Former 'Real Housewives' Star Visits Stamford's Elm Street Diner

STAMFORD, CT — A local diner got a boost from a big TV star with an even bigger appetite.

Former "Real Housewives of New York City" star Bethenny Frankel and her daughter Bryn popped into the Elm Street Diner in Stamford on Tuesday and caused a buzz that's still being discussed on TikTok three days later.

On the video Frankel posted to TikTok, memorializing her dinner visit, the Bravo star raved about the Stamford eatery, famous for its extreme desserts that border on being works of art.

"Red velvet cake pancakes," Frankel said, reading the menu aloud to her social media followers. "Is that insane?"

Frankel appeared in eight of RH NYC's thirteen seasons since the reality show's 2008 premiere on Bravo. One year after the show's premiere, the star-turned-entrepreneur founded the lo-cal cocktail brand, Skinnygirl. In 2013, she sold her boutique booze company to Beam Inc. for a reported $120 million.

Frankel also founded the bstrong Foundation, a disaster relief initiative that provides emergency assistance to international trouble spots.

In the video on TikTok, Frankel gushes over the diner's "cheesy bread with vodka sauce," and gets downright reverential over one of the signature milk shakes, which is over-the-top even by the Elm Street Diner's standards.

"Oh my God, the food is so good!" Frankel raved. "This feels like a small business where people really care."

With over 3,100 views and 150 comments since it was posted, it's exactly the kind of promotion and advertising most restaurant owners would give their left lung for.

Elm Street Diner owner John Moshos is taking it all in stride. He said Frankel was "very fun."

"She was very down to earth, she came over and she thanked us repeatedly, she was very hospitable," Moshos told Patch. "They ordered a bunch of different things, and she really enjoyed everything."

Several customers hit Frankel up for photos on her way out of the diner, but had the grace not to bother the TV star and her daughter while they were eating, Moshos said.

The iconic NYC housewife sold her last SoHo loft in 2020, and now divides her time between The Hamptons and Connecticut, according to the Bravo TV website.