Credit: Bryan Bedder/Bravo
On the last season of Summer House, Kyle Cooke was very open about the difficulties his Loverboy drink company was having.
Specifically, he noted that they were facing financial strain, a decline in distribution, and a risk of bankruptcy.
Kyle’s longtime friend Carl Radke also owns a business that just turned one year old called Soft Bar + Café, which serves non-alcoholic drinks in Brooklyn, New York.
Recently, the pair opened up to Us Magazine about how their businesses are doing.
“When reality television is done right, you’re open. You’re honest. I would also say vulnerable. And I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna – I’m an open book as it is – talk about some of the challenges in a way that hopefully people can understand,” Kyle, 44, began sharing regarding the issues his business faced. “Hopefully not everybody’s taking out a massive loan in their name.”
When asked how his business was, Carl, 41, noted that “things are good.”
“We’re very close to hitting our one-year anniversary, which is significant and exciting,” he shared. “I’m really proud of everything we’ve built here, and I’ve got an amazing team. I don’t do this alone… I think a lot of people were wondering how this would do. And ultimately, Soft Bar is the combination of coffee culture and non-alc culture. It’s been really cool to see my vision come to life. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. We’ve made mistakes. We’ve learned. We’ve had to adjust. We’ve had to evolve.”
Carl added, “But any new business is going to do that. But we are really listening to our customers. We’re trying to understand what they like, take all the feedback, and become a better operation as a result. So I’m really happy and proud, but there’s still some work to do for sure.”
“The beverage industry is a very challenging industry,” Kyle shared regarding Loverboy. “We have been able to try to do everything and anything possible to give people opportunities to support the brand. In some cases, the easiest thing for us to do is turn around and make some merch because with alcohol particularly, getting it through the wholesale retail distribution system is timely and resource-intensive. But we’re still fighting and we’re still surviving, thanks to our diehard fans.”
The pair each shared what they were proud of regarding their business, with Carl noting it’s the brand he built and Kyle sharing it’s “going from nothing to something.”
As someone who has struggled with his business, Kyle warned anyone looking to start one: “don’t quit your day job.”
“A lot of people think that you need to be all in, which is true, but don’t go all in when there’s bills to pay,” he elaborated. “Entrepreneurship is literally about not thinking or worrying about how many hours you’re working. It’s day and night. You’re burning the midnight oil. So my whole thing to up-and-coming entrepreneurs is the last thing you want to be doing is worrying about how you’re paying your own bills. Moonlight whatever entrepreneurial venture you’re toying around with, because at the end of the day, a lot of businesses don’t even launch… If you’re not willing to burn the midnight oil, then maybe entrepreneurship isn’t for you.”
He also shared that he and Carl may be going into a business venture together.
“We’re actually thinking about doing a non-alc spritz that leans into the functional ingredients,” he said. “If I do something with Carl, it’ll probably be a Soft Bar co-branded thing, and we just talked about it last week. So TBD.”
Fans of Kyle and Carl will get to see them on the upcoming eleventh season of Summer House, which recently wrapped filming.