Bethenny Frankel is turning her viral Supermodel Snacks into something you can
actually taste. With the launch of Supermodel Café in East Quogue, the entrepreneur dishes on
building a brand in real time, her better-for-you chicken salad, the power of social media—and
why this may only be the beginning.
SPOTLIGHT: Why was this the right time to bring your social media Supermodel Snack trend into people’s lives via a pop-up?
FRANKEL: It was another happy accident. Honestly, I wanted to bring the bagels that I created on social media—that people were fixated on, but most importantly, I was fixated on—to life. I’ve been talking about it peripherally. I have so much going on in my business, but I kept saying, “I need to do that.” I had not been proactively looking for partners. The same thing was going on with the spreads and dips. The chicken salad had been a conversation as well, where I was going to do it with another brand and formulate it myself. I was going to do it with a mayonnaise brand. And like anything else, you just do it yourself.
SPOTLIGHT: How did Goldberg’s Bagels become the right partner to actually make it happen?
FRANKEL: I started messaging certain people and businesses on social media. Amanda [Goldberg] from Goldberg’s Bagels was always in my DMs commenting because I went into her store. She was a fan, she’s active on social, and she said, “I think I can do it.” I gave her my recipes, and she lives in the Hamptons, and they were at my house within hours. I’m like, “This bitch rolls like I do.” She was able to be nimble, go with the recipes, and take every note. I kept going back until it was exactly what I wanted.
SPOTLIGHT: Why were you especially focused on making the chicken salad better for you without sacrificing the taste?
FRANKEL: The chicken salad became a better-for-you version. I was scared because I was like, “Damn, I’m not going to just load it up with mayonnaise to get the good taste that I’ve gotten from so many other places.” I’m a natural food chef. I used to renovate recipes, and my book Naturally Thin has all these sort of better-for-you recipes. That’s kind of my thing. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get it there without tasting like you were sacrificing anything—and you don’t. The chicken salad is excellent and so much better for you. That’s kind of the most miraculous thing. It all is. The bagels are spectacular. Give me 14 of them right now, as we say on TikTok. And the spreads—I mean, it just came together.
SPOTLIGHT: You’ve sampled chicken salad from people all over the country. So how are you going to continue to promote other businesses while still driving traffic to yours?
FRANKEL: I’ll still try everybody’s chicken salad and talk about it. Maybe from this viewpoint, maybe I’ll compare it against my own. When I made mine, I thought mine was a solid eight compared to all the good ones.
SPOTLIGHT: How did the idea evolve from creating the products into opening an actual café?
FRANKEL: I was on a beach walk talking to Amanda about the deal, what deal we would have and whether she could really scale this. First, it was really, could she do the bagels? Could she do the other things at scale? Because I had the idea for a partner that would distribute online in the fall. I have a deal in place. But she said, “Also, I have a weird idea. I happen to have this pop-up space in Quogue.” I had passed by it, and I don’t know why I noticed it one time. I’m always looking at everything. I just saw the vision.
SPOTLIGHT: And you built the entire café in a month?
FRANKEL: On the phone call on my last beach walk of the summer, effectively, because I’ve been working like I’ve never worked in any summer in my entire life. A month from that call, yes. We had nothing. We had no recipe, no nutritionals, no décor—nothing. And this is a real café. I’m so proud of my team and moved by all of it. I’m so excited. The cheesecakes are outrageous. There’s a Rage Bagel. It’s very, very fun and girly and flirty and tongue-in-cheek. It’s just fun and happy. I was talking to my boyfriend last night; I was like, “It’s been a different summer. It feels like it wasn’t a summer.” And he’s like, “You created something. How amazing. Isn’t that going to be fun?” And it was so true. It’s just a different summer. It was a “Supermodel Summer.” #SupermodelSummer
SPOTLIGHT: You built so many successful businesses throughout your career, but this one came directly from your audience responding to something organically on your social media. How does that change the way you think about building a brand today?
FRANKEL: Same exact thing. I was at the [The Real Housewives of New York City] reunion, and one of the biggest questions we got was, “What’s in a Skinnygirl Margarita?” The light bulb went off, and I hit the streets to try to find a deal around it. So the people have always dictated it. It’s always been the same. It’s just the 2.0, modern-day version. TV is archaic in many ways. I don’t need to sit in a boardroom pitching ideas to businessmen to tell me what’s good or not, and six months later, we start producing it and it’s stale by the time it gets to air. I can do it right now. I can shoot, create anything, say anything, market anything right now—direct to the people. So they decided this, which is what’s cool.
SPOTLIGHT: How are you going to deal with the crowds?
FRANKEL: I have no idea. I was afraid at first because Quogue isn’t in the hype middle of the Hamptons, which is what I do like about it, so that tempers the chocolate a little bit. You never know. We all think everyone’s coming, but it could be like traffic: Everyone thinks everyone’s getting in the car, and then no one’s on the roads. I think people are going to come. I don’t know in what volume, but I’m also terrified of how many come. I’ve got things in place for people on the line to make them happy. Maybe the dogs might show up. I might have to hire some hot shirtless men.
SPOTLIGHT: Your Sports Illustrated shoot seemed to really propel you into the supermodel era. How did that experience set the stage for this phase of your life?
FRANKEL: It was a series of steps—from doing a makeup partnership deal with a brand and loving saying, “I’m a supermodel,” to getting the Sports Illustrated gig. No one knew about it, but I was saying, “I have something big coming up,” and I’m making a Supermodel Snack, which had the schmear on it and had the concept, the name, and the cottage cheese of it all that caused a shortage. It just evolved.
SPOTLIGHT: What are your top tips for entrepreneurs today?
FRANKEL: The two best tips for businesspeople are to listen to the people and let it happen organically. Go where the fish are. Three influencers begged me for bagels a week before, and I got them to them. They did a review, and it was like my research and development. They’re young girls who are obsessed. So when all three of them said they didn’t like something, I took it off the menu. Like, thank you. And the second is just do it. Don’t think about everything. Paralysis, analysis—let’s go. That’s always been me. I say we’re the Billy Joel of cafés—we’re going to stay open until people don’t come.
SPOTLIGHT: Are you planning on being there every day?
FRANKEL: I think I’ll want to stop by all the time. Last night, I was out to dinner with [my boyfriend] Shane, and we were talking to my team, who was here setting up. He was like, “You want to go surprise them?” I was like, “Yeah.” So we came, and they screamed like it was their 50th surprise birthday party—screamed at the top of their lungs as we showed up. It was fun. It’s very much like, whatever happens, happens.
SPOTLIGHT: What are the expansion plans for Supermodel Café?
FRANKEL: First, if we close the café [after the pop-up run], these products will probably be distributed in about nine Goldberg’s locations. If we don’t close the cafe, it’ll either be just here or be in about nine other Goldberg’s locations in the Hamptons—or maybe a limited menu there, so there’s still a reason to come here. This is all literally run and done.
SPOTLIGHT: Could Supermodel Café eventually come to New York City?
FRANKEL: There is a Tribeca concept in the works where there would be a café integrated with some brands I work with. We might have a studio next door because so many people have been knocking on the door, pitching their businesses here. People are pitching their ideas, their businesses: “Can I work for you?” Literally, “Can I be your director of social media?” and “I have a Supermodel Butter.” People are coming to the front door. So we might do something in Tribeca that has a media aspect because I have a big media announcement that I’ll be making in the near future about a big, sort of new media concept that will be the first of its kind and groundbreaking. So Supermodel and this neighboring studio may be the first of this concept. And then I think Florida and L.A. make sense for this café as well.
SPOTLIGHT: So this is just the beginning?
FRANKEL: Yes! And we have nationwide distribution starting in September online. Another massive billionaire-owned concept has just reached out to distribute these items, and that’s huge. There are a lot of things happening. It was good to do this because it made it real. Now people are coming, and it’s exponentially growing.
Supermodel Café is located at 481 Montauk Highway, East Quogue. It is open through September 12th.
