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The followers management every little thing within the “Vanderpump Rules” multiverse, and recently what the followers need are crisp, pressed turkey sandwiches and prebiotic sodas underneath the delicate glow of shabby-chic chandeliers in West Hollywood.
Something 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 Beach, so she took the break day from work as a social media manager 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 coated in detailed play-by-plays in information tales, weblog posts, podcast episodes and social media reels.
Ms. Mykitta runs Bravo Breaking News, an Instagram fan account that’s a part of a posh cottage business constructed round Bravo’s cultish actuality exhibits and their stars. “We are 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 onerous to sq. the devotion of those crowds with a restaurant business in disaster. The Los Angeles Times referred to as 2023 “the yr 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.
Though the eating places of “Vanderpump Rules” aren’t proof against 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 collection simply wrapped its eleventh season, which introduced in round 1,000,000 viewers per episode throughout final yr’s Hollywood author strike. Celebrity cooks, even these with severe P.R. muscle, couldn’t dream of comparable curiosity within the dreary particulars of their pre-service routines or point-of-sale techniques.
I waited outdoors Something About Her over the weekend, together with mother-and-daughter pairs, teams of middle-aged girls on brunch dates, younger queer {couples} and several other small canines who appeared glad on the sun-warmed curb. Tourists have been drawing up their restaurant itineraries in Los Angeles from locations featured on the present — Sur, Jax’s Studio City, Schwartz & Sandy’s.
The query was, what to do between meals. “We may stroll round Rodeo Drive and simply … be poor?” stated one customer to her pals.
Around the time Something 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 could be a delay in opening the doorways. Another 20 minutes, not less than.
The line had been pretty affected person and orderly, however now I anticipated mutiny or on the very least a little bit of grumbling. Instead, a lady shouted with absolute sincerity, “Thank you to your service!” Even farther again within the line, I caught an encouraging, “Woo!”
Someone handed menus down from the entrance of the road. They included a letter from Ms. Madix and Ms. Maloney about how they wished 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 elements, 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 afterward when diners wished 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 stuffed, however to not the purpose of turning into unmanageable, it was a superbly good sandwich, although it’s truthful to say nobody could be ready for it if Ms. Madix and Ms. Maloney weren’t behind it.
“Each restaurant represents the solid 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 could be firmly on Team Katie and Ariana.”
Some of this loyalty will be traced again to “Scandoval.” About a yr in the past, the invention that the “Vanderpump” solid member Tom Sandoval was dishonest on his longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with one other solid member, Rachel Leviss, performed out dramatically on “Vanderpump Rules,” 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 solid member Tom Schwartz opened their Los Angeles bar Schwartz & Sandy’s, it was to a lot much less fanfare. Post-Scandoval, followers referred to as for a boycott, and theories in regards to the bar’s numerous failures and attainable demise are a serious subject of dialog, each amongst followers and on official channels.
Many of the ladies who visited Something 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.
