Vanderpump Rules stars Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval broke the news to PEOPLE yesterday that they’ve made ‘one of the hardest decisions’ and will be shuttering the doors to their L.A. restaurant, Schwartz & Sandy’s, just two years after opening.
“Deciding to close was one of the hardest decisions we’ve made...We agonized over it for quite some time because we truly believe it’s a great bar, still ripe with potential,” the pair told the outlet, saying that despite the difficulty of making the decision, it was the right choice.
The Toms say there were a few things that ultimately pushed them to close – but that in the end, it came down to two things, mostly. The first is the overall difficult nature of the restaurant business everywhere, particularly in an oversaturated L.A. market. And the second is….well… the undeniable fallout and impact that Scandoval had on their business.
“Unfortunately, the current climate for this business is pretty rough. Recovering from all the negativity post-scandal wasn’t easy, and the slimmer margins post-COVID made it even harder to bounce back. There’s not a lot of room for error in the restaurant/bar business,” Tom Schwartz said to PEOPLE.
It’s certainly easy (and tempting) to blame the restaurant’s failure on the negativity that followed in the wake of Scandoval. The restaurant saw an influx of scathing Yelp reviews from fans of the show and fans of Ariana Madix, which, for a period of time, were so overwhelming that Tom Sandoval was forced to take a step back from his role at the restaurant, becoming more of a ‘silent partner’ than a regular face at the establishment. It also forced the pair to address the backlash, which was having a very tangible impact on their franchise, and all of the other innocent people working behind the scenes.
In a now-deleted Instagram post shared just days after news of Tom’s affair with Raquel broke, the page for the restaurant released a statement that read:
“In light of the recent news we appreciate the many words of support but we also understand the outpouring of outrage that has been directed towards our businesses. However, those of us who are not famous have dedicated our time hearts and money to make this restaurant a reality.”
This would go on for months, with Tom Schwartz speaking candidly to Nick Viall in January, almost an entire year after the scandal broke, about the damage done by the backlash, saying:
“I’m not here to throw a pity party but it sucks that this business — that I put my heart and soul into — and so many people put so much time and energy into came crashing down because of one person’s actions in their personal life. But we suffered dearly. We really did. People have been coming in, there’s been an outpouring of support lately and it’s been a nice change of pace.”
Despite the wave of support he says the business received, it’s clear there was irreparable damage done to the restaurant due to the scandal. Yet, chalking this latest move up to the scandal alone doesn’t paint the full picture – which is that establishing and maintaining a successful restaurant is incredibly difficult, so the announcement of a closure is not only understandable, but kind of expected.
Longtime viewers of Vanderpump Rules saw these guys build this restaurant from the ground up, first accepting an offer to become business partners with Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd in 2018 in the opening of a restaurant they dubbed “TomTom”, which the Toms own a 5% stake in, each. It was a gruelling, multiyear process in which the pair wanted to have more creative control over everything from the restaurant’s design and lighting fixtures to the alcoholic cocktail items on the menu, for which they were actually brought into the business venture. But seasoned hospitality industry veterans Lisa and Ken encouraged them to be patient, stay the course and follow their lead. And doing so has led to great success as TomTom is still thriving over in West Hollywood.
But four years later, the pair’s desire to be more hands on led them to pursue their own establishment, a move that Ken and Lisa had a hard time fully supporting and expressed great caution about, as they knew without their guidance and direct business involvement, it left the Toms in a pretty vulnerable position.
According to the National Restaurant Association, the forecast for the restaurant industry in 2024 wasn’t totally grim. In February, it was predicted that sales would top $1 trillion for the first time in history this year, 200,000 jobs would be added, and human hospitality would be in demand by consumers.
But to Tom Schwartz’ point about margins, 98% of operators said higher labour costs posed an issue for their restaurant, 97% cited higher food costs, and 38% said their restaurants were not profitable last year. And with surging overhead costs, it's a reality that even Ken and Lisa have had to deal with, announcing the closure of iconic Pump and Villa Blanca restaurants in recent years, which I wrote about here.
“Tom and I learned the hard way about the pitfalls of having your name on the building. It comes with immense responsibility, and your personal life directly reflects on your business and your partners. It’s a double-edged sword for a public figure,” Schwartz said to PEOPLE.
This is partially true – because TomTom is definitely a namesake restaurant. But Ken and Lisa’s involvement shielded that establishment from the unfiltered hate that was thrown in the direction of Schwartz & Sandy’s. And take Jax’s, for another example, the bar and lounge established by former Vanderpump Rules star Jax Taylor, in Studio City, which has…mixed reviews, to say the least. Despite unfavourable news stories about him in the first season of The Valley, his restaurant isn’t completely tanking, and he’s opening another bar. So there’s that. But we’ll learn more about whether Tom’s claim holds true, particularly as so many reality TV stars venture into business ownership, or at least to expand their current entrepreneurial ventures, and really look to capitalize on their names.
As for the Toms, Sandoval is slotted to appear in the upcoming season of The Traitors, while Schwartz is focusing, instead, on developing a podcast called Detox/Retox with Podcast One (another man with a microphone, just what we need). And despite his restaurant with Tom not experiencing the success they had hoped for, he says he’d still like to open a dive bar one day, a plan many show fans and area locals say would’ve been a much safer bet than going into business with Sandoval.
