In a packed bar, televisions dotted around the room, a cheer erupts celebrating a wildly successful play. But this isn’t a big sporting event. It’s a Love Island watch party. And the mostly female crowd is giving a new meaning to what watching a “live game” at the bar looks like.
I, like millions of others, have been completely enthralled by Love Island USA this summer. For the uninitiated, it’s a dating competition reality show where gorgeous 20-somethings live in a luxury villa in Fiji, completely cut off from the world. Throughout the season, which airs every night save for Wednesday for approximately six weeks, contestants couple up to form romantic connections and those relationships are tested as new “Bombshells”—a.k.a. other hot 20-somethings—enter the villa to stir up drama. And alongside the couples, the show’s host Ariana Madix (who capitalized on her reality TV relationship drama in Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules to carve out a wildly successful solo career) has a fandom of her own, who tune in for her entrances and looks. Love Island USA, which is currently the number one most watched streaming reality show in the country, is the perfect escapist fodder from the unrelenting news agenda.
So when a brand new bar called Babylon Social opened in my neck of the woods in New York’s Long Island and announced they’d be hosting a Love Island watch party every Monday and Thursday, I was all in. I immediately texted my girlfriends about it and they were on the same page—let’s take this group chat offline and talk all things reality over a yummy dinner at a hip new spot. The fact that it’s co-owned by Brittani “B-Lashes” Schwartz, who was a fan favorite on two seasons of the popular Jersey Shore spinoff, Double Shot at Love (season two was the best FWIW), was a bonus. If anyone was going to host a reality watch party right, it’s a reality star herself.
I rallied my friends and made a reservation. It ended up landing on the same night as fan favorites Olandria and Nic initially coupled up after a nearly three week lead-up, which saw them first with other couples, then booted out the villa, then brought back in a surprise move by producers (the cheering! The shocked faces!).
But first things first: Babylon Social isn’t your typical “sports” bar. You can see Schwartz’s influence all over. This is a space clearly designed to enhance the group watch party experience. Chandeliers drip from the ceilings, endless televisions of all sizes adorn the walls. And customers who have come clad in their best Love Island attire are drinking espresso martinis and eating the bar’s ironically named “Girl Dinners” (a pairing of Caesar salad and french fries that Schwartz put on the menu). While the crowd was predominantly women, one table with two young men caught my eye, with one of them telling me seriously, “It’s a great place to come and meet gorgeous women.”
When I ask Schwartz about the inspiration behind the bar, she says, “For anyone who has watched me on Double Shot at Love, they know I typically play the role of ‘mama bear.’ I wanted people to walk into Babylon Social feeling happy and excited like they belonged, because they do.”
She’s not wrong. I, for one, couldn’t wait to experience the show in a live setting just to see fan reactions. As it turns out, that’s why so many others ventured out to the bar too. “It’s like, Oh I’m not the only one going crazy about this one scene. I was validated by 30 other people,” fellow guest Gabby Smith, 25, tells me after I pulled her for a chat (IYKYK) between moments. “It’s my Super Bowl, like every episode.” Her friend, Cristina Roselli, 25, chimes in, “The fact that it’s a pop culture thing just to be part of with everyone is cool.”
Creating a communal, and safe, space for all people, but especially women was one of the goals Schwartz had in mind when she opened the bar. “I know firsthand as a female social media influencer how hard it can be to make friends and feel supported,” she says. “Building a space where everyone can be themselves and have a great time enjoying good company and great food is something I am so proud to be part of.”
I’m blown away by the sense of community on every level. Not a single person in the crowd looks unhappy. Even a local business owner has shown up to support Schwartz and her team. Everyone is genuinely excited to be there, happily chatting with strangers about a reality show that’s captured our hearts and minds. It feels like an escape—a welcome break from reality and the monotony of everyday life.
Love Island has always been that kind of escape for me. Seven months ago, I lost my father, Elliot, unexpectedly. It’s been a devastating journey, and I know how wild it sounds that Love Island has brought me joy in such a dark time, but it has. It is 60 minutes a day where I can lose myself in the drama and joy of it all. To find a place and an event that is all about community and positivity has honestly made my life feel lighter. Speaking to others that night, I found I wasn’t alone. Heidy Cuadra, 23, tells me, “I feel like this has all brought us together. There’s so much craziness going on in the world, but I feel like we can all bond over this. It’s a moment to forget about all the crazy shit going on and have fun.”
Outside of this being a safe space for so many women and watching people make new friends, it wasn’t totally a single-sex experience. I loved that maybe a fifth of the patrons were men. Seth Goumba, 25, tells me that he and his friend Melki had just been on vacation together in the Dominican Republic, where he convinced Melki to watch the show for the first time. As soon as they got home, they saw Babylon Social announce the live watch party. “Melki was like, ‘Yo, let’s pull up to the bar and watch it.’ I was like, no way this guy is telling me this right now. So I was like, we have to pull up, and it’s been a great time,” Goumba says.
And this show that’s on six nights a week (well, five, if you’re not into the AfterSun recap on Saturdays) has become a nightly ritual for my partner, Mike, and I. It’s something we bond over and get so excited to talk about. Sometimes we see eye to eye on the actions inside the villa and sometimes we wildly disagree. It’s (dare I say it) made our relationship even stronger. He’s a sports guy, and I’m a reality TV girlie. If there’s a game on, you better believe it’s playing in our living room. But now he’s more excited to watch Love Island while still checking in on sports via his phone, of course. It’s the element of reality TV plus the competition aspect that’s meshed our two worlds together.
Brooke Costigan, 21, and Andrew LeMorta, 23, who were both at the live viewing, tell me they love watching the show together. “He’s my long-distance boyfriend. We like to do fun activities when he’s here, and now this is one of them,” says Costigan, with LeMorta adding, “It heightens the experience and makes it a lot more fun. I like hearing other people’s opinions.”
For me, the most surprising and meaningful part of this whole live-viewing experience is how a show (that some might wrongly write off as a silly little reality series) has brought us together to socialize in person again. Who would’ve ever thought that groups of people would be cheering on summer romances between strangers on a TV screen? Certainly not five years ago when COVID hit and forced the world to stop in its tracks. In that time, so much was taken from us. And now, here we are—five years later—bonding over our mutual love for Amaya Papaya (a fan favorite on the show) and Huda’s crashouts.
What I love most is that the event I went to at Babylon Social isn’t a unicorn. Since that first night, I’ve already been twice and plan on watching the finale there, if I can get a seat! And Love Island watch parties are popping up all over the country. You’ve probably seen a bunch appear in your FYP. So if you get a text asking if you want to go to one, do it. Who knows, you might make a new friend…or even couple up with someone new.
