Burbank Fast Food Joint Fed Into Slacker Film

Lindsay Blake
·2-min read

The highly quotable buddy comedy ā€œDude, Whereā€™s My Car?,ā€ about two ā€œNo. 1, extra special, very good looking guysā€ (played by Seann William Scott and Ashton Kutcher) and their quest to remember the details of a wasted night, turns 20 this week. Though not initially a hit with critics or audiences, the lowbrow early-aughts precursor of ā€œThe Hangoverā€ has since become something of a cult favorite.

With scenes filmed in Californiaā€™s Santa Clarita, North Hollywood and Glendale, the most memorable locale is easily Chinese Foooood, the fast-food spot where Kutcherā€™s Jesse encounters an overzealous drive-thru operator. Filming of the segment took place at 2320 W. Victory Blvd. in Burbank at what was then Steveā€™s Burgers. No drive-thru was actually located on the premises at the time, but the site has since changed hands and now houses plant-based eatery Blazinā€™ Burgers ā€™N Fried Chicken, which ā€” in a case of life imitating art ā€” recently implemented drive-thru service. Sweet!

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The 885-square-foot property, built in 1949, was dressed quite a bit for the ā€œDudeā€ shoot, with the production team adding a roofline with upturned eaves, Chinese Foooood signage and the drive-thru lane, as well as a take-out-carton-shaped speaker box, which Jesse proceeds to destroy. Despite the many embellishments, the restaurant is still very recognizable in person.

Itā€™s also something of a screen regular: An employee is tossed into a dumpster there during a rather contentious car repossession in a 2009 episode of ā€œOperation Repoā€; hitman Martin Jones (Miles Teller) tracks down a victim at the eatery in a segment of the Amazon series ā€œToo Old to Die Youngā€; and the place pops up as hot dog joint World of Weiners, where Preston (Jeffrey Tambor) performs an impressive trick at the beginning of 2020ā€™s ā€œMagic Camp.ā€ Now thatā€™s shibby!

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