‘The Punisher’ Season 2: Where is the “Michigan Bar” Lola’s Roadhouse Located?
'The Punisher' kicked off its second season (and probably last) on Netflix with the title character hanging out at a bar located somewhere in Michigan. Where the hell is it though?
'The Punisher' Season 2, Episode 1 'Roadhouse Blues' shows us Frank Castle (played by Jon Bernthal) somewhat at peace compared to when we last saw him. After getting revenge for the murder of his family and having his records wiped clean last season, Castle, using his alias Pete Castiglione, is hanging at a bar, kicking back a few suds and enjoying a live band. This is easily the most chill we've ever seen Big Pun.
During the opening, we get an awkward establishing shot letting us know he's hanging at Lola's Roadhouse, mostly so the audience can see the marquee that says Shooter Jennings is playing the bar. It seemed a little bit extra that they went out of their way to point that out, but whatever. I'm sure Shooter appreciated the extra obvious hat tip.
As the episode goes on, we learn that the bar is in some unspecified town in Michigan. The only other landmarks we actually see in this "Michigan town" are the Good Rest Motel, which is next door to Lola's, and the fire station across the street.
Later in the season, Frank describes that bar as being "outside of Detroit." They do travel to the Ecorse Hope Hospital at the end of the episode, but it's not exactly clear how far they drive to get there. While Ecorse is a real place outside of Detroit, there is no hospital by that name.
By this point, I was going nuts trying to figure out where the hell in Michigan this place was, or if it was at all. A lot of times (most times, actually) TV and movie productions use locations that are not actually the place they say it is on screen, and that's exactly what happened here.
The scenes filmed in Lola's Roadhouse were actually shot at KJ Farrell's Bar & Grill located "in the heart of Long Island," as their Twitter puts it. The Bellmore, New York located bar was the set when Netflix filmed what turned from a good time to a really bad one for everyone but Frank back in March of 2018.
The bar opened in 2007 and actually is a live music venue, although it would appear that it's generally the home to acts that draw smaller crowds than Shooter Jennings, as the capacity is listed as 250 (that's less than half the capacity of The Machine Shop in Flint). It was pretty clear from the show that it wasn't a huge venue, but it is a very cool looking spot.
Here's what the bar really looks like on the outside:
That's right... they used yet another bar for the exterior shots. That's Hollywood for you. Ironically, KJ Farrell's is located next to The Law Offices of Rachel M. Hollywood P.C. and a fire station, but is clearly not the outside location they used as you can tell from the images below.
After an exhaustive online search for where these exteriors were shot turned up absolutely nothing -- I figured it out by enhancing a road sign in the background of a shot.
And just like that, Jeff's Auto Body Inc led me to Congers, New York (not Michigan), where a quick search of area motels found us the Green Inn Motel On The Lake.
And right across the street was the newly built fire department, although it's not yet listed as such on Google.
As for the place next door that served as the exterior of Lola's Roadhouse -- that's Bolzano Family Restaurant... and it's actually two doors down. An auto shop separates the motel from the restaurant.
So there you have it. Lola's Roadhouse -- not actually in Michigan. They might specify exactly where it is supposed to be later in the season, but I'm only four episodes in thus far. Either way, it's always fun to hear Michigan get shout-outs in Netflix shows I love like 'The Punisher' and 'Ozark,' who namedropped Flint last season. Maybe if Michigan reinstated the film tax credit, we could get some of these shows to actually film here again.
Editor's Note: Earlier versions of this article did not include the information about Ecorse (thanks to those of you who pointed that out) or the information about the exterior locations. We figured that out shortly after the article was initially published.