It got to the point there where every woman under the age of 28 in America hated Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn – not because they’re horrible people, just the opposite, actually, but from the years of 1996-1999, there wasn’t a bar in America that didn’t reek of pick-up lines from that film.

It was a movie for those of us who weren’t good at approaching women, who maybe did leave one too many messages on the answering machine the same night we ‘got digits, baby’. It showed the gritty side of being lonely and gave us all hope that if we couldn’t be Trent, then maybe we’d have a friend like him. No one wanted Pink Dot to deliver to Tulsa, Oklahoma more than I did – although hitting on any member of the opposite sex in that town, even if in jest, might have resulted in a quick and justifiable death.

And no other film draws more pilgrims than this one: ‘Swingers’.

The first suggestion is pretty easy, really – and how could you not fall in love with the entire sequence. A long Goodfellas tribute shot that finally ends in a fern bar with good Manhattans, two aging hipsters singing along to ‘Staying Alive’ and a very-L.A. ‘thru the back door’ entrance by our two stars. The first time I hit The Dresden Room, I was actually skeptical – for everything that movie did to pop culture, it had to have made this establishment a nightmare to get into – but shockingly, it wasn’t.

Parking is a measly $3 – which in Los Angeles is unheard of – and tables, if you get there before 10pm, are available. You’ll want to stop and take in the photos when you first walk in and then tip either Marty or Elayne in the front, for no other reason than they knew cool before it had a Roger Miller track on the score. Drinks are good, made by either a jovial old-timer or a cranky one – but rest assured they know a good poor.

It’d be well worth a visit without knowing the film, but if you do – makes it that much better.

And what Swingers-tribute would be complete without a heart-to-heart in the coffeeshop? This is not only where Mike opens the film with trying to understand hurt, or where Trent mistakenly thinks he’d found a cougar, but in real life The 101 Café is where Farveru and Vaughn would spend countless hours writing the screenplay that would make them icons [photo above].

Let the chumps hop on a ‘tour bus to the stars’, you spent your day being money…

Baby.

All photos by me. Click here to see more. As well you should.

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