A. Watkins' Tailor Shop.

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 the season finale, Episode 12, "Do You Take Dexter Morgan?".

Dexter is on the verge of getting married to Rita, and in this scene he goes to a small tailor shop to pick up his tuxedo for the wedding.

We see him first inside the shop, wearing his tux, looking at himself in the mirror, and then having a flashback/fantasy of his father, Harry, teaching him how to tie his tie - using a bunny metaphor.

Dexter leaves the tailor shop and walks a few feet to his car, where he puts his tux on the back seat. As he turns around, he finds himself staring into the eyes of The Skinner, who hits him hard across his head with a flashlight.

He wakes up later tied to a table in a tobacco warehouse.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. As of 2009, it's an upholstery shop, and not in Miami.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. It's at 6014 Fountain Ave, in Hollywood, CA, at the west end of a small strip mall, right across the street from (south of) the Sunset-Gower studio, where they film "Dexter".

In real life it is an upholstery shop named "Rose Upholstery". (They put a fake sign on the door reading "Watkins' Tailor Shop", but you can still see rose decals on the door when Dexter exits the store.)

That's on the south side of Fountain, just west of Gordon Street (the same street where they staged the red light traffic accident, earlier in the same episode.)

It's part of the very same strip mall where they filmed last season's scene of "The Swamp" bar. Only this time they used the far west end of the strip mall (while "The Swamp" was at the far east end.)

Dexter walks out of the shop's front door and heads west down to his car, where he's attacked.  That car was parked at the curb on the same south side of Fountain, near the west end of the shop.




[ I shot the photos below in early 2009 ]



[ Above, we see the shop - at the west end of the strip mall - where they filmed the tailor shop scenes. ]

[ Below, we see the other, east end of the same strip mall, where they filmed last season's scene of The Swamp bar. ]




It's just a few blocks from two other third season locations, the kids' school and the red light traffic accident.
And it's in the same general area as three other locations: Ramon Prado's house, the hooker motel, and Wendell Owens' house.


It's also just a block east of the location where, last season, they filmed Lila leaving her apartment.



Here is an aerial photo of the lot.  And here is a map link.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. When Dexter comes out of the tailor shop, and the camera follows him, the blue awning at the strip mall's east end briefly swings into view. I spent a long time last season hunting for that awning, which marked the location of "The Swamp" bar, so when I saw it again here, I was pretty sure it was the same Hollywood strip mall. I freeze-framed the exterior shots and checked for details, and sure enough, everything matched up.  Then all I had to do was go back to the scene of the crime (literally) and shoot the photo you see above.