'Vanderpump Rules' Star Katie Maloney Wants a Slice of the Sandwich Business

Back in Season 9 of Vanderpump Rules, former SUR bartenders Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval announced that they were opening a new bar.

However, things went awry when Katie Maloney entered the chat and offered her two cents about the location’s name — Schwartz & Sandy's. Her criticism wasn’t well-received by Sandoval, who suggested that Katie mind her own business. And that's exactly what she did.

Apparently, Katie had a dream of opening up a sandwich shop and doing so with Tom Schwartz. But when it became clear that all of her then-husband's time would be taken by the bar, she teamed up with fellow former SUR worker Ariana Madix instead. We watched as the ladies shared their plans with Lisa Vanderpump and set up meetings with investors.

Has Katie Maloney opened up her sandwich shop yet? Here's what to know.

During the show's Season 10 reunion, Katie and Ariana shared that the shop would open in May 2023. However, as time passed, the original timeframe wasn't met.

The opening date later moved to October 2023, which was further pushed to Jan. 15, 2024. However, even the third date passed and the shop has shown no signs of opening any time soon.

In a TikTok video posted on Jan. 22, 2024, to Bravo's official account, Katie stated in an interview that the reason for the delay was a matter of city permits. "It's just literally waiting on physical copies of permits, so that we can get the final permit that we need ... It's a waiting game," she said.

According to The US Sun, Katie and Ariana were waiting on the Department of Health to get back to them about "appliance-related" issues. They were also waiting to be approved for a liquor license that would allow them to sell beer and wine inside their store.

Then, in early February 2024, Katie and Ariana revealed via The Nikki and Brie Show podcast that they had gotten all the necessary permits in order to get the final walk-through and approval.

Katie even acknowledged that with all the talk of permit delays, "people really, genuinely think this is some kind of conspiracy theory when we’ve said [it] so many times..."

But, she said, she and Ariana have "truly been at the mercy of these different agencies."

Katie later added: "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s just having to be patient. We just had to be patient. And just kind of like roll with the punches and just like, take things as they come and just kind of get it done."

On April 4, Ariana made a guest appearance on Kristen Doute's podcast, Balancing Act, where she provided a brief update on the progress of this culinary business venture. She disclosed that once her stint in the revival of Chicago wraps up, she intends to return to Los Angeles and focus on finally getting the sandwich shop up and running.

Katie’s comments about Schwartz & Sandy's came back to bite her after she revealed the name of her new sandwich shop in Season 9. During a brainstorming session, Katie and Ariana named their business Something About Her, and viewers weren't impressed.

“The girls' planned name for the sandwich shop is terrible,” a Vanderpump Rules viewer wrote online at the time. "Something About Her sounds like a women's clothing catalog like ‘Woman Within.'”

Back in Season 9, the girls' idea caught the attention of one investor — Lala Kent’s now former fiancé, Randall Emmett. We saw Katie and Ariana sit down for an investor meeting with the movie producer. Later, at James and Raquel's engagement party, Randall revealed that he and his partners were interested in investing $150,000 into the project.

Unfortunately, because Randall later found himself embroiled in a messy cheating scandal, it appears that he's no longer a part of the venture. On a January 2022 episode of Watch What Happens Live, the Toms sat down with Andy Cohen and shared that Randall will no longer be investing in the ladies' sandwich shop. According to the men, the business relationship has been "dissolved" and "maybe [Randall] wants to cut ties and move on" from the friend group as a whole.

As for the women's ability to run a sandwich shop (with or without Randall as an investor), critics online have been skeptical about the duo’s business acumen and lack of experience in the food industry. In a Vanderpump Rules subthread on Reddit, one user wrote while watching Season 9, “How am I watching a reality show for nine seasons and I'm just now hearing that Katie has this secret dream to open a sandwich shop? Why are we just hearing about it now? It makes the show feel really fake and forced.”

At the time, others noted Schwartz and Katie’s ongoing financial troubles. “It's hard enough to open a restaurant when the economy is good and people are healthy. But doing it while Schwartz is leveraged out the a--, Katie has a tax lien, and there's a pandemic is foolish,” someone else wrote in the thread.

Merch is totally an available option to help support the shop. In fact, the reunion episode revealed that they'd already made $200,000 off of merch sales at the time. Lisa said that funding was what was going to open the business. The merch line includes crewnecks, T-shirts, and hats.