Amanda Batula Is Booked, Busy & Not Worried About Summer House Rumors
It's 8:30 on a Tuesday morning at JFK's Terminal 4, and Amanda Batula is between coasts — again. The Summer House star, Loverboy creative, and founder of Amanda Batula Swim is about to catch a flight to L.A., her second of three cross-country trips in less than a month. 'I've been doing an insane amount of traveling,' she says, settling into a couch at the Marshalls Upgrade Lounge, a free pop-up space offering travelers snacks, a beauty bar, and a chic break from airport chaos through Memorial Day weekend. 'I'm actually really surprised with how well I've handled it. Normally I crash after a trip, but I've just been on the move lately.'
That momentum is something Batula doesn't take for granted. Not long ago, even routine parts of travel — packing a bag, getting out the door, and making it to the airport — felt paralyzing. 'I'd back out of things, or just lie in bed telling Kyle [Cooke] I couldn't even start packing because I was so overwhelmed.' After being diagnosed with depression and anxiety in 2023, Batula began working with a psychiatrist and taking antidepressant medication. Now, tasks that once felt insurmountable have become manageable, which means Amanda is saying yes to events, trips, and work opportunities that she would have previously passed on. 'I don't get overwhelmed, it doesn't take me a full day to pack. I can throw together a bag. It's just so much easier,' Batula says.
Between destination weddings, business opportunities, and influencer engagements, Amanda is a certified frequent flier — which makes her partnership with Marshalls feel especially well-timed. "The most stressful thing about traveling is getting to the airport, getting through security, and then rushing to your gate,' she says. 'It's nice to have a place where you can just come and feel zen, especially if you're like me and don't have access to other [paid] lounges.' In addition to the Upgrade Lounge pop-up, the retailer offers an online shopping hub that features a collection of travel-friendly fashion and lifestyle finds curated by Batula to make packing and on-the-go style feel a little less stressful.
The reality star, now in her eighth season of Summer House (Batula joined the cast full time in Season 2), is well-accustomed to splitting her summers between NYC and the Hamptons, and is starting to embrace being a bit more strategic about what she puts in her suitcase. 'Kyle and I are notorious for bringing our whole closet, especially back when I was working corporate,' she says. 'Now I try to stick to a few staples and plan according to the weekend. We'll get a heads up about what the events are and then do a little shopping.'
As for sharing clothes with her castmates while filming? 'I'm always willing to share. Paige [DeSorbo] will only pack for the weekend, so she doesn't really have any other options to share, and Ciara [Miller] will always order clothes to the house and if you need an option she'll give it to you.'
Batula and I are meeting the day before the Summer House Season 9 finale aired, and naturally I ask about what's next for the series, which typically films from July through August. Bravo fans and cast members alike have been speculating about the show's future, including potential cast shakeups, but Batula doesn't have much to offer in terms of clues.
'There's no news yet… but no news is usually good news,' she says. 'We typically hear from production the week before filming starts, and half the time we get the address to the house the day of. You don't even know what house we're driving out to.'
If past seasons are any indication, fans will have to wait until after the reunion episodes, which begin airing next week, for any concrete answers about Season 10. For those in-the-know, the reunion seating chart — and who sits next to host Andy Cohen — can be a subtle signal of who played a central role that season. Batula didn't think much of it going into this year's reunion, which filmed on April 24, until she showed up on set and saw where she'd been placed.
"I was told by one of the crew members, 'Oh, Amanda, you're going to like your seat,' thinking that like I was on the end, because that would be somewhere that I'd like to be sat,' Batula laughs. "And when I walked out, like being right next to [Cohen], I was like, I'm either in big trouble and I did something really wrong or I'm being rewarded. I think I was more shocked than everyone else that saw the leak of the seating arrangement. It was crazy. I was not expecting to sit there… but it was great for me. I had a great time."
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But on one morning just before 10:30 a.m., we found a safe enough parking spot along Wheaton Street, just east of downtown Savannah, and sidled up to the little blue building—a former car wash—and stood in the line that had already formed. We were jonesing for the combo plate of ribs and chicken ($10) with a side of deviled crabs, but the man at the window said they were out of crabs that day. You could hear Antwan Middleton, who has worked with owner Randy Frazier since the place opened nearly 17 years ago, chopping ribs every time the door opened as loaves of white bread and boxes of canned sodas were loaded in. Frazier was moving between the cinderblock building, his car and the smokers on the side, making sure everything was ready for the 11 a.m. opening. Already the sun was beating down. Customers with cash in hand called out their orders to the server in the window, who started filling Styrofoam containers with chicken legs and smoking bones slathered in a tart mustard sauce that Frazier makes daily. (Note: You have to request your sauce on the side if you want to control the meat-to-sauce ratio.) We carried our combo to the car and ate off the hood, realizing we needed a whole lot more napkins. Randy's BBQ, 750 Wheaton St., Savannah, Ga., 31401; 912-412-2671 Full disclosure: I have a soft spot for Wiley McCrary. He was one of the first people I met when I moved to Savannah in 2009. I sat at the bar of his then-pocket of a barbecue restaurant on Whitemarsh Island (again in a strip mall just down from a convenience store/gas station) while my computer was being worked on at another store. He was sitting in a director's chair with 'The General' embroidered on its back at the end of the bar, smoking a cigar. He asked if I liked barbecue and thus began a long conversation that lasted for years as he and his recipes became the subject of my master's thesis and, ultimately, an award-winning cookbook. When McCrary passed away in 2018, he was buried with his family Bible and the first cookbook we unboxed. Wiley's widow and partner in all the championships he won, Janet, sold the restaurant to Nate Shaffer and his wife, Melinda, who have kept the spirit of Wiley alive. Pitmaster Marion Woodberry is the common denominator, still stoking the fires that deliver some of the best brisket east of the Mississippi and clever specials such as Smoked Meatloaf, Smoked Fried Chicken and Smoked Prime Rib. The Redneck Nachos with jalapeños (don't skimp) are always a favorite. No other barbecue restaurant we tried takes as much care with their sides as Wiley's. The potato salad, based on one of Janet's family recipes, is unique in its taste and creamy texture: No mustard and relish here. Same goes for the vinegar base for the coleslaw. The Best Beans on the Planet live up to their name, and the Dutch-crust Sweet Potato Casserole could double as dessert. The mac-and-cheese is elevated with a white cheese bechamel-style sauce over spiraled rigatoni. Wiley may be gone, but thankfully, he did not take his secrets to the grave. Wiley's Championship Barbecue, About a year ago, Tricks BBQ moved from its long-time location on Bull Street in the gentrifying Starland District to West Bay Street on the edge of Garden City. Folks lamented the loss, but with more space and a new food trailer, Tricks hasn't lost a single customer and has gained several more who clamor for the usual suspects—ribs and chicken—as well as beef and lamb. I first tried Tricks when it was a smoker in the parking lot of a car detailing business, just down from Back in the Day Bakery, where I worked as a 'Sugarnaut.' We would often trade goodies. And their ribs and chicken legs are just as flavorful as I remember from that first taste. So much so, that I often don't even use the sauce because the meat is so unctuous and well-seasoned. The baked beans are satisfying without being cloyingly sweet and the potato salad recalls some church picnic in distant memory. But the made-fresh-daily seafood salad is singular among the area's barbecue joints. Three Savannah-Chatham Public School bus drivers ahead of us in line were talking about it. They only had one more day of school to go and were getting a head start on celebrating. Two of them newbies to Tricks but now that they knew where it was and had tasted its bounty, they assured us they were coming back even during summer vacation. Tricks BBQ, 1901 W. Bay St., Savannah, Ga., 31415; 912-643-2182; Friends Joey GIFfrom Friends GIFs Full confession: We started with these essential seven barbecue joints because eating that much barbecue over the last several weeks has given us the 'meat sweats.' There are so many more we are going to hit over the summer: Bowtie Barbecue, No Sauce Barbecue, Slow Fire Barbecue, Babe's Smokehouse, The Rusty Pig ... until we have the quintessential coastal Georgia BBQ Road Trip Guide. If you would like to nominate a barbecue joint for us to visit between Glynn County, Georgia and Jasper and Beaufort counties in South Carolina, please submit your recommendations to Amy Paige Condon at ACondon@ Amy Paige Condon is a content coach, editor and culture writer for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at ACondon@ Richard Burkhart is the visual journalist for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at RBBurkhart@ This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: savannah morning news takes a barbecue road trip through coastal Georgia
