A Dispatch from the Real Schitt's Creek
Thea Glassman travels to the small town of her dreams.
Hi friends,
As I write this, the Los Angeles wildfires have blazed a devastating path through the region, leveling entire neighborhoods and taking homes, schools, restaurants, grocery stores, libraries — the very fabric that knits a community together. While first responders work to contain the disaster and residents grieve unfathomable losses, my heart is with L.A. It is a place unlike any other; a vibrant patchwork of sun-drenched small towns. I’ve had the opportunity to visit Pacific Palisades several times for book research and it was undeniably one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever been, the small town of my dreams.
When the fires began last Tuesday, I read that actor Eugene Levy had lost his home in the Palisades. Levy became the neighborhood’s honorary mayor in 2020 — taking over the title from Billy Crystal — and was among the evacuees fleeing where many people, well-known and not, had lived for decades.
Levy’s collaborations with Christopher Guest (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman) gave him a cult following, but he didn’t hit the mainstream until Schitt’s Creek. He and his son, Dan Levy, created and starred in the Emmy-winning TV comedy. Their devoted fans traded Schitt’s-inspired memes like old friends swapping inside jokes; they wanted to live in the fictional Schitt’s community that the Levys built, and that was filmed in a real small town thousands of miles from the Palisades and lovingly embraced by its honorary mayor.
Recently, superfan Thea Glassman traveled to that town and wrote about it for The Ministry of Pop Culture. I asked Thea if I could share her itinerary and she gave me the green light. And so in honor of the Levys, and the places we call home IRL and in our dreams, here is Thea’s dispatch:
The sign on the baby blue warehouse buried in a blanket of snow says it all. “SORRY! BOB’S GARAGE IS CLOSED!” Underneath is a laminated copy of a New York Times article titled, “‘Creek’ Brings Stream of Fans,” which chronicles how Schitt’s Creek beckoned people from across the globe to a pocket-sized hamlet called Goodwood, Ontario.
For six seasons, Goodwood, located roughly 45 minutes north of Toronto, doubled as Schitt’s Creek, a fictional town where the wealthy Rose family is forced to move after losing their fortune. As the foursome became embedded in this kind-hearted community, which seems to exist within the scope of just a few blocks, so did we as viewers, a map swiftly forming in our minds of the town’s familiar quadrants. There was Café Tropical, the comfy — and only? — restaurant in Schitt’s Creek, with oversized plastic menus and palm trees painted on the walls. A stone’s throw away was David and Patrick’s impossibly chic apothecary store, filled with wool scarves and patchouli candles. Bob’s Garage, probably minus Bob, was just across the street, and City Hall, home to Moira’s Jazzagals rehearsals, a few blocks from there. Somewhere, it was never quite clear where, was the vintage motel where the Roses lived, its decor deeply dated and frozen in time, yet so very warm and welcoming.
On a chilly Friday morning, I made my own pilgrimage to Goodwood with my fiancé, Ben, driving by stretches of frosty fields and several large, rustic barns, each of which I knowingly muttered to myself, “That one’s probably Mutt’s…” Two minutes before approaching the town center, we queued up the soft notes of “Simply the Best” (Noah Reid’s version, natch) and, as you can see below, I didn’t handle the moment in a particularly cool or calm way.
I guess here’s where I explain the audible gasp. I love Schitt’s Creek in ways that I’ve never loved a TV show before. (And I have some weirdly intense feelings about Friends, Gilmore Girls and The Office.) On an almost daily basis, I have the show playing somewhere in the house as a comforting soundtrack to everyday life. It’s a warm, funny, uncomplicated world that’s safe and populated with characters who you genuinely want in your apartment. Driving into the real-life town felt like the sweetest and most surreal of treats.
Before exploring Goodwood’s downtown — which consists of a few tiny, quaint blocks — we stopped at Annina's Bakeshop & Catering. Once the restaurant that catered meals for the Schitt’s Creek cast and crew, it seems to be the town’s real-life Café Tropical: a bustling hub where you can grab a warm meal, a quick treat and a beverage. (Verdict: great breakfast, free WiFi and a cozy upstairs nook to eat.)
After breakfast we ventured into the chilly downtown, which got an extra boost of magic from heaps of snow and strings of fairy lights. The actual Café Tropical, it turns out, is a private residence but the space that once housed Rose Apothecary is very much real. In the spirit of David and Patrick, the shop — which is called Goodwood Mercantile — features handmade and artisanal products, created by local vendors.
I was a little nervous that the shop owner wouldn’t love yet another curious Schitt’s Creek fan wandering into his store but when I spotted this cardboard cutout outside, it soothed concerns:
Stepping inside Goodwood Mercantile was the most surreal part of the trip. Every corner is packed with a different memory: Patrick singing “Simply the Best” in the back, Jocelyn’s one-day stint as an employee over in the left corner, Alexis missing David’s delivery front and center. So many TV and movie locations are smoke and mirrors that are quickly torn down after production. This space has blessedly stayed still with time, a shop filled corner-to-corner with some of the show’s best moments.
The owner informed us that he opened his business in September after his parents, who ran a wool store in the same space, decided to close up shop. While Schitt’s Creek was filming, the duo would pack up and move out so the crew could come in and completely transform the store into Rose Apothecary. As I approached the register, I spotted a guestbook where fans from all across the world had signed their names. (“We get a lot of Australians,” the store’s owner told me. “I think they have a similar sense of humor.”) I bought a little wood sign with the word “Goodwood” stamped in the center, and the shopkeeper slipped two Moira Rose stickers in the bag as he handed it back to me. “Because you’re a fan,” he said.
“Maybe we should we move here…?” I asked Ben, clutching my purchase, swept up in the joy of fiction and reality blending so seamlessly together. Ben smiled kindly in a way that said, “No, that probably doesn’t make sense for us.” I would proceed to bring this idea up several more times.
Just across the street from Goodwood Mercantile was Bob’s Garage. The actual building is owned by Joe Toby, who spends his days inside the warehouse making special equipment for families with disabled children, which he offers free of charge. The decision to allow the Schitt’s Creek crew to film in his space was made in the hopes that the location fee could help cover his building’s tax bill. (“Basically, the first year turned out to be, coincidentally, almost one year’s property taxes on this building. The next year when they did the interior, it equaled two years of property taxes,” he noted to The Toronto Star with a grin.)
Toby told the outlet that he likes saying hello to Schitt’s Creek fans and will sometimes give them tours of his workspace. Once, in the middle of one of those tours, a man poured rose petals on the floor, got down on one knee and proposed to his partner.
We bid a final farewell to Goodwood and set about making the whopping *one hour* trek to the real-life motel. Seat belts were buckled, seat warmers flipped on and we passed by many, many more barns that could have easily belonged to Mutt, until…there it was. Our final destination. Completely unassuming and tucked down a small sloping hill was the abandoned Hockley Motel, used for all exteriors of the Rosebud Motel. It was once the home base for Canadian basketball recruits, but these days it’s totally empty and on the market for $1.6 million. My mom’s reaction says it best:
As thrilling as it was to stand in front of the motel, it felt like such a missed opportunity. Someone please buy this spot and turn it into a Schitt’s Creek-themed motel. If you need evidence of just how many guests would line up for a room, look no further than the plethora of finger-painted words on dusty windows.
Soon, another car pulled up. “You’re on private property,” the man said, and I apologetically started to explain we were just leaving. “Nope,” he continued with a laugh, they were here for the same thing. We exchanged notes on our trips to Goodwood, and as I watched the woman walk over and peer into the window of an empty room, I felt a warm, fleeting kinship. There’s something special about bumping into people who love a show as much as you do, who probably drove an ungodly distance to stand in front of an unassuming location for several minutes.
As we pulled away from the Hockley Motel, I felt a weird, sinking feeling. I was so sad to say goodbye to the real-life locations of my favorite show. There was another, more challenging, sadness to process, too. Meaningful as these location tours are, they always makes the TV world that looms so large in your heart, the place you can escape to with a click of a button, become a little less real. It’s the deflating part of location scouting I try to push past.
With all that said, as Ben and I sit in the very same hotel room that David and Stevie stayed in during the spa day episode, I will say I am still highly interested in buying property here…
Thank you, Thea! And thanks, readers, for following along on her journey. This letter is also dedicated to those on the front lines in L.A. who give new meaning to the phrase “City of Angels.” As always, the team at World Central Kitchen is doing wonderful work helping people in need — I’ve donated and am sharing a link here with more information.
Yours in “Hollywood Is Part of America,”
Erin
How am I just now reading this? I loved it! Thanks for sharing and documenting it so well, now going to share this with my family, we’re all big fans!
Thank you for allowing us to tag along 💗🥰