Reality TV star Lisa Vanderpump and reality TV culture are inching their way deeper into West Hollywood’s gay Boystown with Tom Tom, a restaurant at 8932 Santa Monica Blvd. projected to open late next month or early this Summer.
Nick Alain, the designer of the restaurant, has posted on his website an illustration of part of the elaborate interior of Tom Tom. A video on his Instagram account (posted at the top of this story), shows Alain touring the interior with Vanderpump, a star in Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” and her husband, Ken Todd.
Tom Tom is located a few hundred feet from PUMP, the restaurant and bar that Vanderpump and Todd opened on the southeast corner of Santa Monica and Robertson boulevards in May 2014. PUMP has become a go-to spot for reality TV aspirants and stars and those who love them.
Around the corner, on Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood’s Design District, is Vanderpump’s Sur, which rivals PUMP as a destination for reality TV fans and wannabes and is the site of “Vanderpump Rules.” That Bravo reality TV show features the squabbling between the restaurant’s celebrity-ambitious servers, who include Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz, for whom Tom Tom is named. (Schwartz, however, no longer works at Sur, although he is frequently on the show, which chronicles allegations of his cheating on Katie Maloney, his wife and another Sur employee.)
Tom Tom replaces Showtime, a men’s apparel store focused on a gay male audience, which has moved to the south side of Santa Monica Boulevard, still a reliably gay block. Adjacent to it is Bottega Louie, still under construction, which is the WeHo offshoot of the restaurant, patisserie and café by the same name located in downtown Los Angeles.
There are still some gays in the neighborhood. Sandwiched between Bottega Louie and PUMP is Motherlode, the classic gay dive bar, which is undergoing a renovation of its own. Its owner and employees promise it won’t lose its dive bar vibe. And just to the east of Tom Tom is Beaches, recently opened, a two-level bar that caters to a gay clientele.
It sounds to me the tone of the article is negative-ish? Well City Council can’t complain after getting a cameo when PUMP opened on the corner. As for Lisa Vanderpump, I will say it again. Her successfully businesses aside, she is a truly wonderful person. With the appearance of the ultimate monied superficialism, she is NOT. 1. Her work, not just writing a check, to protest the annual Chinese yulin {sic} dog festival … Where dog’s are literally tortured the killed & eaten (tortured dog’s apparently taste better to the Chinese) SHE get out in jeans and leads a March… Read more »
West Hollywood has always been considered a superficial destination when it comes to bars and clubs. Now, with Reality TV it’s going to be super-superficial.
You get a clue –City planners can limit the # of bars in one immediate area. Why have a long succession of bars and restaurants in one immediate location w/out breaking it up with other establishments whether its a coffee shop of a fast food place or retail store or office/apt complex. The fact is that VanderPumps restaurants and bars mainly attract 21 yr olds from West Covina who love her reality sh*t show and tourists on the TMZ tour bus screaming and vomiting from the bus. Her lowbrow reality TV status clearly influences the type of people you are… Read more »
Screw the Vanderpumps. Why is it that AT&T and Comcast can be accused of monopoly by the Federal Govt and the Vanderpumps get away with taking over one entire section of S.M. Blvd? Shame on the city of West Hollywood. Clearly, derelict in their duties.
Times have changed – West Hollywood is not a ‘gay’ city, but an exciting global destination point with residents from all walks of life. That is, if you can afford to live here.