‘Vanderpump Rules’: Is There a Secret Rule About Who Gets Hired at SUR?

Over the past seven seasons of Vanderpump Rules, a lot has happened. We’ve watched some members of the cast grow and evolve and others just sort of stay up to their old tricks. We’ve seen a few new cast members come and go, and a few others come in and become staples at the restaurant and on the show.

But if anyone wants to join the Vanderpump Rules family, they must first work at SUR.

“Part of the deal is if they’re working at the restaurant on the show, they have to work there legitimately,” Lisa Vanderpump once told Thrillist.

They don’t have to work full-time, though.

“They work about three days a week while we’re filming, and that’s five months of the year,” she continued. “They get a month or two off to do press and appearances promoting the show while it’s airing, because they do a lot of promotion.”

There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule. Stassi Schroeder no longer works at SUR and neither does Kristen Doute, but they are both still cast regulars. Tom Schwartz never worked at SUR, but he’s married to Katie Maloney-Schwartz who still works there and he opened a restaurant with Vanderpump, so he gets a pass.

So, how does one land a job at SUR?

Unfortunately, it’s just as hard as you would think.

“Everyone who starts working there is either a friend of a friend or they know someone,” Schroeder once told Glamour. “We never really hire anyone who walks off the street and hands in a resume. I had friends who were working there, and I was always coming in for drinks, and I just figured I might as well work here. I’m here all the time.”

After Schroeder got hired, she brought Jax Taylor on, as well.

“I was getting lazy, and I remember one night they were short a bartender, and Stassi called me up and was like, ‘You want a job? Come here now,'” Taylor recalled to Glamour.

He also said that the competition for those types of jobs is pretty stiff.

“It sounds weird, but it’s actually harder to get a bartending job in this town, then it is an acting job,” Taylor said. “It’s extremely difficult. They don’t care what your experience is. It’s sad to say, but it goes on a looks thing. It’s basically, ‘Can we get a headshot? We don’t care where you’ve served before. Can we just have a headshot?'”

Scheana Shay ended up coming onto the show after moving over from Villa Blanca, one of Vanderpump’s other restaurants, to SUR. Even though she switched restaurants, she originally didn’t want to be on the show.

 “I wanted nothing to do with a reality show. I wanted to focus on my acting and other aspects of the industry,” she once told Lifetime UK. “I was really against doing it at first as I didn’t want to be known as a reality star trying to be an actor, or trying to be a singer.”

But later, she had a change of heart.

“I wasn’t all about it until I sat down with the producers and they talked about what a career driven show it was and how it would focus on us following our own career paths too, and then I was really excited to do it.”

Ariana Madix also came onto the show after moving over to SUR from Villa Blanca.

Brittany Cartwright first joined Vanderpump Rules just as Taylor’s girlfriend, but once she got a job at SUR she began to receive more air time and became a series regular.

Read more: 

‘Vanderpump Rules’:What was the Cast Doing Before They Were  Famous?

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