Veteran Real Housewife of New York City Ramona Singer is standing in the middle of traffic on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan and cars are backed up for two blocks honking at her. With the casual disregard for the feelings of others that is practically required for her specific brand of reality television infamy, Singer and her new co-star Jules Wainstein are having their photos taken next to the larger-than life photos of themselves that permanently festoon the sides of a rather large tour bus.
This is the start of the inaugural voyage of the Real Housewives of New York bus tour that winds its way from Chelsea through the West Village and Soho and then up the east side of the Island through Murray Hill and eventually to the Upper East Side, home of so many of the first ladies of Bravo. It is also the day of the eighth season premiere of the show on the cable channel, so the bus is packed with press, PR executives and superfans (which the channel likes to call Bravoholics).
“There are so many great locations and it’s such a great show. It shows New York in such a great light,” says Georgette Blau, the owner and founder of On Location Tours. Her company also runs excursions based on Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, the Sopranos and movies filmed in New York.
“We look for shows and movies with at least 30 locations. We just looked at where the clusters were and which were the most interesting locations and what the stops would be. We have four stops along the way, so people are able to eat and drink just like the Housewives.” The tour runs four days a week and costs $47 a ticket.
At Tipsy Parson, a southern comfort food restaurant in Chelsea that served as the meeting place for today’s extravaganza (and a brunch spot Bethenny Frankel filmed in for the upcoming season), Ramona and Jules are holding court.
“I think it’s unbelievable,” Singer said about the bus tour. “I got goosebumps when I saw myself on the bus. They did Sex and the City and now Real Housewives of New York. That’s a real compliment. I don’t think they missed anything. They did a great job. We go to all the iconic spots: Serafina, where I launched Ramona pinot grigio and had a big fight with Jill [Zarin], we were both crying; Le Cirque where Aviva [Drescher] threw her leg; Beautique, oh my gosh, we actually hang out there all the time on and off TV.”
There is one thing that the tour leaves off, all of the Housewives actual houses. “I don’t want people to know where I live. I don’t want to be stalked!” Singer says.
The route is well planned and hosted by one of three tour guides, all of them actors, comedians, and Real Housewives devotees. The guide for the day Melissa Stokoski was well-informed and amusing, pointing out all of the stops along the way where the cast have squabbled and shopped and fought over the years. Stokoski especially did a great job when the carriage got snarled in New York City traffic keeping people engaged by asking them questions about the Real Housewives franchise and playing trivia games. She even has her own Real Housewives tagline: “I overestimate my charm, which is also part of my charm.”
While passing by filming locations, clips from the show that occurred in those places played on the monitors inside the bus. There were also a few original packages that Bravo made just for the tour, including an especially amusing “inspirational message” from Sonja Morgan, better known for her drinking habits and reliance on “abundance candles” than her business sense. For those that have never been to the city before, it’s a great way to get an overview of a few different neighborhoods while also reliving some great trash TV. This being a bus full of New Yorkers when Stokoski asked “Who here has never been to New York before?”, it landed with a crash like a wine glass thrown at a Real Housewives dinner party.
Several of the restaurants have already changed over to new establishments, but that doesn’t stop the excitement. The bus drove by the studio for Watch What Happens Live, Bravo’s late night show hosted by Housewives founding father Andy Cohen and sadly it just looks like a regular office building. No wonder we don’t go inside.
Since it was a special day for press and VIPs there were actual Housewives along the way at the stops. Kristen Taekman was at NYC institution Ricky’s selling her nail polish line Pop of Color. That was a special stop, usually the bus would let off at Georgetown Cupcake for visitors to get a bite and relive that time Sonja told the ladies she had finally settled her $7m bankruptcy judgment. Doesn’t that happen to everyone? Carole Radziwill was stationed at SPiN, the ping pong establishment co-owned by Susan Sarandon that has been on the show multiple times, including one of Carole’s first dates with her now boyfriend, chef Adam Kenworthy.
At the bus’s final stop, at the NBC store in Rockefeller Plaza, where visitors can buy Real Housewives merchandise, Luann de Lesseps, Dorinda Medley and Sonja Morgan were posing for selfies with fans and fending off a growing mob of fans who just happened upon them in the store. The bus with the giant Housewives was parked out front, and a construction worker on Sixth Avenue eyed it suspiciously and several people took pictures among the bustle of the busy sidewalk. It’s as much of an attraction sitting still as it is cruising around the city.
