Character: Tommy Up
- Photograph By Ryan Donnell
Age: 36.
What “Up” is short for: Updegrove.
Known best for: Dancing-and-drinking parties. The longtime NoLibser “subversively” markets huge companies (like Live Nation and Heineken) to the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of pretty people who attend the bashes thrown by his nine-year-old company, PaperStreet, each weekend.
Why we’re watching now: This month the party king adds “restaurateur” to his C.V., debuting boozy burger joint P.Y.T. (“Pretty Young Thing,” just like the song) at the Piazza, Bart Blatstein’s brand-new residential-retail-restaurant-entertainment complex in Northern Liberties.
What’s surprised him most about the food biz: “No one told me exactly how much fucking work this was gonna be.” Also: “I always thought there was an ‘n’ in ‘restaurateur.’”
Why his place actually has a chance in hell: He’s observed the masters while under the employ of both Blatstein and Stephen Starr. Plus his uncle is Bar Ferdinand proprietor Owen Kamihira.
How he’s preparing for his new role: “I watch Kitchen Nightmares constantly.”
