(500) Days of Summer|Grand Central Market — the errand that got cut

Not every location survives the edit. Tom and Summer shopped for fruit under the neon of Grand Central Market, and the scene was cut before release — which is why the Los Angeles Conservancy still walks visitors past 317 South Broadway on its (500) Days tour. The film's downtown is a route, not a set, and this is one of its stops.

The market has been feeding this corner since 1917, on the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin Building, and it is the rare downtown institution that never closed and never got precious. Sawdust gave way to tile, tile gave way to a decade of chefs, and the old counters held on through all of it: Chinese-American plate lunches, a spice stall, tortillas pressed in the open, egg sandwiches sold to people on their way to court. The neon signs hanging from the ceiling are original enough that the market lists their restoration among its proudest jobs.

It is open every day, free to walk through, busiest at lunch. Come at half past eleven and eat standing up. The back exit puts you on Hill Street facing the lower station of Angels Flight, which means the geography of the film's best-known scene is about ninety seconds away.

Watch what the cut scene would have shown: two people buying peaches on an ordinary Tuesday. The film keeps insisting that is what Tom actually wanted, and that he could not tell the difference between that and a story about destiny.

Location photo: Wikimedia Commons, free licence.