[Puts on silver pin-striped suit.] We come to this place for mess. We come to Bravo shows to wince, to judge, to cry, to care. Because we need that smooth-brain feeling. All of us. And Southern Hospitality, I hope, is here to smooth over those brain folds just the way we like.
Now with the formalities aside, a huge Vulture welcome to all of you joining me on this adventure: my first time recapping a Bravo series in public but my millionth-and-a-half time if you add up group texts, DMs, tweets (RIP), and stoned late-night musings to myself and anyone within spitting distance for the past 16 years. I’m a Housewives girlie (please see my Kyle Richards profile for Vulture’s sister site the Cut), a Vanderpump Rules devotee even in the darkest of hours, a BravoCon attendee (just one day, which was more than enough even for my broken, Bravo-addled brain), a @queensofbravo stan, and a man susceptible enough to watch more or less anything Andy Cohen and his cohort choose to force-feed us.
This brings us to Southern Hospitality, a spinoff of my newly beloved Southern Charm, a series I had once avoided watching on the delusional merit of being “above it” (??) but one I caved and fell head over heels in love with during the pandemic. Southern Charm introduced Leva Bonaparte — restaurant and bar owner, master of the cutaway reaction shot, and one of Bravo’s levelheaded cast members who are blessedly not afraid to get loud to make their points heard — as a full-timer in season seven. That was the show’s COVID season, a hot-mess express that foregrounded conversations about race but hoisted them onto the shoulders of its new non-white cast members. Although Leva had been around the group since its earliest days, as a perpetual “friend of” original cast member Cameran Eubanks, she found her footing more firmly in season eight. A sidelines commentator and a person with an actual job that you could explain in one sentence or less, Leva was the breath of fresh air Southern Charm needed at a pivotal moment of growth.
So it makes all the sense in the world that Bravo would give her the old Leva-pump Rules treatment and spin off her and her band of merry, sexy, TV-ready employees into a franchise of their own. That leaves Southern Hospitality as our last hope (because, frankly, Winter House is on thin ice with me this season) for watching hot idiots act poorly, get disciplined, act poorly again, and maybe get laid off from their “jobs” — but please, for the love of Leva, not laid off from the show.
The series premiere ticks all those boxes and more! There isn’t much of a plot to speak of — the Southern Hospitality pilot is, let’s say, more of a character study, if your characters were all servers fighting for screen time — so I think introducing the cast and ranking their prospects is the smartest way for us to round out our time together.
Leva Bonaparte
You know her, you love her, and a quick glimpse at social media shows that some of you even hate her, too, but you can’t deny that she makes for some very compelling television. The owners of a mini-empire in Charleston, South Carolina, she and her husband, Lamar, run a tight ship at their King Street businesses: 1st Place, a sports bar; Mesu, which features, per Bravo’s website, “a Mexican cuisine and sushi fusion,” and which hmmm; Bourbon N’ Bubbles, which Southern Charm viewers saw at last season’s semi-contentious girls’ dinner; and Republic Garden & Lounge, a Vegas/Miami/Scottsdale–esque hot spot. Leva is filling Lisa Vanderpump’s Maloof Hoofs here, inserting herself into the staffers’ dramas, popping in to make sure Republic stays afloat under the weight of the 20-somethings to whom she has left the keys, and occasionally suspending badly behaved employees.
Maddi Reese
The Stassi of the show, Maddi seems pretty put together for the most part, very ready to film a reality series, and burdened with just-harmless-enough bad decisions to make us root for her. She’s Republic’s self-proclaimed Queen Bee and calls herself the face of the club (while Leva is suspending someone else in the next room, no less). She has tension, history, and/or chemistry with approximately everyone who has ever set foot in the establishment.
Mikel Simmons
The Drama with a capital D (and, most excitingly, an out gay male lead on a Bravo show not about real estate!), Mikel starts us off with a bang in the form of a suspension. We learn from Leva and the rest of the cast that Mikel was hired to promote a “new magazine’s” party (what magazine has party money these days?) at a competitor’s club. We also see him hurl a drink in the super-trailer, so our money’s on Mikel as a breakout.
Grace Lilly
Grace Lilly is the frenemy casting gods pray for. She’s so self-assured, charmingly delusional, and utterly delighted with herself that you can’t help but want to watch her every move. Although we get a lot of expository workplace drama with her in this episode, the most intriguing kernel to me was hearing how, when Republic shut down because of COVID in 2020, she and Maddi “moved to Tulum” where rich men wined and dined them, causing them to fall out. That is a show I would’ve watched. Here’s hoping it keeps spilling over.
Bradley Carter
A personal trainer and VIP host at Republic, Bradley makes the men (himself included) take their shirts off on-camera, so even though we don’t get a lot of solo time with him this episode, he’s high on our list. Thank you for your service!
TJ Dinch
Another out gay male lead! Per the network, “a ride-or-die Republic loyalist, TJ makes it his personal mission to protect Leva’s business and her brand.” I hope he also continues to make it his personal mission to have and voice strong opinions, as he does in this episode about the recently suspended Mikel showing up at Republic.
Emmy Sharrett
Although we don’t hear more than a few lines from her, Emmy shines in the trailer, where she’s giving me Charlestonian Ariana Madix vibes: funny, self-aware, a little above it all but not so above it that she won’t show up to collect her check. Every reality show needs an Emmy.
Will Kulp
Born and raised in Charleston, bartender Will still lives with his parents and had been dating Emmy for six months when shooting commenced. All we learn about him in this episode is that he and Emmy have sex “five times a day” and are “definitely in the honeymoon stage.” We’ll take your bets on whether the happy couple remains an item by season’s end.
Joe Bradley
As one of the show’s several VIP hosts (in Southern Hospitality parlance, basically a sexier waiter or maître d’ who gets paid to flirt hard with customers to get them to spend thousands of dollars on top-shelf liquor and passed apps), Joe seems as if he’s being given a main-character edit without a ton of main-character energy. But it’s early and he’s very handsome, as he keeps reminding the camera, so we’ll let him simmer.
Mia Alario
We didn’t see much of Mia in this episode, which is a shame because she seems normal and it’s always good to get some sanity in the mix on these booze-fueled escapades. “Mia is dedicated to the job, although she admits she works for pleasure, not necessity,” her Bravo bio reads. Color us intrigued!
Lucía Peña
See above! Her Bravo cast bio says “the younger staff loves that while Lucía is a few years wiser and more experienced, she still parties with them.” Good! We love that! We’ll be waiting!
Olivia, Naomie, Madison, and Marcie
I had to throw in a little shout-out to our supportive Charm-ers who popped by Leva’s episode-ending birthday party at Republic. On the heels of a Southern Charm reunion filled with bad blood and shattered friendships (shot after Hospitality wrapped), it was refreshing to see the gang enjoying themselves again.
So a lot to look forward to, it seems! Thanks for joining us on this jaunt down South (no, Craig Conover doesn’t get a cut of this recap because we just mentioned two-thirds of his business’s name), and we’ll see you here next week for more Southern Hospitality.
