L.A. Cameo: 'Glee' Returns to the Eagle Rock Plaza

The Eagle Rock Plaza had already been featured prominently on Fox's "Glee," in a scene last year involving a flash mob imagined by Artie (the kid in the wheelchair).



For this week's episode, "Glee" once again featured a flash mob -- and once again headed to the Eagle Rock Plaza to perform it. As the cast (led by Kurt, played by Chris Colfer) and many others danced to Duck Sauce's "Barbra Streisand," you could easily see plenty of Eagle Rock Plaza stores, including Target, Seafood City, Chowking and Jollibee.



(I'm pretty sure there's no outposts of Jollibee and Chowking, two Filipino fast food chains, in Ohio, where "Glee" is set. Last May, when Jollibee was also spotted on "Glee," it caused such a stir that "Jollibee" became a trending topic on Twitter.)



According to the Eagle Rock Plaza website, the mall is regularly used for film shoots, and has been seen in episodes of "Criminal Minds," "The Closer" and "Without a Trace," as well as countless music videos and commercials.

Eagle Rock's Mall of Manila

The L.A. Times finally finally picks up on the mainstream Eagle Rock Plaza's move to target the large Filipino community in the area -- something we've written about several times, including this post last year.

But the story doesn't dive in deep enough to describe the scope of the transformation -- no mention, for example, of Bench, a Gap-style clothing chain from the Philippines that filled a void at the mall; nor does it get into the long lines Jollibee created when it first opened -- or the fact that Chow King, a Chinese-oriented Filipino fast food joint, recently opened across the way.

Also the story doesn't discuss the mall's recent ownership change -- Westfield sold the shopping center last year to Pennsylvania-based Centro Watt. I would have loved to hear more from the mall owners about this unique strategy, and how they're managing to save what was a dying mall. The reporter does touch on the unusual juxtaposition of a mainstream mall -- with big anchors like Target and Macy's -- carrying so many chains that target a specific ethnic group. The fact that I can pick up items at Target, then share a halo-halo with Evan at Chow King (and snacks at Seafood City), is pretty cool.