Credit: Instagram
Carl Radke opened up the doors to his non-alcoholic cafe and bar, Soft Bar, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, last Friday for “The Soft Launch,” where he opened up about moving past his breakup with Lindsay Hubbard.
As the 41-year-old Summer House star addressed his current dating life, sharing where he stands after a couple of outings with Southern Charm cast member Venita Aspen, 32, and gushing over his new co-star, Bailey Taylor, 30, he admitted that opening his bar was instrumental in being able to move forward.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day. It took me some time to kind of figure out who I was, post-breakup. It still took me some time to kind of heal. And I finally feel like what you’re watching on the current season, it’s not performance. I just felt really good. I was feeling like myself again,” Carl revealed during his February 20 interview with Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea.
Now that his bar is open, Carl has been using the venue as a pre-date stop.
“I’ve had some people come in for dates. I’ve had a couple girls come in for dates,” he confirmed. “Venita had been here in November. Bailey’s been here a couple times.”
Although Carl and Venita were linked for months after seemingly hitting it off at BravoCon last November and enjoying a 5-hour date weeks later, he was more interested in chatting about Bailey on Friday.
“Let’s talk about Bailey. I love Bailey,” he stated. “Venita’s great. It’s been friendly, but some time has passed since we went on that date. We had a good time. She’s awesome, but there is a significant distance between the two places that we live. And I just, I’ve had a lot going on.”
“I am dating, just keeping my eyes open,” he added.
While Carl is back to his old self, he admitted to having his “moments” when it came to his business.
“Some of this isn’t easy, obviously. I think sometimes building a business, the sexy parts that you see, it’s nice, but behind the scenes, we’ve had some ups and downs,” he shared. “We’re learning a lot. We’re making improvements.”
Also during the interview, Carl revealed that the beverage manager and some of his team came from the Michelin-starred NYC hotspot Eleven Madison Park to develop Soft Bar’s menu.
“‘Mocktail’ sounds like you’re making fun of something. We don’t do ‘mocktails’ here. We make soft cocktails, but the soft cocktails we serve, you feel because they have ingredients like electrolytes, vitamins, mushrooms,” he explained.
Summer House season 10 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.