Dexter Filming Locations: Debra & Matthews at an Expensive Restaurant
The
location: Deb & Matthews at Restaurant
Q.
What is it supposed to be on the show?
A. An expensive restaurant, café Babieca.
Q.
Where is it supposed to be on the show?
A. Somewhere in Miami.
Q.
When did we see it on the show?
A. In Episode 11, of Season 6, "Talk to the Hand".
Debra has found out that Deputy Chief Matthews was the person in the hotel room with the dead call girl.
So she arranges a meeting with him to discuss it.
When this
scene opens, they are seated in an expensive restaurant. (Debra
remarks that half the stuff on the menu costs more than her rent.)
Matthews
doesn't realize that Debra knows about his involvement with the call
girl, so he tells her the dinner is a reward for doing her job well.
Then he brings up the subject of the call girl case, and starts to tell her that the case would be better left alone.
Debra tries to change the subject, but he keeps going, until she's forced to tell him that she knows he was there at the hotel.
Matthews
explains his side of the story, and does his best to persuade her to
keep quiet, citing her father and the fact that he made her lieutenant.
He says that now he needs a favor.
She is clearly pulled between a desire to help him, and the need to do what's right.
But she finally agrees to tell the dead girl's father that they found nothing.
Q.
What is it actually in real life?
A. A restaurant.
Q.
Where can I find it in real life?
A. This is the La Vida restaurant, located at 1448 N. Gower Street, in Hollywood, CA.
It's at the southeast corner of
Sunset & Gower, and as that would indicate, it's right across the
street from the Sunset-Gower studio, where they make Dexter.
It appears the scene was filmed in the main dining room, in the back of the restaurant (on the far east side).
This space has housed a number of
restaurants over the years. Just before La Vida opened here, the space
was called "Eat on Sunset". And before that, it housed "Pinot Sunset".
Twenty years ago, it was a restaurant called "Columbia Bar & Grill", which was owned by actor Mike Farrell (who played B.J. on "M*A*S*H").
Rick shot this photo of the La Vida entrance (on Gower Street) in 2011:
And here is a photo of the interior from their website:
A. In previous seasons, I've
usually had to hunt down the locations after viewing the episodes,
using clues from the various scenes. By the 6th season, though,
I'd developed a small group of fans, spies & tipsters who kept an
eye out for Dexter filming in their neighborhoods, and would let me know
in advance when something was about to film there.
Between those reports, my own personal reconnaissance around town, and a
few new resources I discovered, by the time the first episode aired, I
already knew most (but not all) of the filming locations, and only
needed to watch the episodes and match up the scenes with the correct
locations.
This group of helpful fans includes Kerry, Rick, Ellen, Susan, Jason,
Elaine, Joel, Julie, Geoff, Jeff, Jen, and others. My thanks to all of
them.
This time, Rick let me know that they were filming at La Vida, and drove by to shoot the photo you see above.
(Thanks, Rick!)
