When Lisa Vanderpump finally got Jax to quit SUR at the end of Vanderpump Rules Season 6, it wasn’t like she was losing much — he’d never been that great of a bartender, and he was prone to more dramatic outbursts than possibly anyone else on the show. Even so, when he did quit the restaurant, viewers were shocked — what else could Jax do now? Is Jax returning to SUR? Well, as we found out on the third episode of the Vanderpump Rules Season 6 reunion, it’s not that easy.
Turns out that Lisa doesn’t really want him back at SUR quite yet! This could all be for the cameras, but when Andy Cohen asked Lisa if she wanted Jax to come back to SUR, Jax cut in to say, “if she needs someone to pick up a couple of shifts here and there, I wouldn’t mind.” To that, Lisa said, “I don’t think I’m that desperate.” But all is not lost, because Lisa then made a comment about Jax working at Tom Tom, the new bar and restaurant that Lisa and Ken are opening with Toms Schwartz and Sandoval, and of course Jax would get a job at Tom Tom. What else is he doing? He would rather work with his best friends than get beat up all day at SUR.
For the record, Jax’s forced resignation wasn’t exactly undeserved. Jax, furious that Scheana wanted to set up his girlfriend, Brittany, with Adam, the new SUR bartender while they were still together, Jax came into SUR ranting and raving. He yelled at Scheana, he yelled at James, he yelled at Lala, he yelled at Tom, and, as soon as he began flipping everyone in the restaurant the bird, who walked in but Lisa and her husband, Ken Todd. Oh, this wasn’t good, and Jax knows it. Jax said on the reunion that he was intoxicated and barely had shoes on, which, I guess, but if you’re old enough to drive, you’re probably old enough to know that you don’t go to your place of employment hammered (or get hammered while you’re there) and scream at everyone in the building. Lisa cast Jax out, and in the season finale, Lisa had told Jax that she had had enough. Not really a bad idea there, Lisa.
And speaking of ideas, Jax working at Tom Tom isn’t necessarily a bad one, either. The bar, according to the Toms, is supposed to open in early June, so Jax could be back on Lisa’s payroll very, very soon. In an earlier interview with Bustle, Tom Schwartz joked about hiring Jax at Tom Tom, saying, “we’ve been flirting with the idea of having Jax as a go-go dancer, but nothing’s official as of now. I don’t want to get people’s hopes up. Jax isn’t that great a bartender, so I’m not sure that he would really make the cut at Tom Tom. Of hiring a great staff, Sandoval made it very clear to Bustle that he wanted an absolute rock star staff to man the decks:
“To me, it’s about hiring people who know what they’re doing, who can take responsibility… what’s going to be different about this place is that it’s going to be less about your headshot and what movie or modeling campaigns you’ve done. It’s going to be about your experience in the restaurant and bar industry."
Jax does have experience, so I guess he has that going for him. He’s certainly not in Tampa with that marketing and social media job for the Tampa Bay Lightning, so bartending is the aim of Jax’s game. He’s sure to land on his feet, though — Jax never misses a season of Vanderpump Rules, so you know he won’t stray far from the SUR family.
