Despite being a cast of newbies, the ladies of The Real Housewives of New York City appear quite adept at the key crux of housewifery: stirring up controversy. Across the current reboot season’s five-episode run, the Housewives (the capital H is warranted) have managed to argue about everything from cheese platters to shakshuka (they must be hangry), but perhaps the buzziest quarrel arose way back in the premiere episode of season 14.
After a two-year hiatus between installments, audiences were thrust right back into the Bravo-verse with a squabble over dinner reservations. Housewife Brynn Whitfield caught flak for bailing on an outing to a restaurant, the name of which was surreptitiously bleeped-out by producers. The censor was perhaps a smart move, given that some of Brynn’s castmates agreed with her declaration that she “wouldn’t be caught dead at [redacted].”
The (redacted) restaurant shade that everyone is talking about 👀 #RHONY♬ Redacted Restaurant from RHONY – Bravo
“It’s not 2005, and I’m not a D-list model,” Whitfield quipped. Naturally, Bravo enthusiasts by-way-of X (Twitter) sleuths whipped out their magnifying glasses to guess the eatery in question (you know, Sherlock Holmes-type stuff). So, what restaurant are the castmates of RHONY referring to, and what clues do we have to confirm this?
Is the redacted RHONY restaurant Catch?
It’s near-impossible for the internet to reach a consensus (remember that black and blue dress?), but Bravo fans are largely in agreement that the restaurant Whitfield referenced was Catch, the seafood diner located in NYC’s Meatpacking District. It’s a known tourist trap among Manhattanites, which explains Whitfield’s aversion, and its name is short enough to fit within the one-syllable bleep edited in by producers.
Another clue that points to Catch comes courtesy of fellow castmate Jessel Taank, who responded to Whitfield’s recent Instagram post mentioning NYC restaurant guides. “Make sure C**** is on that,” Tank wrote, all-but confirming that the restaurant-that-shall-not-be-named is Catch. But, there’s a catch (sorry), since some viewers have floated a different restaurant that is apparently equally unspeakable and also is a one-syllable C-word (not that one).
Could the redacted RHONY restaurant be Craft?
Even Sherlock Holmes would exhaust all leads before wrongfully convicting an innocent restaurant, which is why some Bravo-heads have decided that Craft is the only answer. The reason? Craft was founded by chef Tom Colicchio, who serves as the head judge on Top Chef, a series which is also a part of the Bravo family. It stands to reason, then, that producers ought to redact negative mentions of Craft since it’s operated by someone on their payroll.
However, the Craft theory (sounds like something Einstein might’ve conceived) loses credibility upon closer inspection, since Catch’s first executive chef, Hung Huynh, was also on Top Chef. No matter what side of the coin you land on, it’s safe to assume that neither restaurant is concerned with all the attention, since even this writer has name-dropped both more times than he’d care to count.