Tom Sandoval Reveals Where He Stands with Pandora Vanderpump Sabo After All of That Tom Tom Cocktail Drama

Tom Tom may have officially opened on Monday night's episode of Vanderpump Rules (as you can see in the above video), but the road to becoming the award-winning, line-down-the-block, celeb-filled hotspot wasn't easy. Let's not forget all of the challenges that Tom Sandoval, Tom Schwartz, and Lisa Vanderpump had to overcome to get the West Hollywood restaurant and bar off the ground, from disastrous design meetings to guest list snafus.

But what was maybe the biggest issue Sandoval and Schwartz faced was figuring out their exact role in the launch of Tom Tom. Specifically, would Lisa use their mixology expertise and include any of their cocktails on the bar's menu? Lisa enlisting the help of her daughter, Pandora Vanderpump Sabo, seemed to only confuse things (clip above), causing a bit of a back-and-forth between her and Sandoval on social media earlier this season.

Though Sandoval previously questioned Pandora's experience with bartending, he harbors no ill will toward her these days. In fact, he has nothing but love for Pandora now. "I think Pandora's great. I love Pandora," Sandoval told The Daily Dish during an interview in February. "I've known her for a really long time." 

Sandoval did note that he and Pandora might have a better relationship on a personal level rather than on a professional one. "I like hanging out with Pandora, more so than I like necessarily working for her or with her," he explained. "She's a hard worker. She's been doing this for a long time. I think it was just initially a confusion because we were told that we'd be in charge of the bar cocktail menu, and then it's like when that changes, it was obviously — it brought some disappointment. But we worked it out, we figured it out, and we're great."

In addition to her parents' restaurants, Pandora has also worked on launching and running Vanderpump Wines & Spirits, as well as The Vanderpump Dog Foundation. "Well, Pandora, she does a lot for Lisa. Lisa's obviously very busy. She travels all the time, she's shooting different shows, she runs a lot of restaurants," Sandoval said. "She's kind of like Lisa when Lisa's not around, in a sense."

So, as Sandoval explained to The Daily Dish, it's not that he ever doubted Pandora's expertise, it's just that he wanted to make sure he had something to show for all of the time, money, and passion he put in to crafting cocktails for Tom Tom.

"One thing, when I go into clothing stores, I'll pick up the coolest thing that I see on the rack and also the weirdest thing and try it on. That's what we did when we went into these huge liquor stores. We would just pick up, you know, 'Oh, what is that? What is that? Just get it. Just get it. Let's make a drink with it,'" Sandoval recalled. "We spent a lot of time working on those cocktails. But at the end of the day, it's one of those things where the answer will always present itself. The right cocktail will make it in because it's the best one."

Lisa also brought in corporate mixologist Sly Cosmopoulos earlier this season of Vanderpump Rules to really put the Toms' cocktails to the test, and she actually loved 10 of the libations they created. At least three of them (the Tom Fashioned, Alchemy Rose, and Matcha Bucha) are on Tom Tom's menu today, according to the restaurant's website.

We'll cheers to that!

Check out more from the Tom Tom grand opening, below.

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