The Source Restaurant/Annie Hall Film Location - Plus a New Documentary

The Source Restaurant, TheSourceDoc.com

The Source was a 1970s restaurant located on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip that was run by a group of healthy living, rock'n'rollers part of a hippie cult. Their restaurant served up healthy organic vegetarian cuisine like salads with beats, carrots and raisins and a selection of natural juices. I'm not sure which smelled worse, the food or the hippies (I kid, I kid! ). The Source restaurant is also famously featured in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall (1977). In the film, Allen meets Diane Keaton for lunch and orders "alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast." 

This restaurant which was once popular with the likes of Warren Beatty, Marlon Brando, and John Lennon is featured in a new documentary about The Source cult. The documentary is now playing at The Cinefamily theatre in Los Angeles (as well as a few other cities). Theaters in additional cities will be showing the documentary later this month. Check out the documentary website at TheSourceDoc.com to see if this groovy film is playing near you.

Allen and Keaton leave The Source. Annie Hall (1977)

Cabo Cantina, 8301 Sunset Boulevard. 

The site of The Source is now the location for a Mexican restaurant and bar called Cabo Cantina. The building is still recognizable from the outside with the exception that the outside seating area has been covered. 

In Annie Hall, when Allen leaves the restaurant, being the New Yorker that he is and unable to drive a car, he smashes into both the restaurant and several cars while backing out.

Allen crashes his car in The Source parking lot.

The Source/Cabo Cantina parking lot. 

Allen chooses to sit at the restaurant's outside patio. In the background we see the Golden Crest Hotel. That is today the site of the fashionable The Standard hotel.

Allen sits outside at The Source. Annie Hall

The Standard Hotel in the background, formerly Golden Crest Hotel.

If it turns out this documentary won't be coming to a city near you, the documentary website is already selling the DVD, a digital download, soundtrack, T-Shirts and other merchandise. 

Below is a trailer for the film.

Does anyone have any memories of eating at The Source?

Annie Hall screenshots (c) MGM/UA Home Entertainment, contemporary images (c) 2013 Google.

Father of the Bride: Film Location

Father of the Bride home - 843 S. El Molino Dr. Pasadena, CA

As many people know, I'm getting married soon and in the same way I get into the spirit for Christmas or Halloween, I've been watching wedding related movies to get into the wedding spirit. What do you expect from a movie lover? My favorite wedding film is Father of the Bride, the 1991 version, starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton (I was going to say the recent classic as opposed to the old classic but 1991 really isn't that recent anymore!). Last week when driving through Pasadena I decided to stop by the house that was used for the Banks family home and to take some pictures.

Above is a screenshot from the film showing the Banks family home. Below is a photo I took of the actual home a week ago (8/7/2009).

Father of the Bride house in Pasadena

Looks nearly the same doesn't? The only real difference is the flowers on the white picket fence and the fuller foliage on the house.

Steve Martin in the driveway.



A view of the driveway as it appears today (8/7/2009)

One of the touching moments in the film is when Steven Martin is playing basketball with his daughter (played by Kimberly Williams) in the driveway. I've been told that the basketball scenes in the driveway were actually done at another location but I'm not sure where that might have been.

Screenshot of the Father of the Bride House in snow

Above is another screenshot of the Father of the Bride house after it is covered by a surprise snowfall. Now anyone living near Pasadena knows that it doesn't usual snow in this area and I think Steve Martin says something in the film that he was nine years old that last time he remembers it snowing. The above snowfall is pure movie magic. Below is another shot of the house as it appears today.

Father of the Bride house in Pasadena