A diagonal road of old motels and diners, and the real diner whose sign became CBS's Alice.
What Grand Avenue looks like
Grand Avenue runs on a diagonal from , at Van Buren Street and Seventh Avenue, northwest across the Phoenix grid. It crosses the numbered avenues at an angle, leaving acute triangular lots at nearly every corner. A BNSF freight line runs alongside the road. Traffic moves along a wide, multi lane roadway with painted lane lines and long sightlines down the strip.
Most of the storefronts are a single storey, in painted stucco or concrete block, with flat parapets. Several still carry their original signs. The , in a small stucco building at 1117 Grand Avenue, keeps a banner sign out front. A few doors along, at the building, an oval neon sign for a former radiator shop still hangs over the sidewalk.
, a two storey brick building from the 1920s, holds one of the diagonal's corner lots. A row of motor court cabins from the tourist motel era still stands farther along the road, painted in red, yellow and orange behind a chain link fence. , a white 1947 building with a wedge shaped footprint that follows the angle of the street, sits at the corner of McKinley Street.
The , a tiki bar dating from 1947, keeps its sign lit farther up the strip. Vacant lots and a handful of older houses sit between the storefronts. Sign shops and small industrial buildings share block faces with the motels and diners, many behind roll up doors.
Shot on Grand Avenue
For the CBS sitcom Alice, a location manager found a real diner on Grand Avenue originally called Chris' Diner. Its owner agreed to repaint the sign Mel's, with its giant coffee cup, for the show's opening credits in later seasons. The diner went by other names for years afterward, and a later owner made Mel's its name for good in the 2000s.
Alice, 1976 to 1985
The diner was called Chris' when a location manager had its sign repainted Mel's, with the giant coffee cup, to stand in for the fictional diner where Alice Hyatt waitresses. Only the exterior sign was used, for the opening credits in later seasons; every interior scene was shot on a soundstage in California.
What Grand Avenue can double for
Miracle Mile in Tucson, Arizona
Miracle Mile still has nearly forty motor court motels, most with their original neon signs, a closer match to Grand Avenue's roadside motel era than almost anywhere else in the state. The scale and the low stucco buildings are the same, both built for drivers rather than pedestrians. Interstate 10 runs close behind the strip and shows up in wider shots, so tighter frames along the sidewalk hold the period better. Try searching motor court motels now.
East Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico
The old Route 66 strip still has the same run of low motor court motels and painted or neon signage as Grand Avenue, from the same postwar highway era. Central Avenue runs straight rather than on a diagonal, so it lacks Grand Avenue's acute corner lots. Newer chain signage sits between some of the old motels, so keeping those storefronts out of frame keeps the period consistent. Try searching Route 66 motor court motel now.
