The followers management every thing within the “Vanderpump Guidelines” multiverse, and currently what the followers need are crisp, pressed turkey sandwiches and prebiotic sodas beneath the gentle glow of shabby-chic chandeliers in West Hollywood.
One thing About Her, a brand new sandwich store from the Bravo stars Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney, is a two-hour drive from Kim Mykitta’s house in Huntington Seaside, so she took the break day from work as a social media supervisor and copywriter to show up on its first day of enterprise.
Arriving an hour earlier than the store opened, Ms. Mykitta settled in because the fifteenth individual in a line that grew steadily all through the day, snaking down the block. And it wasn’t only a line, however a cultural phenomenon, vacationer vacation spot and social occasion lined in detailed play-by-plays in information tales, weblog posts, podcast episodes and social media reels.
Ms. Mykitta runs Bravo Breaking Information, an Instagram fan account that’s a part of a posh cottage trade constructed round Bravo’s cultish actuality exhibits and their stars. “We’re die-hard and we’re devoted,” stated Ms. Mykitta, who had been reporting on the ups and downs of the opening for about two years.
It may appear arduous to sq. the devotion of those crowds with a restaurant trade in disaster. The Los Angeles Instances referred to as 2023 “the 12 months that killed L.A. eating places.” The article talked about, among the many dozens and dozens of notable departed, the closing of Jean-Georges Beverly Hills and three spots from the acclaimed restaurateur Nancy Silverton.
Although the eating places of “Vanderpump Guidelines” aren’t resistant to the hovering rents and inflating meals and labor prices that bathroom issues down, they double as set items the place an intensive and highly effective fandom can step proper into the present and watch the heroes and villains of actuality TV play out their greatest story traces.
The cable sequence simply wrapped its eleventh season, which introduced in round one million viewers per episode throughout final 12 months’s Hollywood author strike. Movie star cooks, even these with critical P.R. muscle, couldn’t dream of comparable curiosity within the dreary particulars of their pre-service routines or point-of-sale programs.
I waited exterior One thing About Her over the weekend, together with mother-and-daughter pairs, teams of middle-aged ladies on brunch dates, younger queer {couples} and several other small canine who appeared completely satisfied on the sun-warmed curb. Vacationers have been drawing up their restaurant itineraries in Los Angeles from locations featured on the present — Sur, Jax’s Studio Metropolis, Schwartz & Sandy’s.
The query was, what to do between meals. “We might stroll round Rodeo Drive and simply … be poor?” stated one customer to her mates.
Across the time One thing About Her was meant to open, a cook dinner walked by means of the jasmine-lined alley to apologize: They have been a bit short-staffed, and there can be a delay in opening the doorways. One other 20 minutes, at the very least.
The road had been pretty affected person and orderly, however now I anticipated mutiny or on the very least a little bit of grumbling. As an alternative, a girl shouted with absolute sincerity, “Thanks to your service!” Even farther again within the line, I caught an encouraging, “Woo!”
Somebody handed menus down from the entrance of the road. They included a letter from Ms. Madix and Ms. Maloney about how they needed the place to be greater than a sandwich store. How they “might need been barely delusional, dreaming of romantic lunches and whispered conversations that wove tales of empowerment and resilience.”
There was a cute, ’90s lilt to the substances, which featured sun-dried tomatoes and “rustic ciabatta.” And although sandwiches have been described in what appeared like an excessive amount of element, with each ingredient listed right down to the salt and pepper (“S&P”), this turned out to be helpful in a while when diners needed to know what the inexperienced stuff was in “the Diane” (sunflower microgreens) or the candy smudge in “the Viola” (balsamic onion marmalade) or the jam in “the Drew” (mango-jalapeño).
The Hollywood-adjacent sandwiches appeared named for film stars and administrators, although the connection to the contents of the sandwiches wasn’t instantly clear. The Nancy (Meyers?), a BLT on sourdough made with romaine, was crisp and toasted, pleasingly drippy and well-seasoned. Generously crammed, however to not the purpose of turning into unmanageable, it was a wonderfully good sandwich, although it’s honest to say nobody can be ready for it if Ms. Madix and Ms. Maloney weren’t behind it.
“Every restaurant represents the forged member who opens it, and its success is instantly tied to followers’ opinions of them on the present,” Ms. Mykitta stated. “The fandom proper now’s firmly on Group Katie and Ariana.”
A few of this loyalty may be traced again to “Scandoval.” A few 12 months in the past, the invention that the “Vanderpump” forged member Tom Sandoval was dishonest on his longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with one other forged member, Rachel Leviss, performed out dramatically on “Vanderpump Guidelines,” and projected Mr. Sandoval as a nationwide villain.
Scandoval additionally bumped the present’s rankings and shot its stars and their companies to new ranges of fame. In 2022, when Mr. Sandoval and his fellow forged member Tom Schwartz opened their Los Angeles bar Schwartz & Sandy’s, it was to a lot much less fanfare. Submit-Scandoval, followers referred to as for a boycott, and theories concerning the bar’s numerous failures and potential demise are a serious matter of dialog, each amongst followers and on official channels.
Most of the ladies who visited One thing About Her have been moving into this snarl of a narrative line, displaying help for Ms. Madix, who together with Ms. Maloney had been out and in of the store because it opened, busing tables, rearranging the large patterned pillows that lined the benches and taking selfies with diners.
They weren’t simply ready for a sandwich, however for an opportunity to interrupt the fourth wall over a passion-fruit-guava spritz — or three.
