If you’ve been rewatching one of your favorite 30-minute comedies and experiencing an odd sense of deja vu, you’re not alone. Though it’s common for LA-based productions to use the same filming locations from time to time, there is one iconic and instantly recognizable venue that continues to serve as Hollywood’s watering hole of choice. In reality, The Prince in LA is currently a Korean-style fried chicken restaurant with a 3.5-star yelp review. On film, its timeless design has been used for everything from a 1960s New York steakhouse to a 2000s DC-area hangout for sleazy lobbyists to Nick’s dimly-lit place of employment in New Girl. With a distinctive grand decor that originally dates back roughly 70 years, it somehow manages to blend perfectly into an impressively wide variety of eras and genres.
The restaurant originally opened in 1949 as The Windsor under the direction of famed restaurateur Ben Dimsdale. It was located right across the street from the Ambassador Hotel and its legendary Coconut Grove nightclub, LA’s premier nighttime spot for many years that played host to the likes of six Academy Awards ceremonies, numerous US Presidents, and celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and The Supremes (to name a few). The current owners purchased the establishment in 1991, changing the name to The Prince and the cuisine to Korean. However, they kept much of the interior fully intact, down to the signature Beefeater statues and one very old piano tucked back in a corner.
It’s a good thing they did, too. When Hollywood needs a stunning, moody, timeless gem of a bar, they know just where to go. Here are 7 shows and films that have used The Prince as a prominent backdrop, each taking place in a different decade.
Chinatown
1930s. We likely have Chinatown to thank for kicking off The Prince’s illustrious showbiz career. The restaurant is the setting of an intense exchange between Jack Nicholson’s inquisitive J.J. Gittes and Faye Dunaway’s Mrs. Mulwray, a classic femme fatale. The familiar dark wood and red leather booths add the perfect dark glam befitting an old-school noir storyline, and can even be seen featured in the trailer. Surprisingly enough, the wallpaper appears to be the only significant change in the thirty years between the filming of Chinatown and many of the remaining entries on this list.
Hollywood
1940s. The Prince is featured numerous times throughout Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood miniseries to evoke the glitz and glamour of studio-system era Hollywood. Most notably, it shows up in Episode 3 (“Outlaws”) as the setting of a meeting between Jake Picking‘s Rock Hudson and Jim Parson as predatory agent Henry Willson, where the latter’s more sinister qualities really start to surface. Though this one is less of a stretch for The Prince’s impressive range, it still turns in a wonderful performance as a place – like old school Hollywood itself – that can be both beautiful and foreboding all at once.
Mad Men
1950s-1960s. On at least two separate occasions, The Prince played a swanky steakhouse in Mad Men. “Ladies Room”, the series’ second episode, features the Drapers and Sterlings enjoying dinner and a round of martinis, flanked by The Prince’s signature tiny-man-in-a-red-jacket wall lamps. Later, in the season 5 episode “Christmas Waltz”, the audience is presented with two rare treats: The Prince all trimmed out in lights and tinsel for the holidays and a steamy flirtation between Don and Joan.
The Woman in Red
1980s. Likely one of the lesser-known entries on this list, 1984’s The Woman in Red stars Gene Wilder as a heretofore happily married man who runs into a slew of comedic difficulties while attempting to start an affair with a woman in a red dress. The Prince enters the film as the setting for one of the said mishaps when the protagonist accidentally arranges a date with the wrong woman, played by the always brilliant Gilda Radner (Wilder’s real-life partner). Though The Prince’s appearance is somewhat fleeting, it still managed to make its mark on the decade of excess.
The People vs O.J. Simpson
1990s. In Episode 6 of the first season of the critically acclaimed American Crime Story anthology series, The Prince served as the backdrop for Courtney B. Vance’s Johnnie Cochran and some additional members of The Dream Team to devise a strategy for dealing with Detective Mark Furman. The Prince is fully on display in all of its glory here as an LA Bar fit for high-end lawyers, with a mostly deserted interior and some fantastically wide shots. It’s worth noting that this is the second Ryan Murphy production on the list. With any luck, there’s an American Horror Story season in our future featuring a haunted (yet familiar) bar.
Thank You for Smoking
2000s. In what was many millennials' first introduction to The Prince, the restaurant features prominently in the 2005 dark comedy, Thank You for Smoking, about a DC lobbyist for big tobacco played by Aaron Eckhart. We’re introduced to Nick Naylor’s sinister world over a weekly round of drinks he has with his fellow “Merchants of Death” – a lobbyist for firearms and a lobbyist for alcohol – at a DC bar played by The Prince. There’s a solid glamorous-but-past-its-heyday-divey aesthetic cultivated in this one, which is perfect for an inappropriately heated argument over who is most deserving of the honor “Most Likely Target for Vigilante Justice.”
New Girl
2010s. The longest and most consistent use of The Prince as a set-piece was as “The Griffin,” Nick’s place of employment in New Girl. Though the show was only actually filmed on location for the first season, the interior of The Prince – or its clone of a soundstage – is where some of the show’s most important story lines took place and forms a large part of the stubborn-yet-lovable identity of one of its main characters, Nick (Jake Johnson). The Prince’s eccentric aura fits Nick perfectly: an old soul with some surprises up its sleeves.