Carl Radke is moving forward with his sober sports bar business, but some fans think he hasn’t moved past his beef with his ex.
In July 2024, the “Summer House” star gave fans an update on the idea he floated past his ex-fiancee, Lindsay Hubbard, on the 8th season of the Bravo reality show.
In an Instagram story posted July 30, Radke announced the “soft launch” of Soft Bar + Cafe. “Drumroll…It’s officially happening!” Radke told fans. He included photos of coasters with the Soft Bar + Café logo as he teased the “non-alcoholic bar and café serving soft cocktails and functional drinks.”
The upcoming café’s official Instagram account teased that the new business will be “popping up around NY summer 2024” and will be “Brooklyn’s first non-alc bar + cafe for mindful consumption.”
Fans Had a Big Reaction to the Name of Carl Radke’s Upcoming Bar, But He Set the Record Straight
Fans had a lot to say about Radke’s new business—namely about the name— nearly one year after he ended his engagement to Hubbard as “Summer House” cameras rolled.
Some fans felt the name was a direct dig to Hubbard after he previously told her he wanted “softness and tenderness” from her in the “Summer House” episode titled “From Dusk to Donne.”
Radke later apologized for making the comment on the “Summer House Aftershow.” “I can’t say ‘soft’ to a woman. According to Lindsay, that’s a derogatory thing to say to a woman,” Radke said. “It’s like saying to a man, ‘Be more like a man.’ If you ask a woman to be a little softer when you’re discussing your career opportunities, I guess that’s derogatory. That’s what she told me. And if that’s the case, I am sorry. Like, I didn’t mean to be so derogatory.”
But fans wondered about the use of the word “Soft” in the name of Radke’s business.
“The name is tea,” came a comment from the @tasteof_reality Instagram fan account.
“Soft. Like how he wanted Lindsay to be,” another commenter noted.
“Didn’t he say this past season he wanted Lindsay to be soft/softer? That’s what I take from it anyway,” another wrote.
While some wondered if SOFT stood for “SOber Full Time,” others weren’t so sure that’s all it was.
“I think it’s a play on sober full time but also because he would say he needed a softer woman from Lindsay and it caused a lot of fights and so I think it’s just a play on that drama from the show as well,” one commenter speculated.
“It’s weird. Like, just move on carl! Asking a woman to be ‘softer” and then naming his bar after that is not cute,” another wrote.
“Yes this is a blatant dig and it’s really pathetic,” another agreed.
Amid the speculation, Radke explained his bar name in a statement to Page Six and confirmed it has nothing to do with Hubbard. On July 30, he told the outlet that during recent trips to Europe, he came across bars serving non-alcoholic “soft cocktails.”
“While ‘Soft drinks’ is a term used in the US, it has a different connotation, typically representing soda,” Radke explained. “I wanted to define a new — and much needed — category and space, having ‘soft drinks’ or ‘softs’ be seen as functional and high quality non [alcoholic] beverages for adults.”
Lindsay Hubbard Shot Down Carl Radke’s Sober Bar Idea
One of Hubbard’s biggest issues with Radke was his apparent lack of career drive. In the season 8 episode “The Parent Trap,” Hubbard told Radke she needed more “security” from him and asked him to “figure out a little quicker” what he wanted to do in life.
But in the season 8 episode, “Elephant on the Beach,” she shot down her then-fiancé’s idea to open a non-alcoholic sports bar after he told her he wanted to open a business that was in line with his sobriety from alcohol.
“I’m proud to be a voice for things that I’ve been through and hopefully help other people,” Radke told Hubbard. “So I’ve been thinking about a sports bar, non-alcoholic. A sober sports bar.”
But Hubbard didn’t think a “brick and mortar” business was a smart move. “Sorry, I’m gonna have to say no to that one,” the former publicist told Radke. “Working in the hospitality industry my entire life, representing every single lounge, bar, club, hotel, restaurant … I don’t want that for our future family.”
During an April 25, 2024 appearance on “Watch What Happens Live,” Hubbard claimed she was saying anything to “light a fire” under Radke at that time. “It had been nine months to get him to get a job, get him to do anything, to get a job that was actually like reasonable. Not, like, in La La land,” she said.
After his split from Hubbard, Radke continued to work toward his dream of opening a sober bar. On the “Summer House” season 8 reunion, he told host Andy Cohen he planned to “lean into non-alcoholic stuff” for his career.
“Whether it’s opening a cafe or sports bar, which, by the way, I’m about to,” he added. “I’ve got a team together, we’ve raised some money, and we’re actually going to open something here in New York. It feels like my calling. It’s finally looking at me, and I want to go pursue that.”
