink and red accents, and a spectacular mosaic floor, Le Petit Paris is easily one of L.A.’s most gorgeous spots!
I especially loved the painting of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby hung near the bar.
Had to do it!
The food at Le Petit Paris is as delicious as the place is beautiful! Both the executive chef and the executive pastry chef hail from France and all of the menu items are homemade on the premises. During our initial happy hour visit, I had a glass of champagne (natch!) and my mom ordered the carpaccio, which she was thoroughly obsessed with. She talked about it for days afterward! So on our second visit, in which we grabbed dinner in the dining room, she was seriously bummed to discover that the carpaccio was only available on the happy hour menu. (She did love the French onion soup she wound up ordering, though.) The following morning, when we arrived at the hospital, my dad asked how our dinner was. When my mom expressed her extreme dismay at not being able to order her beloved carpaccio, my dad looked down at his hospital gown and many IVS, turned to her and said, “Yeah, I feel so sorry for you.” We laughed about that one for days afterward. 
In Little Fires Everywhere, Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) meets up with her former boyfriend, Jamie Caplan (Luke Bracey), at Le Petit Paris, which is said to be in New York, in the episode titled “Duo.”
During our first visit, I asked the bartender about the filming of Little Fires Everywhere and he informed us that while he did not work at the restaurant at the time, ironically he was an extra in the scene that shot on the premises! When he applied for a job at Le Petit Paris months later, he did not realize it was the same place. It was only when he showed up for his interview that he made the connection.
Sadly, Le Petit Paris is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the world gets back to normal (oh, what a fabulous day that will be!), I am very much looking forward to sipping a glass of bubbly in one of the restaurant’s plush chairs, soaking up the magical ambiance of the place.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Le Petit Paris, from the “Duo” episode of Little Fires Everywhere, is located at 418 South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Please be advised that the eatery is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Check its website for any updates.
Hilton Checkers Hotel from “The West Wing”
One of the best parts about finally watching The West Wing for the first time is all of the L.A. locales I’ve been able to identify and stalk (you can read about a few of them here, here, and here). One spot that I recognized on sight was Hilton Checkers Los Angeles, which masked as a supposed Washington D.C.-area hotel in the Season 1 episode titled “Take This Sabbath Day.” I’ve had the pleasure of staying at Checkers several times over the years (even once in the penthouse!), so it was not hard to ID it when it appeared onscreen. Though I blogged about the lodging back in 2009, I figured it was worthy of a redo, so while staying at the Millennium Biltmore, which is across the street, back in December of last year, my mom and I headed over to Checkers for a cocktail and to do some stalking! I was shocked when I walked in to discover that the place had been completely revamped and looked quite a bit different than it did during my last visit in late 2017.
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Initially opened as the Mayflower Hotel in 1927, the property was designed by architect Charles Whittlesey.
Built on a lot measuring a scant 60 by 160 feet, the skinny lodging towers over the street below at 12 stories, which was the city’s height limit at the time.
The Mission Revival-style façade boasts amazingly intricate Spanish Moorish ornamentation with a nautical theme. Sadly, the bas-relief sculptures of the Mayflower and the Santa Maria that once flanked the hotel’s front doors have since been removed.
The Los Angeles Conservancy describes the building’s original interior as “Pilgrim Revival.” With restaurants named Mayflower Tavern and Ye Bull Pen Inn (you can check out what the latter looked like here), The Mayflower certainly had a different aesthetic than it does now. At some point, Chart Room, another bar with a maritime slant, opened on the premises. You can see the exterior of it here. It’s quite a leap from the hotel’s current state!
The Mayflower shut its doors in 1985 at which point it was purchased by a group of developers who began a massive $49-million, 4-year renovation. Two floors were added to the top of the structure to house the property’s mechanical appliances as well as a new gym and spa. (You can see those two rather boxy floor additions in this side image of the hotel.) The lobby area was also revamped to include a new bar, a new restaurant and a library lounge. Rooms and suites were expanded considerably, bringing down the total units from 348 to 188. The site re-opened as Checkers in December 1989. The Hilton eventually took over the property in 2002 and it became known as Hilton Checkers. The AAA Four Diamond lodging boasted a very upscale European interior, with ornate mirrors, plush seating and dark wood tables scattered throughout, as you can see in the pictures below, which were taken during a 2009 stay.
I loved the look of the place, but in 2019 management embarked upon yet another massive renovation.
Several lobby walls were removed in order to open up the bar (now named 1927 Bar+Kitchen) and library. The bar circa 2009 is pictured below.
And there it is today.
Yes, the interior is sleeker, brighter and airier, but I think it has lost quite a bit of its charm.
Per aerial views and this image, the rooftop pool, one of my favorite aspects of the hotel, also appears to have been filled in (the photo below is from 2009).
Though the hot tub remains.
I still consider the place one of downtown L.A.’s top lodgings, despite the changes. As my mom and I discovered, 1927 Bar+Kitchen serves up some fabulous fare and libations, the onsite Zagat-rated restaurant, Checkers Downtown, remains one of the area’s top eateries, and the hotel is within walking distance to pretty much every local attraction.
In the “Take this Sabbath Day” episode of The West Wing, which aired in 2000, Checkers masks as the D.C. hotel where Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin) stays while in town. It is in the lobby bar that Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) apologizes to Joey on behalf of the president.
The West Wing was not Checkers’ first rodeo.
The hotel served as the outside of San Francisco’s Bix restaurant in the 1992 thriller Final Analysis.
In the Season 1 episode of Shark titled “Fashion Police,” which aired in 2006, Sebastian Stark (James Woods) dines with the mayor in Checkers Downtown . . .
. . . and later crashes a party on the rooftop deck.
Checkers appears as the exterior of The Algonquin Hotel in the Season 7 episode of Mad Men titled “Field Trip,” which aired in 2014.
It pops up as the New Amsterdam Hotel, where Vikram Singh (Sunkrish Bala) hacks into the mainframe of the attorney general’s office, in the Season 8 episode of Castle titled “XX,” which aired in 2015.
Irvin Irving (Lance Reddick) and Jun Park (Linda Park) also dine on Checkers’ rooftop patio in the Season 3 episode of Bosch titled “Right Play,” which aired in 2017.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Hilton Checkers Los Angeles, from the “Take This Sabbath Day” episode of The West Wing, is located at 535 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. Please be advised that the hotel is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Check the website for any updates.
Mitch’s New York Condo from “The Morning Show”
It’s been a minute (literally) since I’ve blogged about a location from The Morning Show, but, don’t worry, I’ve still got a few more up my sleeve – namely the modern building that served as beleaguered television host Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) New York pied-à-terre. I had a hunch that the property was most likely in the downtown L.A. area (though set in NYC, the vast majority of the new Apple TV+ series was lensed in Los Angeles) and that hunch turned out to be correct. And I have my beloved Starbucks to thank for leading me to it!
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While scrutinizing one of the scenes featuring Mitch’s building, I noticed a Starbucks situated diagonally across from it (it’s denoted with a yellow arrow below, though the signage is a bit tough to make out due to some rather frenetic camera movement in the segment). The Starbucks is actually one I know well as it is a frequent stop whenever the Grim Cheaper and I are in the area. In fact, we even once randomly ran into Chas, of the Its Filmed There website, at the café, so it seems to be a popular sojourn spot for many stalkers! Once I recognized the place, I simply used Google Street View to head over to its location at the corner of 11th Street and South Grand Avenue and then rotated the screen around until I landed on the building kitty-corner from it. As it turns out, Mitch’s New York home can be found at 1050 South Grand.
Known as Ten50 in real life, the 25-story property, developed by Trumark Urban and designed by HansonLA, was completed in 2016.
The contemporary building is made up of 151 one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and penthouse condos.
Just about as upscale as it gets, Ten50’s amenities include concierge service, a fitness studio with an outdoor yoga deck, meeting space, gated parking with over thirty spots for electric vehicles, a screening room, a business center, a club lounge, and a fifth-floor sun deck with a pool, spa, cabanas, BBQs, indoor/outdoor kitchens, and a fireplace.
The building also boasts the city’s first landing pad made especially for drone deliveries. (I’m guessing that feature doesn’t get utilized much.)
Mitch’s building does not show up until the ninth episode of The Morning Show, titled “Play the Queen,” in which the fallen anchor returns to New York to try to orchestrate an interview with Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon). The lobby of Ten50, which you can see photos of here and here, is featured early in the episode.
Hannah Schoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) also later confronts Mitch about her assault outside of the building.
And I was thrilled to discover while poking around images of various Ten50 units I found online that the actual interior of Penthouse 2 was used as Mitch’s condo! Per a recent real estate listing, in which the unit was offered for a whopping $5,699,000, the 2-level space was custom–built by the Brown Design Group and boasts 2 bedrooms, 4 baths, 30-foot ceilings, 3,930 square feet, a whiskey den, floor-to-ceiling windows, a galley kitchen with Wolf and Sub Zero appliances, a large wrap-around balcony, a bonus balcony off the master bedroom, and an upper-level terrace. Worth every penny, I say! The place is pretty much my ideal living space. You can check out a video of the absolutely exquisite interior here.
As you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS photos above and below, it appears that The Morning Show made use of some of the condo’s actual furnishings including the kitchen island bar stools and the dining table.
The unit also appeared in the Season 1 finale of The Morning Show, titled “The Interview.” Not only do Mitch, Bradley, Chip Black (Mark Duplass), and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) powwow about Mitch’s upcoming secret interview in Penthouse 2’s living room . . .
. . . but Cory also later has a come-to-Jesus meeting with Mitch in the same spot and, in one of my favorite monologues from the series, very profoundly advises Mitch to confess to his assaults.
And it is in Ten50’s lobby that Mitch and Chip get into a fistfight at the end of the episode.
Thanks to fellow stalker Brett, I learned that Mitch’s penthouse is also where Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) lived in the recently-aired Season 3 episode of Westworld titled “The Absence of Field.”
And thanks to fellow stalker Tyler, I learned that the penthouse played the Moscow condo where Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin) resided in the series finale of Homeland, titled “Prisoners of War.”
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Ten50, aka Mitch’s “New York” building from The Morning Show, is located at 1050 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the property’s official website here.