5 Restaurants You Can Visit From David Lynch Films

Yesterday, the world learned of filmmaker David Lynch's passing. And soon after, the internet collectively mourned the death of a visionary legend who shaped the cinematic landscape into a perplexing, vibrant, grimy, otherworldly universe that will forever inform the motion picture industry. Lynch's work often featured scenes within eye-catching diners, divey bars, seedy truck stops, and the unsettling banality of everyday places. 

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A Missoula, Montana, native who relocated to Los Angeles, California, to pursue his career, Lynch never let go of his fixation with Americana's iconography, and hybridized the squeaky image of suburbia with sordid underworlds in films like 1986's "Blue Velvet" and his 1990s television tour-de-force, "Twin Peaks" (which returned for a long overdue third season in 2017 as "Twin Peaks: The Return"). 

Lynch applied this same trope to L.A.'s brightly lit but darkly motivated milieu in 1997's eerie "Lost Highway" and his ingenue 2001 masterpiece, "Mulholland Drive." As cinephiles reflect on the career of an unparalleled icon, we compiled a short list of five restaurant and food-centric filming locations Lynch used for scenes in his unique and eminent oeuvre that fans can visit to honor a director that the film world will forever miss.

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Antoine's Restaurant

A French-Creole old-school classic, New Orleans' Antoine's Restaurant is not only featured in David Lynch's 1990 road trip romance "Wild At Heart," but also in Oliver Stone's political, conspiracy theory drama "JFK" and many other films. Glimpse Antoine's when "Wild At Heart's" Sailor (played by Nicolas Cage) and Lula (played by Laura Dern) traverse the city's French Quarter as the couple arrives in their now-iconic bright blue convertible. 

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Established in 1840, Antoine's has remained a New Orleans mainstay for over a century and has been visited by the likes of Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, Whoopi Goldberg, and many other celebrity tourists. Go today and enjoy essential Cajun and Creole dishes like oysters Rockefeller, seafood gumbo, and crabmeat ravigote, and wash them down with Southern cocktail staples like a Sazerac, Hemingway daiquiri, or Pimm's cup.

Caesar's Restaurant

Thirty minutes from L.A.'s bustling center rests a sadly defunct diner in Gardena, California, made legendary by David Lynch's 2001 showbusiness magnum opus, "Mulholland Drive." In a scene that's both eerie and absurd, a character wanders outside the restaurant after a meal and stumbles upon a filth-soaked monstrosity near the diner's dumpster. Renamed Winkie's within "Mulholland's" universe, Caesar's shuttered in 2017. However, the eye-catching yellow and blue stone building still stands for Lynch fans to turn into a photo-op, despite the diner no longer offering its previously beloved coffee and egg-centric breakfasts.

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Handy Market

In what may be the best reboot in television history, David Lynch returned to "Twin Peaks" 25 years after Dale Cooper first took a turn to the dark side in the 1991 Season Two finale. Far from a show hellbent on fan service, Lynch smartly takes viewers away from the Washingtonian, tree-lined town and into the surreal streets of Hollywood, California. 

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Though the character of Sarah Palmer never leaves the home she shared with her late daughter Laura, Lynch still used Burbank's Handy Market for a scene where Sarah Palmer throws a public fit over spying an unfamiliar brand of turkey jerky at the store's fictional version, Keri's Handi-Mart. Open since 1970, Handy Market still retains a vintage charm fit for the big (and small) screen. Fans of "Twin Peaks" can flock to the neon-adorned grocery store and pick up bottles of popular vodka brands just like the beloved, bereaved television mother.

The Salish Lodge & Spa

Though the town of Twin Peaks only existed in the mind of its inventor, most of the filming sites still stand in the sleepy town of North Bend, Washington, located about a half hour from Seattle. The temporary home of Dale Cooper, "Twin Peaks'" suit-wearing hero, The Great Northern Hotel's facade can be seen in the program's opening credits. 

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Resting just above Snoqualmie Falls, The Salish Lodge & Spa and restaurant there still attracts devoted fans of David Lynch's masterpiece, despite only lending its exterior to the iconic show. Once inside, guests can sample classic Pacific Northwest foods such as grilled salmon, manila clams, and Dungeness crab cakes – and will thankfully be spared the Icelandic hymns that kept Agent Cooper up at night.

Twede's Cafe

Easily the crown jewel of Lynchian locations, North Bend, Washington's Twede's Cafe portrays The Double R Diner in David Lynch's '90s mystery, "Twin Peaks." The centerpiece for Twin Peaks' townsfolks, the diner famously hosted Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan, who loves coffee and wine in real life) through cups of black coffee and plates of warmed pie. The Double R Diner was the workplace of Norma Jennings (played by Peggy Lipton), Shelly Johnson (played by Mädchen Amick), and eventually Cooper's paramore, Annie Blackburn (played by Heather Graham). 

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As a result, Twede's Cafe's interiors are immortalized thanks to Lynch's short-lived but highly influential series. Today, the 1940s-era diner proudly boasts a wall of "Twin Peaks" memorabilia and serves slices of pie and coffee daily to film fanatics and locals alike, along with an impressive merchandise counter of mugs, stickers, clothing, and, of course, coffee beans, all paying homage to the series that put Twede's Cafe on the map.

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