What is it really like working at TomTom?
During an interview with Kate Casey on her podcast this week, Vanderpump Rules star Tom Schwartz opened up about his role at the restaurant, where he owns a 5 percent stake, and revealed whether or not his position at the West Hollywood venue has allowed him to have much free time.
“Working at TomTom has been an utter joy,” Schwartz explained on Reality Life with Kate Casey. “The expansion opened not long ago and was thriving!”
During a 2017 episode of Vanderpump Rules, Schwartz and Tom Sandoval sat down with Lisa Vanderpump at the wedding of Schwartz and his wife, Katie Maloney, and during their conversation, Vanderpump approached the two men with the idea of opening a restaurant with her and her husband, Ken Todd.
Just over a year later, TomTom was opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, just a short walk from two of Vanderpump and Todd’s other restaurants, PUMP Lounge and SUR Restaurant.
After TomTom and the majority of other restaurants around the county were closed down due to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, Schwartz and Sandoval announced they would be generating income from Cameo clips for their fans and using the proceeds to support their currently unemployed staff at the restaurant.
“Our world as we know it has come to a halt. Restaurant industry has been devastated. Tom and I wanted to do something to help so we are raising as much money as possible via cameos for our staff,” he explained.
” We should have raised 40k by the end of this week that we will distribute evenly to our awesome team at [TomTom]. It’s not much but it’s something,” Schwartz shared. “I miss seeing them, miss watching the sunset on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood . Miss meeting happy people from all over the world at [TomTom] and celebrating life with them. Miss our neighbors PUMP, Beaches, Rocco’s, motherload, The bayou, hi top, St Felix the Abbey, SUR all of them,” he shared.
In March, after non-essential businesses were forced to shut down throughout the state of California, as well as many other states around the country, Schwartz took to his Instagram page to confirm that TomTom would be closing temporarily.
“Gonna miss you guys. We’ll be back in a jif (hopefully),” he wrote at the time, along with a red heart emoji.
To see more of Schwartz, Sandoval, and their co-stars, don’t miss new episodes of Vanderpump Rules every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
