Katie Maloney and Ariana Madix Finally Shared a Major Something About Her Update

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? The business partners finally shared a major update.

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, and Katie and Ariana gave updates about it here and there.

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 had "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 30, 2024, Ariana and Katie both appeared on Watch What Happens Live and finally shared a long-awaited update about Something About Her with an actual opening date. According to the ladies, Something About Her opens on May 22. Can we all breathe a collective sigh of relief now?

It makes sense with timing, since there is movement on the restaurant in the April 30 episode of Vanderpump Rules. They even hired Tom Sandoval's former assistant, Ann Maddox, to work at the restaurant, and she's helping to get it up and running as an official Something About Her employee.

Katie’s comments about the name 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.

Merch was once available option to help support the shop. During the Season 10 VPR reunion, it was revealed that Katie and Ariana had 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 included crewnecks, T-shirts, and hats.

However, it looks like merch is no longer available, so fans will likely have to wait for Something About Her to (finally) open to hopefully get their hands on official merch again.